Open Playgirl Casting Call to Eliot Spitzer

NYMag cover-spitzer

Dear Eliot,

It's not fair. We've been watching you; and we've seen how you've been crucified by the mass media, conservatives, and Republicans. We've stood by

as your call-girl was offered $1 million by

Hustler

to show the world what she's already been showing the world for a whole lot less.

We think

you've had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week

. But we've been thinking.

Your political career is sadly over; and you owe a lot of money to a lot of people. Hell, you may land in jail before too long. So consider this letter a brief note of urgency.

How about making some loot back, by showing us what you saved for such a select few? How about strutting your sexuality, and defending your right to get down for the magazine and

Playgirl.com

? Couldn't you use a little rent money right about now? Seriously—get in touch with us. We're ready to make you a very attractive offer. Someone get Spitzer on the line:

Playgirl

needs him naked, now.

[Originally posted at

playgirl.com/blog

]

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Forever Fierce

[Note: This post was written by Jessanne Collins for playgirl.com/blog]


nicchrs.jpgWhat's bright and yellow and fierce all over? It's Playgirl Editor-in-Chief Nicole Caldwell schmoozing with "Project Runway" stars (aka Playgirl's new BFFs) Victorya and Christian last Saturday night. This picture here popped up on Fashionista; sure the shiny shirt is eye-catching, but honestly, aren't you a little more enamored of the amazing Forever 21 mini-dress action?

The Playgirls were in the house, quite literally, for a photo show by Brad Walsh, nightlife photographer and Christian's special friend. We donated a bunch of issues for the goody bags, then drank our weight in energy vodka and cranberry and networked 'til dawn. (Watch for some couture coming to a couple set near you.)



party.jpg

More pics here. Hint: We're the ones showing teeth.

Review: The Thrills' Teenager

Teenager

The Thrills

, a five-piece

Dublin

band with two albums prior, recorded

Teenager

in a little place in Vancouver called

The Warehouse, which was a morgue in a former incarnation and is rumored to be haunted

. I only mention this because it seems immediately relevant once you get into this album, mixed with brooding ballads and a sense of lost innocence. There couldn't be a more apropos album title.

These guys are already big in the UK, with

Teenager

receiving all kinds of four-star reviews. Leave it to the United States to be once again behind the ball. But now you have no excuse. Dim the lights, pop a cold one, and set some candles ablaze before your beau gets home tonight. Then throw on

Teenager

and let the mood take care of itself. You'll be grinding just like your former teenage self in no time. Now that's hot.

[Originally posted at

playgirl.com/blog

]

DNA to Determine if Headless Killer Faked Her Death

Belle IThe most infamous femme fatale of modern-day crime, Belle “the Black Widow” Gunness, purportedly killed between 25 and 40 people during her reign of terror; lasting almost a decade before 1908 when her headless body was found alongside her three dead children in the basement of Gunness' burned-out Indiana farmhouse.

Many people at the time (most specifically Gunness' former farmhand Ray Lamphere, who was put away for the rest of his life for allegedly killing Gunness and the kids) believed Gunness faked her own death, using some other poor lady's bod as a stand-in for her own. University of Indianapolis researchers have taken it upon themselves to solve this mystery once and for all, by comparing DNA to the now-exhumed body to cells found on letters Gunness mailed to rich male suitors (it's widely believed she killed many of her victims for their money). Andrea Simmons, a grad student in human biology at U of Indy and the leader of this forensic investigation, said these men's bodies most likely ended up buried behind Gunness' house.

Belle IIIt's widely believed Gunness, a Norwegian immigrant, faked her death and headed west to California to continue her murderous campaigning for 23 more years. Contributing to this case is the fact Gunness favored poison as her weapon of choice; and that in 1931, 23 years after Gunness' “death”, a woman matching Gunness' description was arrested in California for the alleged poisoning of a Norwegian man.

She would have been in her early 70s at the time, so it's not impossible," Simmons said. "Before Indiana authorities could get to California and see if they could identify her, she died of tuberculosis in police custody and was buried."
Oh, not to mention: "Days before the fire, she [Gunness] bought five gallons of kerosene and made a lot of noise in town about her farmhand plotting to kill her," Simmons said. All this started going down pretty soon after the rumor mill began buzzing about dudes arriving at Gunness' place and disappearing.

