SPIRITED TEEN: She isn’t technically a teenager until Aug. 18, but the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love was just shot for Teen Vogue. Frances Bean Cobain will appear in the magazine’s annual “Young Hollywood” package in the October issue, on newsstands Sept. 9.
Love did not attend the shoot with her daughter, but according to someone who was there, Cobain hardly needed a chaperone. “She’s very grown-up for a 12-year-old,” said the source. “She’s serious, smart, self-possessed…and very natural in front of the camera.” The budding actress and singer is said to be active in the theater scene in L.A., recently playing Rizzo in “Grease,” and before that, Liesl in “The Sound of Music.”
While she’s been photographed by artists in the past, this is her first major magazine feature. Cobain talked to Teen Vogue about her rock star lineage, reportedly saying, “I’m not Kurt, I’m not Courtney, I’m just me.” She also said she prefers the way her mother looked after her “The People vs. Larry Flynt” makeover, during Love’s brief glam phase, and that her own style is “very girly.” Make that sometimes girly. Cobain left the shoot in an outfit that could have come from her dad’s closet circa 1992: a faded Rolling Stones T-shirt and jeans.
— S.J.
BOYS’ CLUB: They still don’t sell nearly as many copies as the lad titles, but men’s magazines that don’t feature mostly naked B-list actresses on the cover have been making impressive strides at the newsstand.
Men’s Journal and Details both posted big jumps in single-copy sales in the first half of 2005, according to numbers reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Men’s Journal’s first-half newsstand average of 102,384 was up 35 percent over last year, while its total paid circulation stayed flat at 675,452. Details (which, like WWD, is part of Fairchild Publications) was down 1.3 percent in total paid circulation, to 407,168, but up 25 percent on the newsstand, averaging 83,897. Men’s Fitness also enjoyed a nice lift on the newsstand, climbing 9.8 percent to 131,026, while holding level in total circulation.
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Meanwhile, GQ posted increases of about 1 percent in both single-copy (215,096) and total paid circulation (824,334), while Esquire experienced declines of about the same amount, averaging 108,700 on the newsstand and 712,500 overall. All numbers are subject to audit.
— J.B.
MASTHEAD TOUCH-UPS: In Style’s beauty news director, Amy Synnott, will have the title beauty director now that Kim-Van Dang is exiting at the end of the month to start her own consulting business. Freelancer Jennifer Tung has been named senior beauty editor at In Style, and Nina Chao, formerly Elle’s associate beauty and fitness editor, joins the magazine as beauty editor.
Tung, a writer for The New York Times “Sunday Styles” section, may continue to contribute to the Times “as long as it doesn’t conflict with anything she’s doing for us,” according to an In Style spokeswoman. Tung previously worked with In Style on two books, “Getting Gorgeous,” which came out last fall, and “In Style Parties,” scheduled for release this October.
Last week, In Style tapped Leonora Wiener to fill the executive editor position left vacant by Maria Baugh. Wiener was previously an executive editor for Time Inc. strategic communications.
— S.J.