Archives: May 2006

One would think that on the Wednesday after Memorial Day, which marks beginning of the media industry’s annual slide into torpor for three months, that Michael’s would have been a lot more quiet than it was today. But they would, of course, be wrong. (Maybe there was something to David Patrick Columbia’s rant a few weeks back about everyone wanting to preen during our visits. Or maybe not.) In any case, today had neither the publishing-topheaviness of last week nor the all out circus of two weeks ago. If the word can ever be used to describe the Michael’s lunch crowd, today was … normal. Don’t believe us? Here’s the rundown:

Table 1: Renowned plastic surgeon (and author of “Absolute Beauty”) Gerald Imber dominated the bay window table, which was filled a lunchtime crew that’s been meeting for decades, including Jerry della Femina and Michael Kramer.

2: NBC News/CNBC honcho Jonathan Wald lunched with his attorney Michael Tanchum.

3. Glamour editrix Cindi Leive faced our direction, while the beautiful woman with her back to us turned out to be none other than Iman. (Our loss, obviously.)

4. Ron Perelman, once again in shirtsleeves, held down the corner table with a gentleman we couldn’t identify, but whom Henry Schleiff seems to know, based on their brief post-lunch chat.

5. Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun with Grace Hightower (i.e. Mrs. Robert DeNiro).

6. Henry Schleiff (who, as predicted, appears to have more time for lunch than ever now that he’s winding down his time at Court TV) was joined today by Patricia Duff. There was palpable tension between Duff and her second ex-husband — the once-again-single Perelman, who (the legend has it) kept his jet fueled and waiting for her on the tarmac of LAX when her first marriage to film producer Mike Medavoy was fizzling out in the early ’90s.

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New York Times: The nomination of Henry Paulson as Treasury Secretary is placed in the top-right with a large picture of him and President Bush at the announcement. On the upper right is a story about the U.S. Military’s dispute of the account of events during the massacre in Haditha, Iraq is beside a piece about a European high court’s ruling that will make it difficult for the U.S. to obtain passenger data for air travelers.

Washington Post: Bush’s choice of Paulsen as treasury secretary is in the top right, while an article about the conviction of D.C. sniper John Allan Muhammad runs down the far-left column. A local story about deaths at D.C. group homes runs under a large photograph of children playing.

Los Angeles Times: Tops with a picture of wounded CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier being evacuated to a military hospital in Germany, with a story on the top right about the fading hopes for a military pullback from Iraq. On the upper left is a story about how Christians are using the Internet to spread the gospel. A story below the picture finds that California lacks housing for sex offenders.

Ever since buying my first used Jetta, I’ve always loathed sales dudes. But they’re an undeniably fascinating study, and given the state of selling magazine advertising, I’ve always wondered what they’d sound like unfiltered. Well, the mediabistro mothership found one willing to dish dirt anonymously, and we’re definitely intrigued.

SalesRants: Tales From the Field

Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh used up a few inches in his Limbaugh Letter to blast the recently-published Pees On Earth, a book of photographs by New York-based Ellen Jong, whose inspiration was, well, just what the title says: her pee. Jong traveled the world capturing peeing — hers and others — on film.

Limbaugh writes:

Most people relieve themselves in private. But if you’re a card-carrying member of the lefty arts-and-croissants crowd, you snap photos. Many years ago, Ellen Jong was forced by a long Mahattan line to take an, ahem, outdoor bathroom break. Being a self-absorbed photographer, she was struck by the astonishing beauty of what trickled down the sidewalk. … Contributor Annie Sprinkle provides the pretentious lib gobbledygook text.

Forget our take* on the book for a second. Why on pee-stained earth would Rush Limbaugh care about a small book that tests the limits of, in essence, a urine sample?

Oh.

* Gimmicky, sure, but impressive, too, particularly in Jong’s ability to make urinating a psychedelic experience. [image courtesy of powerHouse Books/Ellen Jong]

What we learned from On the Media this week is that co-host Bob Garfield has a five year old daughter who can’t read (clearly that’s the D.C.-environs effect, because if he lived on the Upper West Side she’d be having tutors force feed her the alphabet for pre-school interviews) even though she used to watch Baby Einstein videos. Bob was showing that even though the tyke can’t read she has absorbed a lot of ad messages. Also, that the new baby TV channel is or isn’t really bad for kids. We do hope the Garfield daughter who says we have Garfield pegged is somewhat older. (Then, again, maybe you don’t have to read to understand Fishbowl.)

