Jossiping With Noelle Hancock 36791

We know Noelle Hancock from her media gossip days at the New York Observer and party crasher extraordinaire for Gawker. You may know her for other reasons — blinding blonde locks, legs up to her neck, and her “decent-sized rack.” (And she doesn’t even work at Conde Nast!) Ok, let’s just put it this way: she doesn’t look like anyone’s butt.

Noelle is now leading the tabloid blog revolution as the top editor of Us Weekly’s blog, and cashing plenty Jann Wenner’s checks by contributing to Rolling Stone as well.

We’re not sure if we’d call Noelle up-and-coming … since she’s pretty much up there in terms of media creds (she’s got Cosmopolitan, the New York Post, and Blacktable under her belt, as well) but she’s still fresh enough out of Yale to be more impressive than passe.

After the jump, learn how to live vicariously through her for a day by reading Amazon, eating cereal, and dreaming of living in France with a gay boyfriend. (Though her real-life beau actually is straight.) We hope it was worth waiting ’til Tuesday for.

What is it like running a blog for a corporate media outlet like Wenner? Surely, you have to go through a lot more regulation before content goes up on your site?

The blog is held to the same standards as the magazine. Everything that I write is sent to the copy editing and fact-checking departments. We also have to police the message boards and delete libelous comments or off-topic commentary like, ???????I bet you look like my butt.???????

The items have to be approved by one or two executive editors to make sure I????????m not writing about something they????????re saving for the magazine or being too offensive ???????? although they give me a lot of leeway in that respect, for which I am very grateful.

Initially, what attracted you to the job of “Us Weekly blogger?”

Who, among us, hasn’t aspired to write about Jessica Simpson’s hair extensions for a living? Or wanted to ask the questions everyone else is asking like, ???????Is Keira [Knightley] too skinny????????

Honestly, it????????s just a really fun gig. I actually got an email from someone who wanted to be Brad and Angelina????????s nanny and sent me her resume so I could pass it along to them. How could you not love a job after something like that? Good times.

You’ve become sort of a well-known name around the media/party scene. How much of that would you connect to your time at the Observer?

Let????????s be real here: 25% of those people probably know me from my byline at the Observer, 25% from my contributions to Gawker, and 50% from my being a hot blonde with a decent-sized rack.

That said, I still run into people who don????????t realize I????????ve left the Observer. They tell me they liked some article I didn????????t write, and naturally, I immediately thank them and take credit for someone else????????s work.

Does Jann Wenner even know that Us Weekly has a blog?

Well, none of my checks have bounced so I assume someone on the Wenner food chain is aware of its existence.

What is the first media you take in every morning? Do you read competitive celeb sites throughout the day?

First thing I read is Yahoo! Entertainment News to see if anyone died, gave birth, or set themselves on fire while I was asleep. Then I move on to the New York Post, New York Daily News, E! and blogs like Jossip, Gawker, Defamer, Mollygood, Perez Hilton, our weekly competitors???????? sites, etc.. Then I hit ???????refresh??????? every 10 seconds for the rest of the day.

Are there any non-gossip blogs/sites you adore? You seem like one of these really in-the-know New York people. What little gems are most people skipping over?

The workday is pretty much dominated by blogging and trolling the aforementioned sites. So after leaving the office, all I want to do is read the New York Times or the New Yorker and not be on the computer.

Other than that, I once heard a humor writer recommend reading negative reviews of classic books on Amazon.com for fun. It????????s endlessly amusing. People write things like, ???????Hamlet does too much TALKING and not enough STUFF!!!???????

What would your dream writing job be, assuming that stalking Suri Cruise is not your lifetime goal.

Anywhere you can write with irreverence and ???????voice??????? is a dream job because there aren????????t that many places where you can make a living doing that. I also love writing incredibly self-indulgent personal essays. When I was at the Observer, I wrote an essay on my parakeet as metaphor for the second coming of Christ. That was fun. I guess, ideally, I????????d want David Sedaris???????? life and that includes living in France with a gay boyfriend.

You’ve worked at the Observer and were the party crash correspondent at Gawker – is there anything you miss about the media gossip scene?

Probably the ???????frooze??????? ???????? free food and booze. Also, being at parties where every sentence is prefaced by, ???????Well, off the record???????.???????

Finally, what does an Us Weekly blogger eat for breakfast?
A bowl of Raisin Bran cereal. It????????s all about those two scoops of raisins, yo.