Hello! Golly--It’s People Lite

In the wake of Princess Diana’s death, even some people whose tabloid reading was confined to skimming in checkout lines ceased consorting with those rags. But the savvy have found a more satisfying replacement--the English magazine (and we use that term loosely) Hello!

In the Hello! world, there is no celebrity too minor to merit a multipage puff piece. A lengthy article on Rod Stewart’s 17-year-old daughter announcing her decision to go into modeling typifies the Hello! gestalt.

Hello! readers can always count on at least one story about an aging actor-musician and his decades-younger wife chortling about their new baby, or a twentysomething declaring a latest monthlong romance to be the love of her life. It’s banal, vapid, simpering and totally addictive.

Hello! was overlooked at the newsstands, until Diana’s death found buyers snapping up anything to do with England and royalty. And, once exposed to the world of Hello!, people find it hard to look away. Typical of newsstands around the area, Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena used to carry only a couple of copies each week and buried the magazine with other obscure imports. Now, Vroman’s orders about 20 copies, placing them prominently next to the cash register with other hot periodicals.

“We love it,” says “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” coordinating producer Caroline Kallas, whose office staff got hooked thanks to their British set designer’s subscription. “It’s too much fun. We keep saying, ‘Who is this person, and why are they famous, and why do they merit a four-page layout?’ ”

Hello! is also a big deal in Europe and Latin America, with versions in languages such as Spanish and Italian. Pop culture sightings include a mention in Judith Krantz’s 1996 novel, “Spring Collection.” Hello! also was the focus of an episode of British TV’s “AbFab,” which should tell you how absolutely fabulous the magazine is. Just don’t make it any harder for us to find our own weekly copy.