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TINA BROWN’S TALK MIRAMAX BOOKS TO PUBLISH MY FORBIDDEN FACE
Memoir of Afghani woman living under Taliban rule is a first.
New York -- Talk Miramax Books has acquired North American rights to My Forbidden Face by Latifa. The book, which the author began writing last May, is the very first book from an Afghani woman who lived under the Taliban regime. The announcement was made today by Tina Brown, chairman Talk Media, Inc. and Jonathan Burnham, president, Talk Miramax Books.
"This is a compelling woman’s story of courage and endurance," Tina Brown commented. "And it is a vital document for our times."
Latifa was born into an educated middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980. A spirited young girl with dreams for her future, her world collapsed in September of 1996 when Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. Just 16 years old, Latifa became a prisoner in her own home. Schools were closed, her mother was banned from working, and Latifa was forced to wear the chadri for the first time in her life.
My Forbidden Face provides a highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful honesty and clarity Latifa describes watching her world fall apart in the name of a fanatical faith that she could not comprehend. Her voice captures a lost innocence but also echoes her determination to live in freedom and hope.
Jonathan Burnham commented, "This is an unforgettable voice and brings home to us the strange daily realities of life for women in Kabul. Latifa’s narrative is extraordinarily brave and unflinching."
In May of 2001 Latifa and her parents escaped Afghanistan and were brought to Europe. Since then she has been writing My Forbidden Face—hoping to share with the world the fate of women in Afghanistan living under the Taliban regime—never imagining that we would all be awakened to the cruelties of the Taliban in just a few months time.
Talk Miramax Books will publish My Forbidden Face in spring, 2002. Devereux Chatillon executive vice president and general counsel negotiated the book deal on behalf of Talk Miramax Books. Latifa was represented in negotiations by Susanna Lea of Susanna Lea Associates. Foreign rights have already been sold by Susanna Lea Associates to Germany, Holland, Portugal, Greece and the United Kingdom and they are in negotiation with Sweden, Italy, Spain and Poland.
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TINA BROWN'S DIARY
THE NEW WORLD
At the start of a new and terrifying
century, it seems everyone's priorities have changed.
Tuesday, September 11. a glorious blue-sky morning. The air is so clear
and crisp you feel you could almost see all the way to L.A. or London.
At Talk’s offices—an old piano factory in Chelsea, two miles
north of the swanky financial district—we’re all at work early
to close the November issue. An editorial assistant rushes into the
art department, where we are choosing photographs: "Can you believe
it? A plane has flown straight into the World Trade Center!"
We crowd into the elevator and hurry to the corner of 20th Street and Sixth Avenue, which offers a straight-on view of the Twin Towers, downtown. This morning the clarity of the air provides to our astounded eyes a giant smoking rip across the face of the north tower. Some awful accident? A crowd starts to build, young downtowners heading for work with their brown bags of coffee and bagels.
We are still frozen in incredulity when the second jetliner knifes through the south tower. Collective disbelief turns to fear. A woman in jogging clothes starts to cry. Two hotshots who have been offering surefooted disaster opinions grow suddenly quiet. This isn’t, after all, going to be a tabloid drama we can understand about crazy pilot error and dramatic rooftop rescues. Something incomprehensible is happening, something terribly wrong. The trunk of a car is open, with a boombox radio inside it. The driver turns up the volume. Everyone clusters around to hear fragments of news that only feed the rising panic. And then the unthinkable happens.
The south tower buckles, drops in slow motion, vanishes. Then the north tower. Suddenly we are all holding hands and sobbing. "My children!" yells a previously buttoned-up young woman in a business suit. "I’ve got to get home!"
Absurdly, when calamity hit, the glossy magazine world had been in the full froth of fashion week. The night before, I had been sitting in the front row of the very chic designer Marc Jacobs’s show, next to the debonair custard quiff of Donald Trump. Monica Lewinsky was in the row behind, rabbiting on about her new purse collection. Throughout we were shadowed by the impenetrable bulk of Trump’s bodyguard. "Guarding us from what?" I asked merrily. "From crazies," Trump said. "Look, I was in a bar once and a guy suddenly comes over and starts shouting, ‘I’m going to break your fucking face!’ Now, in a situation like this, an intelligent guy, a guy like your husband, Tina, is not what I need.
