On Jun 12, 2006, at 12:48 PM, Louis Proyect wrote:
In 1986 Graydon Carter and Kurt Anderson founded a satirical
magazine called Spy that took a no-holds-barred toward the rich and
the powerful. After the magazine went under, both made career
shifts that landed them editorial positions at celebrity-
worshipping magazines of exactly the kind that Spy excoriated.
My old pal D.D. "Don" Guttenplan - now, among other things, half of
the "London bureau" of The Nation - said at the time that they
actually wanted to be the people they were making fun of. I doubted
Don at the time, since Spy was so good, but he turned out to be right.
Andersen used to have pretty good politics. He even gave me a blurb
when I started LBO ("nifty & original"). At least he's still I nice
guy, I hear, unlike Carter, who's always been kind of a prick.
In an article describing their drift, Howard Kurtz of the
Washington Post had the following to say:
"One sign of the times: While Spy frequently ridiculed zillionaire
Donald Trump as a 'thick-fingered vulgarian,' Carter was among the
glitterati at Trump's wedding to Marla Maples -- and put the
newlyweds on the cover of Vanity Fair's March issue."
Please, Howie, that's "short-fingered vulgarian"!
I've got a near-complete collection of Spy mags up on the shelf that
I keep meaning to take down. There's some great old gossip about
Judith Miller, a tell-all about the racist hijinks at National Review
by a former intern, Philip Weiss's excellent report from Bohemian
Grove, and a thousand other treasures.
Doug
