Showtime Hooker Show Starts Monday [TV]

Set your TiVo! Then feel mild liberal guilt: "After viewing excerpts of the show on Showtime’s Web site, one feminist scholar said that the series seems to want to do for prostitution what HBO’s Big Love does for polygamy — presenting a sanitized version of controversial sexual behavior." [Times, Previously]

The Clintons' Media Enemies List [Working 'with' The Press]

Hillary and Bill Clinton keep — oh, sorry, their "aide" keeps — a big ole list of everyone who has done them wrong, including allies who are perceived to have defected to the Obama camp. Many of their supporters and associates also have lists of the "ingrates," "traitors" and "enemies" who wronged the former president and his wife. Are there any media people on this list? Are you kidding? They are "charter members," because if there is anyone Hillary and Bill hate, it is the press. (Chelsea too, probably.) Some names:

• Matt Drudge, longtime nemesis who briefly was nicer to Clinton and then went back to completely hating on her. He recently "had the nerve to show up at Mrs. Clinton’s departure speech on Saturday"
• Chris Matthews, MSNBC host who said Clinton had succeeded thanks to her husband's infidelities and who called her staff "kneecappers" for seeking scalps over that comment and another allegedly misogynist statement from another MSNBC correspondent.
• Keith Olbermann, who actually left MSNBC once over its aggressive coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal but who became disillusioned with Hillary and issued several "Special Commentaries" against her and Bill involving, in one case, the Clintons' alleged race-baiting of Barack Obama. He also maybe said Hillary should be beaten. Physically.
• Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair. Duh.

At one point in time, being on the Clinton shit list might have meant you didn't get any favors from the White House or its federal agencies, and maybe also you committed "suicide" some day or had a terrible deadly "accident" on a deserted road. But what can the Clintons possibly do now? Cross your name of their hypothetical vice presidential inauguration list? Have David Brock hound you via Media Matters?

Besides, if Hillary ever makes another run at the White House, she'll make nice, just like she did with Richard Mellon Scaife and a million other people over the past year.

[Times]

The Clinton Penis Chat [Celebrity Science]

Because the internet is a miraculous place where revenge fantasies come true , Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones are selling video of themselves chatting about former president Bill Clinton and his sexual predation. Flowers, you'll recall, described during Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign a 12-year affair with him, while Jones accused Clinton of exposing himself to her in a hotel room in 1991. Hence the interview segments — $1.99 each — entitled "Paula And The President's Penis" and "Gennifer's Story And The Presidential Penis." There are five other segments, meaning the full video will run you $14. But the Guardian gives it a limp review:

There is nothing revelatory about their deliberations, though its ability to embarrass all parties concerned should not be underestimated...

Jones recounts for the umpteenth time her disputed story about how she was summoned to a room in the Excelsior hotel in Arkansas, in May 1991...

Flowers says: "We have been accused of being part of a rightwing conspiracy. Are you part of that?"

Jones: "No I'm not. I'm conservative but I'm not a big political person. I can get on with anybody."

Having cleared that up, they end the videos with a hug. Jones tells Flowers: "You're just wonderful." A beautiful ending to a not so beautiful tale.

The Guardian said the video seems timed to embarrass Clinton at one of his lowest moments, when his angry statements on the campaign trail have helped torpedo his wife's presidential candidacy and just after rumors swirled the ex-president messed around with actress Gina Gershom.

But from a financial standpoint — surely more important to Jones and Flowers, at this point, than humiliating Clinton — the timing is disastrous. With Clinton's wife out of the presidential race and without any future role yet lined up, the public can finally ignore the Clintons, and old dirt about Bill seems even less relevant (and interesting) than it would have in, say, January.

[Guardian, Gennifer And Paula]

Your Memoir Was Already Written [Memoirs]

A list of hundreds of memoirs since 1995 probably already includes your now-redundant life story. [Entertainment Weekly]

Is Hachette's "Digital Dunce" Really A Dignified Bedeviler Of Dilettantes? [Feuds]

Two commenters argued today that our coverage of the brewing civil war inside Hachette was way too harsh on digital VP Todd Anderman, who we dubbed a "digital dunce." Anderman, you'll recall, is said to have offended the sensibilities of deputies Joe Berean and Keith Pollock with a mind-numbingly-long series of reorganizations and content aggregation strategies. The case against Anderman as an all-thumbs manager was only cemented by his accidental big-screen projection, at a staff meeting, of some instant-messenger venting of work frustrations to his wife. But our comments say the fault for the disaster at Hachette lies not with Anderman but with fashion primadonnas like Zee and his allies, including former store-salesman Pollock. "Todd's reputation in this business is stellar and for you to put such a nasty hit piece like this is deplorable," one wrote. Well, his reputation isn't universally "stellar," judging from the fallout from Berean and Pollock's resignation, reported in our original post. But every feud has two sides, and far be it from us to ignore either. The pro-Anderman comments are reproduced after the jump.

swordsmen at 10:36 AM Admin Reply
You guys got this story TOTALLY wrong. Todd is one of the smartest people in the business and is trying to make a company that had a terrible web strategy work. Magazines are failing because people like Joe Zee spend 200k in Milan getting his balls waxed. Remember Vitals-yeah. So Todd is dealing with a bunch of entitled fashion losers who wouldn't know the internet from a hole in their ass and basically has to start from scratch. These people that are whining sucked at their jobs and created websites with ZERO traffic. Todd's reputation in this business is stellar and for you to put such a nasty hit piece like this is deplorable, especially from an individual who does not court the press. Man I fucking hate publishing. I can just imagine all those entitled bitches and queens going, "Oh my God, what does he know?" Well when it comes to the web, everything.

lizzybennett at 11:45 AM Admin Reply
@swordsmen:
I've heard relatively the same thing.

