Huge Price Hike For Atlantic Ads? [Dead Trees]

Can't be right: "Atlantic owner David Bradley has nabbed Wired Publisher Jay Lauf as publisher of the culture and politics magazine... 'In the second half of 2007, we increased our ad prices by 390 percent,' said Atlantic President Justin Smith. 'I felt our ad pages were underpriced compared to some of our competitors.' So far this year, the Atlantic has slipped 12 percent in ad pages." [Post]

Anna Wintour Right, Designers Were Fatties, Says Fatties Expert [Vogue]

The Times today found a professor of eating disorders to back up Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, who last fall told the sisters behind fashion house Rodarte they should lose some weight. Wintour put them on a four-month training regimen that saw them drop a combined 50 pounds, the sisters (pictured at left, after/before) wrote up the whole experience for April Vogue and body-image outrage ensued at sister site Jezebel. Everyone needs to calm down, said University of North Carolina professor Cynthia Bulik:

Bulik... defended the offer as it was presented in the magazine, noting that the designers had written that a doctor had also told them to get in shape. She said she was surprised by the controversy, given that Anna Wintour, in her editor’s letter, had challenged designers to use healthier looking models.

"I saw more of an emphasis on healthy eating and healthy fitness than an order, 'You’ve got to lose weight,'" Dr. Bulik said.

See? Big-hearted Anna Wintour really was just concerned. About healthy newstan... er, about health! Ya, that's it.

Times: A Bad Reaction to a Diet

Hippie Tits Save Animals, Patriarchy [Femiladyism]

Remember the Vegan strip club in Portland we wrote about Monday? Well, the Times went town on the story in Styles today, snagging a photo inside the for-sale club, finding an LA girl band called the Vegan Vixens who sing about the joys of pleather and pointing out that punky porno outfit the Suicide Girls helped PETA make an anti-fur ad campaign (pictured). "Sexuality is what society will turn its head for more than anything else," PETA's president told the Times. Predictably, not all hemp-wearers are thrilled to see women exploited for the faint hope of getting meat-eating oglers to stop eating steak and so forth:

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a cookbook author, is among those who believe such images twist the vegan message. "As a feminist, I’m not keen on the idea of using women’s bodies to sell veganism, and I’m not into the idea of using veganism to sell women’s bodies," she said...

The issue of sexism in vegan circles is "extremely polarizing," said Bob Torres, an author of "Vegan Freak," a guide to living a vegan lifestyle, which generally means avoiding the use of animals for food, clothing or other purposes. Mr. Torres, like many vegans, disavows the “essential idea at the heart of some animal rights activism that any means justifies the ends," he said.

Not all feminists return the vegans' love in kind. Women's rights hero Susan B. Anthony, for example, loved a good porterhouse steak, which somehow seems very appropriate.

Below, a song by the Vegan Vixens, which sounds like it will advance the pro-animal cause about as much as the failed strip club:

Times: The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore

Mary Rambin's Secret Reality Show [Protocelebrities]

So you already knew about Mary Rambin's forthcoming reality show with fellow famous-for-nothings Julia Allison and Megan Asha. But did you know about her old, canceled, kind-of-sad reality show for ABC, One Ocean View? No? Well, don't feel bad, Google didn't know she was in it either. And Mary doesn't seem to talk about it much, probably because it was cancelled after just two episodes and, conveniently, her last name was never attached to the credits. But looking at photos and video from the two-year-old-show, it's not hard to figure out who the 24-year-old socialite handbag designer was. And then suddenly reading old reviews of a canceled show becomes a little fun! Also, there's a preview video with lots of Mary:

Below, a One Ocean View photo from Maxim, which dubbed Rambin one of the "Hottest Girls of Reality TV".

Here is how the Times described Rambin's experience in its review of the show, which was set in a Fire Island summer share:

The other characters on the show, chronicling a summer in the life of New York professionals sharing a weekend place on Fire Island, include a delicate-looking handbag designer named Mary, who instantly develops a crush on K. J., who owns two health clubs. Alas, K. J. likes “ethnic” looks, as he tells the group; Mary is fair and blond.

According to FireIsland.com, Rambin looked like her "heat [was] crushed" by KJ's statement, but still put some moves on him in the second (and, uh, final) episode:

KJ, mister smooth, wheeled in some massive cooking apparatus to “cook Mexican” and was greeted with a kiss on the cheek from Mary. She is all over KJ, for sure, but he’s keeping his distance – either he has no interest whatsoever, or he’s working a Player’s opening gambit of seduction. Most likely the former, because Mary seems so smitten with KJ that no seduction strategy would be necessary.

Finally, if you way too much time on your hands, TVGasm.com did in-depth recaps of the both episodes. The first one included the tidbit that Rambin was fresh off a failed long-term relationship and, to her credit, was an early and vehement hater of requisite male douche Usman. Also, she is into blonde and short guys but will settle for whatever else comes her way:

First up Miki tells us about Mary, who designs handbags. Miki thinks she's a "Cool chick, but she's had her heart broken recently..."

You know, I know Usman is supposed to be the "shallow pretty boy" character we're supposed to love to hate on this show, but he's so over the top with this stuff it just makes me look at him with more of a bemused detachment than anything else. Mary however is having the opposite reaction. She can't stand him and is bitching to the other girls she can't take much more of him. So much so that we almost get our first fight of the show. Unfortunately it just creates a slightly tense exchange of words, instead of a big fight...

Mary looks on lovingly as when she sees KJ being nice to the 2 year old she realizes that this means he "likes kids..."

When Usman then asks Mary what her romantic plans are for the summer, she says she is "open to anything and everything that comes my way..."

Mary tells Miki that the guys she is attracted to are blonde and short. "So you're attracted to KJ?" she says. Well, yes technically physically he is her type and so on and so forth. God I love it when drunk people try to talk about romance and relationships...

KJ and Mary, you see, slept together last night. But not the kind of sleeping together where certain things were inserted into other things. It was more of the cuddling all night kind of sleeping together. At least as far as ABC has led us to believe.

In the second episode, the recapper turns kind of vicious on poor Mary:

The show opens with our voiceover narrator. But this week instead of the painfully stilted Miki, we hear from Mary, the blonde girl with a thing for KJ. And she is equally awkward at voiceovers. James Earl Jones she ain't. She gives us a little recap of the first episode which is basically Zack and Lauren fighting, Usman looking for some play, and Mary? "I'm here looking to find love" she says. "I kinda liked KJ at first, and then Lauren moved in"...

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