MEMO PAD
GUESS HITS THE BIG SCREEN: Juliette Lewis will star in Guess’s new international ad campaign, slated to debut in two weeks in both movie theaters and on TV. She will make her debut as the new “Guess Girl” in a short film by director Andy Moran and writer/producer Laura Gregory. The short is entitled “Cheat” and it’s about a woman (Traci Lords) who hires a private investigator to check out a man she’s thinking of marrying. The investigator puts Lewis on the case. Lords’s prospective hubby, (Peter Horton) ends up telling Lewis he has no one special in his life, except for his baby. End of relationship with Lords.
“Juliette embodies a most definite attitude and charm that personifies the essence of Guess,” said Paul Marciano, president and creative director. Besides Lewis, Lords and Horton, Harry Dean Stanton is also featured in the film. The budget for the campaign could not be learned.
Marciano and Gregory have collaborated on three previous Guess TV spots — “Paparazzi,” “The Last Picture Show” and “The Misfits,” each of which has won numerous Clio Awards and various international awards.
The ad will break Feb. 5 on both network and cable TV. Simultaneously, it will be distributed to more than 3,400 movie screens nationwide. On the same date, New York’s Sony Jumbotron will begin airing 60 and 90-second versions of “Cheat.”
CHANGING TIMES: “It’s an odd feeling,” said Helen Gurley Brown, whose successor, Bonnie Fuller, was announced this week.
“I’ve had the same husband for 37 years, the same apartment for 27 years, and I’m not a real change-y kind of person. It’s weird to think about it. I think when you retire you die,” said Brown, who’s been Cosmopolitan’s editor in chief for 31 years.
While she admitted that Fuller doesn’t need training, she plans over the next 18 months to “indoctrinate” her into the world of Cosmo and show her “everything I know.”
Does Brown, who will direct the international Cosmo editions after Fuller takes over, think it will be a smooth transition?
“It has to be smooth. Management has been totally honorable with me. I have a contract for two more years. They’ve always taken good care of me. I really don’t know Bonnie, but I’m a reasonable person, and she seems like a reasonable person.”
Related Galleries
GLENDA’S MOVE: Meanwhile, Bonnie Fuller’s replacement as editor in chief of the U.S. edition of Marie Claire, Glenda Bailey, 37, is likely to bring some more downscale titillation — and controversy — to the magazine.
Reached in London, where she’s the founding editor of British Marie Claire, Bailey said, “I want to bring the quintessential Marie Claire feeling and style I’ve developed here to the U.S. But at the same time, I recognize there is a lot to learn and that’s why I wanted the job.”
Some magazine executives have criticized the British Marie Claire over the last six months for its increasingly tabloid-like character, with stories on such topics as men who love fat women and five-year-olds with the bodies of teenagers. Several upscale companies — including Chanel, Cartier and Ralph Lauren Collection — have pulled their advertising from the magazine in recent months because of the nature of its editorial features.
“Our readers are interested in fashion and beauty but they also are fascinated with what is going on in the world. In the UK, we are known as much for our features as we are for our fashion and beauty,” said Bailey.
She plans to assume her new post sometime this spring.
BAZAAR MOVES: Karen Johnston has been named managing editor of Harper’s Bazaar. She succeeds Marguerite Kramer, who resigned to pursue other interests. Johnston, who had been deputy music editor at Rolling Stone, begins early next month and will report to Liz Tilberis, HB’s editor in chief.
STELLA PERFORMANCE: Karl Lagerfeld confirmed that Chanel has signed an exclusive modeling contract with Stella Tennant. Tennant, an Elite model who hails from Scotland, will represent Chanel ready-to-wear beginning in March for at least one season. The contract prohibits any other fashion advertising or fashion shows for Tennant during the fall 1996 season, but does permit editorial work. “She has the perfect allure,” said Lagerfeld. Allure, of course, also happens to be the name of the new Chanel fragrance to be launched this spring.
OLDHAM’S DENIMS: Todd Oldham is launching a new ad campaign for his jeanswear, manufactured under a license with Sun Apparel. The designer’s denims, which had a small distribution for fall, will go bigger for spring and will include better department stores and specialty stores.
The campaign, shot in upstate New York by Joshua Jordan, shows young models glamorously styled in rustic settings. One model, wearing a leopard-print double-breasted coat, is photographed against a wall of stacked canoes. Another perches in a tree in high heels, dark blue jeans and a tight, transparent top. The third shows a young couple walking across a hay-strewn field at night. The campaign breaks in February.
GOING SOUTH: Hamilton South, editor at large at Vanity Fair, has become a contributing editor for VF, working on various projects. His previous post won’t be filled at this time.