I need Keith here. Know what he did with that crazy guy? He broke his wrist like a twig." The pictures from the Marc Jacobs show are from a vanished world now, and no one wants to look at them. We disperse to call our loved ones, collect our children from school, grieve each in our own way in the creeping hush of sadness that sweeps over every street in the city.
As the hours pass, another New York replaces the fabled capital of style. The Michael Jackson concert? That took place in another century. Firemen are our idols now. We love them with an almost shaming intensity. We love Rudolph Giuliani, too. His heroic example, I hope, puts into perspective the late-20th-century media hysteria about the relevance of a public servant’s private life. This abrasive and often unsympathetic man has become the best kind of father to us all. As for the glossy world, the gadflies of fashion are out giving blood. At Talk staffers have turned the office kitchen into a pasta and red sauce factory for the volunteers.
Everyone’s priorities have changed. Talk’s creative director David Lipman, who had been focused on the renovation of his Murray Street apartment, two blocks from the Twin Towers, doesn’t miss a beat when he hears that he may never live in it again. He treks through the downtown dust to recover his family’s passports and pictures and finds an old woman who has refused to leave the endangered building. He carries her down the six flights and goes back for her dog and two cats. Madison Avenue legend and bighearted Talk consultant George Lois is incommunicado until the next day, when he sends a poignant fax: "I have joined the thousands of people in their futile effort searching the hospitals for their relatives and friends. Dick Lynch, well known as a great New York Giant cornerback, my best pal, lost his son, obviously trapped high in the north tower. Everyone is unable and unwilling to give up hope, but it is heart-wrenching to be in the midst of their suffering."
In the crisis center at Chelsea Piers I am moved to see the familiar open face of Sao, a telephone engineer I know, also looking for his son, who had a staff job servicing phones in the north tower. His big shoulders sag as he sits across the desk from a volunteer with a list that has nothing to tell him. A newsman asks him if he thinks they should now rebuild the Twin Towers. "I don’t give a damn," he says fiercely. "I just want my kid back."
That night in our apartment in midtown I hold my own daughter close. It is just the two of us here, with my son away at school and my husband on Long Island. In the small hours she is frightened and climbs into my bed. "It’s that funny smell," she keeps saying. "What is it? What is it?" The wind has changed. I don’t tell her it is the smell of death.
Subliminally, perhaps, we had all for a while been expecting some form of apocalypse. The turn of the century always begins late. The 19th started in 1815 with the battle of Waterloo, the 20th in 1914 with the shot at Sarajevo. Y2K turned out to be a missed catharsis. We were invulnerable, weren’t we?
But there was unease, too. For close to two years one could feel an almost restless search for a reckoning. The dot-com collapse was the first harbinger of chaos—to those left out of the millionaire club’s long fiesta, it felt weirdly biblical and just. Then the butterfly ballots in Florida.
And now that the Armageddon has taken shape, we see that evil is borne on wings that are surprisingly low-tech. It was not a virus in the reservoir that hurt us, nor paralyzing digital mayhem, but knives and box cutters, a flight attendant with her hands tied, a fake pilot from a flight school in Florida.
I join a food run to the epicenter of the violence, to ground zero, sponsored by Drew Nieporent of the Tribeca Grill, Robert De Niro, and Talk’s partner, Miramax Films. The Grill has been working round the clock under Nieporent’s direction, delivering salami and mozzarella sandwiches and short ribs to exhausted rescue workers. Martin Shapiro, the restaurant’s general manager, says the hardest thing was getting the food to the site, until Nieporent pulled a few strings and got a police escort to assist them. Shapiro and his waiters, waitresses, and busboys are as tireless as the firemen they serve.
The blue skies have gone now. It’s cold, gray, and raining hard as we carry our comforting cargo further and further into hell. The reality of ground zero is utterly overwhelming, even after all the TV footage: the amphitheater of blown-out windows, the mud, the emblems of strength and power denuded of meaning, the glimpse of a fire truck still buried in debris after the extrication of its six dead heroes. A crane hoists the orange remnants of an overpass from the chaos, and for a moment it hangs in the air like a surreal iron crucifix. Then I feel we’re in a heartwarming World War II movie as an open truck bounces through the rubble, packed with steam fitters in purple rain ponchos defiantly waving flags.
But there is no need for nostalgic references. All the emergency workers and the firemen and the cops are the new claimants to the title of the "greatest generation."
