Kurt Andersen

Houdini, that early 20th-century trickster, is coming to Broadway thanks to a whole cast of New York characters. Kurt Andersen, novelist and founder of Spy magazine; Danny Elfman, former Oingo Boingo frontman and composer for The Simpsons and numerous Tim Burton films; and David Rockwell, architect and scenic designer for Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Legally Blonde, are all involved. Mr. Elfman will write the music, of course, with lyrics by David Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). Mr. Andersen will write the plot, based on Houdini's biography, and Jack O’Brien will direct. Scott Sanders (The Color Purple) and Mr. Rockwell produce, according to Variety.  read more »

How did this go unnoticed for so long?

In Kurt Andersen's New York magazine column, published Monday, he casually spills the beans on Roger Ailes' preferred method of press control. Mr. Andersen writes that the Fox News chief "once threatened to send a camera crew to stalk my 3- and 5-year-old children in preemptive retaliation for a magazine story I was writing about his man Rush Limbaugh."

Thanks to Gawker for reading to the end.

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If the past is a foreign country, Kurt Andersen probably needs a diplomatic waiver to cross the bord  read more »

Paging through this slightly premature-feeling but “oh heck, why not” retrospective of the late,  read more »

Paging through this slightly premature-feeling but “oh heck, why not” retrospective of t  read more »

The other day, someone who will remain nameless accidentally left The Transom alone in an office. In that office was a copy of the Spy book, which comes out in a few months and will supposedly retail for 40 bucks or so. The nice publicist from Miramax Books recently declined to send over a copy, claiming there just weren't any on hand. OH YEAH? WHO'S ON HAND NOW, SISTER?
It's big. It has lots of pictures. It's gorgeous. Great reprints, great photos. Can't wait. It's also got lots of opportunities for editors Graydon Carter, Kurt Andersen and George Kalogerakis to autohagiographize. But really—if they don't, who will? And why shouldn't they? You should know, you've been ripping them off for years! (Yes you!)
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The hour is growing late, politicians and public officials are sleepwalking toward disaster, so forg  read more »

Was that really Kurt Andersen taking control of Colors magazine, Benetton's conceptual-international  read more »

Media watchers who had hoped to use the first issue of New York magazine as a Rosetta stone to deter  read more »

Blogger with attitude; freestyle media attack-dog; Manhattan man of mystery-------------------------  read more »

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We're getting out of here-just us ; NYTV will keep on a-chuggin'-and on the way out, we wanted to co  read more »

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On Aug.  read more »

All is not lost, my friends-so long as we have a stirring musical about a mythical place where it's  read more »

As he sat wedged next to Powerful Media co-chairman Kurt Andersen at a table two sizes too small for  read more »

The big news in Room 9 on May 22 was puppies.  read more »

Over the past year New Yorkers have heard dire predictions about the millennium-from computer meltdo  read more »

After being tossed out of their magazines, ex-editors in chief Michael Hirschorn and Kurt Andersen a  read more »

It used to be easy. You were either gay or you were straight.  read more »

Turn of the Century , by Kurt Andersen.  read more »