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Erica Jong's Sister Bitches Her Out At Event [Feuds]
Erica Jong's sister has resented her for 35 years, since the publication of Jong's famous novel Fear of Flying. She unleashed her anger recently, and unexpectedly, at a laudatory academic conference on the book at Columbia, telling the New Yorker afterward, "I gave myself permission to be a bitch." She is angry because, she said, her husband was slandered in Fear of Flying, depicted as demanding a blowjob from Jong. But Jong has always branded the book a work of fiction and is shooting insults back at her sister. So begins a feud that is so much more delicious than a trillionth rehashing of Jong's feminist classic.
Jong's sister, Suzanna Daou, made her initial comments in the question-and-answer segment of the conference. She resembles Jong, and introduced herself. Here is how the New Yorker summarized her comments:
"I love my sister very much, but 'Fear of Flying' has been a thorn in my flesh for thirty-five years." The book was, Daou said, "an exposé of my life when I was living in Lebanon"—Isadora Wing has a sister, Randy, who lives in Beirut with her many children and her husband, a Lebanese Christian who makes a pass at his sister-in-law—and also betrayed, she said, an ugly and ill-befitting prejudice. (Jong’s Beirut chapter is called “Arabs and Other Animals.”) "The book speaks of resentment, and cruelty to family," Daou said, as Jong flushed mutely and a third Mann sister, Claudia Oberweger, who was sitting close by, looked on, aghast.
Later at the event, she elaborated for the magazine:
"Erica used me, and she used my husband, who was a very kind man, a very handsome man. I just felt I had to do it. It was not a novel; it was a memoir, but it was a memoir something like James Frey’s memoir. A lot of nastiness went into that book. But I forgive her for everything, except writing that my husband crawled into her bed, which he didn’t, and asked her to perform fellatio, which he didn’t."
Daou left without saying goodbye to Jong, who later fired back at her sister. She told the New Yorker, "This reminds me of a fairy tale in which the evil fairy comes and makes a curse on the baby... But every intelligent family has an insane member."
Jong said she regretted naming a chapter "Arabs And Other Animals," because when freedom-hating Arab extremists take over the world they will execute her for that. That should quash any further controversy.
Condé Nast's Lying Tech Guy Questioned About Leaking, Spying [Anthony Pellicano]
The guy who runs tech security for Condé Nast has admitted lying to the FBI and lending his services to private detective Anthony Pellicano even though he knew Pellicano was tapping people's phones. He's also been accused, in the course of Pellicano's racketeering and wiretap trial, of leaking a pre-publication copy of Vanity Fair that Pellicano mysteriously obtained, and of bragging about bugging the office of his Condé Nast supervisor. So why does he still have a job?
The Times is asking this morning, and Condé Nast isn't saying. The only substantive comment anyone at the magazine group would give the Times was concerned Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz, who was featured and supposedly obtained the pre-publication copy of Vanity Fair.
If Condé Nast executives at waffling on whether to keep the IT guy, Wayne Reynolds, they would be well-advised to read the Huffington Post's account of how he sounded on the stand in the trial of Pellicano, his self-described surrogate father:
As Mr. Reynolds admitted that he'd lied to the F.B.I. in 2003 and tried to point out that he was telling the truth today, Mr. Pellicano [representing himself] looked tempted to do a victory lap. At last, success....
Bolstered by having finally asked a good cross-examination question, Mr. Pellicano actually began to seriously do some damage to Mr. Reynolds credibility. "Didn't you use bugging equipment to overhear your supervisor at Conde Nast?" Mr. Pellicano asked, sounding as if he was sure of the answer. As Mr. Reynolds tried to fake laugh the question off with a strong "no," Mr. Pellicano went in for the kill. "Didn't you tell another employee of Mr. Pellicano's that you'd bugged your supervisor's office?" Again, Mr. Reynolds answered "no," but it seemed possible that the former son had learned a few things from the father.
Finally, Mr. Pellicano seemed to answer the question as to how Mr. Pellicano might have gotten advance copies of certain magazine articles. "Did you provide Mr. Pellicano with confidential information from Conde Nast pre-publication of that information?" Mr. Pellicano asked. "No, that never happened," Mr. Reynolds replied.
Radio people tend to be very weird, and over at struggling Tribune Co. CEO Sam Zell is putting them in charge of everything, so the whole place is turning into some kind of clown show. There are batshit crazy emails, bizarre newspaper makeover ideas, pinball and an actual buzzer, like on a morning zoo radio show, used during meetings. Put on your LSD glasses and take a Hunter Thompson-esque ride through the freaky new Tribune Co.
The new radio guys at Tribune include:
Randy Michaels, number two at Tribune
Lee Abrams, Chief Innovation Officer, formerly of XM Satellite Radio, started last Tuesday
Brought in over the past few days, all from radio powerhouse Clear Channel: Jerry Kerstin, Marc Chase, Steve Gable, Dean Compton
The Timesreported for tomorrow's paper that Abrams' "long, rambling, excited" emails are scaring the crap out of everyone:
"If we can morph the Soul of Dylan ... with the innovation of Apple and the eccentric-all-the-way-to-the-bank of Bill Veeck, the WORLD will be a better place," he wrote in one missive.