I notice a marble column standing in the food hall where exhausted firemen and volunteers can grab a bite to eat. We are in the lobby of building three of the windowless World Financial Center. The column was the signpost pointing visitors to the location of the blue chip companies that used to thrive there. Whether or not those companies return, I hope they leave the column where it is. The great names on their corporate plaques are now a strangely evocative memorial of the innocent, bustling past.
On Sunday we go as a family to our church in Westhampton. We’ve been part of the congregation since we arrived from London, and our children were christened by its rector as new Americans. It is hard to live now with the reality that the openness, freedom, and generosity of the country that welcomed us and has welcomed so many could be betrayed in this way.
The packed church sings "America the Beautiful" with tears in every eye, and for the first time the words become my anthem, too.
Read the rest
of Tina Brown's Diary in this month's issue of Talk.
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Talk Media Announces New Hire and Staff Promotion
(New York) May 15, 2001: Tina Brown, chairman and editor-in-chief of Talk Media, and Ron Galotti, president, announce that Robert Wallace, editorial director of Talk magazine, has been promoted to vice president of Talk Media. His new responsibilities will involve him in a leadership role in all aspects of Talk Media: In addition to the magazine, these include Talk/Miramax Books, the Talk website, Talk conferences, and developments in television further down the line.
"Bob will draw on his vast experience in all these areas, having been a publisher at St. Martin Press, a Rolling Stone magazine editor and an ABC television producer," said Tina Brown. "He will help me pull all the aspects of the company together and supervise the more complex, long -range projects. We are happy in this way to recognize the vital contribution he has already made to the growth and stability of Talk magazine, and we afford him an opportunity in the next stage of our development as a mixed media company."
Maer Roshan, deputy editor of New York magazine, joins Talk as editorial director. "In his more than six successful years at New York, Maer has shown that he is an inventive editor with a keen eye for new talent and just the right kind of sensibility and intelligence to lead the editorial team at Talk."
"One of the best things about being an editor at New York magazine is the freedom to cover a diverse range of subjects, people, and ideas," Roshan said. "What excites me about Talk is the ability to cast the same wide net at a national level."
Roshan’s career includes varied positions at Interview magazine, Time Inc., Key West Citizen, and a two year stint as founding editor at the New York weekly QW. His first job was as a messenger at Details magazine.
Tina Brown and Ron Galotti also announce that Lisa Dallos, publicity director of Talk magazine, is promoted to publicity director for Talk Media with oversight of publicity for Talk/Miramax Books, website and conferences, as well as Talk magazine. "In her seven months at Talk, Lisa has shown creative, energetic and consistently smart ideas," said Galotti. "We now have an exceptional team in the top management of Talk Media."
Talk Media is a boutique media company that includes a book division, Talk/Miramax Books, which currently has three titles on the New York Times best-seller list; Ice Bound, Stolen Lives, and Artemis Fowl. Talk Media also includes a relationship with a pre-eminent movie production company, Miramax, and a lively and provocative magazine at its core, Talk.
Talk Magazine Announces Two Editorial Appointments
Tina Brown, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Talk Media announced, today
that Lisa DePaulo and Pamela Gross have joined Talk Magazine. Ms. DePaulo
will be a contributing writer and Ms. Gross will be the magazine’s
first Society editor. "The addition of Lisa DePaulo and Pamela
Gross will add dazzle to our pages. Lisa DePaulo is a gigantic talent
in the magazine world and her fresh prose and provocative subjects will
rivet our readers," says Brown. "Pamela Gross has unique access
and insights into the high society zeitgeist. Her scoops and profiles
will enlighten and surprise all of us."
Lisa DePaulo has written for George, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, US,
New York, Vogue and the New York Times Magazine. She
was nominated twice for a National Magazine award for her work at Philadelphia
Magazine where her subjects ranged from politics to crime.Pamela
Gross was recently Creative Director and Editor-in-Chief of LuxuryFinder.com,
which was launched in October 1998 as an e-commerce and content website
focused on luxury goods.
She has also served as editorial director for Manhattan File
magazine and as an on-air style correspondent for Cablevision’s
Metroguide programming. Talk Magazine is the reinvention of the
upscale general interest magazine-- modern journalism for a new generation
of media-savvy readers.
Talk Miramax Books Acquires Madeleine Albright Memoirs
Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the highest-ranking woman in the history of the US government, has agreed to publish her memoirs with Talk Miramax Books, it was announced today by Jonathan Burnham, president and editor-in-chief of Talk Miramax Books, Tina Brown, chairman of Talk Media Inc., Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, and Robert Barnett, who represented Secretary Albright.
