BEING CURIOUS ABOUT TINA BROWN

The second annual Curious Minds Weekend at the Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto could not have a better start to this programme with having Tina Brown as their first guest.  The media icon and the jill of all trades in the industry who took over the reigns of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The Daily Beast had the Hot Docs Cinema sold out with many of her loyal fans.  The author of the best selling book The Diana Chronicles is now on the campaign to promote her new book The Vanity Fair Diaries.  The discussion was led by Globe and Mail’s editor in chief David Walmsley and the audience could not wait to hear some of her juicy stories from these iconic magazines.  The now CEO of The Women in the World has had a trailblazing career that a lot of us could not only imagine.  Tina Brown’s passion and hard work has opened many doors and brought down many walls for women to flourish in many industries other than hers.

A lot of us forget that Tina Brown came from England to the United States in 1983 to take over Vanity Fair as an advisor and you can probably imagine the culture shock that she had to contend with along with the patriarchy in media at that time.  After successfully running the magazine Tatler in England and raising its circulation after The Royal Wedding, you would have to think that Tina Brown would take Vanity Fair by the horns.  She did explain in the panel discussion that there was some self-doubt before taking on the position at Vanity Fair but what brought her to become successful at this time in her life was her conviction.  She felt that she knew what to do with Vanity Fair and how to make it better.  Tina Brown did just that as she became friends with iconic photographers Harry Benson and Annie Leibovitz and a crew of great writers that consisted of movie producer Marie Brenner and Gail Sheehy.  The sales of Vanity Fair which was once a dying magazine rose up from 200,000 to 1.2 million and the advertising topped 1440 pages in 1991.

Listening to Tina Brown’s stories during this panel was so interesting especially when it came to discussing the time where some of the most iconic magazine covers flourished for Vanity Fair.  Tina Brown first had the idea of taking photos of Demi Moore’s bump back in 1991.  The idea was to have her clothed in the photoshoot but Annie Leibovitz took things to the next level as she took pictures of Demi Moore naked holding her bump.  Harry Benson was the photographer who put on the Frank Sinatra song “Nancy” on his own boom box in the Map Room of the White House.  This made both Ronald and Nancy Reagan get up and dance in front of the iconic Scottish photographer alongside Tina Brown before their important dinner with the President of Argentina.  Their dance went on for about 15 minutes before their iconic kiss was photographed which has always been talked about until this day.  That issue was the one that turned around the luck for Vanity Fair which would have tanked if it wasn’t for the Reagans.

It was not always smooth sailing for Tina Brown especially when she left Vanity Fair to goto The New Yorker.  George Trow who was with the magazine for three decades accused Brown for “kissing the ass of the celebrity”.  Jamaica Kincaid called Brown a “A bully.  Stalin in high heels,” and of course that writer is no longer with the magazine.  All this opposition did not get to Tina’s head as she introduced the idea of having photography in this magazine as she hired Richard Avedon as its first staff photographer.  There were many controversial magazine covers as a result but the major overhaul of this magazine proved to be the difference maker.  There were a lot of staffers who were let go and 50 new writers came on board and many of those still remain today.  Tina Brown took over The New Yorker as if the magazine was starting from scratch but Tina Brown helped to curb the magazine’s losses every year that she was there.

Nevertheless, it seems as though whatever Tina Brown touches does turn to gold.  Whether it was Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and not to mention The Daily Beast, Tina Brown had an act of getting the world to pay attention.  Now at the tender age of 64, there is still no ceiling for Tina Brown as she is the CEO of the Women in the World network where world summits for women take place annually.  She still chums with some of the finest and legendary celebrities today but that does not sway her from her overall mission.  What is remarkable about Tina Brown is that she has always been the underdog and always went against the odds in terms of the opportunities that were presented to her.  But time and time again she overcame the odds and blasted balls (no pun intended) out of the park.  Tina Brown may have touched many people who have been marginalized in her lifetime but rest assured that she is an inspiring person to all which is why a lot of people pay most attention to her.

www.hotdocs.ca