Jezebel: start snitchin

Something Blue: Are You A Formerly-Employed Bridal Mag Staffer?

Dodai — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EDT

True story: Once upon a time, long long ago, I worked at Modern Bride. Today's news that the magazine — along with Elegant Bride — will cease to exist is pretty sad, but presents an excellent opportunity: Dishing dirt.

There must be amazing stories about offices full of ridiculously priced gowns; mysteriously "missing" Waterford crystal vases; hilariously awful reader letters; Vegas photo shoots gone awry and cake ideas no one would ever really dare to serve guests. Former staffers: Time to fess up! Email me at dodai@jezebel.com with your tales. I'll keep you anonymous, and you can finally get that story about the "misplaced" engagement ring off your chest.

Note: If your story is particularly juicy, we're open to publishing it as freelance contribution — and will offer a fee.

Start Snitchin'

Dodai — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:30:00 EST

In Dr. Joyce Brothers' advice column today, someone known only as "B.T." writes: "I graduated from college midyear, and... I've been scrambling for a job. When I got a job offer at a small entertainment industry tabloid, I [thought] I'd be pretty happy. But it turns out that they just make up half the stories, and I really am not comfortable doing this. I thought I could do it if all the other employees did it, but I find myself lying awake at night. What do you think — should I quit?" OMG! Unhappy camper! We scoured the mastheads of In Touch, Us, Life & Style, OK! and Star, and we can't find a B.T. (Well, Bobbie Thomas works for In Touch, but she is not a recent graduate, and Thomas is not her real last name.) Does anyone reading this work at a "small tabloid" and want to out their miserable coworker? We don't want to get anyone in trouble; we just want to know which tab is making up half their stories. (Uh, all of them?) If anybody wants to (anonymously!) start snitchin', drop us a line at tips@jezebel.com. [Seattle P-I]

Magazine Editors: Give Us Your Gossip!

Moe — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:40:05 EDT

Thought you'd heard the last word on that $10,000 photo? Think again! We wouldn't have offered such a gargantuan sum — or taken jobs that required reading Cosmo in the first place — if we weren't really really even more publicity whorish than usual about this topic. Ladyculture has lost touch with reality and it has lost its mind, and the biggest culprit is the sort of thing our Catholic school teachers used to call sinners of omission; those of us who stand by acting like it's all one big postmodern joke, that no pleasure is too guilty, that gorging on pictures of pretty people is as valid as reading words, and that there's nothing at all sinister about the tangled web of interests working to keep you dropping half your paychecks on shit men aren't even aware exist. Which is why we are using this opportunity to launch ourselves a new campaign, START SNITCHIN.'

Gossip is fun, but we really don't actually derive perverse pleasure from being mean. (Really truly, friends of Christine Coppa!) Although we can't, like Monicagate-era Larry Flynt, offer you a million dollars for every Baldfaced Incident Of Hypocrisy from the gynomag industry you unearth for us, we can offer you a small sense of purpose. (No like kinda seriously!) As much as Redbook's editors might disagree with us right now, there was a point to our pricey public shaming of their art department other than the usual desperate call for your attention. Women's magazine editors play all sorts of tricks on their readers, from shoving products down their throats without telling you their yearly swag intake could feed a small Chinese province, to treating the women they're supposed to be mentoring like indentured servants from a different caste. None of us wants you to lose your jobs, which is why, like our new friend Matt Cooper, we'll suffer through years of legal wrangling to protect the identity of any source who courageously offers us inside information for the good of the nation. (Uh, bad example!) Truly paranoid? Look ito Hushmail. Just want to have a drink and vent? You know where to find us.

Reference: The Five Great Lies Of Women's Magazines

We Just Awarded Someone $10,000 For An Unflattering Celebrity Cover Photo!

Moe — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:10:51 EDT

Remember how, way back on May 21 we announced we'd bestow $10,000 to the individual courageous enough to send us an amazing cover photo from a women's magazine in all its hideously fat, wrinkled and cruelly unretouched radiance? Well, over the past few weeks we got a bunch of entries (thank you, working-class heroes!) and we're happy to announce that someone has won the contest, which means he/she got paid what takes us months to make by stealing something off the boss's server and hiring a hot courier to bring it to our office with a funny note. Of course, aggressively-retouched photos are nothing new, or even in and of themselves shameful, but the older we get, the crazier they make us, in a manner akin to the way magazine cover-lines starting with numerals and/or ending with the phrase "we can't live without" makes us want to hole up in our closets and get back into cutting. Magazine editors, please, stop the inanity!

Famous ladies are paid to be Botoxed, nipped, tucked, dieted, wardrobed, and accessorized to within 5 pounds of their life-sustaining weights as it is. All so some computer nerd can Photoshop away their every remaining vestige of humanity? Ugh. Anyway, stay tuned: In a few short hours we will post the winning entry — which beat out a very tempting example of the "incredible shrinking Jennifer Lopez syndrome"! — along with another little screed about Walt Disney himself depicted women more realistically than magazine art directors do nowadays.

Earlier: Unretouched Cover Photos: $10,000 Reward
Kelly Clarkson Has Junk In The Trunk And Other Things We Already Knew, Confirmed By A Professional Retoucher