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Nasty rumors
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Someone told Ed yesterday that Brad Pitt supposedly smells. Like he has a body-odor problem. Dude, that's just wrong. Don't pee on Ed's Pitt Parade.

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Hear ye
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A few spots have opened up for the Ed SquareTable Discussion for E.A.s on Wed the 12th in NYC--Get 'em while they're hot! Send an e-mail to amy@ed2010.com. Deets: It will be in the East Village, starting at 6:45 p.m.

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News
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1. The New York Times
"A Survivor At Cond?© Nast Chooses to Bow Out"
By DAVID CARR
Thursday, January 06, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/business/media/06mag.html?oref=login

When James Truman was plucked from the relative obscurity of Details magazine at the age of 35 to be editorial director of Cond?© Nast Publications in 1994, it was widely predicted that he would not survive the company's cutthroat environment and mercurial ownership. But the British-bred Mr. Truman lasted 11 years. He left Monday morning, when he walked into the office of S. I. Newhouse Jr., the company's chairman, and said that he was quitting.

Cond?© Nast, home to The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue, among other magazines, announced Mr. Truman's departure yesterday and said that Thomas J. Wallace, 55, the editor in chief of Cond?© Nast Traveler, would succeed him. Mr. Wallace becomes the third editorial director in the company's history.

Mr. Truman's tenure included some growth - the company now has 17 magazines, up from 13 when he started - and the construction of a building at 4 Times Square, with the interior design overseen by Mr. Truman in his role as house tastemaker. He is also credited, or blamed, depending on who is asked, for conceiving a magazine devoted entirely to shopping, a genre now ubiquitous on newsstands.

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2. Fashion Week Daily
"Le Kid, Mischa, Rachel in at InStyle"
By THE DAILY STAFFERS
Thursday, January 6, 2005
http://www.fashionweekdaily.com/content/templates/gallery.asp?articleid=4690&zoneid=1

When In Style??™s February issue hits the stands on January 14th, it??™ll feature cover girl Nicole Kidman, promoting her new political thriller The Interpreter. While Kidman is frequently in the Time Inc. fashion rag, one starlet who hasn??™t gotten much coverage beyond Hal Rubenstein??™s "Eye on Fashion" pages is fashion-forward teen queen Mischa Barton. Until now. The Daily hears the 18-year old actress was offered numerous opportunities to pose for In Style, but each time refused to participate in a shoot unless it led to a cover.

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3. The New York Observer
"Off the Record (New Yorker, New Republic)"
By TOM SCOCCA
Thursday, January 06, 2005
http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/offtherec.asp

"One always wants to be read by as many people as possible," Lee Siegel said. Mr. Siegel was on the phone??”after a bit of coaxing??”to discuss his new job as book critic for The Nation. He has signed on to write 10 pieces for the stalwart liberal weekly in 2005, at some 2,500 to 4,000 words each.

Landing in The Nation is not quite the same, as mass-market triumphs go, as grabbing a Reader??™s Digest or TV Guide gig. Still, the magazine??™s circulation has reportedly grown to a heady-for-a-liberal-opinion-journal 185,000, thanks to the strength of its anti-Bush-administration market niche.

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4. Newsday
"City Inc."
By BLOOMBERG NEWS SERVICES
Thursday, January 06, 2005
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzli064105311jan06,0,7152372.story?coll=ny-business-headlines

HEARST CONSOLIDATES OPERATIONS. Hearst Magazines said it will consolidate its consumer marketing operations in Manhattan as part of an effort to strengthen and extend its consumer brands and launch new magazines. Hearst will relocate most of its consumer marketing employees from Charlotte, N.C., to its Manhattan headquarters. Hearst has launched numerous magazines in the past five years, including O, The Oprah Magazine; SHOP Etc.; CosmoGIRL!; Cosmo Style; Town & Country TRAVEL; Lifetime and Talk.

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5. New York Daily News
"TV Guide Plans Inside Look at Celebs, Style"
By BLOOMBERG NEWS SERVICES
Thursday, January 06, 2005
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/268454p-229903c.html

TV Guide Publishing Group, hoping to capitalize on the appetite for yet another weekly plateful of celebrity news and tattle, said it's launching Inside TV.

It will be headed by Steve LeGrice, who was executive editor of In Touch Weekly when it launched in 2002.