Tag Archives: helen gurley brown

Quickies!: Joyce DeWitt Arrested

Annika HarrisJuly 6, 2009 //
  • Joyce DeWitt, who starred in “Three’s Company,” was arrested under suspicion of DUI in El Segundo, CA, Saturday. [TMZ] — This isn’t the behavior we expect from responsible Janet!
  • Kate Hudson continues to ignore her mother Goldie Hawn’s warning, preferring instead to continue seeing A-Rod. [Dlisted]
  • Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie Stackhouse on “True Blood,” says her steamy nude scenes are easier because she’s acting opposite her real boyfriend Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton. [People] — I’m sure a lot of things are easier with Stephen around.

Keep reading »

A Revolutionary In Stilettos: Cosmo’s Helen Gurley Brown Was A Feminist And A Fashionista

Jessica WakemanJune 22, 2009 //

Lipstick and leopard print aren’t feminists’ usual weapons of choice, but the founding editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan always thought differently.

As the original “fun, fearless female,” Helen Gurley Brown lived a topsy-turvy life as a pioneer for women in media—and in the bedroom. A recent biography of Brown, Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, by Jennifer Scanlon, argued that Brown is reason that the unmarried, financially stable single woman as we know her exists!

And now Lorraine Candy, former editor of British Cosmo has weighed in to dish about her career alongside don’t-tell-me-what-to-do firebrand. Keep reading »

There’s More To Helen Gurley Brown Than Sex

Catherine StrawnApril 22, 2009 //

The first biography of Helen Gurley Brown, who was Cosmopolitan‘s editor-in-chief for three decades, hits stores today, and we’ll be snapping up a copy after work. Written by Jennifer Scanlon, a professor of gender and women’s studies at Bowdoin College, Bad Girls Go Everywhere looks at Helen’s life from her start in an Arkansas town in the Ozarks to her rise from secretary to advertising copywriter to editor-in-chief. Scanlon compares Brown to feminist figures like Betty Friedan. Brown believed sex was a “powerful weapon” for single women and changed the Cosmo format so it addressed real women’s lives — sex and all. (However, she omitted certain realities from the magazine, including children and AIDS.) While Brown cared about looking put-together and slept with her bosses, she didn’t let those things replace any of her substance. To her, hard work was always the most important thing in getting what you wanted — making the most of your features and getting your dream job. Keep reading »

How Helen Gurley Brown Got Booted From Cosmo

Wendy AtterberryJanuary 14, 2009 //

A forthcoming biography of legendary Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown, Bad Girls Go Everywhere, will reveal how the “Queen of Cosmo” finally got the axe after 32 years. Despite being a target for at least a decade, as circulation slipped, in the end it was her comments about sexual harassment and AIDS that led to her being forced to step down. Her damning comments after the jump. Keep reading »