Graydongate continues to unfold with new, and more bizarre, revelations made available over the course of each passing hour.
David Carr and Sharon Waxman, at the New York Times, were first out of the gate with confirmation that “Graydon Carter, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, had received a $100,000 payment from Universal Studios in 2003 for suggesting years earlier that the book A Beautiful Mind be made into a film.”
Close on their heels, Claudia Eller, Michael Cieply and Josh Getlin, at the Los Angeles Times, rushed to press with the allegation that Carter “and three former colleagues shared a $1-million advance from the book division of Miramax Films for the rights to publish an anthology of material from the now-defunct Spy magazine, of which Carter was a co-founder and editor.”
Hollywood pundit David Poland weighs in on the controversy, suggesting that Vanity Fair “is not in the business of selling journalism,” and that as we see “Graydon Carter playing kiss-kiss with movie industry people” there’s no real conflict because “Graydon can’t be bought.”
As for VanRamblings, we’re in complete accord with veteran editor Ed Kosner, who writes: “You don’t do any business on the side with people you’re covering. You don’t pitch projects to people your magazine is covering.” Not enough that Carter is a highly paid ($1.5 million U.S.) editor of a prestigious publication, he feels he has to go out and seek to supplement his income by selling favours to the movie executives, directors, stars and publicists that his magazine covers?
Talk about cynical. Talk about avarice. In addition to being a story about conflict of interest, Graydongate is a story about greed. Where’s this story going? Only time will tell. But, Poland aside, it’s not looking good for Carter.