The memoir will encompass the broad sweep of her life from her birth in Czechoslovakia, to her years spent as a political refugee in London during the Nazi Blitz, her family’s flight from Communism, and her arrival finally in America.
The book will also provide the story of her extraordinary rise to power in the US, from her years as a legislative aide and a staff member of the National Security Council to her tenure as the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, culminating with an account of her groundbreaking service as US Secretary of State. Secretary Albright’s personal story, as a woman who raised her family while struggling to succeed professionally in a world historically dominated by males, will also be a central theme of the book.
Secretary Albright said, "I am thrilled by the opportunity to tell the rather complicated story of my life which has been shaped by the major events and tragedies of our times; and to express my gratitude for the blessings I have been given of a wonderful family, good friends, and the chance to live in and serve the greatest nation on earth. I am especially excited by the prospect of working with Talk Miramax, one of America’s most dynamic and forward-looking publishing firms."
"Madeleine Albright’s life story is incredibly resonant," said Jonathan Burnham. "Her appointment as Secretary of State signaled a new era of possibilities for women. And the personal details of her life, from her discoveries about her family to her perspective on the political upheavals of the last administration, will contribute to an amazing story."
"Madeleine Albright is one of the most distinguished and inspiring women of our time," said Tina Brown. "Her memoir will be an epic personal odyssey. The narrative of the extraordinary endeavors in which she has taken part, and the events that happened on her watch, will make for an engrossing book, one that weaves together the personal and the public in a truly compelling way."
"Madeleine Albright has lived a remarkable life, and the fascinating, timeless stories about her personal and professional life in this book will be of profound interest to Americans and people around the world," said Harvey Weinstein. "She has broken numerous barriers--providing inspiration and encouragement to immigrants, women, minorities and all Americans that they too can attain one of the highest offices in the nation, or any goal they set for themselves."
Sarah Crichton, former Publisher of Little, Brown and Co., will serve as editor on the book. "Secretary Albright has a very clear vision for this book and we’re certain she will write a tremendously compelling and engaging memoir, one which will appeal to the broadest possible audience. We’re tremendously excited to be working with her on it."
Secretary Albright was represented by her attorney Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly. Charles Layton, Miramax executive vice president — office of the co-chairman, and Dev Chatillon, Talk Miramax executive vp and general counsel, negotiated for Talk Miramax.
In 2002 Talk Miramax Books will be publishing — among other titles — the autobiography of Her Majesty Queen Noor, and the memoirs of super-lawyer David Boies. Talk Miramax Books is also the publisher of Simon Schama’s A History of Britain, and Dr. Jerri Nielsen’s Ice Bound, which is next week’s New York Times #1 non-fiction bestselling hardcover.
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani agrees to two book deal with Talk Miramax Books
Talk Miramax Books has reached an agreement with New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on a two book deal that will include a memoir and a leadership and management guide, it was announced today by Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, Tina Brown, chairman of Talk Media Inc., Jonathan Burnham, president and editor-in-chief of Talk Miramax Books, and Brad Grey, chairman of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment.
The memoir will provide full and frank details of the Mayor’s life and times, including insight into his early years, his family memories, his tenure as the third ranking official in the Department of Justice, the cases he prosecuted as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his remarkable transformation of New York City during his tenure as Mayor. It will culminate with the Mayor’s extraordinary Year 2000 -- with details surrounding his senate campaign, cancer diagnosis and personal experiences.
The Mayor’s second project will reveal his personal management principles -- the secrets to his successful rehabilitation of New York City, his running of the US Attorney’s Office, and his taking a coal company out of bankruptcy in the early 1970’s -- in an easy-to-read blueprint for success for managers of companies and organizations of all shapes and sizes, in the vein of "In Search of Excellence" and "Who Moved My Cheese?"
Mayor Rudy Giuliani said," I very much look forward to working with Harvey, Tina and Jonathan on these books. Talk Miramax Books is the most exciting new imprint to appear on the publishing scene for quite some time and their enthusiasm coupled with their professionalism convinced me this was a perfect match.
