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THE
PARTY’S OVER: The New York Times Magazine’s
brain drain continues. First Adam Moss left,
he then enticed features editor Hugo Lindgren to
join him at New York Magazine, and now Style & Entertaining
editor William Norwich has been poached
by Vogue’s editor in chief Anna
Wintour.
Norwich worked for Vogue (which, like WWD, is owned by
Advance Magazines) for most of the Nineties before joining the Times and
starting the Style & Entertaining supplement in 2000 with late Style
editor Amy Spindler. He’ll rejoin Vogue as
a contributing editor, writing a first-person “social diary” 10
times a year for the front of the book’s “Talking Fashion” section.
He’ll also deliver an entertaining column several times a year and
write features as needed. “I’m off to discover the social life
of America,” Norwich said on Monday. “It will not be New York-centric.
I hope to pay attention to national [and international] affairs.”
— WWD, 3/22/04 |
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A
first person “social diary” that’s not the New
York Social
Diary? Should I go there? Why not.
I started keeping journals back in the late 60s. They were a conscious method
to develop my writing skills. I was not a professional writer. That seemed like
a dream away. A big big dream far far away. The idea of the journals was to train
myself to write as honestly (or maybe a better word is openly) as my own censors
would allow. Or maybe even get rid of the personal censors (I’ve got closer
but I’m not there yet). So, I would write down what I was feeling (and
not revealing to anyone else), including all the those embarrassing nothing little
day-to-day experiences and reflections. Including the insipid and stupid. And
the absurd.
Because much of it was so personal, in the early days I used to hide it. Even
when I lived alone, I hid the journals under my bed. I confided this to a friend
of mine one day. He roared with laughter hearing about it. At the end
of
the conversation he said, “someday you’ll have to take it out from
under your bed.”
A couple of years later I did. Stacks and stacks, double spaced typewritten pages.
I started re-reading. Sometimes intrigued, often bored beyond tolerance, sometimes
impressed, sometimes moved, amused; and most times bewildered. By my dirges,
whining, complaining. Oy, as they say.
Nevertheless, it was through that method of exercise that I was able enough to
take the dive. And it's a dive, or can be, for a man is in his late thirties.
I took the leap (no swan dive) in 1979. I was thirty-eight. I sold my small prosperous
business, packed up my dogs and cats and moved to Los Angeles. Where I anointed
myself (albeit quaking and shaking) a writer. This was a deeply exciting step
in my life. Journals/now diaries became my center, what some might call spiritual
sustenance. They certainly weren’t economic sustenance.
The European cultures, especially the British (at least for me) have Diarists
as their witnesses. My first exposure was to Harold Nicholson’s
Diaries which were best-sellers in the 1960s. I was fascinated reading about
matters and history and sensibilities of which I knew nothing while learning
so much about the man, a complete stranger.
Most English
papers and magazines have diaries. Spectator has several including
my most enduring favorite, the bad boy Taki who could
make me laugh while infuriating me to the point of putting him down
and swearing never to read another uttering out of his pen. Only to
return out of vulgar curiosity. Now, years later, Taki seems now to
bear distinct signs of wisdom. Perhaps I never noticed before. |
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NewYorkSocialDiary.com.
2004.
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Quest magazine. 2004.
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Avenue magazine. 2000.
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I
wrote the first “Social Diary” in New York in Quest magazine
in September 1994 at the urging of the magazine’s
then owner (and founder) Heather Cohane. In fact,
at that time, there were NO columns being written in New York that
used the term “diary” to
describe themselves. There are several today.
The Social Diary appeared in Quest until 1997 when Judy
Price of
Avenue magazine hired me to write for her and edit the magazine.
In September 2000, JH (who had come on board as
my assistant at the magazine) and I created this cyber-venue for
it, while the column has continued in Quest (where
I am also e-i-c) under owner/publisher
Chris Meigher. It was when I left Avenue that I
added the “New
York” because Mrs. Price, as a token of her esteem, had decided
to “keep” the name “Social Diary” for herself.
And so today, both online and in print, the (now) New York Social
Diary is read all over the world by all you wonderful loyal readers.
And, as you’ve seen, it even covers events all over the world,
besides New York.
All that said, it was interesting that I read the above item from
yesterday’s WWD. I know William Norwich,
at least well enough to call him Billy. Back in the 80s and early
90s, he was New
York Post’s society columnist, young and fresh (and sometimes
fresh
— he invented the term The Cashamptons). By the early 90s
he became noticeably disenchanted with his beat. He took the higher
road and
wrote his first book. And he went over to Conde Nast before moving
to the New York Times. Although he’s still a young man, he’s
a kind of eminence gris (although there’s still one eminence who eminences way more) in this tiny profession.
I don’t know his new boss, the one who’s credited or
not with these editorial decisions. I’ve been in the same room
with her a hundred times but I don’t think we’ve ever
been introduced, and so I never got the impression she was even aware
of me. Or the Social Diary. Why would she be? She’s possibly
the most successful editor in the history of her magazine, Edna
Woolman Chase notwithstanding. At least dollar-wise. Some of their issues
are so heavy they should come with wheels and a handle. She gets
the credit for that. At least a good part of it.
So it was fascinating and flattering to learn of the development
of yet another “social diary” in, of all places, Vogue.
