‘ZINE ZING: When Tina Brown took over...

‘ZINE ZING: When Tina Brown took over as editor of the New Yorker in September, she was expected to inject the staid magazine with some pop culture coverage, just as she had done at Vanity Fair. And the pundits proved right: Brown has added a regular column on TV criticism and has expanded the magazine’s coverage of Hollywood.

So how come one of her first moves was to fire pop music critic Elizabeth Wurtzel and eliminate her monthly column? “She doesn’t care about popular music,” says Wurtzel, who’s now working on a book about depression--a project she began before being fired by Brown. “I’d say, ‘Look, Michael Stipe doesn’t do interviews, but I can get him to talk to me. How about it?’ And she’s like, ‘Who’s R.E.M.?’ She just doesn’t get it.” Brown declined comment, but a spokeswoman said the magazine will “continue to cover pop music, but not on a regular basis, as the subject warrants and arises.” Since Wurtzel’s departure in Octo ber, the only feature the New Yorker has run having anything to do with pop music was a brief item on Marky Mark’s underwear ads.