Dish (53 page)

This chapter is based largely on interviews with current and former
People
staffers, particularly founding editor Richard Stolley.

Articles consulted include Michael Gross, “Up with People,” GQ; Jennifer Bojorquez, “Idol Minds,”
Sacramento Bee;
Kimberly Goad, “Richard Stolley: His
People
Skills Set the Tone for Two Decades,”
Dallas Morning News;
John McGuire,
“People
at 20,”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch;
Janet Caw-ley’s “People Who Need People Marks 20th Year,”
Chicago Tribune.

Among the books consulted, Judy Kessler,
Inside People,
was immensely informative and useful, as was Curtis Prendergast with Geoffrey Colvin,
The World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Changing Enterprise, Vol. 3: 1960–1980.

This chapter is based on contemporary articles and interviews with reporters and editors who covered Elvis’s death and funeral, including Tom Kuncl and Peter Herbst. A number of books were particularly useful, including Neal and Janice Gregory,
When Elvis Died;
Lee Cotten’s
All Shook Up: Elvis, Day-by-Day, 1954–1997;
Patricia Jobe Pierce,
The Ultimate Elvis: Elvis Presley Day by Day.

This chapter is based on interviews with current and former employees of ABC, including Barbara Walters and past interviews with Av Westin, Geraldo
Rivera, and others who wished to remain anonymous. Among the published sources: Desmond Smith, “The Wide World of Roone Arledge,”
New York Times Magazine;
Richard Zoglin, “ABC Ya, Roone,”
Time;
Marc Gunther,
The House That Roone Built;
Elizabeth Gleick, “Geraldo Rivera: Fresh from a Triumph in the O.J. Wars, the Rogue Reporter Still Hungers for Respect,”
People;
Geraldo Rivera,
Exposing Myself;
William Plummer, “The Monroe Report: News Staffers at ABC-TV Cry ‘Cover-up’ When Their Bosses Kill a 20/20 Magazine Segment on Marilyn Monroe,”
Time;
Kim Mills, “Author Charges Politics in Cancellation of ‘20/20’ Segment on Monroe,” Associated Press; Jay Sharbutt, “ABC Boss Defends Monroe Decision,”
Los Angeles Times;
Paul Rosenfield, “How Does It Feel to Be Barbara Walters,”
L.A. Times Calendar,
Jeff Greenfield, “The Showdown at ABC News,”
N.Y. Times Magazine.

Carol Burnett’s trial was covered by a number of newspapers and magazines at the time; especially useful were Myrna Oliver’s articles in the
Los Angeles Times.
See also Clark Taylor, “Carol Burnett: ‘I’d No Idea I Was This Strong,’ ”
L.A. Times;
and Jay Mathews’s “Burnett Wins Enquirer Suit,”
Washington Post.
For a lively account of Michael J. Fox’s wedding, see his own article: “Michael J. Fox’s Nuptials in Hell!”
Esquire.

See also P. J. Corkery; Judy Kessler,
Inside People;
Linden Gross, “So Rich, So Famous, So Pestered,”
Cosmopolitan;
William Sherman, “Rockin’ with the Rock Impressarios,
“Cosmopolitan;
Jon Underwood, “Axl Rose Won’t Sign a Contract That Makes Him Sing in a Town Starting with the Letter
M
Because He Thinks
M
Has a Curse on It,”
Daily Mail;
Richard Harrington, “Whatever the Promoter Will Bear,”
Washington Post;
Fred W. Wright, “Special Requests,”
Tampa Tribune;
and Patrick Goldstein, “Hollywood’s Real True Lies,”
L.A. Times.

This chapter is based largely on my reporting on Tina Brown and
Vanity Fair
over the last decade, including brief conversations with Brown in the course of that reporting. In addition, a number of former staffers spoke on the condition of anonymity. Numerous printed sources were consulted, including Alan Franks, “Party Animus,”
The Times Saturday Review;
Bill Higgins, “Connecticut Haiku Goes Hollywood,”
Los Angeles Times;
Georgina Howell, “All Is Vanity; Nothing is Fair,”
London Sunday Times Magazine;
Bill Thomas, “Mighty Tina,”
L.A. Times;
Neil Mackwood, “The Girl from Little Marlow Bites the Big Apple,”
Daily Mail;
Greg Easley, “Ms. Brown, Mr. Mailer Wants to Know If You Picked Up His Dry Cleaning,”
Spy;
Geordie Greig, “Hollywood Babble On,”
Times of London;
Alexander Cockburn, “Nausea: Critique of Vanity Fair,”
The Nation;
Geoffrey Stokes, “The Trouble with Tina,”
Spy.

14 The Good Old Gal and the Tycoon

This chapter is based on my reporting on Trump over the last decade, including numerous interviews with Donald and Ivana Trump and the various players in the Trump divorce. In addition, a number of printed sources were particularly useful, especially, Jonathan Van Meter, “The Sour Smell of Success,” 7
Days.
Other sources include daily coverage of the Trump saga in the newspapers, particularly Howard Kurtz’s articles in the
Washington Post;
Walter Anderson, “Liz Smith: The Lady Behind the Gossip,”
Cosmopolitan;
Cliff Jahr, “Loose Lips: Gossip Columnist Liz Smith Gives the Lowdown on Celebrities,”
Ladies Home Journal;
David Sheff, “The Playboy Interview: Liz Smith,”
Playboy;
Lome Manly, “Off the Record,”
New York Observer;
Divina Infusino, “Liz Smith Serves Gossip in Big Scoops,”
San Diego Tribune;
Richard Bernstein, “Gossip’s Hot, and Hers Is the Name to Drop,”
New York Times;
Clifford Pugh, “Texas Boots and Texas Roots: Columnist Still Talks with a Thick Drawl,”
Houston Chronicle;
and Merrie Morris, “The World’s Most Famous Gossip Columnist Is Wearing Jeans,”
Washington Times.

Interviews included Maury Povich and other sources at Fox and the
New York Post.
Printed sources include the transcript of CNBC, 14 September 1994, “Steve Dunleavy of ‘A Current Affair’ Discusses His Job and That of Tabloid Reporters”; Maury Povich,
Current Affairs: A Life on the Edge;
Mike Thomas, “It’s Scandalous! Malcolm Balfour, King of the Trash Tabs, Tells the Titillating Truth!”,
Orlando Sentinel Tribune;
David Margolick, “A Peek Under the Tent of the Palm Beach Media Circus,”
New York Times;
David Shaw, “Obsessed with Flash and Trash,”
Los Angeles Times;
James Brady, “Now Stand By, America: Here Comes Steve Dunleavy,”
Grain’s New York Business.

This chapter is based largely on my reporting and experiences with publicists, as well as an interview with Pat Kingsley. Several journalists who attended the various junkets spoke on the condition of anonymity. Other interviewees include Stephanie Mansfield, John Springer, Lee Grant, and Jennet Conant. A number of valuable articles were consulted, particularly Christopher Robbins, “The Woman Behind Tom: Pat Kingsley,”
Times of London;
John Seabrook, “Kingsley’s Ransom,”
The New Yorker,
Ivor Davis and Sally Ogle Davis, “Flacks Fatales,”
Los Angeles
magazine; Jeffrey Goodell, “The Fame Machine,”
Mirabella;
Paula Span, “Invasion of the Movieflackers,”
Washington Post;
Peter Howell, “Cruise Control by Playing Cat and Mouse with the Media,”
Toronto Star,
Richard Roeper, “A Star is Bored,”
Spy;
Melanie Warner and Marty O’Loughlin, “Cover or Nothing,”
Inside Media;
Tom Maurstad, “Hero Worship,”
Dallas Morning News;
Divina Infusio, “It’s a Reporter’s Feast (or Famine),”
San Diego
Tribune;
Rick Marin, “They’re Hot!”,
Des Moines Register,
Anita M. Busch, “Media Up in Arms Over Studio Publicity Contracts,”
Hollywood Reporter,
Sharon Waxman, “The Hollywood Junket,”
Washington Post;
Bernard Weinraub, “Hollywood and Tough Journalism Don’t Mix,”
New York Times;
Nigel Andrews, “Sunset on the Boulevard of Inflated Egos,”
Financial Times;
Claudia Eller, “A Star Is Born—Before He’s Even Been Seen,”
Los Angeles Times;
and Michael Cieply, “Hollywood’s High-Powered Image Machine,”
L.A. Times.

This chapter was based on my own reporting on the Michael Jackson story as well as interviews with a number of people who have dealt with Jackson or Anthony Pellicano, including Diane Dimond, John Connolly, and Maureen Orth. Hundreds of articles were consulted for this section. Among the most useful were Orth, “The Jackson Jive” and “Nightmare in Neverland,”
Vanity Fair,
and Connolly’s “The Pellicano Brief,”
Los Angeles
magazine. See also Ian Katz, “Hollywood’s Star Gumshoe,”
Washington Post;
Larry Katz, “King of P.R.: Jacko’s Not Wacko, He’s Just Crazy Like a Fox,”
Boston Herald;
Peter Wilkinson, “The Big Sleazy,” GQ; Steve Oney, “Anthony Pellicano: The Private Eye Who Doggeed the DeLorean and Belushi Cases Talks About the Tools of his Trade: Guts, Guns and Gizmos,”
Playboy;
David Ferrell and Chuck Philips, “Gloves Come Off in Damage Control by Jackson Camp,”
Los Angeles Times;
Gordon Smith, “Jackson’s Investigator a Vanishing Breed,”
San Diego Union-Tribune;
Shawn Hubler and James Bates, “Streetwise Gumshoe to the Stars,”
L.A. Times;
and Claudia Eller, “Company Town: A Partnership on the Rocks?,”
L.A. Times.

