Pop Culture

Brad Goreski wasn’t always the beacon of style he is today. In our Media Beat interview, the star of It’s a Brad, Brad World revealed that he had to overcome a lack of access (he’s originally from a tiny town in Canada) and the doubts of others to climb to the top. One college career counselor, in particular, was quite taken aback by a young Goreski’s outsize ambition.

“She’s like, ‘Okay, so what do you wanna do?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m gonna get an internship at Vogue in New York.’ And she was like, ‘Excuse me?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m gonna get an internship at Vogue. Is that possible for me to get credit and go to New York?’ And she was like, ‘If you get the internship…’ And I was like, ‘Okay!’” Goreski told us. “And I came back later with all my paperwork, and she was like, ‘Are you really going to New York?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah! I’m going to work at Vogue!’”

Now, with a hit show on Bravo and Born to Be Brad: My Life in Style So Far due in bookstores in March, the taste maker credits those early work experiences for his success.

“Internships are so instrumental but, not only do you need to get them, you need to work at them,” he said.

Part 1: Breakout Styling Star Brad Goreski Takes Us Inside His Brad, Brad World
Part 2: Brad Goreski on His Falling Out with Rachel Zoe

In the second part of our Media Beat interview with Brad Goreski, the up and coming stylist sets the record straight about his relationship with Rachel Zoe.

Unlike the somewhat messy way his departure was portrayed on Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project, Goreski says that he actually gave his former boss and good friend two months notice.

“It’s strange that it turned into this whole thing, because for me it’s a very logical thing to assist somebody and then after a certain amount of time choose to leave and go off and do your own thing. And I think that’s really a natural progression,” the star of It’s a Brad, Brad World said. “I really felt like I had done my time, and I had reached a point personally — it was not anything that Rachel was doing — I had reached a point for me where I was like, ‘I’m 33 years old. I love my job, but there’s this voice inside of me that’s telling me it’s time to go.’”

So, has Zoe ever had an assistant leave on good terms?

“Um, that I don’t… I actually, uh, have not heard of a relationship being kept,” said Goreski. “I find it confusing. I really do.”

Part 1: Breakout Styling Star Brad Goreski Takes Us Inside His Brad, Brad World
Part 3: How Brad Goreski Got an Internship at Vogue

Even if you don’t know Thom Browne from Tom Ford, you probably recognize the bespectacled visage and signature coiff of Brad Goreski.

The dapper Canadian was the breakout star of Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project, which documented his rise from steamer-wielding errand boy to Oscar-night styling protégé, and now he’s striking out with a celebrity-styling career and addictive reality series of his own. It’s a Brad, Brad World, which airs Monday nights on Bravo, follows Goreski as he starts a styling business and trades quips with his boyfriend of ten years, TV writer and producer Gary Janetti (Will & Grace, Family Guy).

“We decided we would go on a crazy ride, a wild adventure, and hopefully the audience will come along with us,” Goreski tells us in this first segment of our three-part Media Beat interview. “I’m not exactly sure what a ‘Brad, Brad World’ is yet—it’s just that you never know where you’re going to end up.”

Part 2: Brad Goreski on His Falling Out with Rachel Zoe
Part 3: How Brad Goreski Got an Internship at Vogue

Songstress Etta James, wh0 became known for her signature ballad At Last, died this morning after a long battle with leukemia. She was 73.

Paul Cavalconte, a longtime New York air personality, including at the defunct Smooth Jazz station WQCD, has fond memories of the legendary artist.

“What strikes me is how Etta had this incredibly rich and varied career, with deep R&B roots, but she is best known for a record that totally misrepresents her–as with Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World,”  Cavalconte, currently heard on FM News WEMP, tells FishbowlNY. “That said, both records are pop masterpieces, and her At Last has gained this other life through use in movies, commercials and such.”

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Here’s a look at what FishbowlNY stories made the most buzz this week.

1. Gawker Writer Fired After Using N-Word in Post, January 6
2. CBS This Morning Makes Major Changes to the Formula, But Do They Work?  January 10
3. Hey Journalists: Tumblr is Looking for You, January 6
4. Pics of Beyonce and Jay-Z’s Daughter Expected to Fetch $2 Million, January 11
5. Hearst’s Present to You: Angelina Jolie, January 10
6. Michelle Obama Won’t Read Jodi Kantor’s Book, January 11
7. Nick Denton’s Change of Heart, January 6
8. Veteran WCBS Reporter Jay Dow Joins WPIX, January 9

Keep up-to-date with the latest FishbowlNY news. Click here to sign-up for the FishbowlNY daily newsletter, bringing you our articles each afternoon directly to your inbox.

