Hype Stalker
It was a welcome sight to see Charlie Rose back behind the great round table once again this past Monday. After a very serious round of surgery in France and a long recovery, Rose looked a few pounds lighter but appeared surprisingly well rested, healthy and sounded great. A staggering 71 guest hosts filled the hot seat while he was away featuring media heavy hitters such as Judy Woodruff, Jeffrey Toobin, Brian Lehrer, Mary Matalin, David Brooks, Salman Rushdie, Cokie Roberts and William Kristol, but none of them ever reached Rose's level of connection and delivery. The special treat of the show was finally getting to see his well-known executive producer, Yvette Vega, on camera for the first time. Kudos to Rose for not trying to move us along quickly and tackling his heart surgery head-on as one of the night's issues. Apparently that good old Southern stock is holding up, because Rose doesn't look newly enfeebled or frail, on the contrary, he was a sight for many sore eyes. Unfortunately, the show ended with a new appearance of Tom "the mustachio" Friedman attempting to steal Al Gore's recent environmentalist thunder by changing his latest spiel from "the world is flat, the world is flat!" to "green is patriotic, green is sexy, green is goooood?.!" Not only did the mysterious mustache quiver with new, otherworldly electricity, Friedman actually took a moment to look directly into the camera to deliver his gospel-taking his meta-ham act to yet a new level. The famously dark day may have passed last week, but we're not entirely sure a set of 6's isn't hiding underneath that lip brow?
Last week we hailed the possible rebirth of Manhattan in the face of rabid Brooklyn cheering as rumors of Absolute magazine's resurrection circulated. We can now confirm that Absolute will indeed publish again under the new ownership of Hour Media and New York Homes & Lifestyles. An October/November 2006 issue is planned, with subsequent issues hitting the streets on a bi-monthly basis. Starting with the October/November 2006 issue, Absolute Publishing will produce this spectacular publication on a bi-monthly basis. In keeping with the publication's outsized image of itself, newly crowned president of Absolute Publishing, John Balardo, remarked, "The magazine will remain focused on the luxury lifestyles of affluent New Yorkers. Our editors are committed to producing a magazine that will deliver the same high standards and principles that readers have come to rely on." The sentiment is nice and all (assuming you're a New Yorker choking on money), but the first part of being an affluent lifestyle magazine for the rich is-surprise-being able to pay your own rent. Once they get that part right, then maybe we'll take them more seriously as to which yacht you should sip what champagne on and so forth. Until then, it's still Wannabe Monthly.