G&J cooked the ‘Rosie’ books
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With just a week to go before Rosie O’Donnell and Gruner & Jahr, the publisher of Rosie magazine before it ended, face off in court, new evidence of book cooking has surfaced.
In case you’re playing catch up, here’s the deal: O’Donnell and G&J formed Rosie magazine and it was set to compete amicably with O: The Oprah Magazine as an extension of the Rosie brand (which included her now-defunct The Rosie O’Donnell Show at the time). O’Donnell’s contract stipulated she must stay in the deal unless the magazine failed to reach a specific circulation, but after numerous disputes and one final blowout, she up and left anyhow. G&J sued her for breach of contract. O’Donnell counter-sued.
In a Friday article, Women Wear Daily’s Jacob Bernstein revealed new information showing G&J started inflating circulation numbers as far back as October 2001, in effect forcing O’Donnell to stay with the magazine because the numbers were high enough to keep her locked into her contract. In January 2003, O’Donnell thought the inflated figures dated back only until May 2002.
The evidence gives O’Donnell a significantly more sound case. As for G&J, it sounds like they’ll be adding another hashmark to their list of faked digits, a la YM in 2001.
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