"There has been no more towering figure in NYC during the last decade than Rudy Giuliani," said Harvey Weinstein. "Die hard New Yorkers like me know that New York City is the capitol of the world, and he made life in the capitol shine bright. I’ve said it before - I did vote for him and am a huge fan. And other than the things that he and I disagree on, he has a perfect record. I’ve known Brad Grey for twenty years, and I truly appreciate how he and his colleague Jonathan Liebman brought the Mayor and I together during the past week, showing us how we can work so well together."
"Hearing just a small sample of the Mayor’s triumphs in prosecuting white collar criminals and running the city had me spellbound," said Tina Brown. "In light of the discovery of his father’s past, the Mayor’s career long fight against crime is an even more intriguing human interest story that will appeal to men and women alike."
"Some people only associate the Mayor with New York City, but this a man who enjoys popularity all around the world -- from England and Italy to Israel and Japan," said Jonathan Burnham. "His management book will provide concrete guidelines to run a successful business or organization."
Mayor Giuliani was represented by Brad Grey, chairman and CEO of Brillstein Grey entertainment and Jonathan Liebman, vice chairman of Brillstein Grey. Harvey Weinstein personally negotiated the deal for Talk Miramax.
Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, based in Los Angeles, represents over 200 clients in the entertainment industry, producing television shows like "The Sopranos" on HBO, "Politically Incorrrect with Bill Maher," on ABC, and "Just Shoot Me" at NBC. They are currently producing the films "A View from the Top," starring Gwyneth Paltrow, with Miramax, and "City by the Sea," starring Robert DeNiro, for Warner Brothers.
TALK MIRAMAX BOOKS Acquires World Publishing Rights To Book By Renowned Attorney David Boies
Talk Miramax Books has entered into an agreement with renowned attorney David Boies to publish a book about his legal career spanning over three decades and involving clients as varied as the Justice Department, Don Imus, IBM, and former vice-president Al Gore. The announcement was made today by Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman Miramax Films, Tina Brown, chairman of Talk Media, Inc., Jonathan Burnham, president and editor-in-chief, Talk Miramax Books, and Norman Brokaw, Chairman of the Board, William Morris, representing Mr. Boies.
"David is one of the preeminent attorneys in our courtrooms today," Harvey Weinstein said. "We are absolutely thrilled to be associated with him."
"David Boies is a winner," Tina Brown said. "He has been in the center of some of the most exciting and explosive legal battles in this country. He's General Patton in a suit. He's simply the best there is and we are thrilled to have him on our team. If you want to know how David Boies slays the dragons, you will want to read this book."
Norman Brokaw commented, "We chose Talk Miramax Books because of their passion for and commitment to David's work, the sensitivity and intelligence with which they will publish it, the other titles we will be associated with and ultimately Harvey's and Tina's commitment to the written word. We couldn't be in better hands."
Boies already had an unprecedented career of big cases and even bigger wins when he was thrust into the limelight during his stunning battle and victory on behalf of the Justice Department in its antitrust case against Microsoft. This was followed by his defense of Napster against the recording industry. And then, in November of 2000, Boies took center stage defending vice-president Al Gore in front of the Florida State Supreme Court. In addition to the former vice-president, Boies' clients over the years include Don Imus, Garry Shandling, Calvin Klein, and George Steinbrenner. His high caliber client list and his victorious track record prompted The National Law Journal to call him the "Michael Jordan of the courtroom."
In his book, Boies will give his own behind the scenes account of these and other landmark cases for which he is known: from his role as prosecutor for Resolution Trust against Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert to his defense of CBS in a libel suit brought on by General William Westmoreland. The book will explain the strategies deployed in some of his most celebrated cases providing a fascinating anatomy of the way a top lawyer fights and negotiates successfully.
David Boies commented, "I look forward to working with Tina Brown and Jonathan Burnham on a project that will be interesting for me and I hope will be interesting for others."
Charles Layton, executive vice president, office of co-chairman for Miramax Films and Devereux Chatillon, executive vice president and general counsel for Talk Media negotiated the book deal on behalf of Talk Miramax Books. In addition to Mr. Brokaw, Mel Berger of the William Morris Agency negotiated the deal on behalf of Mr. Boies.
Talk Miramax Books, a division of Miramax Films' Talk Media, Inc., was founded in January 1999. Talk Media's chairman is Tina Brown and President is Ron Galotti. Talk Miramax Books is also the publisher of bestselling authors Martin Amis, Simon Schama, and Christopher Rice. Other recent publications include the critically acclaimed first novel The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, and the highly anticipated memoir of Dr. Jerrri Nielsen, Ice Bound.