Is Tina Brown a Media Jinx?

Is Tina Brown a media jinx? We like Tina Brown, someday we'd even like to be invited to her media salons and play with all the big boys and girls, but still ... the evidence ...

There's ill fated Talk Magazine, the Miramax turbulence, then Ron Galotti -- you see my point? Granted, when you've been operating in the media game for as long as Tina has, at the level that Tina has, there are bound to be dead bodies. But -- The Corsair says this reluctantly -- the media corpses have been piling up faster than at a Zhang YiYi film.

Elegant blogger James Wolcott meditates on this disturbing idea. Media elite guests on Tina Brown's tv show are dropping like flies:

"Fear stalks the media illuminati. They keep looking over their shoulders, wondering if they will be the next to be struck.

"Struck by what?

"The curse that haunts the green room of Topic [A] with Tina Brown.

"Consider."

(The Corsair grabs a chilled bottle of grappa along with an elaborate sushi plate. Listens intently while imbibing.)

"Bernard Kerik was a guest on the show. Look what happened to him. Deep doo-doo up to his bald crown.

"An isolated instance? Sadly, no.*"

(The Corsair munches on chutoro)

"Editor Judith Regan appeared on the show to promote Jenna Jameson's heartwarming tail--I mean, tale--How to Make Love to Bernie Kerik like a Porn Star. Regan was revealed to be one of Kerik's paramours and served with a subpoena involving a lawsuit regarding chrome dome.

"Then my friend and frequent Topic [A] Stanley Crouch suffered a medical setback that had many of us concerned. He's fine now, in fighting trim, but it was a scare."

And then there was the bitchslapping incident. Let's not forget that Stanley went Alexander Hamilton on literary gangster Dave Peck.

"And now Topic [A] guest Armstrong Williams, wantonly brought down in a payola scandal for his advocacy of Bush's No Child Left Behind program, a program which of course I vigorously support. Perhaps Williams was being karmicly punished for his pantomime mocking of wheelchair bound Max Cleland on one Topic [A] panel.

"Perhaps."

The Corsair shudders. The Corsair wrote a letter that was read on the air in September. Are we next?

More here.