The Standard hits the stands this week with a 72-page issue that rounds up the usual-and some unusual-subjects. There are predictable pieces on the bombing raids in Bosnia and a critical obituary of liberal lawyer William Kunstler. And surprising ones such as the essay about the similarities between Bill Clinton and Prince Charles and a “humor” piece on socially conscious sex toys and manuals; it’s essentially about masturbation. Then there are the political broadsides. Charles Krauthammer does “A Critique of Pure Newt,” hammering Gingrich’s best-selling book. Gingrich is a recurring theme in the issue–he’s the cover boy-which makes sense, since the Standard wouldn’t exist without Newt’s Washington revolution. William Kristol, the editor and publisher, fires off his trademark punditry, wagering that Colin Powell will win the 1996 GOP presidential nomination.
Not a bad mix-and the writing’s pretty good. Trouble is, most of the articles could just as well have appeared in The New Republic. Fred Barnes, late of TNR, is organizing political coverage. Unfortunately for him, he won’t have Kristol for a source anymore. Ever since he was Dan Quayle’s chief of staff, Kristol has been a staple of Beltway journalism, a greengrocer for every reporter’s needs. Barnes has had to teach him to shut up. “‘You have your own magazine now’,” Barnes told him over the summer. “‘The other guys are the competition’.” To deputy editor John Podhoretz that pretty much means The New Republic.
Kristol and Podhoretz learned all about intellectual influence from their fathers. Irving Kristol still lords over the American Enterprise Institute, five floors above the Standard’s offices; Norman Podhoretz edited Commentary for a generation. More important is the checkbook behind the Standard. Rupert Murdoch has put up more than $3 million for the first year alone.
Up Interstate 95, in that other happening town last week, John Kennedy Jr. showed off his bimonthly magazine, whose 500,000 copies go on sale this weekend at $2.95 per ($3.95 in Canada). George is being published by Haehette Filipacehi Magazines, which invested more than $20 million in the start-up. At a glitzified press conference, Kennedy stood beside a life-size cover of George, featuring Cindy Crawford done up as Washington, in powdered wig, revolutionary regalia and bare midriff. “I’m not a fashion editor,” said Kennedy, resplendent as ever in a dashing yet understated dark, double-breasted suit. At least his were adorned, unlike the female ones in Calvin Klein and Aramis ads. George has a whopping 282 pages, 175 of them from advertisers, including Gucci, Guess?, Armani, Anne Klein, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Gianfranco Ferre. Why, there’s even . . . Cindy Crawford, in a Revlon spread.
Kennedy emphasized that his was a magazine about politics as “culture” and “entertainment,” thereby distinguishing it, of course, from magazines that cover the “anthropology” and “mores” of Washington. To be fair, some of the material is well done. Mark Leyner excels at poking fun at Richard Lugar making the campaign rounds. Isaac Mizrahi and Cindy Crawford (again) reprise their catty colloquy in “Unzipped” (a film produced by Hachette) to dish political fashion. And Kennedy’s interview with a fading George Wallace is workmanlike. But George bogs down in fluff with such pieces as Julia Roberts’s “smooch fest” trip to Haiti.
JFK Jr. Himself had a grand time at last week’s debut, acknowledging what advertisers already knew: he’s the magazine. “I haven’t seen so many of you,” he told the press, “since . . . the results of my first bar exam.” At the beginning of the Q&A session, he read a short statement purporting to address any “personal questions.” “Yes. No. Just really good friends. I’ve worn both. And maybe someday, but not in New Jersey.” Unlike the exam, this time he cleared the bar on his first attempt.
