The Rise and Fall of Tina Brown’s Talk The Fine Print

We dissect the premiere issue of Talk magazine, Tina Brown’s ill-fated collaboration with Harvey Weinstein, featuring a young Tucker Carlson profiling George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton talking about Monica Lewinsky, Tom Stoppard discovering that he’s Jewish, Martin Amis taking on “Snobbo Sadist” Hannibal Lecter, some very uncomfortable-looking Gwyneth Paltrow photos, and so much more. Lux editor-in-chief Sarah Leonard joins as our inaugural editor-critic and the magazine’s former staff, including Tina Brown and Rebecca Traister, recount the story of the issue’s creation.

"I was 20 years ahead of my time, let's face it," Brown says. “The first issue was the most ginormous success. The magazine just sold off the newsstands. But the basic underpinnings of it were always roiling with this Harvey assault on my ways of working, his crazy temperamental outbursts, and the fact that he didn't understand the magazine business at all."

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