Tina Brown: "(The Talk Launch) Was The Last Great Party of the 90s"



(image via nymag)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. One can almost hear the melancholy theme of BBC's Brideshead Revisited as Tina Brown -- our swishy, Chattering Class narrator -- takes us through the glorious, pellucid flameout of Talk Magazine (RIP, 2001), her own personal Great War. Maer Roshan as the ethereal Sebastian Flyte; Harvey Weinstein as the oily Rex Motram; and, of course, Ron Galotti as Boy Mulcaster (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). From Timesonline:

"It was like a total eclipse of the sun, a maelstrom of bad karma. There was a real feeling of darkness after 9/11. Our world had changed for ever.

"Professionally, nobody wanted to commit to anything long-term, including advertising, and it soon became obvious that our backers weren’t going to wait.

"There was this awful feeling — the end was coming. This malaise was going to continue and we weren’t going to survive it. It was a heartbreak.

"Talk had begun with a great launch party on Liberty Island. It was a fantastic hot summer night, in late August, and we hired this huge ferry to bring the guests over. One boatload disgorged Madonna, Salman Rushdie, Demi Moore, Sting… We lit the island with Chinese lanterns, we gave each person a picnic box and we had blankets spread out on the grass. We had Macy Gray, who was just breaking, as the entertainment. People climbed up the Statue of Liberty with no guides. It was the last great party of the 1990s. It was so high-profile, it was probably too much. But I don’t regret it."

Et in arcadia Ego, Tine Brown; et in arcadia ego.