With the breakup of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, the gossip mags were sure to be buzzing this week. Each gave us a little something about the couple's Anguilla getaway but none of the current offerings nailed the fact that it would be their last one as husband and wife.
People devotes most of its cover and a good chunk of inside pages to the stories of tsunami survivors. Though the tales are moving, they feel a bit dated, after all the coverage major news outlets have given the natural disaster in the past two weeks. There is little else in the current issue that is compelling. A spread on the best New Year's bashes also feels old, as does the year that was for Ben Affleck vs. Jennifer Lopez. (Let's give up the "Benifer" ghost already!). People does score with some good jailhouse pics of Martha Stewart — in spectacles, no less. But the story on Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston loving it up in the Caribbean also disappoints, given its lack of juicy photos. People did, however, break the separation story on its Web site Friday night.
Us did a better job with the "Brad & Jen Holiday Vacation," having gotten its hands on some good photos of the celebrity couple and their friends Courtney Cox and David Arquette. There's a pic of a shirtless Brad Pitt shooting hoops that's sure to be a crowd pleaser with the ladies, especially now that he's back on the market. Us lays off the tsunami disaster, except for a spread on Victoria's Secret model Petra Nemcova.
They're together. No they're not. The wedding ring is off. Now it's back on. Oh, wait! Not even the vast powers of Bonnie Fuller and her crew at Star could save the doomed marriage of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. As the rest of the world found out it was splitsville for the cutie-pie celeb couple, Star told us they were making plans to add a baby to the family. And here we thought no one cared — about this story. After burn ing Holly wood with its now infa mous cover on celeb cellulite, the mag has de cided to go easy this time with a spread on the "best beach bodies." Star serves up some shots of Uma Thurman, Pamela Anderson, Jessica Simpson, among others, along with "expert commentary" from plastic surgeons. It's enough to make us miss the mean-spirited streak.
Meanwhile, In Touch has no qualms when it comes to fueling speculation that the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Jessica Simpson — oops, we mean Nick and Jessica — is on the rocks. We care less about the marriage and more about her dad's totally creepy comments about her cupsize. The other supposed crisis is the reported spat between the Olsen twins. Apparently, Ashley feels that Mary-Kate's eating disorder is dragging her down — don't you hate when that happens — so the duo are searching for separate digs. For all of us who suspect that most gorgeous celebs have a secret inner hag, check out the special report on (gasp!) "stars without makeup."
Get ready for Star Wars mania. The final installment of the series doesn't hit theaters for five more months, but Vanity Fair gets a jump on its media com petitors by featuring the cast on its cover. Pho tographer Annie Liebovitz took her lens behind-the-scenes during the shooting of the movie, the result being a dazzling photo spread that is sure to excite fans. Dominick Dunne covered the recent Walt Disney trial — shareholders sued the company over an exhorbitant severance package given to former exec Michael Ovitz — but he dishes up little new information. Skip the Dunne piece, but don't miss a report on new allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners — in one case a 15-year-old boy alleges he was sexually abused. And finally, a piece on the rise-and-fall of Penthouse tycoon Bob Guccione is almost as good as the accompaying photos from various times during his career.
A week after New York magazine led with its somewhat timely opus on the Eliot Spitzer probe into the insurance industry, the weekly dusts off a navel-gazing thumb- sucker like "Teens & Money: How much is good for them?" What, rich kids at elite private schools spend a lot of money? Poorer kids get a smaller allowance? And by the way, if celebrity poker and high-stakes poker and the World Series of Poker have been in the headlines for, what, two years now, why is this magazine, which is supposed to be tapped into the zeitgeist of the city, so shocked about kids playing poker? While the redesign looks good, Adam Moss continues to under whelm us when it comes to producing timely stories about what is going down in Gotham City.
With more than two weeks having passed since the earthquake and resulting tsunami radiating from Western Sumatra, The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg takes a look at the politics of the disaster aid and response. The reasons for the billions coming now, he reasons is because people from so many countries were killed and because the terror came from such a common fear. The magazine also offers up a tasty dish on how Gen X officers in Iraq are benefiting from their own Web sites. They are sharing info on how to deal with unruly crowds, suicide bombers and depressed soldiers.
Both newsweeklies play down their tsunami coverage to trumpet health-related stories on their cover. Well, it is the new year, a time when folks make resolutions, join health clubs and think about their well being. Market research as news, my friends. Newsweek gives us Diet & Genes, a package of stories produced with Harvard Medical School. Everything from plastic surgery, hormone therapy and the aging brain are sliced and diced. Hey, the world's a rough place and you have to be armed.
The editors at Time didn't think anything newsworthy was happening around the world, either. So they took a look at the calendar, knew it was the time of year people take stock of themselves and decided to pull the trigger on their "Science of Happiness" project. How long was this lying around the office? In a "Special Mind and Body Issue," a 68-page behemoth of an effort, which follows its special report on the tsunami, the magazine finds out that we are basically a very happy country. Exactly 50 percent believe they have led the best possible life, or at least a very good life. But don't get too excited. Money might have something to do with it. As incomes rise, the percentage of folks who consider themselves happy rises.
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