Tina Brown, previously of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, is no ordinary editor-in-chief: she now commands the much-ballyhooed magazine, Talk, and gets paid a handsome $50 million over 5 years for doing so. Nice work if you can get it.
Tina is of interest to us for only one thing—she is being funded jointly by Miramax and Hearst Communications. That means that socialites like Bob and Harvey Weinstein (our favorite tag team) and Cathleen Black (the diva of women’s magazines) are the players greasing Tina. Enough said.
William Donohue read the premiere edition of Talk with interest. Would it provide a glimpse of the Miramax imprint? As it turned out, his perusal wasn’t in vain. Indeed, he decided to submit a letter-to-the-editor, the contents of which are as follows:
In your premiere issue, there is an article on “The 50 Best Talkers in America.” In some cases, actual quotes were offered, such as Ted Turner’s quip that “Christianity is for losers.” Jesse Jackson was listed, too, but only with the descriptive, “Agent provocateur.” Had you listed his comment calling New York “Hymietown,” or his remark, “I’m sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust,” it would have created nice symmetry between these two bigots. Just a thought.
We hope that Tina, Bob, Harvey and Cathleen get the point. Now if they were to spend less time throwing gala parties and more time listening to their servants, much progress could be made.