Simmons' team collected bone samples from remains found at the Gunness farm. The plan is to compare that DNA to the cells in Gunness' letters; as well as possibly exhuming the body in California for its potential DNA samples. Results should start rolling in sometime during April. Oooh, a good mystery!

[Originally posted at playgirl.com/blog]

mb Manage: Fight or Flight for Advancement

We help you decide whether it's time to leave your current job or angle for a promotion
By Maya Avrasin –
[Originally posted at MediaBistro.com]

With so many people hopscotching among magazines, there are days when the Revolving Door Newsletter looks more like musical chairs than an industry roundup. People tend to advance every time they jump, and some even stay at a magazine to get promoted within. But how exactly did they do it?

"I started looking for advancement after I had been an editorial assistant for almost two years at Us Weekly," says Kirsten Sardis, who is now entertainment editor for Clear Channel Online Music and Radio. "I felt I was already doing the work of an assistant editor and I wanted to be compensated with both a salary and title change -- and of course, I wanted more writing assignments. Luckily, they agreed."

Sardis' case is common enough for entry-level advancement, and in most situations, employers usually reward employees who exceed expectation and work diligently toward company goals -- regardless of their job description.

Use new responsibilities to propel promotion
Christine Ford, director of local content and special projects at Kaboose.com, says she's always looked for opportunities throughout her career, but cautions against seeming unhappy in one's current job. "Do it well and be positive and [management will] think of you when the time is right," she says. "I always [tried] to look for new, better ways of doing things and whenever I found free time from my regular duties, I would offer to take on other projects."

Chipping in also helps bulk up your portfolio and experience level, which will enable you to showcase your skills when job openings become available. Thea Palad, who is now fashion credits editor at Marie Claire, was promoted twice in three years when she started her career at More. "I'm always looking for advancement -- it's my primary motivator," she says. "If I'm working on a project, I give 110 percent. It's like, if you're going to half-ass it, why bother? [At
More], I worked my butt off and learned so much (with a small beauty and fashion department, I had a hand in everything)."

"I was quite happy at More and would not have left so soon, had I not been poached by
Life & Style."

If your current work environment continues to offer room for advancement, then according to many media pros, you are lucky. For everyone else, the time to move on in order to move up usually comes mid-level in your career path. "You know the signs when there is no advancement," says Kaboose.com's Ford. "They are always talking about not having a budget for anything, people leave and they don't replace them, other people don't move up either. You can usually see the writing on the wall. It can happen for several reasons. But when you are in that type of environment it's better to move on. You'll get jaded, stale and soft. You'll lose your edge and start saying, 'why bother.' When you feel yourself getting like that, move on before you become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Hitting a current job's ceiling
Realizing that you have hit the ceiling in your current job is a scary revelation, and one filled with uncertainty. But everyone interviewed for this story took risks -- some that garnered big payoffs and some that led to unemployment. "It's difficult to map out a strategy in magazines," says Marie Claire's Palad. "Publications fold, editors play musical chairs, there's always office politics at play, and luck is such an important element to consider. Many times it's being at the right place at the right time, getting an inside tip or simply knowing the right people."

Comparatively, Palad's career path was pretty steady. After her four-year stint at More, she became associate beauty editor at Twist, which gave her more control over her duties, she says. After six months, she took over fashion. "I was quite happy there and would not have left so soon, had I not been poached by Life & Style," she says. After less than a year at Life & Style
as fashion market editor, Palad moved to Marie Claire.

In contrast, Kaboose.com's Ford found success after being laid off during the Internet bubble burst in 2000 -- shortly after launching ModernBride.com. Ford returned to print as managing editor of Working Mother and then started her own consulting business when she became a mother. It wasn't until she took a part-time job as a public relations director at a library that she realized she missed the dot-com work. "I had thought for awhile that I didn't want to go back into publishing, or dot-coms, but then I started applying all that I had learned in the big leagues to this little local library job," she says. "I realized how much I loved doing what I do, and that I was ready to go back to dot-coms."

