Lady Evans (aka Tina Brown) and her subject, Lady Di (the Princess of Wales)The July issue of Vanity Fair ran portions of their ex-editor Tina Brown's book, "The Diana Chronicles," but now comes a parody of the best seller and Brown's distinctive writing style in the August issue, reprinted from the naughty British weekly, Private Eye. (hat tip to Women's Wear Daily)
Under a photo of blonde Brown giving a thumbs up and a bogus byline, author Craig Brown (no common bloodline) mocks Brown's penchant for the hyphenated phrase, for alliteration and for status indicators:
"Those regal, rancorous, rough-hewn eyes seared…like a $5,000 kitchen knife from top store Macy's on New York's fashionable Broadway through butter served in the in-crowd, book-six-months-in-advance brasserie of super-sassy boutique hotel McDitzy's, Park Avenue." Brown's use of sourcing is also lampooned: "I was informed of it by a highly trained researcher who was told in confidence by a highly regarded source, who heard it from a highly placed member of the household who is now dead, so equally regrettably you have no means of checking it."
Brown e-mailed her old rag that she was "very flattered and amused by the parody. I have always been some kind of fixation for Craig Brown for some reason." She said she believed the two hadn't met, but called him "a very funny writer, especially with parody." As for whether she saw it as a jab from Graydon Carter, her successor at Vanity Fair: "Graydon has been very appreciative and civil" about the book. Carter's sole comment was, via a spokeswoman, "We thought it was funny."
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