This week's playful pick of pop culture, magazine & pretty things...
1. Ironic (in the most unfortunate way) that Heath Ledger should appear on the August cover of Vanity Fair in the same week that a posthumous Michael Jackson is on the cover of every weekly mag on the stand. Two men of immense talent; two tortured private lives; two tragic, untimely deaths. The Vanity Fair cover is accompanied by an exploratory essay, "The Last of Heath", by Peter Biskind: "In his article, Biskind explores Ledger’s final movie role, his uncertainty about Hollywood, his devotion to his young daughter, and what happened in the days and weeks leading up to his death as he battled chronic insomnia, pneumonia, and exhaustion." Some extracts are available to read online.
2. Vibe magazine, the urban music title founded by Michael Jackson's one-time producer Quincy Jones in association with Time Inc. in 1993, has folded with Vibe Media Group CEO Steve Aaron citing a "lack of financial investments", the collapse of the financial market and the slump in print advertising for the closure. It is uncertain whether the title will maintain an online presence. Music site NME has suggested Jones may try to "save Vibe": "We gotta get into the 21st century you know," Jones said. "Print and all that stuff is over, we gotta remember that. They're over the same way as the record business. We have got to get into this century."
3. I adore Mandy Moore. She seems like the wholesome, down-to-earth kind of girl you could share a coffee and a cookie with and come away feeling good about yourself despite her obvious gorgeousness. Perhaps it's her knack for self-deprecation? Or maybe her reluctance to submit to LA's size-0 standards? Anyway, she further endears me with her thoughts on marriage and contentment, which she discusses with U.S. Women's Health: "I didn’t know if marriage was something that was super important to me. I thought, maybe I don’t need that in my life. I didn’t take the decision (to get married) lightly. I ventured into it realistically. But life takes you places you wouldn’t have expected. I’m really content with what was in the cards for me."
4. Astute businesswoman Ashley Olsen, 23, tells HAMPTONS magazine: “I wear The Row every day. I’m able to create clothes that I love and that other people love too…I really just love my job... People think they can define a brand by just a name, but the product has to speak for itself. It doesn’t really matter whose name is on it. That’s the truth.” (Source: JustJared)
5. Marieke Hardy has labelled 10 Years Younger in 10 Days a piece of "cold hearted and vile" television programming, writing for SMH: "The premise — if you were lucky enough to miss the entire series before its timely and thankful demise last Wednesday — was simple enough: find an ordinary pair of Australians and, over the course of 10 fun-filled days, with the help of a
team of kindly "industry specialists", make them feel inadequate, repulsive and negatively judged by the general public before moulding them into some kind of rigid, stitched-up plastic mannequin whose very perma-grinning existence validates every hateful, self-serving myth the beauty industry has ever dished up to a salivating race of human beings terrified of nature's ineluctable creep." Sounds sort of like the TV version of Anna Wintour's Vogue, what with its predilection for shaping up its photographic subjects (Oprah, the Rodarte sisters, Adele) before they're fit for print. We don't want ugly people running about the place, after all.
6. Also saving the world one ugly, unfashionable person at a time is Rachel Zoe, who is doing a Gwyneth and starting her own weekly newsletter, The Zoe Report, to coincide with the second season of The Rachel Zoe Project. The Report promises to give us a "chic variety of accessories, apparel and other items carefully chosen by Rachel Zoe and her editorial team of fashion addicts - ahem - experts". Funding for Zoe's "shoe dependency" will come via paid dedicated emails. Like Gwyneth, you can bet she'll have her fair share of haters, but you can bet people will eat this newsletter up like canapes at cocktail hour.
7. While The Zoe Report will undoubtedly spawn a new breed of itty-bitty Zoebots, Real magazine, published by Inspired Girl Productions and supported by The Butterfly Foundation, Libra and Edge, aims to "inspire creativity and positive thinking, promote self respect and encourage readers to embrace their individuality". Editor Erin Young writes, "Each day we are bombarded with messages implying that beauty and appearance should be the most important thing in our lives. Beauty is only skin deep...it is glamour that lasts forever and glamour comes from within!" Sounds like an unreal editorial philosophy to me. Subscribing immediately!
8. Further adding to the unique voice collective, young freelance journalist Sarah Ayoub has a new blog aimed at writers called Wordsmith Lane. Ayoub's postings include interviews with fellow writers, notes on pitching stories, a paean to Women's Health magazine and a personal account of her transition from student to ad-exec-made-redundant to writer/blogger.
9. It's been a big week of lists for Forbes who has published the World's 10 Most Stylish Cities (in ascending order: Barcelona, San Francisco, Madrid, Tokyo, LA, Rome, London, New York, Milan, Paris) in addition to its Celebrity 100.
10. Woman's Day editorial director Alana House, who has returned to the title she once edited to s
upport editor Fiona Connolly (formerly of the Telegraph's Sydney Confidential section ), has told Mediaweek magazine: "She has amazing news abilities. Together it's going to be an amazing partnership... While Fiona really beefs up that front of the book, I'm going to concentrate on making the lifestyle section have much more of a weekly buzz about it...Because we are a weekly magazine, you can never just sit back and be complacent. You always need to be jumping on things." House says the magazine will focus on delivering the best weekly coverage of fashion, beauty and food, as well as including more local content: "I see no reason why the Australian celebrities aren't just as exciting to our readers as the Hollywood ones...We have lots of plans to make sure we have the very latest Hollywood news, while still giving our readers the local stuff."Mag Tweet of the Week: "Sienna Miller. Am I the only one that likes her? Husband stealer or style icon? Tabloid or covergirl?" @PaulaJoye (editor, madison magazine)
Reply: "Sienna Miller is the rice cakes of mag covers - totally bland. Allure mag does the stylish but interesting celeb cover best." @NatWebster
The Word for the Weekend: "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1
Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel
