from Vanity Fair magazine
This month's installment of Vanity Fair's "Coaster Correspondence" features three separate pieces of correspondence regarding Men's Health editor David Zinczenko and his purported relationship with the eponymous (and fictional) Edwin Coaster. The letters detail the fictional Coaster's convalescence from a "major stroke" and Zinczenko's assistance with same, including removing all "get-well gifts of booze and chocolate" from Coaster's hospital room, starting him on a regimen of ab crunches and lat pulldowns from his hospital bed, and personally administering a "marjoram enema." All tongue in cheek, but Radar thinks it may have been intended to hit a little closer to home.
Radar's Jeff Bercovici wrote Monday that the column seemed to be an "oh-so-inside dig at Zinczenko's history with deceased GQ editor Art Cooper," with whom Zinczenko was dining in 2003 when Cooper suffered a fatal stroke. Zinczenko later referenced Cooper in an editor's letter about bad workout routines, which, according to unnamed Radar sources, was considered "beyond tacky" by Cooper's widow.
Radar wondered if the spoof was actually meant to satisfy Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's "desire to see [Zinczenko] "brought low"; ETP wondered, too, so we asked. Accordingly to Beth Kseniak, Vanity Fair's Executive Director of Public Relations, it was not. When reached for comment, she replied via e-mail, "Vanity Fair is most appreciative of Dave Zinczenko's help in getting Ed better and, in fact, Dave has sent Graydon a jar of marjoram for his own improvement." (She also then clarified that "the Ed Coaster feature is fiction" which we appreciated; the enema giving, after all, is quite believable, but marjoram? Now that's just ludicrous.)
Radar cites evidence that Carter and Cooper were colleagues, though it's unclear how relevant it is to the publication of the spoof: Radar quotes a source who said that when the deceased GQ editor and Carter would have lunch together, "you could tell Graydon felt he was far superior." (We'll leave it up to the reader to decide if it's beyond tacky to imply that Carter still felt the need to one-up Cooper.)
Reached for comment, writer Bercovici admits he did not speak to Carter for his piece, but stands by it nonetheless: "If the allusions to Art Cooper were wholly unintended, I will eat my copy of What We've Lost." We're sure it tastes great with marjoram.
— Patrick Waldo
Disclosure: This piece was written by ETP intern Patrick Waldo and edited by ETP editor Rachel Sklar, who is friends with both Zinczenko and Bercovici. She does not know Graydon Carter, though they are both Canadian.
