The perfect magazine for Hitchens to write for

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, May 14, 2004
Vanity Fair Editor Got $100,000 for Suggesting a Movie
By DAVID CARR and SHARON WAXMAN

Graydon Carter, editor in chief of Vanity Fair, received a $100,000
payment from Universal Studios in 2003 for suggesting years earlier that
the book "A Beautiful Mind'' be made into a film, executives involved
with the film said. The payment was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the
magazine.

The film was produced by Imagine Entertainment, whose principals, Brian
Grazer and Ron Howard, have made Vanity Fair's annual list of new
establishment power brokers the last two years, and whose other projects
have received attentive coverage in the magazine.

The entertainment press and Hollywood have more of a symbiotic
relationship than the news media do with many other businesses -
magazines and other news organizations compete for access to the
studios' biggest stars, and also depend on the studios for advertising.
But the payment of consulting fees to a magazine editor who controls
coverage of industry subjects has no precedent, according to executives
in the publishing and film industry as well as journalism scholars.

"Vanity Fair has been blurring the lines for some time," said Cynthia
Gorney, associate dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the
University of California, Berkeley. "But there is something particularly
distressing about the nice round figure of $100,000 and the fact that it
directly lined Mr. Carter's pocket."

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/14/business/media/14mag.html

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