You can imagine how flattered I was. It must be in the wind. Or
maybe it’s the water. You never know these days, we’re
moving so fast. |
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Mark
Russell
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Belting
out the tunes
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Barbara
Silverstone and Flemming Ornskov
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Honorees
Dr. Flemming Ornskov, Melissa Cohn, and Gary Shapiro
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Four
hundred guests gathered on Thursday, March 11th at
6:30 PM for a reception, followed by dinner and dancing, at Cipriani
42nd Street to honor Flemming Ornskov, MD, President
of Novartis Ophthalmics, on behalf of the entire Novartis team, for
its work to
make Visudyne® (verteporfin
for injection, 15mg), a drug for treating the severest form of macular
degeneration, the great breakthrough success that it is.
Also honored
were Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Electronics
Association, and Melissa Cohn, Chairman and CEO, Manhattan
Mortgage Company. The evening featured a special performance by political
satirist Mark Russell. |
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The
table settings at Cipriani 42nd Street
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Lighthouse
International is a leading resource worldwide on vision impairment
and vision rehabilitation. Through its pioneering work in vision
rehabilitation services, education, research, prevention and advocacy,
Lighthouse International enables people of all ages who are blind
or partially sighted to lead independent and productive lives.
Founded in 1905 and headquartered in New York, Lighthouse International is a
not-for-profit organization, and depends on the support and generosity of individuals,
foundations and corporations. |
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Willam
B. and Patricia Follett
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Jane
Petrycki and Ken
Witler
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Harry
Elias and honoree Gary Shapiro
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Lauren
Albano, Emily Mack, and Lorelie Wall
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Pat
Cavelle with Mindy and Lawrence Richenstein
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Kathy
Kobe, Perry Sternberg, and Teresa Gaines
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Sylvia
Cohn, Melissa Cohn, and Albert Cohn
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Perry
Sternberg, Flemming Ornskov, and Ken and Lorraine Kaplan
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Susan
Patricoff and Craig
Hatkoff
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Chairman
of the Board Willam B. Follett and William Duncan
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Inez
Weinstein and Gala Chair Barbara Saltzman
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David
Kirsch and Steve Saide
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Fanfan
Li
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Margo
Streeter and Hue Burnaby-Atkins
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Adelina
Wong Ettelson, Dennis Paul, and Susan Shin
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Marie
Douglas-David and Carola Hendrichs
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| Celine
brought the celebration of the year of France in China to New
York last week
with a cocktail party benefitting the Asia Society. The Young
Patrons came out to launch the Asian Art Fair and Celine's Boogie
Art School, a limited editon bag painted by students in China under
the direction of master artist Fanfan Li, who flew in from Paris
for the night. Four of her paintings were on display having
been loaned from the Elizabeth Wang Gallery for the occasion. |
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Sidney
Sheldon, Marcelo Mitnik, Dean Rosen, and WGA President
Dan Petrie Jr.
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Mary
Ann Mobley and Warren Cowan
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Last
Thursday legendary screenwriter and best-selling author Sidney
Sheldon presented the inaugural Sidney
Sheldon Scholarship Award for Screenwriting to Marcelo Mitnik, a
graduate student at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
at the headquarters of the Writers Guild of America/west under the
auspices of the Writers Guild Foundation.
Robert Rosen, dean of the School, and Daniel
Petrie, Jr., vice president
of the Writers Guild and the Writers Guild Foundation, joined Sheldon
in making the presentation.
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Sidney
Sheldon and Jane Wooster Scott
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"Marcelo Mitnik is a very talented writer and it is a pleasure for
me to be helping the next generation of creative artists," said
Sheldon.
Growing up in Argentina, Mitnik realized at an early age that making
movies in America would be a dream come true. As a child, he and
his family idolized Sheldon and his many works.
“I’m truly honored that my screenplay “The Dam” was
selected by a writer whose work I respect and admire so much,” said
Mitnik.
Facing many obstacles, Mitnik moved to the U.S. in 1999, struggling
financially but keeping the hope of breaking into the entertainment
industry and finding a way to write and direct his own films. In
2001, he was accepted in to the prestigious UCLA graduate screenwriting
program.
Intended to encourage young writers, the recently established Sidney
Sheldon Scholarship Award for Screenwriting and Playwriting will
alternate each year honoring a screenwriter or playwright.
"
We are very proud to be associated with Sidney Sheldon, his success
in the worlds of theater, film and television parallels our unique
program integrating those three artistic disciplines," said
Robert Rosen, dean of the School. “We are deeply grateful for
his generous gift establishing this award.”
As a screenwriter, Sheldon won an Oscar for The Bachelor & The
Bobby-Soxer. He also wrote the screenplays for Easter
Parade and Annie Get Your Gun. He won a Tony for
the musical Redhead and created the television series The
Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie and Hart
to Hart. Sheldon has sold over 300 million books and is listed
in the Guinness Book of Records as "the most translated author
in the world."
Consistently ranked among the leading institutions in the nation,
the School of Theater, Film and Television is unique in the world
in that it brings together the arts of theater, film and television
in one academic institution. UCLA's reputation as an outstanding
training ground for the theater, film and television professions,
and for critical scholarship is based on its long tradition of fostering
creative growth, encouraging experimentation and ensuring artistic
freedom. Many of the most respected names in the entertainment and
communication arts, and the world of scholarship, are UCLA alumni.
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L.
to r.: Lorna Berle; Gary Collins, Sidney Sheldon and
Mary Ann Mobley; Mel Shavelson.
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