The New York Times over the weekend ran an article focused on crypt keeper Cindy McCain, and it wasn't exactly flattering. The feature paints John's latest wife as an outsider in an emotionally-challenged marriage, deprived of warmth and attention. We kind of guessed that just by looking at her.
After the jump, a brief summary of the article (which you can read in its entirety here) in pictures and quotes.
It's hard to distinguish between writer/actor/comedian B.J. Novak and his alter-ego Ryan Howard from The Office, notably because Novak hasn't done much else besides the NBC show. For the most part B.J. is Ryan: a wunderkind who came out of nowhere and rose to the top and seems a little cocky about it. Sort of like NBC executive producer Ben Silverman, the rumored inspiration for the character of Ryan.
With The Office season premiere tomorrow, now is as good a time as any to look back at the solo work of the young man who just told The New York Times: "I don’t see the value in quote-unquote brilliant things that people don’t like, and I don’t see the value in things that people like that I don’t respect."
"Tori Spelling is no longer just a New York Times best-selling author. She is now a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author. On Sept. 14, her book, sTORI Telling, will move into first place on the prestigious newspaper's non-fiction list."
Rachel McAdams graces the pages of the upcoming issue of New York Times Magazine with some new dark lipstick that will surely be seen on Christina Aguilera in the very near future.
Kathie Lee Gifford has been getting a lot of flack from all sides since she moved to NBC to host the fourth hour of The Today Show. She is shrill and overshares. Other crazy women hate her. She’s a ratings killer (the show has dropped 200,000 viewers since she’s joined). And now The New York Times is criticizing her because she talks over her guests and co-host, Hoda Kotb. Come on guys, she’s not as bad as all that. Here are our three favorite things about the KLG:
… stealth-wealth signifiers appeal to Sylvia Toporkiewicz, a visitor from Poland, who was browsing late last month at the Sunglass Hut on Spring Street in SoHo. She weighed the hip factor of a pair of crystal-encrusted Versace frames against some equally costly but understated Ray-Ban glasses, choosing the Ray-Bans, because, she explained, “I don’t want to look Paris Hilton.”
(emphasis ours)
-From a banal Times story about even more banal people, some of whom have apparently outgrown their former queen
The two most e-mailed stories on the New York Times Web site today are both about chocolate chip cookies. The third is a mostly borrowed piece about how it's hard to find someone to marry.
Oh, and in at number seven is a two-page piece about how some residents of Greenwich, Connecticut, the 56th wealthiest community in America, are mad about the town's new Wiffle ball field.
Yesterday The New York Times spit out a very important, "fit to print" article whose entire point could have been summed up with a single throw pillow from your Nana's needlepoint days: money doesn't make people happy; in fact, sometimes it makes them sad and stubborn. Sure, you could have figured as much after watching a single Amy Winehouse meltdown video on any crap tabloid show, or after taking a good look at the hardened addict Corey Haim, former boy prince, has become, but then you wouldn't be spoon-fed, would you? And the Times always uses so many words!
CONTINUED »
The New York Times has traded "irreverent" for "splenetic" in its George Carlin obit headline. This is perhaps because the original was thought to have religious implications. Regardless, it's funny and apropos, considering how much of Carlin's humor was based on how weird language is.
Definitions under here.
CONTINUED »
Hey! Why did Times writer Ellen Carpenter just gloss over this rather telling piece of information in Sunday's puff piece about a Thursday night on the town with R&B star Ashanti?
By dinnertime, Ashanti was starving. “I don’t remember the last time I ate,” she said as she rode an elevator to the club’s garden-floor dining room. She paused to think. “It was a Carney’s turkey burger. That was Wednesday afternoon in L.A.”
And right when you go, "Wait, wha? Before big events Ashanti starves herself?" Carpenter's already onto the famous guests in attendance at the singer's album release party.
As they so rarely do when covering music, The New York Times gets it right today with a story about Sony BMG's new plans for their photo archive.
Apparently, Sony has discovered that all the great pictures they've just been storing in their photo collection – like this one of Johnny Cash – can be used to make money while the recording industry faces a tremendous recession.
The article heralds true musicians, ingenuity and art. Finally, Times. Now, do it again.