While some media companies are scratching their heads trying to find ways to become profitable and cut costs, (usually by laying people off), Vice is doing the opposite: enjoying an estimated value of $1 billion (with $100 million in revenue) and looking to expand into China.

A recent Forbes story details the company’s rapid ascend and ambitious moves. What started out as a free magazine based in Montreal has transformed into a global media empire that chronicles hipster and youth culture, is headquartered in Brooklyn and employs 800 people in 34 countries. Interestingly enough, as Forbes suggests, it was web video content — the creative, ahead-of-the-curve type — that helped to set Vice apart from, well, your traditional media companies.

With that kind of foresight, China seems doable, especially with recent investment backing.

However, the big question remains. Will Vice’s somewhat, uh, racy content mesh with Chinese conservatism?

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How exactly did Ryan Gosling become the man this year? Sure, fans of The Notebook always loved him, but who else was really checking for him back in, oh, 2007?

According to Entertainment Weekly executive editor Kristen Baldwin, Gosling’s ascent is no accident. She says quality work + star presence = crazy buzz.

“He’s a star because he’s given three amazing performances this year,” said Baldwin in our Media Beat interview. He’s incredibly, ridiculously handsome — like, it’s almost offensive how handsome he is — and then he’s just kind of a character. He stopped a fight on the street, you know?”

Squashing a beatdown can indeed increase your Twitter mentions, but Baldwin says aspiring A-listers don’t have to resort to such tactics to land in the pages of EW. “We don’t really get into their personal lives… we wanna talk about their work.”

You can also view this video on YouTube.

Part 1: Entertainment Weekly‘s Kristen Baldwin Talks ‘Entertainers of the Year’
Part 2: Kristen Baldwin on Bringing EW to Tablets: ‘We really wanted to wait until we got it right’

In a year of Adele on the radio, Bridesmaids at the box office, Jay-Z and Kanye on the Throne, and Charlie Sheen on another planet entirely, how the hell do you pick the definitive Entertainer of the Year?

Surprisingly, the folks at Entertainment Weekly say their choice for the top spot was a shoo-in: Daniel Radcliffe. “He’s proven that he’s going to have a career outside Harry Potter,” said executive editor Kristen Baldwin in our Media Beat interview.

Baldwin also discussed the magazine’s editorial process for churning out such lists on a weekly (daily for EW.com) basis. “Well, it’s never come to blows,” she said with a laugh. “I mean, it’s entertainment. Nobody’s really getting worked up about it, but you’re in a room with a lot of smart, funny people. So, it’s sort of like ‘one liner, one liner, one liner’ as people try to make their case and put down other people’s cases.”

So, which pop culture trends will define 2012? Watch the full video for Baldwin’s predictions.

You can also view this video on YouTube.

Part 2: Kristen Baldwin on Bringing EW to Tablets: ‘We really wanted to wait until we got it right’
Part 3: EW‘s Kristen Baldwin on the Ryan Gosling Factor

Whether it’s a stop-you-in-your-tracks headline like this or that Kanye grunt guide, New York magazine’s Vulture site has carved out a niche by reporting — and making — entertainment news from a savvy, hip perspective. Initially a section in the award-winning magazine, Vulture did so well that the company gave the team its own stand-alone website.

“Our self-professed goal — that sounds really arrogant coming out of my own mouth — is to kind of be the smartest voice on pop culture,” said Vulture editor Josh Wolk in our latest Media Beat interview. “Basically we want readers who think they know everything about pop culture to finally have to concede that we know just a little bit more. We wanna be the people who can sort of put everything in perspective, do a funny take, put a funny smart voice on things.”

You can also watch this video on YouTube.

Part 2: Tuesday, we discuss Vulture’s strategy for making viral videos.
Part 3: Wednesday, Wolk reveals the one skill every entertainment reporter should have.

• FishbowlLA:  Lots of accolades from CNN as its longtime business reporter Stephanie Elam joins KNBC.
• TVNewser: Fox News Channel’s Megan Kelly is back from maternity leave, meaning Jon Stewart can resume his jabs at her.
• SportsNewser: Former Village People frontman Victor Willis is planning to sue the Tampa Bay Rays because of using his name and likeness without permission.  And yes, that’s Willis in his cop costume for the 1970s disco group.