Have you heard?
If you think Hollywood is the ultimate in dog-eat-dog, you might want to take a closer look at the world of celebrity gossip rags, which are engaged in a race for readers every week. We checked in to see which pages deserve the spotlight.
Is OK one of the more tasteful and up-market celebrity gossip mags, or is it simply lazy, boring and co-opted by the Hollywood PR machine? On Justin Timberlake’s relationship with Jessica Biel, we get a half-baked, speculative piece on what might happen during his upcoming screen pairing with ex-girlfriend Cameron Diaz. When it comes to Jennifer Aniston, we’re told there’s “absolutely nothing” to rumors of an affair with “Bounty Hunter” co-star Gerard Butler.
Life & Style Weekly‘s ruthless reports put OK to shame. On Timberlake, a two-page spread alerts us that “Justin humiliates Jessica again,” with photos of him getting flirty with a Vegas go-go dancer armed with a magnum of Veuve Clicquot on March 10. On Jennifer Aniston, we get a pic of her at a premiere groping Butler, who is quoted as saying “we have a great chemistry offscreen as well.”
Move over National Enquirer. In Touch is aiming to give the Pulitzer-nominated gossip rag a run for its money in uncovering high-profile celebrity infidelity. In Touch’s March 29 issue rocked Hollywood with its bombshell that while Sandra Bullock was filming her Oscar-winning movie, “The Blind Side,” her husband Jesse James was engaged in an 11-month sexcapade with tattooed vixen Michelle “Bombshell” McGee. Unfortunately, the rest of the mag is comprised of the requisite celeb trifle.
National Enquirer, after copping the first Pulitzer nomination for a tabloid for its coverage of Presidential nominee Senator John Edwards’ infidelity scandal, already is planning for its second. “After the Enquirer wins its Pulitzer, I demand nomination for this world-beating scoop-dee-doo,” states The Enquirer’s gossip writer, Mike Walker. He’s referring to a blurb he writes about Sean Penn using his ex-wife Robin Wright’s new husband’s face as a spittoon during a backstage confrontation at the Oscars presentation. The rest of the pub’s stories are hardly scintillating, with pieces claiming that Whitney Houston’s back on the sauce and more photos on Tiger Woods and wife Elin, hardly living up to the magazine’s Pulitzer-nominated caliber.
New York‘s cover story wonders what The Oprah Winfrey Network can become without lots of on-air Oprah. Author Robert Kolker says, “It’s one thing to put Oprah’s name on a network. It’s another thing to figure out how to make it work.” And we say it’s entirely another thing to care. More interesting is a look at testosterone and its risk in “What If Women Ran Wall Street?” Here’s one observation: “Having women around . . . prevents extreme behavior — or irrational exuberance.” Elsewhere, some notable New Yorkers recall their arrival into town. One picture shows Nora Ephron covering Robert F. Kennedy’s 1964 Senate campaign for The Post.
The New Yorker opens with a story about eyeglasses and never gets much clearer. A piece on “The world of virtual Anna Wintour” explores “playing paper dolls with pictures of real clothes.” A third article, this one on wrinkles, at least makes an attempt to engage the reader with the lead sentence, “Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?” — with a segue into “if you are old enough to remember, you are eligible for my next question: When did you notice your first wrinkle?” And James Surowiecki scores with a financial piece about mid-range companies whose products are “neither exceptional enough to justify premium prices nor cheap enough to win over value-conscious consumers.”
With jobs on the minds of millions of Americans, Time explores the subject with a cover story that makes Austin, Texas, a “model of hope.” Among the several industries mentioned is videogames; you decide whether or not to be more afraid than ever. New Yorkers might be especially interested in a piece on Attorney General Eric Holder and his abortive bid to try a top terrorist in the city.
With all the talk of spending and bloated budgets, Newsweek examines what the US has received for the $6 billion it sank into training the Afghan police force. Among the sobering facts: roughly 15 percent of the recruits test positive for drugs, and nearly 90 percent are illiterate. Elsewhere, an article by Fareed Zakaria argues that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, instead of protecting his country’s interests, is undermining them. And in an entertaining twist, an article examines the progress made by women in the 40 years since 46 of them filed a gender-discrimination suit against — Newsweek.