the buzz log
He Said, She Said: Levi Johnston Vents to Vanity Fair
To be fair, Levi Johnston didn't exactly ask for the public spotlight. He just happened to be the boyfriend of Bristol Palin, whose mom was tapped to be the Republican vice presidential running mate back in 2008. Bristol Palin's teen pregnancy then became the subject of a full-on media frenzy.
That's all in the past now. The Republicans lost, Bristol and Levi broke up, and Sarah Palin stepped down as governor of Alaska. But the urge to dish just won't die.
A story in Vanity Fair claims to be a behind-the-scenes tell-all about life with the Palin family. Johnston moved in for a couple months post-election, and had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with Bristol. Which naturally makes him a total expert — and kind of a bad house guest.
In the snippets teased by the magazine, the Palinologist lobs several bombs: Sarah Palin wanted to adopt Bristol's baby to hide the pregnancy and protect the governor's political career. The 19-year-old also gripes that the parenting at the chateau Palin was minimal: Neither Sarah nor Todd did much cooking. There's much more: The hands-off mom of Johnston's description never hunted or fished, did not share a bedroom with Todd, and thought being governor was "hard." Read highlights of the article, "Me and Mrs. Palin."
Perhaps enjoying the sympathy coming her way from this latest media blow-up, Sarah Palin had no comment, according to CNN.
The aspiring actor/model may be willing to do more than expose the Palins. He could bare all. In a video of the Vanity Fair photoshoot, Levi and his handler discuss doing a possible "Playgirl" spread. The blog Gawker is reporting that the talk may become reality, and that the former hockey player and the magazine are in final negotiations.
That's one way to change the conversation.
Filed under: Magazines, Sarah Palin
DOA: Magazines Gone Missing at Wal-Mart
Toilet tissue 12-pak, check. Bruce Springsteen exclusive album, check. People Magazine ... wait a minute. Where's In Touch? Where's the National Enquirer?
The next time shoppers walk into a Wal-Mart, they may not be able to flip through glossies and shove them back into the wrong rack, due to what New York Post is calling a "standoff between magazine publishers" and two mega-wholesalers. Delivery guys Anderson News and Source Interlink want to tack on a 7-cent surcharge on every single issue delivered to retailers, but publishers don't want to pay. Understandable, since that translates to about $150 mil a year, in a business where many titles have already folded.
As publishers are scrambling to switch to two other wholesalers to deliver their foolscap, chain shoppers will be deprived of flipping through Jessica Simpson's weepy reaction to her weight gain or Tom & Katie's latest tiff. It's not just celebrity gossip: Sports Illustrated and Time won't make the stands either. Now we can all panic.
Is that a big deal? Although things are supposed to be resolved in a few weeks, some industry sources have told Folio magazine that the missed deliveries will put some regional publishers "out of business." Folio also reported that Anderson News and Source Interlink shut down, but the wholesalers are denying those rumors.
While slipping and sliding through a glossy is an experience without peer, gossip addicts may have to get their addictive fill online (like Buzz, naturally). Below is a list of the 10 favorite gossip blogs in 2008 searches to fill the aching void.
Most Searched Gossip Blogs on Yahoo!
Cover Shots: Best Glossy First Impressions of 2008
No matter how media evolves, the magazine's slippery, sensual, glossy appeal still beguiles. Yet an excruciating editorial science (of sorts) goes into the making of a cover, designed to draw eyeballs at the old-fashioned newsstand.
The American Society of Magazine Editors will host its awards ceremony for the most eye-catching covers of 2008. Will a cartoon of contentious bedfellows Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama reaching for a 3 a.m. phone call win the News Cover category? Could Latina's gold-hued, come-hither photo of Jessica Alba beat out a mud-splattered George Clooney and contemplative Willie Nelson? Shall a strange blend of Iranian politics and a Larry Craig restroom stall reference steal the biggest title of all?
Check out all the covers at the ASME site.
Filed under: Award Shows, Images, Magazines, Media
Camera Sly: Unpublished Photos Rile Controversy
Who knew that a photographer who specializes in apes and babies could take such unflattering photos of a Republican presidential candidate?
The hot Buzz spotlight has turned on Jill Greenberg, a freelance photographer hired to photograph John McCain for The Atlantic Monthly magazine. Not content with letting the camera add the usual 10 pounds, Greenberg got the senator to stand over a strobe light to get an unflattering, shadowy disco-monster effect.
