In today's New York Post, Keith Kelly reports that Jann Wenner may be trying to sell US Weekly to Condé Nast for $750 million.

That's a lot of scratch for pictures of Katherine Heigl getting Starbucks, but according to Kelly, the magazine is not only "lucrative" (he uses the term twice), but profitable as well:

With weekly paid circulation of more than 1.8 million—and the lucrative newsstand accounting for 1 million of that total—Us Weekly is highly profitable, with an operating profit last year estimated to be around $75 million.

"Us Weekly is one of the more remarkable success stories in recent publishing history," Mr. Kelly writes.  read more »

Here's one example of how Michelle Obama is, as the New York Times said in a profile of her today, "softening her image."

Did OK!, the celebrity gossip magazine, really pay $1 million for exclusive rights to the Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy story? US Weekly, a competing whisper weekly, seems to think so, going so far as to print the claim on the cover of US last week.

But, as an article in today’s Times points out, the prevalence of “checkbook journalism” is common among such publications. Paying celebs for exclusive photo and/or interview rights is hardly a novel notion.  read more »

I've been trying to perfect my hair color for over a year now. My natural color is sort of a "meh" librarian brown. A few months ago, I thought I should get it highlighted. I went to my favorite salon and came home looking like a striped cheetah. 3 days later, I went straight back to "meh" brown.  read more »