How would Abrams improve Tribune's struggling newspaper? By composing "front pages primarily composed of colorful maps," according to the Journal.
He also wants to shake up meetings with a "'cliché buzzer,' to ring when colleagues offer tired ideas."
Abrams' boss, Michaels, is only slightly less insane. Keep in mind this man is second only to Sam Zell at Tribune. Said the Journal:
He once arrived at a radio broadcasters' conference carried on a litter and dressed in the garb of an Egyptian pharaoh to underscore in a speech how powerful consolidation would prove for radio.
Michaels is now installing pinball machines and a jukebox at Tribune corporate headquarters in Chicago. Because there's nothing like pinball when you have $12.8 billion in debt, deteriorating credit and are worried about missing payments.
There are different theories as to why Zell is bringing these radio guys in. One is that radio was once seen as a medium on the way to extinction, like newspapers are seen now, but was revived. Another is that he wants to emphasize the broadcast side of Tribune, which produces only about 25 percent of revenue but 50 percent of profit.
Copy Editor Publicly Embarrasses Times Bureau Chief [Gotcha Journalismism]
Cyprus is an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cypress is a kind of tree, and the Times' Rome bureau chief doesn't know the difference. Well, he probably does, and makes the same sort of dumb spelling mistakes as the rest of us, but it's still fun to laugh at the copy editing notes shown above, which made it into the Web version of the chief's story on immigrant Italian chefs. Fun, that is, if you're an enormous dork like me. (Related: The "Old Country For Old Men" gaffe.)
Sad Writer Says Mom Never Noticed His Byline [Struggling Writers]
Jeff Jarvis, who invented Entertainment Weekly, used to work for the Chicago Tribune, where his mom would read his stories and then tell him all about them, because the old coot didn't realize he had written them himself. You know, this kind of thing happens. Just yesterday my wife told me about this crazy new publisher that wasn't going to pay advances or accept returns. The daughter of a newspaper bureau chief told me how her dad couldn't get anyone in the family to read his stuff. But Jarvis, now an angry blogger, isn't like the rest of us. He wants to take out what his mom did to him on an entire profession, so today he said on CNN some local newspaper writers should be fired because of his mother:
JARVIS: It's an economic decision, Howie. You know, it starts with a joke where a priest, a rabbi and critic get on a boat, and one of them has to get off. And that's really what this is about. There is no punch line here. It's that it's about saving the leaking boat of newspapers.
And, you know, criticism has changed necessarily, because it's not inherently local. The opinion about a movie in Cincinnati or Cleveland is not different...
HOWARD KURTZ, Reliable Sources, CNN: Jeff Jarvis, I mean, I certainly agree that if you're really down to a crunch and you've got to lay off the city hall reporter, or the school's reporter, maybe the critic is going to go first. But what about the local flavor of a newspaper? I mean, people arguing about whether Joe Jones panned or praised the new George Clooney flick.
Isn't that — wouldn't that be lost?
JARVIS: I don't really buy that. There is nothing local about it.
You know, when I worked for "The Chicago Tribune," in the same city with my parents, my mother would tell me about stories that she read in the paper. And I'd have to say, "Ma, yes, I know. I wrote it."
My own mother didn't notice my own byline. So I don't think...
KURTZ: Don't bring your family problems into this.
JARVIS: It tells you a lot, I know. But I don't think that that value of the byline is so great.
Hilary Duff Watching Kite Runner Or Whatever In PJs [Hilary Duff]
Emailed stalker sighting of the actress/singer: "Saw her at the Blockbuster on 56th/First today at 3pm. She was browsing the new releases. Looked much shorter and thinner in person. Lots of make-up, messy hair in a high ponytail."
Anderson Cooper Stalker Tries To Move In With Him [Stalky]
In our hearts, we're all kind of low-grade Anderson Cooper stalkers, but the the top prize may go to a woman who showed up to Cooper's New York apartment Friday with six pieces of luggage, ready to move in. The CNN anchor was having his place renovated at the time, so maybe the stalker thought the construction crews would just let her through, but instead they called Anderson who, naturally, found it "kind of creepy." Cooper explains everything to Regis And Kelly after the jump, and we provide some computer wallpaper of America's secret pretend boyfriend to keep your obsession on a low simmer.
When in doubt, make collages of Anderson. When there is no news about Anderson, make collages. When idle, make collages of Anderson... When I am in all three instances, I make collages of Anderson. Enjoy!
See? That's how you have a healthyAnderson Cooper obsession.
Radio people tend to be very weird, and over at struggling Tribune Co. CEO 
Cyprus is an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cypress is a kind of tree, and the Times' Rome bureau chief doesn't know the difference. Well, he probably does, and makes the same sort of dumb spelling mistakes as the rest of us, but it's still fun to laugh at the copy editing notes shown above, which made it into the 