The New York Times Magazine can't be serious. There's no way. Why on earth would the mag put Tyra Banks on the same cover as the words "Oprah" and "Martha"? Unless the staff is referring to the ladies' obvious similarities. Remember that time Martha went undercover as a homeless woman for a few hours to discover the injustices of America? And remember when Oprah took off her jeans on national television? Or how about when Martha ripped a loose thread off a fake Chinatown handbag and proceeded to floss her teeth with it? So many groundbreaking moments of television, so little time …
Y'know how we've been all flippant and snarky (we hate that "word" but it seems appropriate) about The New York Times as of late? Complaining about their bullshit, hokey, juvenile coverage of "chick flicks" and TV chefs using the f-word? Well, bilious as we've been, we haven't harbored hatred for the paper, just an acute feeling of disgust with wasted opportunity. It's hurt us to see pages of drivel that could have been used for good. Today, however, we officially hate the Times:
ONLY one thing stood, or lay, between Alexandra Avlonitis and domestic bliss after she renovated her Roxbury, Conn., bathroom: the toothbrushes. Each one was a different size, ergonomic shape and amalgam of voluptuous injection-molded plastics. The only thing they had in common was that none fit into the handsome toothbrush holder she’d bought.
…
Joanne Rowe, a certified hand therapist in Manhattan, said that people with arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome, or who have recently had hand surgery, might find a toothbrush with a wider handle more convenient. “If you have a hand injury and you need to hold your toothbrush with some force, it will be easier to hold,” she said.
You'll be displeased to know that this goes on for THREE FUCKING PAGES!!!!!!!!!
But soft, not everyone has embraced the insanity: "Both Colgate and Johnson & Johnson declined to discuss their stockier toothbrushes … " Until right now, we had always hated seeing corporate fat cats snow the media.
The problem with being the best for so long is that you stop trying. Such is why Rome fell and it's the affliction that currently taints The New York Times almost weekly.
Only a few days ago the Gray Lady dissected the decline of the "chick flick," today she blithely lays up a two-page look at — no shit — whether or not TV cooks like Gordon Ramsay swear too much. Here's an actual, real, unimagined quote from the piece, from chef Marco Pierre White: "I have sworn, yes, in the early days, going back 20 years … It was just growing up." Scintillating! Amazing how a story attempting to purify language can make us so desirous to curse.
I was very honored to be called a feminist hero. It’s a big deal to be even acknowledged, let alone complimented by the New York Times by such a profound, famous TV critic.
Who are my feminist heroes? Um… I’ll get back to you on that one!
[Source]
Did anyone else catch this particularly poor layout decision in today's New York Times online edition? Nothing like some biting irony to complement one's bitter coffee on a lazy Sunday.
If you're not getting the joke, here's the definition of "hysteria" from the 1913 edition of Webster's dictionary:
A nervous affection, occurring almost exclusively in women, in which the emotional and reflex excitability is exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished, so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into paroxysm or fits.
Women: Capable, but absolutely BONKERS for purses!
Did you hear? The Hills is coming back tonight on MTV, and after the media overload from the past week or so, we're already kind of over it (OK, that's a lie). To celebrate the show's return, the New York Times wrote a thought-provoking article about how The Hills' characters represent the feminist movement. Or something like that.
Heidi has emerged as a kind of feminist hero this season, climbing her way to a bigger position at the event-planning company where she orchestrates Nascar parties, and refusing to acquiesce to the demands of her fiancé, Spencer, that she get herself home on time. … Her groundswell of self-assertion begins when he insists on eloping, prompting Heidi to declare, 'This isn’t, like, Spencer’s relationship and you decide what we do.'
The article goes on to say Lauren Conrad, who has spent the majority of her reality TV career pining after uninterested men, could learn a thing or two from Heidi. This would be a good point if Heidi's life, job or relationship were real.
• Some things don't ever need to "git dun." [BWE]
• The New York Times is now sparking gay rumors. Give it two more years before Family Circus is next to Maureen Dowd. [DListed]
• This just keeps getting better: Eliot Spitzer's number one lady was once the star of a Girls Gone Wild scene. [HT]
• It's NYC graffiti, son! Co-opt that shit. [CityRag]
• Carrie Bradshaw says she's angry about Maxim naming her the least sexy woman in the world, and that it made her husband, Matthew Broderick, question his taste in women. Understandable, but they should both realize they're getting mad at Maxim, laugh and then use that paper erection as kindling. [Yeeeah]
• Candy Spelling gets blog space on the Huffington Post? Really? Oh, cruel media. [ICYDK]
• Ashley Tisdale is a Muppet, right? [INO]
Editor
