July
16
Pitt Chased Wired Cover
Brad Pitt graces the cover of Wired Magazine's August issue, which just arrived in my morning mail. (The mag hits newstands July 21, and will post on Wired.com Thursday night after E.T.'s broadcast break.) He's frowning at wearing a bluetooth headset, and the coverline reads "With advice from Inglourious Basterd Brad Pitt"---about all the mention his new movie receives in the magazine.
That's because Wired doesn't tend to sell magazines with movie stars. Truth is, with Premiere gone, there aren't many classy monthly magazine covers left for male stars of Pitt's stature. And he's already done the good ones. Tabloids like People, Us and In Touch have taken over the supermarket racks. Old media moguls like Tina Brown and Bonnie Fuller are jumping into the online fray. (Tabloid queen Fuller is joining Mail.com owner Jay Penske's HollywoodLife.com.) Gone are the days when uber-press agents like Pat Kingsley batted off cover requests like flies while demanding deal terms like photographer and writer approval. Pitt doesn't even pay a PR rep anymore.
So what's a matinee idol to do? Several months ago, Pitt had his agency CAA call Wired--Conde Nast's tech-savvy mag with a growing circulation of about 700,000 readers, predominantly male--and suggest him for the cover. Neil Patrick Harris had just turned the magazine down. After much back and forth, Wired confirmed that Pitt really did want to be on their August cover.
The magazine was interested in fitting him into their August package "New Rules for Digital Gentlemen and Other Highly Evolved Humans," but he had to meet their specific needs. In the end, he did it their way. Pitt turned up at L.A.'s Smashbox Studios alone, sans entourage, for a photo shoot with Dan Winters. He was interviewed for the cover story about bathroom text and phone etiquette and offered some advice to Twitter King Ashton Kutcher about posting pictures of his wife's butt, among other things. His cover pull quote is delicious: "Who cares if your Warcraft wife is really a dude. If it's good, don't check under the hood."
This change in star behavior is indicative of an overall sea change in Hollywood. Talking about her plans for Hollywood Life, Fuller told the NYT that celebrity is "not just about movie stars any more." As studios slash budgets, they are reevaluating what stars are worth. That measurement used to be about opening movies: you paid a major star $20 million to put audience butts in seats. All that is clearly not working any more, as robots, reboots and animated characters are selling better this summer than the likes of Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell and Christian Bale. I see smart star Pitt, 45, recognizing that a cool cover on a cool magazine might sell some tickets to his Quentin Tarantino World War II flick this August. Therefore it was worth chasing--and then going with the flow.
Meanwhile, Wired discovered the advantages of publicizing a cover--in this celeb-crazed internet age--with a star of Pitt's caliber. Besides People and E.T., they nabbed coverage from Perez Hilton, MTV: Hollywood Crush, Us Magazine, PopSugar, X17 Online, The Post Chronicle, Hampton Roads, The Frisky, Towleroad and Kansas City Star.
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"..... a cool cover on a cool magazine might sell some tickets to his Quentin Tarantino World War II flick this August."
Doubt it. Wired readers are, so far, still smart enough to see through the pose. Wired has more to lose here, diminishing its smart-cool factor to compete with celebloids.
Posted by: Jack Henry | July 16, 2009 at 06:06 PM
Nobody doesn't like Brad Pitt. Yes, even you.
http://FilthyRichmond.com don't front
Posted by: Joskie | July 17, 2009 at 05:13 PM
Interesting, was this just an obvious move to keep himself in the news and possibly generate some buzz. Just because he wears a bluetooth ear piece doesn't make him tech savvy. Sorry but this is somewhat of a FAIL.
Posted by: Television Spy | July 17, 2009 at 06:16 PM
Meh... I've been a Wired subscriber since the day after it hit the newsstands. It doesn't bother me to have a celebrity on the cover but it doesn't make me care more either. Wired has nothing to lose though, it is the most well written magazine being put out right now with a real wide swath of topics. I don't see them losing any readers because of who's on the cover just as I don't see me going to a Brad Pitt movie just because his mug is on the back of my toilet.If it helps his career then bravo for pursing a great mag.
Posted by: DDayDawg | July 17, 2009 at 08:35 PM
@Television Spy, if you'd actually picked up the issue and read the article in question, you might realize that Pitt is a lot more tech savvy than not. In fact, the cover shot of him with a bluetooth headset has a little blurb stating that if "he can't pull it off, neither can you." Indicating that bluetooth headsets are stupid looking on anyone.
Also in the article, Pitt is referred as a Basterd several times. Plus there is also a photo of him and Quentin Tarantino sitting in a movie theatre together. So, the little blurb on the cover isn't exactly the only mention of the movie.
Wired has always done things their way. They don't bend to the pressures of other publications. Nor do they repeat trends in current magazines. They set out to push convention and the fact that they have a famous face on the cover doesn't detract from that. I know and so do the other "smart" Wired readers.
Posted by: Asvetic | July 18, 2009 at 07:41 AM
Bravo to Brad for going after Wired. He and IB have gotten much more attention than if he had done those same boring magazine with the same boring questions.
Posted by: lac | July 18, 2009 at 09:07 AM
The thing is, they need to stop putting good actors in crappy films. Eddie Murphy? He's not even funny except in Shrek. Will Ferrell is funny but Land of the Lost was just dumb. The Terminator prequel was corny. Tricking people into a bad movie with a good actor isn't going to work anymore. Just like tricking people into buying a full CD with only one or two good singles won't work anymore. Hence the decline in CD sales. Now, you just get the good tracks on iTunes.
Posted by: TimM | July 18, 2009 at 03:20 PM
Maybe the movies with stars mentioned aren't selling as well because.... they're bad movies, and word spreads fast? Where as the digitals have story lines worth investing in.
Posted by: RK | July 18, 2009 at 03:53 PM
Good for Brad.
He is a cool guy that "gets it". He also does a ton for charity. Keep up the great work Brad!
Dan
http://www.tiptopwebsite.com
Posted by: Dan | July 18, 2009 at 07:25 PM