T A B L E_.T A L K

Ethnic stereotypes in the movies. Name your selection for the most idiotic portayals in this discussion in the Movies area of Table Talk

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R E C E N T L Y

Swing Nation RIP
By Steve Erickson
Rat Pack Sinatra, khaki pants and frosty martinis may have been vapid, but just wait for the next horror on the cultural horizon
(03/30/99)

I can't get arrested in this town!
By James Poniewozik
A tale of the thin blue rope line
(03/30/99)

$400,000 misunderstanding
By Susan Lehman
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?
(03/25/99)

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)

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WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW: A FEMINIST BIKINI | PAGE 1, 2
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Meanwhile, over at Testosterone Central

Maxim, the wildly successful men's magazine about sex, sports, beer and gadgets, is betting that a Brit knows what American guys really want. Mike Souter, the driving force behind Britain's equally wildly successful babe-filled bloke's book, FHM, will cross the pond to helm Maxim.

In a press release Wednesday, Maxim said, "Mike drove FHM from being a free magazine given away in fashion outlets through the half-million paid copies mark in just three years." Souter has not yet arrived in the country and could not be reached for comment.

FHM is the largest-selling monthly magazine in Europe, and its imminent arrival (an American version plans to launch this summer) has men's mags a little nervous.

Maxim also announced the appointment of James Kaminsky and Steve Perrine as co-editors. Kaminsky, a senior editor at Condé Nast Sports for Women, told Media Circus, "I have a Maxim sensibility." From the first time he saw it, Kaminsky says, he was "always in love with this magazine -- it's accessible, easy to get into, it talks to guys the way guys talk to each other in bars. It's not like going to a boring poli-sci class and getting lectured." With reliable lingerie spreads and features on subjects such as a year in the life of the man who accepted a $100,000 bet he couldn't get breast implants and keep them for a year (Kaminsky's favorite Maxim piece), Maxim certainly isn't that.

Perrine, who just celebrated his first anniversary as a Cosmo editor and who, prior to that, was the No. 2 editor at Men's Health, describes Maxim as "one of the few places where you can reliably go for a good belly laugh."

Neither Perrine nor Kaminsky has yet met Souter but both co-editors suggested that, under the new team, Maxim would continue to deliver what Perrine termed "relevant but irreverent" content. "Given Maxim's great success, Kaminsky says, "we're not going to throw the baby out with the bath water, but we might make the baby a little more useful around the house and a little smarter." More service pieces are likely, he says.

Introduced to American readers in 1997, Maxim recently announced ad figures that left competitors reeling: The magazine now guarantees advertisers that 950,000 people will buy Maxim each month, significantly more than GQ and Esquire and nearly twice the number Details promises. In a move that confirmed widely held suspicion that Maxim's rivals are copying the newcomer's astoundingly successful formula, Condé Nast hired former Maxim editor in chief Mark Golin as the editor in chief of Details earlier this year. Maxim reportedly held Golin to his three-year contract but, a Maxim spokesperson says, he is now free to leave.

In its press release, Maxim quotes Felix Dennis, chairman of Dennis Publishing, which owns Maxim, as saying, "If this team doesn't drive Maxim through 2 million paid copies in the U.S., I will eat my shorts, in public, at any location chosen by our hapless rivals."

Eye-opener for Rushdie

Writer Salman Rushdie, who until recently lived under death threat from the Iranian government, has had an eye job. The droopy-lidded author told the Times of London that the surgical procedure, aimed at keeping his eyes open, was done entirely for medical reasons. "I am long past beautifying myself," Rushdie told the Times.

Both the procedure, which received remarkably extensive coverage in the British press, and the condition that occasioned it could have been lifted from a Rushdie novel. The writer told the Times he suffered from ptosis, "which basically means falling down." Though surgery was recommended five years ago, Rushdie said he stalled and "chickened out, " possibly because corrective procedures for ptosis can leave patients unable to close their eyes. According to the British press, Rushdie agreed to surgery after he began to find it necessary to prop his eyelid up with his finger in order to see.

A publicist at Henry Holt, which will publish Rushdie's new novel, "The Ground Beneath Her Feet," on April 13, said that no one there knew much about Rushdie's malady. Holt's spokesperson did confirm that Rushdie had written lyrics for the book, which focuses on a rock 'n' roll superstar, and that the band U2 had put Rushdie's lyrics to music. She said she had no idea whether the song would be released. American readers will have a chance to see the newly bright-eyed lyricist: Rushdie is scheduled to make several public appearances in connection with publication of the new book.

Salon Senior Editor and Media Circus columnist Susan Lehman will be on maternity leave beginning next week.