Saturation coverage of O. J. Simpson makes it difficult to narrow down the hundreds of articles consulted for this chapter, but some of the most important include David Shaw, “The Simpson Legacy: Is the Media Overfeeding a Starving Public?,”
Los Angeles Times;
David Margolick, “The Enquirer: Required Reading in Simpson Case,”
New York Times;
John Lyttle, “Exposed! America’s Biggest Scandal Sheet,”
The Independent;
M. L. Stein, “Supermarket Tabloids Set O.J. Case Pace,”
Editor and Publisher,
Gordon Edes, “Simpson Crowned New King of Tabloids,”
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel;
Mark Washburn, “Checkout-Line Tabloid Approaches Respectability on O.J. Case,”
Charleston Gazette;
David Lieberman, “Rivals Have Descended on Tabloids,”
USA Today;
Bill Boyarsky, “Tabloids Affecting Trial Coverage—And the Trial Itself,”
L.A. Times;
Felicia Levine, “O.J. Saga Juices Enquirer Sales,”
South Florida Business Journal;
Elizabeth Gleick, “Leader of the Pack,”
Time;
David Beard, “Tabloids Inquiring: Will There Be Life After the O.J. Trial?,”
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel;
Jane Sutton, “Simpson Outsells Babies from Mars!,” Reuters; and Katy Buder, “The Accidental Feminist,”
L.A. Times Magazine.

See also Diane Cyr, “Acquiring Minds,”
Inside Media;
Andra Sachs, “Mud and the Mainstream,”
Columbia Journalism Review)
David Lamb, “Into the Realm of Tabloids,”
L.A. Times
; Si Liberman, “Supermarket Tab King Steps Down,”
Editor and Publisher,
Jon Nordheimer, “Mild-Mannered Buyers Tame Wild Tabloids!,”
N.Y. Times.,
Marguerite M. Plunkett,
“Enquirer
Editor Calder Steps Down,”
Palm Beach Post;
M. G. Lord, “The
Enquirer
in Bed with the
Star!,” Newsday
; Howard Kurtz, “Checkbook Journalism: The Globe & Cosby’s Alleged Extortionist,”
Washington Post;
and Lyle Slack, “Alien Brainchild Lands in Supermarket, Libels Oprah, Dies,”
Saturday Night.

Princess Diana’s death resulted in massive media coverage, but PBS’s unedited, sometimes unbroadcast interviews from the superb “The Princess and the Press” were especially useful. Also, Peter Stothard, “A Perrier with the Princess,”
Times of London;
Richard Attenborough’s “A Shy Start Soon Gave Way to a Wicked Sense of Humour,”
Times of London.

Also,
Larry King Live
shows “Guests Discuss How Tabloid Photographers Effect Stars’ Lives” and “The Impact of Tabloids in America.”

Adalain, Josef. “Mike Wallace’s Pot-Smoking Past.”
New York Post,
1 November 1996.

Alexander, Max. “Not-so-Private Eye Who May or May Not Be Your Friend.”
Daily Variety,
6 September 1993.

Allen, Frederick. “Up from Humbug.”
Columbia Journalism Review,
March 1995; April 1995.

Alter, Jonathan. “America Goes Tabloid.”
Newsweek,
25 December 1994/2 January 1995.

Alter. “The Art of the Deals.”
Newsweek,
9 January 1989.

Amlong, William R. “Pope: The High Priest of Lowbrow.”
Tropic,
14 January 1973.

Anders, Marjorie. “Liz Smith: Small-Town Girl Swims with the Big Fish.” Associated Press, 20 August 1987.

Anderson, David. “2 Pope Brothers Indicted by U.S.”
New York Times,
20 July 1960.

Anderson, Walter. “Liz Smith: The Lady Behind the Gossip.”
Cosmopolitan,
March 1989.

Andrews, Nigel. “Sunset on the Boulevard of Inflated Egos.”
Financial Times,
3 September 1994.

Armstrong, Lois. “Carol Burnett Welcomes Her Daughter Carrie Back from the Grim World of Drugs.”
People,
1 October 1979.

Arnold, Roseanne. “What Am I Anyway, a Zoo?”
New York Times,
30 September 1990.

Attenborough, Richard. “A Shy Start Soon Gave Way to a Wicked Sense of Humour.”
Times of London,
6 September 1997.

Auletta, Ken. “Don’t Mess with Roy Cohn.”
Esquire,
5 December 1978.

Baer, Atra. “Atra Baer Turns the Tables, Puts Mike on Hot Seat.”
New York Journal American,
23 February 1957.