National Enquirer

The National Enquirer's photo of the late Whitney Houston in her casket was unauthorized and had nothing to do with the funeral home where the singer's body was prepared, the funeral home's owner told The Times on Thursday. Outrage has followed the publication of the photo in the latest issue of the Enquirer, as have questions about how it was obtained. That has cast suspicion on Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., but owner Carolyn Whigham insisted that the funeral home did not play a role.

Avenue Capital, a New York hedge fund whose holdings include the parent company of the National Enquirer, is now the leading bidder for Variety. A late entrant in the sales process being run by Variety corporate parent Reed Elsevier, Avenue had bid more than $40 million, according to a person close to the process who was not authorized to speak publicly. Avenue invests primarily in "distressed and undervalued assets," according to its website, and has $12 billion worth of holdings.

Avenue Capital, a New York hedge fund whose holdings include the parent company of the National Enquirer, is now the leading bidder for Variety. A late entrant in the sales process being run by Variety corporate parent Reed Elsevier, Avenue had bid more than $40 million, according to a person close to the process who was not authorized to speak publicly. Avenue invests primarily in "distressed and undervalued assets," according to its website, and has $12 billion worth of holdings.

The National Enquirer's cover photo of Whitney Houston lying in a casket has sparked outrage in the media world. On Twitter and on Facebook, on blogs and on media websites, the pundits are harrumphing and accusing the supermarket tabloid of finally going too far. And that's why we'd like to offer a completely different view -- from Marc Cooper , an associate professor at USC and the director of the Annenberg Digital News. "To use a cliche, it's much ado about nothing," Cooper said.

Television personality Sally Jessy Raphael on Tuesday filed a libel lawsuit against the National Enquirer, alleging the tabloid falsely reported she had suffered a mental breakdown after her long-running talk show was canceled. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, asked for punitive damages exceeding $100 million from the National Enquirer and its parent, American Media Operations. The suit stemmed from a story in the Oct.

The National Enquirer and another tabloid, Weekly World News, will be put up for sale promptly in keeping with a suggestion in the trust of the late Generoso Pope Jr., trustees for the estate said today. Pope, who pioneered the gossipy, celebrity-oriented style that made the Enquirer a market leader in the field of supermarket tabloids, died Oct. 2 of a heart attack. He was 61. The trustees offered few details about the pending sale of GP Group Inc., the company that owns the two tabloids.

Deliberations on the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism can be a bit like the work of the U.S. Supreme Court. There are too many cases to consider. So the judges have ample reason to kick even slightly suspect entries off their overflowing docket. That appears to be the sort of journos-prudence that kept the National Enquirer from getting a Pulitzer, or even lengthy consideration, for its exposé of John Edwards and his world-class philandering during the 2008 presidential race. The Enquirer's more than two-year investigation lost out Monday to more traditional entries, no surprise to anyone in the journalism establishment.

The National Enquirer is interested in dishing the dirt for a whole new audience: the Spanish-speaking population of the United States. On the theory that inquiring minds want to know, no matter what language they speak, the new owners of the Lantana, Fla.-based supermarket tabloid are beginning to seriously study the possibility of publishing a paper to regale Spanish speakers with the same sort of scandal, disease and amazing diets that fill 4.3 million Enquirers each week.

Lawyers defending the National Enquirer against a $10-million libel lawsuit asked a federal judge Friday for phone records they say could bolster the tabloid's story that claimed that the wife of former Rep. Gary Condit had attacked intern Chandra Levy. Carolyn Condit sued after the newspaper published an August 2001 story with the headline "Cops: Condit's Wife Attacked Chandra." Condit has said she never met the slain intern, and Washington, D.C.

The man who stocked the humdrum checkout counters of America's supermarkets with accounts of alien monsters, haunted houses, occult voices and celebrity tittle-tattle is dead. Generoso Pope Jr., multimillionaire owner of the National Enquirer, which specialized in sensational yarns shunned by more traditional newspapers, died Sunday of cardiac arrest. He was 61. Pope collapsed at his home in Manalapan, Fla., and died at John F.

The National Enquirer's photo of the late Whitney Houston in her casket was unauthorized and had nothing to do with the funeral home where the singer's body was prepared, the funeral home's owner told The Times on Thursday. Outrage has followed the publication of the photo in the latest issue of the Enquirer, as have questions about how it was obtained. That has cast suspicion on Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., but owner Carolyn Whigham insisted that the funeral home did not play a role.

Deliberations on the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism can be a bit like the work of the U.S. Supreme Court. There are too many cases to consider. So the judges have ample reason to kick even slightly suspect entries off their overflowing docket. That appears to be the sort of journos-prudence that kept the National Enquirer from getting a Pulitzer, or even lengthy consideration, for its exposé of John Edwards and his world-class philandering during the 2008 presidential race. The Enquirer's more than two-year investigation lost out Monday to more traditional entries, no surprise to anyone in the journalism establishment.

NBC anchor Brian Williams' train was just pulling into Washington's Union Station on Thursday afternoon when he read an urgent bulletin on his BlackBerry: U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was contemplating stepping down, according to a report on RadarOnline. "It struck me as odd," Williams said. "What I know about Radar does not include their Supreme Court reporting." Still, the possibility that President Obama would have to fill another opening on the bench put Williams, a Supreme Court buff, into breaking-news mode.

There still appears to be a sizable minority in America who favors big news organizations at least in part for their broad ambitions, thoroughness, balance and sense of restraint. But ain't it a shame when those highfalutin', old-school intentions get in the way of the basic mission -- delivering the audience a "Hey Martha!" scoop now and then with their breakfast cereal? It seems the higher values and a healthy dose of old-fashioned incredulity (Could he really be that big a cad?

Re "Brain dead," Opinion, June 14 Marc Cooper gets it exactly right about Newt Gingrich, the "zombie politician." But he forgot to mention the reason Newt still walks among us: the Fox "News" Channel. Every time I'm surfing channels and I happen by mistake to land there, I have to watch a commentary by Gingrich or former Vice President Dick Cheney. That channel makes me long for the days of the Fairness Doctrine. Seth Hill Topanga :: With all the hateful political rancor displayed by the elite media lately, it was refreshing to read Cooper's article.

The U.S. attorney's office says it is moving to dismiss a case against a former UCLA Medical Center employee who died after pleading guilty to selling medical records of celebrities. Lawanda Jackson, 50, had been scheduled for sentencing Monday after pleading guilty in December to the felony charge of violating federal medical privacy law for commercial purposes.

The National Enquirer, a brash supermarket tabloid that gained wealth and notoriety by prying--often uninvited--into the lives of celebrities, is being taken over by a publisher of romance magazines. The Enquirer's parent company, GP Group Inc., will be sold to Macfadden Holdings Inc., the New York publisher of True Story, True Confessions and Modern Romance, for $412.5 million cash, it was announced late Thursday. The newspaper--published in Lantana, Fla., and often accused of sensationalistic, lurid journalism--emerged as a coveted acquisition after the death last October of Generoso Pope Jr., the GP Group's owner.

Journalists like to talk about "owning" a story. But the people at RadarOnline.com have practically stamped their corporate logo on the forehead of Nadya Suleman, the "Octo-Mom" from Whittier whose shockingly prolific reproductive habits have made her a media sensation. They really, really love to talk about Octo-Mom over at RadarOnline. In fact, since the news of her octuplets first broke in late January, the website has published 56 items about her, an average rate of nearly two per day.