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Tina Brown
Ex-Talk buzz diva will pen London Times column
By Jeff Bercovici
Tina Brown, the English-speaking world's most famous editor, is returning to the workforce as a lowly writer.
Brown has signed on with The Times of London to write a weekly column "interpreting and explaining America to Times readers," as she told another British paper. Her salary is said to be in the six-figure range.
Drawing its material from her day-to-day experiences and travels here, the column will be similar in content to "Tina Brown's Diary," a column that originated last year in Talk magazine and ran until the title went out of business in January.
In a magazine that often felt like it didn’t know what it was supposed to be, "Tina Brown's Diary" was one of the few features that by general agreement succeeded from the very beginning, largely because of Brown's unparalleled access to movie stars, politicians and intellectuals alike.
Recognizing this, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter offered her a job writing a "Diary"-like column in March.
Carter and Brown are said to be fierce rivals, not only because Talk competed directly against Vanity Fair but because Carter, who inherited his job from Brown, never forgave her for winning the editorship of The New Yorker, a post he coveted.
His employment offer to Brown was widely seen as a two-edged gesture—an olive branch with thorns. Brown declined it.
After Talk suspended publication in January immediately following its Golden Globes party, Brown stayed on with Miramax as chairwoman of Talk Miramax Books. It was an uncomfortable arrangement, however, with Brown and Miramax chairman Harvey Weinstein reportedly blaming each other for the magazine's failure.
Finally, Miramax joined forces with Hearst, its partner in the magazine, to buy out the remainder of Brown's $1-million-a-year contract. With just under two years to go on it, they settled for an estimated $1 million.
Meanwhile, Ron Galotti, Talk's president and publisher, returned to Conde Nast as publisher of GQ. Earlier, Galotti had served as publisher first of Vanity Fair, then of Vogue.
September 6, 2002© 20
02 Media Life-
Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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