The magazine didn't go for any of the demon shots, and opted for a regular portrait, which can be seen on its website and newsstands. So if the photos were rejected, how did the story get out? Greenberg's dastardly deed—photographic villainy on the level of darkening O.J. Simpson but not quite as egregious as moving an entire pyramid—was found out by the New York Post. The paper didn't have to do too much investigation: Apparently the self-confessed "hard-core Dem" blogged about her lighting techniques and had her Adobe Photoshop way with the rejects.
Among those weighing in is Jeffrey Goldberg—the magazine staff writer who penned the cover piece "The Wars of John McCain." In the magazine's blog, Goldberg stated he was "appalled" over the Post's revelations, and called her doctored photographs "juvenile" and Greenberg an "indecent person who should not be working in magazine journalism."
The condemnation hasn't assuaged commenters on Little Green Footballs about lefty media bias. Fox News, which features the October issue cover, reports that The Atlantic's editor James Bennet will be sending a Dear John letter—no, not that kind...a letter of apology.
Greenberg has earned infamy before: Her exhibit of tearful toddlers was a political statement on corrupt governments, but it was her technique of offering them candy then taking it away to induce tears that prompted outrage. As for her current embroilment, editor Bennet—who called the photographer's behavior "incredibly underhanded and unprofessional"—says she's not only going to get stiffed on payment, but she may have to deal with a lawsuit. Sounds like she'll have to line up a lot of apes and crying babies.
Photo tampering unfortunately has been around since...well...cameras, as many sites document here, here, and a Scientific American slideshow here. By the way, the name of Greenberg's blog: The Manipulator.
Filed under: Politics, Photography, Magazines, Media, Elections, Presidents, Photographers
Look Ma, No Ink on My Hands: Digital Mag Means Future's Almost Here
Imagine a rack that holds only one magazine, but the issue magically updates every month. Or every time you pick up the newspaper, the news has changed.
That future is kind-of-but-not-quite-here with Esquire's 75th anniversary edition and its E-Ink digital display cover. Well, it's not the entire cover, and tecchies have sniffed at the unveiling. Portfolio describes the unit as "only a little bigger than a credit card, and about as flexible." The gadget boys at Boing Boing aren't only underwhelmed, they're "outraged by the design's tackiness, the bereavement of imagination, the lack of class..." The blog goes on to kick some more dirt into the face of "dying" print journalism.
Still, in the clubby sluggish world of publishing, a beginning's a beginning (or, as the publisher put it, version 1.0 is version 1.0). Esquire tells of the 7,000-mile journey to get the issue developed (at least the display unit is recyclable). Like many, Make magazine promptly disemboweled the cover to reveal its 21st-century innards.
The next evolution may not come shrinkwrapped in a magazine, but be tossed on the front steps as a newspaper... or newsscreen, as the case may be. A British company called Plastic Logic debuted a plastic screen double the size of the Amazon Kindle or Sony eReader. PaidContent reports that the device, which also uses E-Ink technology, can be updated wirelessly. (A big investor in E-Ink: Hearst Interactive, which owns Esquire, newspapers, and other media.)
The New York Times explores some implications of a Plastic Logic future, such as cost savings for daily news publishers and privacy concerns for readers, but no insight as to how birds used to having their cages lined with newspaper will feel about the death of newsprint. Feathered friends, messy collectors, news junkies, and technology critics can judge in 2009, when the British-made gizmo hits shelves.
Filed under: Reading, News, Magazines, Media, Newspapers
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nidal Malik Hasan | Breakout! |
| 2 | Fort Hood Shooting | Breakout! |
| 3 | Tyrannosaurus Rex | Breakout! |
| 4 | Fort Hood | 43518% |
| 5 | Tropical Storm Ida | 4377% |
| 6 | Willie Aames | 3325% |
| 7 | Shannon Dedrick | 3299% |
| 8 | Gretchen Rossi | 2702% |
| 9 | Epic Mickey | 2583% |
| 10 | Lee Harvey Oswald | 1907% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danica Patrick | +194 | 207 |
| 2 | Fort Hood | +185 | 185 |
| 3 | Angelina Jolie | +114 | 164 |
| 4 | Rihanna | +39 | 157 |
| 5 | New York Yankees | +54 | 154 |
| 6 | Alicia Keys | +139 | 153 |
| 7 | +1 | 153 | |
| 8 | NFL | +6 | 138 |
what's the buzz?
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