We also learned that you should also be very suspicious of the number 50,000 in news stories. Our favorite quote is from WSJ numbers guy Carl Bialik, whom we know better as the guy who sends us stuff from WSJ.com he thinks we should link to every day. His words:

“The strongest form of media bias is probably a reporter’s bias for his or her own story. And when you find a number that backs up your story it can be really hard to pass it up.”

(photo from www.domainregistry.ie)

• WSJ 3.0?: Publisher L. Gordon Crovitz is “moving quickly to develop the print edition’s next iteration, known internally as Journal 3.0.” [AdAge]
• The New Yorker‘s David Remnick on Talking to Tyson: “It’s like some sort of combination of reading Freud and Dostoyevsky.” [Metro]
• Daily News: Boots longtime exec, EVP and associate publisher Ira Ellenthal. [NYP]
• ‘Won’t Break The China … Yet’: Incoming Time managing editor Richard Stengel says a shakeup is not coming when he takes the reins June 15. [NYO]
• New-Look Couric?: Katie may opt for “serious” look on evening news. [NYSun]
  

This week’s New York magazine and this month’s Folio::

Based on recent evidence, we’re guessing there are only a handful of ways magazines can depict the future on their covers.

Building the (New) New York [New York]
EARLIER: Magazines About Magazines Cover Their Covers

Could it be a plot by NBC? Cuz if we wanted to, say, make ABC’s Charlie Gibson look a little less serious-news-like before he went to another network’s evening news, we’d find as many pix of him as we could doing things like dancing in goofy outfits and jumping up and down exuberantly.

OK, Katie Couric can also ask tough questions, as we saw in the Today show tribute this morning when she asked Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton and other heavies, “You’re not going to answer the question, are you?” But was that really “The Way We Were” playing at the end of a piece on her interviews with disfigured victims of tragedy?

Maybe it’s all unfair and Brian Williams wishes he could get dolled up in petticoats or weep on air. Katie’s tears this morning certainly seemed genuine. And we do admire Katie’s range.

Here’s a thought on her mind’s inner workings. Maybe Katie saw that the top of her head wasn’t on Harry Shearer‘s parody (above), so she’s going to anchor the CBS Evening News because she knows that’s the best way to get it on there next time.

To read all Katie’s comings and goings: Check TV Newser.

The whole idea of an “Internet president” was largely applied to
Democrats in 2004 (the term was floated in connection to Howard Dean
and then John Kerry to show how money could be raised quickly online). But Newsweek‘s Jonathan Alter points this week to what could be a bold new idea in the way that candidates are nominated.

A bipartisan group called Unity08.com is launching an effort this week to
harness the energy of America’s online masses to nominate a third-party candidate for the 2008 presidential election. Basically, the plan is to get as many people as possible participating in the nominating process and get the chosen candidate on the ballot in all
50 states. Maybe Al Gore isn’t Hillary‘s biggest problem after all.

EARLIER: A-Gore-aphobia

Remnick [right] with Jann Wenner at the 2006 National Magazine Awards

Tonight at the New York Public Library, the New Yorker‘s David Remnick:

REPORTING (From the Loser’s Locker Room and Elsewhere):
DAVID REMNICK in conversation with Paul Holdengraber
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
at 7:00 PM
Celeste Bartos Forum
LIVE from the NYPL books
SOLD OUT

This conversation will present an opportunity for one of the country’s most passionate journalists and editors to reveal why he finds himself particularly attracted to the “loser’s lockers room,” as well as address what reporting means to our culture at this moment in time, when the medium of print journalism is facing intense criticism and an uncertain future.

Remnick, of course, hasn’t had the opportunity to witness the “loser’s locker room” at the National Magazine Awards lately. Probably because he’s been too busy winning ‘em.