Stars of wonder
Let’s face it. Not much has happened in the last few weeks outside of our next president selecting his Cabinet and really embarrassing Mitt Romney. “Hamilton” is still drawing them in on Broadway and those Cowboys keep winning. Hey, how is the celebrity set doing? Good question. We decided to check in.
The good folks at People magazine (you know, that Time Inc. weekly that chronicles the most interesting people across the country) took some flak a few weeks ago for putting Presidentelect Donald Trump on the cover just weeks after one of its former reporters claimed the next president, back in 2005, assaulted her while she interviewed him for a story. Well, they would never let that blowback influence their editorial decisions. Never. So in their current 152-page issue, which contains about 176 photos of people, there isn’t a single photograph of Trump, a family member or anyone named to his Cabinet in the last week. There are photos, though, of Ronald Reagan, Hillary Cinton, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy and Abe Lincoln. Just sayin’. The issue does manage to squeeze in some news on Kim and Kanye (which for some reason they call Kim’s new crisis), Chelsea Handler and a three-page (?) spread on Loretta Lynn. Yeesh!
If you’re jonesing for bacon, eat bacon — not turkey bacon or some other substitute. And if you want some celebrity gossip, read real gossip — not real celebrity news dressed up as gossip. Which brings us to OK magazine. Now that’s gossip. Katie Holmes preg- gers with Jamie Foxx’s daughter? They got the scoop. Doctors warning Khloe Kardashian that her surgeries to plump-ify her butt are putting her life in danger? Scoop! Angelina’s two-pack-aday smoking habit? Bingo! When it comes to so-what-if-it’s-nottrue-it’ll-sell-magazines-thisweek service, no one serves such heaping helping of Grade-A gossip than OK. Need further proof ? On the Kimye front, the magazine teases on the cover that Kim “bans” him from seeing his kids – but doesn’t go near the topic in the story. It also finds a shrink who has never examined Kanye to give a diagnosis.
Has the staff at Star magazine returned from Thanksgiving vacation? It’s hard to tell as the current issue doesn’t have a single A-lister item worth reading. Buried on page 68 is a tidbit on “Jackie,” the just-opened Natalie Portman, Billy Crudup film on the former first lady. People, or course, splashed it across its cover. That means the studio, Fox Searchlight, played ball with People and got, perhaps, a prom- ise of a cover story while Star, feeling snubbed (we guess), gave it a less prominent position. It’s sad that so many fine trees gave their lives for this.
No issue this week gets more out of less than US magazine. Are they really cutting costs that much over at Wenner Media? Three pages of “Who Wore It Best,” two pages of Prince Harry, from two weeks ago, and old stock photos of Kim and Kanye? What gives? They quote a family source that Kanye, when he had his breakdown, hadn’t slept “in about a week.” Perhaps if the sources were rounding up to the nearest week. And then the magazine reports that Brad Pitt spent Thanksgiving not with his kids but in the Turks and Caicos. Sure, but Page Six reported that on Nov. 28. And knowing that you still put it on your cover? You have to do better than that. We will give US this much, its senior reporter Sarah Grossbart delivers the most in-depth story on the Kanye meltdown of any of its glossy peers. Good job, Sarah.
The New Yorker disappoints in a glowing feature of central Bronx City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who chairs the committee that manages public housing and its 400,000 residents. This is the chance for the mag to show it speaks to the other NYC, the side being neglected. Yet we must wait until the sixth page for hints of the failures many minority residents see in Mayor de Blasio’s housing policies. This feature feels like a Manhattan tribute to Torres that fails to properly address the problems of public housing. Jeffrey Toobin weighs in with a convincing Talk of the Town argument on how the presidential election was really rigged — when the Supreme Court in 2013 essentially gave states more leeway in setting voting requirements, allowing them to suppress minority voting.
Time’s cover story on Fidel Castro does not answer the mysteries behind the revolutionary. The analysis lacks depth as it also does not seem to be coming from anyone living in Cuba. We’d rather hear about how they feel about Castro, who ruled for 49 years, than what US observers felt. A feature, though, on film star Michael Keaton promoting his upcoming movie, “The Founder,” about McDonald’s Ray Kroc, goes below the surface. Keaton, according to the article, has a side of him that can relate to unsympathetic characters. Kroc took control of the hamburger chain from the McDonalds, diluting the chain’s products over their objections. At 65, Keaton is Hollywood’s renaissance man, with his third magnificent star turn following roles in “Birdman” and “Spotlight.”