The print vs. online media war wages on, and the latest skirmish was an internal one. It seems that New York magazine critic David Edelstein, when reviewing Adam Sandler's latest pastiche of things that never existed in the first place You Don't Mess With the Zohan for NPR's Fresh Air, said he took issue with a recent post on NYM's delightful Vulture entertainment blog. But now he's sent an email to the magazine's whole staff, as something of a clarification and an apology.
"The magazine I write for ran an online item in which men were asked what they'd rather do than sit through the movie, and the answers ranged from eating someone else's booger to being mauled by Michael Vick's pit bulls," Edelstein said on NPR. "Excuse me, but I happen to be confident enough in my heterosexual masculinity to enjoy seeing how the female half lives, loves, and wears fabulous clothes — and on my side, I have the Zohan."
Now, we're not sure which feathers were ruffled exactly, but ruffled they must have been as Edelstein sent a staff-wide email today as a mea culpa:
Dear Colleagues: Permit me to clarify something in Serena's media roundup of yesterday. In discussing Zohan on CBS Sunday Morning and NPR's Fresh Air last week I did cite the Vulture item on what men would rather do than see Sex and the City—"eat someone else's booger," "be mauled by one of Michael Vick's pit bulls," etc. I said I personally liked the movie and resented having my manliness impugned. THIS WAS TONGUE-IN-CHEEK. I thought the Vulture item was very funny! My point was that Adam Sandler's Zohan was an Israeli war hero, a stud muffin, AND a flamboyant hairdresser and would have no problem ju-jitsuing bad guys (or Vulture editors), jumping into bed with women, and going to Sex and the City with me. Never would I seriously attack my brilliant colleagues in public; on the contrary, I hoped my remarks would bring their great efforts more attention.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Aha. I suppose it's inevitable, when you have as wide an array of coverage and writing staff (online and off) as
NYM does, that someone will step on someone else's toes on the way to making some point or other. Guess it's good that Edelstein reads
Vulture at all. Solidarity!
