An Editor's Hollywood Ties Pay Off
In all of Hollywood, no magazine cover is more coveted than that of Vanity Fair. The publication is filled with pages of high-end ads and glamorous photo spreads. Its famed Oscar party has made pretenders of the rest.
The editor, Graydon Carter, has long luxuriated in his own kind of celebrity while sitting atop the masthead of Vanity Fair. But increasingly Carter has crossed into the world his magazine chronicles, striking business deals with Hollywood executives whose films are covered by Vanity Fair.
Among other things, Carter received a "consultant fee" of $100,000 from Universal Pictures, which financed the Academy Award-winning film "A Beautiful Mind." Vanity Fair had earlier published excerpts from the book on which the movie was based.
Carter approached the film's producer through an intermediary, Bryan Lourd, a friend and partner with Creative Artists Agency, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Carter told Lourd he deserved the money for recommending that the book be turned into a movie.
The sources said "Beautiful Mind" producer Brian Grazer, who also is a friend of Carter's, was uncomfortable about the approach but ultimately authorized the money. When Grazer accepted the Oscar for best picture, along with director Ron Howard, he thanked Carter.
Neither Grazer nor Lourd would comment.
Carter also declined to be interviewed for this story. But Vanity Fair spokeswoman Beth Kseniak confirmed by e-mail that he received a $100,000 payment. Sources said Carter got the money before the movie's 2001 opening, but Kseniak said the payment came 1 1/2 years after its release. Kseniak also said the payment was disclosed to a person "in authority" at Vanity Fair's parent company, Conde Nast Publications.
Asked whether Vanity Fair's ethical guidelines permit the editor to accept payments from people or companies covered by the magazine, Conde Nast Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications Maurie Perl said:
"Graydon Carter is a great editor in chief. Chuck Townsend, president and CEO of Conde Nast Publications, and Graydon are completely on the same page regarding Graydon's editorship of Vanity Fair."
Others, however, say there should be a firewall between publications and the subjects they cover.
"When you're running an important magazine, there's an ethical line you just can't cross," said Ed Kosner, who has been the editor of Newsweek, New York magazine and Esquire, discussing the ethical responsibilities of magazine editors in general.
