James Truman

The elevator floats upward, carrying the young dauphin of Conde Nast to the 14th floor. A too-tanned woman cosseted in Chanel enters on a lower floor and upon engaging those silent blue eyes gushes an invitation to lunch. Soon? she swoons. Soon, he replies graciously, continuing his ascent. A modification of Ross Perot's great sucking sound seems to follow James Truman everywhere these days.

As Spy magazine rises from the grave with a summer issue that reprises some of its greatest hits about Hollywood, the New York Times and other media institutions, it also features a new mediacentric department, "Magazine Heaven," to chronicle the fab, clubby and ruthless ways of New York's mag industry. Spy starts with four pages about Conde Nast. And is it any wonder? Conde Nast Publications Inc.

Sex may be giving Details magazine editor in chief James Truman a headache. At least, Truman is downplaying the significance of a photo showing a man getting ready to go out on a date--with another man--that will appear in the March issue. Actually, Truman is a bit miffed that New York magazine recently jumped on the forthcoming photo as evidence that Details "appears to be wooing a gay readership."

The elevator floats upward, carrying the young dauphin of Conde Nast to the 14th floor. A too-tanned woman cosseted in Chanel enters on a lower floor and upon engaging those silent blue eyes gushes an invitation to lunch. Soon? she swoons. Soon, he replies graciously, continuing his ascent. A modification of Ross Perot's great sucking sound seems to follow James Truman everywhere these days.

As Spy magazine rises from the grave with a summer issue that reprises some of its greatest hits about Hollywood, the New York Times and other media institutions, it also features a new mediacentric department, "Magazine Heaven," to chronicle the fab, clubby and ruthless ways of New York's mag industry. Spy starts with four pages about Conde Nast. And is it any wonder? Conde Nast Publications Inc.

If you can't beat 'em, hire 'em. Details, a fashion and entertainment magazine for young men that's been hovering below 500,000 in circulation, has hired as its new editor in chief the editor of an increasingly more popular rival.

Confirming rumors that had circulated for about two weeks, the Hearst Corporation on Tuesday replaced Terry McDonell, the gruff, straight-shooting editor of Esquire magazine with Edward Kosner, editor and president of New York magazine. Hearst press releases did not explain the reasons for the shake-up, and neither D. Claeys Bahrenburg, president of Hearst Magazines, nor Alan Stiles, Esquire's publisher, would comment.

Proving to be a chameleon to the core, the Material Girl once again pushes fashion boundaries with her latest North American "Drowned World" tour. From geisha girl kimonos to urban cowgirl chaps, concert-goers are being treated to a virtual trip around the world. During the themed two-hour show, Madonna explores her husband Guy Ritchie's Scottish roots, wearing a kilt-like creation. Audiences are fooled by the custom-made black-and-white tartan "bum flaps" designed by Phillip and Schmidt.

What better way to spend the pre-Oscar Sunday than at a pool party at the Chateau Marmont to celebrate the opening of the Ford Models Inc. Los Angeles office? No one swam, save for a brave 6-year-old, who, of course, had no cellulite. The models wore satin dresses and strappy sandals, and smoked cigarettes. Caving to that old New York-L.A. fashion phobia, Angelenos didn't turn up in native costume: There was only one baseball cap in evidence. It didn't seem fair.

Sex may be giving Details magazine editor in chief James Truman a headache. At least, Truman is downplaying the significance of a photo showing a man getting ready to go out on a date--with another man--that will appear in the March issue. Actually, Truman is a bit miffed that New York magazine recently jumped on the forthcoming photo as evidence that Details "appears to be wooing a gay readership."

Dust flies and chaos swirls around Paul Fortune as wrkers put the final touches on the 1904 California bungalow that will house the most recent incarnation of his Hollywood restaurant, Les Deux Cafe. Sitting with co-owner Michele Lamy at a mosaic inlaid iron table in the restaurant garden, surrounded by pungent rose geraniums, lavender and bougainvillea, Fortune seems immune to the grating, the scraping, the jackhammer-decibel pounding and the din of workers shouting. It's a bit after 11 a.m.

This was a year when many more players in the wide world of print came to share the vision of a so-called information superhighway, which someday may carry text and video traffic from home to home. More magazines and newspapers staked a place in this wired future by offering on-line extensions of their news-gathering operations. HarperCollins and other publishers launched interactive divisions to develop CD-ROMs and book spinoffs that need no stitched binding.