HIJACKED: Some members of the Magazine Publishers of America aren’t happy the trade group got itself mixed up with the political scandal of the hour. Michael R. Levy, publisher of Texas Monthly and a member of MPA’s board, e-mailed executive director Nina Link on Monday to complain about the group’s reaction to disclosures that it employed notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff and made at least one suspect payment at his suggestion. “The situation is obviously far graver than you indicated in your statement,” Levy told Link in a message that also went out to his fellow directors. “Any entity associated with this mess via its legislative advocates [is] tarnished, and will have a very difficult time having even minimal success going forward for some period of time … I fear the impact this is going to have on MPA’s membership retention, with at least some members deciding that it is in their best interest to take a hike and distance themselves from the organization, and the mess it’s in, by a solar system if not two.”
Levy also took issue with the hiring of public relations guru Howard Rubenstein to handle the Abramoff flap: “Hiring Rubenstein (or any other flack) sends an awful signal. And saying MPA had ‘absolutely no knowledge’ of how $25,000 was going to be spent, without doing its own due diligence makes MPA look real guilty … and/or real silly and just plain naive.” (In an effort to fight a postal rate hike, MPA reportedly paid $25,000 to a religious group, which allegedly passed the money along to an associate of former House majority leader Tom DeLay.)
Reached by phone Tuesday, Levy declined to elaborate on his criticisms. Jack Kliger, chief executive officer of Hachette Filipacchi Media and chairman of MPA, said he did not agree with Levy that MPA had erred, either in employing Abramoff’s firm or in dealing with the fallout. “We don’t believe we’ve done anything wrong,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with lobbying. In fact, it’s something we can and should do as an industry. If anything, we think we might have been victimized by this, like the Indians were.”
— Jeff Bercovici
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GOOD MORNING, LE BERNARDIN: Jann Wenner, of all people, should know by now that celebrities are “Just Like Us” — meaning they will, on occasion, act objectionably at fancy parties. That’s exactly what Robin Williams did at Wenner’s 60th birthday celebration Saturday night, according to several witnesses. The party, held at New York’s Le Bernardin, featured performances by Bette Midler, John Mayer, Robbie Robertson, Peter Wolf, Paul Shaffer and others. (Bruce Springsteen attended, but did not perform as originally billed.) But it was Williams’ speech that made the strongest impression. The manic comic delivered an impromptu monologue “in a preacher’s dialect, mimicking Southern fundamentalist attitudes” about gay people, according to one attendee. The shtick was aimed at Wenner’s relationship with boyfriend Matt Nye, who hosted the party, along with Midler and her husband and Wenner’s wife, Jane. But Williams was the only one who seemed amused by his jokes. “It didn’t even come to a punch line,” complained one observer, who found the routine offensive. Added another guest: “There was some polite laughter, and a lot of shuffling and looking at the plate in front of you.” Wenner declined comment Tuesday.
— J.B.