When a change is required, work your connections
The more skills you acquire in your career, the easier it may be to advance. Plus, the more relationships you build from your various positions will help you along your journey. "You can definitely get a job if you send a resume, but I have always had better results when working through connections," says Kaboose.com's Ford. "The key is not to stay in contact just because you want to 'use' people later. Make friends with people that you like at the office and then stay in touch because you like them. And when you see an opportunity for someone else, let them know."

There seems to be a formula for getting promoted and advancing, but personality needs to be taken into account when identifying what position is right for you. "Your personality has an effect on advancement to an extent," says Clear Channel's Sardis . "If the job demands constant schmoozing and networking with people and you're not exactly a 'people person,' then it's understandable why you wouldn't be hired."

Nicole Caldwell, who recently was promoted to editor-in-chief at Playgirl, says identifying opportunities for advancement shouldn't just be about getting the top job. "It's a lot of options to weigh out; but more important than 'getting ahead,' I think, is being somewhere you can be happy and exhibit your creativity and skill," she says. Getting to the top of the masthead at Playgirl was never Caldwell 's ultimate goal, she says. "I didn't set out to do that; I just set out to outdo myself and this is where I've landed. It's no good being in a high-up position if you're forced to sacrifice the fun of your trade and be miserable. Better to shine and do your thing."

Circuitous Routes of a Young Woman's Life

My scissors clipped at long strands of hair, falling slowly to the floor while my subject cringed in hopes I wouldn't take too much off. It was a few minutes before we were relaxed enough to allow the story-telling to begin. Haircuts—whether at a barber shop or in an apartment's kitchen—carry on a strange societal tradition of the cuttee talking as though he or she is on a shrink's couch. Floodgates open; thoughts fall out of a person's mouth in an uninterrupted stream of consciousness. I trimmed and combed while listening. Hair shorter and stories told, another wall breaks down. A foot takes one step forward. Breath comes just a bit easier: We're all going to make it.

A young man sitting next to me on the Greyhound stopped in the middle of our conversation years ago to look out the window. Turning back to face me, he asked, "Ya know what romp-a-rooms are? The little rooms for kids where they can like, defy gravity? You remind me of those."
"Why?" I asked him.
"Just cuz you remind me of a place I've been."

Sometimes you get hopelessly lost and end up at an impossible spot you never could have gotten to even with directions. The planets align and you're led, as if by a water-finding stick or dowser. You arrive somewhere maybe you didn't want to go; or you get to a place different from where you thought you were headed. Maybe you weren't thinking at all, and then there you were. Your metaphorical hitchhiking thumb is in the air already: You haven't got a choice but to take the ride, along some circuitous route leading you to the people and places you most want to call home.

Where Else Were We?

Vaya sirena màs guapa que acaba de salir del mar
(look at the lovely mermaid that just came out of the sea)

We dipped our feet in the freezing ocean water a little before midnight. God, the moon was bright. I was the closest to prayer I'd been in years. Writing this all down the following day, I would try to record a sentiment of never having left—but would quickly discover there wasn't anything with which to build a case. Yes, everything is the same. But everything is also very different; changed within the span of an entrance into and exit out of the sea.

You can go from town to town in this country and have that same sense: each city different, but so many commonalities. Always a Main Street, always a library. Always a white-haired man handing out pamphlets about the fast-track to salvation (Jesus, doncha know). Part of the adventure is finding differences in the places you go so you can keep track of your movements. Like, the smell of a place: an open field, or an attic, pillow, or the inside of a book. "It smells the same," he told me of a small town in Texas. "Just like I remember it." Just like the smell of the space where a neck meets a shoulder blade; or a tree just after the first leaves have fallen in autumn.

The man standing behind a bodega check-out counter watched my approach, keeping his eyes on me as he rang up the purchase. "Did you just get out of work?" he asked. "No," I said, smiling. "I was at a friend's show." "So now what?" "I'm heading home," I told him, then laughed. "Now you know everything."

He handed me a small bag with my receipt. We locked eyes. "Next time," he said, "I will know more."