[Original post]

City Continues To Crumble [Our Crumbling Infrastructure]

Via email: "Just got out of the subway at 23rd and Park. The cops have closed off the area in anticipation that another crane may fall. The thing was wobbling back and forth as the wind from the coming storm threw it around. Debris and dust flying all over the place." [Previously, Previously]

Claim: Wall Street Journal Page One Staff Dissolved [Rumormonger]

A tipster is telling us that the Wall Street Journal's fabled Page One staff will be dissolved into the news desk. Page One editor Mike Williams would become a "roving features editor," which sounds much less powerful. The Page One desk is responsible, among other things, for the often breezy but always well-researched A-Hed feature, which has been increasingly marginalized as the Journal's front page gets newsier. Its disbanding would mark only the latest move by new editor Robert Thomson to remake the Journal in the image of the Financial Times, Thomson's former employer and a favorite of ultimate Journal overlord Rupert Murdoch. In fact, the paper's old guard is said by our insider to be grumbling that recent FT-like stories, like the front page article on alleged flaws in the Libor benchmark lending rate, are shoving aside "stories that appeal beyond the circle of Murdoch's friends in the global elite." But not all veteran editors are suffering under a cluster of changes said to be coming down in the coming days.

Murdoch-friendly Money & Investing section chief Nik Deogun is said to be poised for promotion to deputy managing editor for foreign coverage. There is also speculation cold-hearted DC bureau chief John Bussey may get a promotion.

The full email from our tipster:

Watch for announcement today or soon that page one staff - what used
to be the backbone of the WSJ and its strong features - will be merged
with news desk and current editor Mike Williams will be roving feats
editor; that nik deogun will move up to run foreign and become a
deputy ME; bussey may get something big too. So the post-revolutionary
shakeout continues to be revolutionary. Lots of confusion and
uncertainty inside paper. Olf guard... bemused by three column lead stories about wachovia ceo's and Libor
studies and disappearance of stories that appeal beyond the circle of
murdoch's friends in the global elite

The Page One change, at least, would be perfectly in line with the newsy but less polished — and, arguably, far less analytic — direction Thomson is taking the paper. Can anyone shed more light on this rumored re-org? ryan@gawker.com

Judy Garland To Perform In Concert, Despite Whole Being Dead Thing [Music]

As I've long feared, a zombie menace will soon stalk my beloved home city of Boston. Not the snarling, bloodied kind you see in movies, thankfully. Rather it will be a snarling, boozy Judy Garland (famed singer/actress/complete basket case) zombie. Long dead from the drugs and the drink and the sadness, Garland (who begat ol' herpes McGee, Liza Minnelli) will be featured "live in concert" with the Boston Pops this summer. The press release for "Judy Garland In Concert" promises "Judy herself returning to the stage for the first time in 40 years." Shiver! What could they possibly mean?

This is not a tribute show. This is not a Garland lookalike. This is Judy herself returning to the stage for the first time in 40 years—singing the great American songbook with America's greatest orchestra, The Boston Pops. Cutting-edge technology unavailable just a few years ago has enabled NY-based production company Running Subway to present Judy's larger-than-life passion and personal story to 21st century audiences in what can only be described as the greatest Judy Garland concert ever.

Air Conditioning Problems Endanger The Media! [Beat The Heat]

Many members of your Gawker editorial team are not in the Gawker office at the moment. Why? Because the AC there is a crap shoot (or has been), and SOME PEOPLE don't want to take their chances in DANGEROUS HEAT like we have today. I'm in a coffee shop in Brooklyn, and I'm sweating here, too! But it's not just us; a trendworthy number of key media figures are facing air conditioning problems. The media cannot work like this!

Former Gawker-er Alex Balk needs every bit of his energy and concentration to be focused on the delicate task of editing Radar's website. But how can he, when he's on the verge of heat stroke because of a shamefully malfunctioning AC unit? Earlier today he reported he was "entirely covered in sweat." He even wanted to take off his shoes! Later he said the AC in Radar's office might be working "within the hour." Well, we certainly hope so, for god's sake!

Furthermore, the Midtown offices of legal publisher ALM are sweltering! Hardly the conditions in which solid reporting about lawyers can be done. A tipster says there's been no AC for the past two days—throughout the worst of the heat wave—and they might not be fixed tomorrow, either. The company's solution for the restless staff? Ice cream sandwiches. But "the cheap kind!"

And Choire Sicha is reporting that the peons at the Observer are suffering from a broken AC as well! Can't Jared Kushner buy a truck full of ice?

How long must the media suffer? Send us your tales of woe. Together we will overcome!

[Also, don't Google image search "sweaty worker" unless you want to see a lot of porn. Pic of sweating Chinese worker via Great Commission was found with the more fruitful search, "sweating at work."]

Virgin Mary To Be Immortalized In the Style of Rent [The Theatre]

Because Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and hippie fag fest Godspell weren't religiousy enough, a new (kid-tested) Pope-approved musical called Mary of Nazareth will belt its way around Europe, Latin America, and (gasp!) some Middle Eastern countries starting on June 17th, in the Vatican. "'We have sponsored this work with pleasure because Mary of Nazareth is the woman who has communicated and still communicates to mankind today the word of God made man," said a Vatican official of the work. "Plus, she no have-a da sex," he added. It's always nice when the Church approves singing and dancing. We're looking forward the novelization of this fascinating story. Oh and then the movie of the novelization with John Travolta, Jennifer Hudson, and Harvey Fierstein. Also, this must mean that Muhammad: The Musical is forthcoming, right? No? No, not at all? OK. I see.

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