Elle Kills Owen Wilson Q+A

With the news out of Hollywood concerning the socking apparent suicide attempt of A-list actor and partyboy Owen Wilson, the crass touting of “Exclusive!” news about Wilson and promotion of subject experts (Radar‘s editors are available for comment!) — and the eschewing of his family’s pleas for privacy — were to be expected. (Us Weekly doesn’t exist in a sphere, after all.) What was unexpected, though, was Elle magazine’s rather classy decision to kill a Q+A with Wilson it had conducted weeks before the actor’s alleged binge-y overdose.

WWD reports that the piece slated for its December Hollywood issue was killed by editor Roberta Myers: “Obviously the circumstances have changed significantly,” she said.

Is Sports Illustrated Losing Potential Writers to ESPN?

Sports Illustrated recently hired a pair of senior writers with newspaper pedigrees – the New York Times’ Damon Hack and Jim Trotter of the San Diego Union Tribune – away from their respective papers. (Both were African-American, notes Journal-isms’ Richard Prince, tripling the total of black senior writers on staff.)

But SI group managing editor Terry McDonnel faces stiff talent recruitment from ESPN, where its multiplatform cache is too splashy to pass up. Take, for instance, the explanation given by columnist J.A. Adande, who McDonnel tried unsuccessfully to lure after Adande took a buyout from Los Angeles Times: “I wouldn’t say I ‘turned down’ Sports Illustrated because I’m not sure it ever came to a formal offer. Yes, Sports Illustrated Managing Editor Terry McDonnel called me when he found out I was leaving the Times. I was flattered that SI would think of me, and McDonnel had some intriguing ideas for what I could do for them. But I couldn’t continue to appear on ‘Around the Horn’ in that scenario.”

Playboy’s Editor: Magazine Still Relevant, Doesn’t Suck, Not Porn

So much to get to here, not sure quite where to begin. Chris Napolitano, Playboy‘s editorial director — a Hefner lifer, if you will – via the New York Times‘ recently purchased Freakonomics blog:

“Tagging Playboy’s relevancy to its financial position is a sucker bet for an editor (mainly because we play by different rules). Still, if it’s my only cross to bear, I’ll take it. I work at a public company with sterling accounting ethics, and the magazine has spun off divisions that generate revenue that could arguably belong to the magazine’s bottom line at a private company. Then there’s the overworked word: pornography. Anyone who thinks the photos in Playboy are pornographic should relinquish their membership cards to the Met.”

The whole thing is a must-read. Check it out here …

‘The Internet is Dead and Boring, So Mark Cuban is Going to Take Up Ballroom Dancing’

Folio: superfriend Rex Hammock sums up the mild hysteria over outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner and Internet gagillionaire Mark Cuban’s controversial Portfolio piece on the medium through which he earned his gagillion quite nicely:

Billionaire blogger Mark Cuban used a hyperbolic subject line to discuss his belief that the Internet has reached a state of “utility,” and is no longer where creative breakthroughs can take place. He says more bandwidth is needed for the really cool stuff. And by cool stuff, I guess he means the High Def content he’s creating. Anyway, today, SI.com is reporting that Cuban is going to be a cast member of the next series of “Dancing with the Stars,” starting next month. He’s a great two-stepper, I hear.

New York’s Downtown Move Troubles: ‘We Will Get Through This Together’

New York magazine made the move from its Madison Avenue offices to 75 Varick Street in downtown Manhattan last week, and it appears even a serial Ellie-winner can have the moving pains typical of a smaller publisher.

The internal memo (via Gawker):

All:

Welcome to the new home of New York Media at 75 Varick St!

I know that we are looking forward to settling into our new workspace and getting back to work. We have had numerous challenges in the last several days which may affect many of you. PLEASE READ THIS!

Breaking: Jellinek Out at Maxim

In a move that had been rumored for months, Maxim editor Jimmy Jellinek, the so-called “First Lad” of magazine publishing, has been laid off. The company made the announcement late yesterday afternoon.

Former Maxim executive editor Jim Kaminsky replaces Jellinek, with the new title of editorial director. The firing comes less than two weeks after the $240 million sale of Dennis Publishing to Kent Brownridge, a former Wenner Media executive, was finalized, and the second major editorial layoff in as many weeks. (Last week, after Brownridge and his newly-formed Alpha Media Group decided to fold Maxim‘s laddie underling Stuff into Maxim, the company cut ties with Stuff publisher John Lumpkin.

Kaminsky, a former editor of Men’s Journal, has close ties to Brownridge, having worked for him during Brownridge’s tenure at Wenner.

More background on Brownridge’s editorial moves here and here. More on the stuffing of Stuff here …

Jane Subscribers Getting Consolation Glamour Prize

In terms of appeasing subscribers of a shuttered magazine, this is sooo not Jane.

Via Page Six:

Former Jane magazine staffers are livid that Condé Nast is sending their one-time readers copies of Glamour now that Jane has bitten the dust. “I want all the Jane readers to just cancel, rather than get Glamour,” one ex-staffer griped. “I hope they call and say, ‘I don’t want this. Give me GQ, anything but this.’”

Former Jane subscribers were informed by Conde Nast, “We think you’ll love Glamour. Like Jane, it’s packed with everything smart, sexy women want to know. The page quotes scorned editor Brandon Holley’s followers balking “Glamour is not at all like Jane. It’s the exact opposite.”