Just Take<i> That</i> , Tina Brown!

The earthquake that shook the brie-ridden world of the cultural elite this month was the announcement that Vanity Fair Editor Tina Brown would be hopping over to the New Yorker.

Words such as venerable are usually used to describe the New Yorker, just as flashy usually goes with the mag Brown leaves behind.

Social Climes heard that the reaction around the Vanity Fair office in New York was primarily in the how-does-this-affect- moi range.

In a way, this is the same reaction had by local New Yorker fans. They’re a bit proprietary about the magazine.

Here is a list of assorted comments heard around Los Angeles on the changeover:

* “Does this mean Ally Sheedy has a place to publish her poetry?” asked an environmental activist.

* “It’s like learning Billy Idol is the new conductor of the London Symphony,” a local magazine editor opined.

* “The first time I see Gail Sheehy’s byline, I’ll cancel my subscription.”

* “I don’t read the New Yorker. I don’t read Vanity Fair either. I don’t read things with long articles. I’m that shallow.” Said, of course, by a television executive.

* “Can Annie Leibovitz draw cartoons?”

* “I don’t want ever to know if Luke Perry can write short fiction.”

* “What’s going to happen to John McPhee and his 30,000-word articles on dams of the Southwest? Does Cher live near a dam? Does Goldie Hawn live near a dam?” asked a magazine columnist.

* “Remember that big Calvin Klein ad insert? What will the New Yorker have? Poets in various states of undress?”

* “It’s insane. I can’t wait.”

Essentials

What you need to maneuver the L.A. scene: It used to be that baseball caps alone were the essential hip accouterments for trendoids. Now, with the baseball films “The Babe” and “A League of Their Own,” the look has gone beyond that to include baseball jerseys. You can find various styles at such places as Champs and American Rag, but the one Social Climes has had its eye on is offered in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue. It’s the jersey worn by Gary Cooper in “Pride of the Yankees” and it goes for a very cool $125,000.