T A B L E_.T A L K

Tune in your browsers to radio on the Internet. Reveal your favorite Web stations in the Media area of Table Talk

Search and ye shall find -- personal health, family wealth and bibliophilic happiness at barnesandnoble.com Search by:  Keyword Title Author

R E C E N T L Y

Why Elia Kazan should not receive an Oscar
By Steve Erickson
By bestowing a special honor on the director, who already has won two Oscars, the academy is glossing over history
(03/17/99)

Strange fruit
By James Poniewozik
Garden Escape is a new publication grown from the fertile soil of Garden.com. You might call it a catalog; they call it the ultimate service magazine. What if they're right?
(03/16/99)

Kiddie-porn trafficker -- or crusading undercover reporter?
By Susan Lehman
Larry Matthews' 18-month sentence for receiving and transmitting kiddie porn raises difficult First Amendment issues
(03/11/99)

The anti-Marthas
By James Poniewozik
The Discovery Channel's daytime shelter shows decorate down-market souls in six cheerful shades of Play-Doh
(03/09/99)

Conservative pinup battles "arm candy" canard
By Susan Lehman
Ann Coulter will write for George. Plus: N.Y. cops get tough on the New Yorker; doubloon-or-nothing for Wenner
(03/04/99)

- - - - - - - - - -

BROWSE THE
MEDIA CIRCUS
ARCHIVE

$400,000 misunderstanding
---SO MAYBE VANITY FAIR WRITERS DON'T
---ACTUALLY MAKE 400 GRAND. WHO NEEDS
---IT, WHEN EDITOR GRAYDON CARTER IS
---CONSTANTLY SENDING THEM SWEET
---PERSONAL NOTES ON BLUE STATIONERY?

BY SUSAN LEHMAN

In a glowing New York Times piece that ran last week, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter told the paper that some of his higher-paid writers made "more than $400,000." Not surprisingly, phones at the fat glossy began ringing immediately as curious staffers tried to find out which, if any, of their colleagues commanded such mega-salaries.

If anyone at Vanity Fair makes $1,500 a day for toting that bale, it's presumably contributing writer Dominick Dunne, the acknowledged top banana on the magazine's staff. "I've heard that too," says Dunne. "I don't make it. I wish it were true."

Times writer Alex Kuczynski says Carter "confirmed for me that some writers make more than that sum." A spokesperson for Carter, however, says the figure is "off-base."

"Maybe Graydon threw out that figure to rattle Tina Brown [editor of the forthcoming Talk], who's supposedly low-balling everyone in town," says an agent who represents writers who work for both Carter and Brown. Beth Kseniak, Vanity Fair's PR director, says this simply isn't true.

Whatever its origin or correspondence to reality, the $400,000 figure inspired mirth and goodwill among Vanity Fair contributors, not the teeth-gnashing and envy usually associated with salary talk.

"My God, what a hilarious thing to say. I bet everyone here will say 'Hey, what about that 400 grand?' during their next contract negotiations," says a VF contributor, who allows that "not too many people at Vanity Fair feel underpaid."

"If it's just Nick [Dunne], I don't think anyone begrudges him the extra money," said another writer, explaining that some portion of the loot is probably paid Dunne for his services as a representative of the magazine. "He's there at the O.J. trial, he's there at the latest cocktail party, he's out there all the time."

Other, similarly charitable VF writers pegged Marie Brenner, Gail Sheehy, Maureen Orth and Brian Burrough as top earners at the mag. Several contributors say average contributors make between $125,000 and $200,000. No one seems to be complaining about pay.

Despite some carping that "the only way to get a piece in the magazine these days is to profile a dead person" (the 414-page Hollywood issue on newsstands now has stories on such no-longer-sentient stalwarts as Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart and Sammy Davis Jr. as well as the inescapably living Mike Ovitz), Vanity Fair writers agree that Carter is an expert at cultivating goodwill among writers.

"There's the perks, there's the parties, there's the this, there's the that, the personal gifts, constant notes," says a longtime contributor, adding that "Tina never sent notes." Indeed, Carter seems to rival Jackie Kennedy in knowing just how far nice notes and elegant penmanship can go; almost all of the VF contributors who spoke to Media Circus volunteered warm, fuzzy thoughts on the subject of Carter's notes.

"This is a place where people are pretty happy," says one contributor. "You're paid well. When you turn in a story, assuming it works, you get a lovely handwritten note from Graydon in beautiful penmanship. When the piece runs, another note arrives, on blue stationery, saying, 'Fabulous, wonderful story' -- it goes a long way."

"Graydon understands writers. This isn't about money. He knows writers are shy egomaniacs who like to be stroked and told they're important and loved," says another, adding, "I'd take a bullet for the guy."

N E X T_ P A G E | New York Times disses National Magazine Awards