Murder, She Wrote, and It’s Selling

Cosmopolitan magazine’s editor in chief, Kate White, happily reports that reading her new novel, “If Looks Could Kill,” is like devouring a box of chocolates. “It won’t cleanse your soul,” said White of the book, which was the first pick of “Regis and Kelly” co-host Kelly Ripa for the TV show’s book club. “It has no intrinsic value. It’s not good for you.”

(Ripa told USA Today this week that she had picked the book for its cover and its beach-reading quality because “there is too much reality in the world today.”)

The book, a murder mystery set in the world of magazine publishing, may sugar-coat the brain, but then White never set out to write a “literary novel,” she said. The empty calories are flying off the shelves. After Ripa’s book club pick, the novel sold out overnight in stores nationwide.

“They had to medevac in new supplies,” said White, author of two self-help books, “Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead ... but Gutsy Girls Do” and “9 Secrets of Women Who Get Everything They Want,” and editorial muse of the premiere magazine of chocolate, beach reading and self-help.

The book, which has its share of Cosmo-esque fantasy elements, begins with this description of Cat Jones, the editor in chief of a women’s magazine: She “was the kind of woman who not only got everything in the world that she wanted--in her case a fabulous job

White is not Jones, she said by phone from her New York home, adding that she didn’t model her characters on friends or colleagues. Still, some are playing the literary guessing game: Who is the fashion editor? Who are the writers? White said she only stole lines, not characters.

“I overheard someone say, ‘I wish I had a stalker. If you have a stalker, that means you’re cute.’ I co-opted that,” White said. And some incidents at Cosmopolitan would make it into the book, such as the celebrity whom White would not name, who refused to pose wearing silk. “‘Jeez,’ I said, ‘why not?’ Well, she objected to the cruelty to silkworms,” White said. “I must admit, I had never thought of their suffering in any big way.”

At work, White would keep a diary on her computer, taking note of other tidbits, like the photo editor who rented a herd of buffaloes for a fashion shoot. (They posed in the background.)

Although such note-taking was done at work, the writing was done at home, while her teenage children slept. “I don’t do sports, I have no Martha Stewart abilities, I don’t do needlepoint,” White said. “This is my hobby.”

A Thoroughly Hopeful ‘Millie’ on Broadway

It’s a gray day in Manhattan, but director Michael Mayer, whose musical comedy “Thoroughly Modern Millie” opened on Broadway two weeks ago, is barely aware of the weather. The Tony Awards nominations are days away and Mayer is fully engaged in building buzz. “Really every week now I’ve got benefits luncheons, awards ceremonies,” he said Monday by phone from his Manhattan apartment. “It’s crazy and really fun. It’s the game part of it.”

On Tuesday, the show earned 12 nominations from the Drama Desk, a group of theater critics, editors and reporters. Among the nominees were Mayer, star Sutton Foster and performer Marc Kudisch, composer Jeanine Tesori, lyricist Dick Scanlan, librettists Scanlan and Richard Morris, and choreographer Rob Ashford.

Mayer’s production, which is based on the 1967 film of the same name, is set during the Jazz Age and tracks the adventures of flapper Millie Dillmount. “Millie” enjoyed a sold-out run and rave reviews last winter at the La Jolla Playhouse, but, the director and his theatrical team were left wanting more. “All the parts were there,” he said. “But the heart wasn’t.”

So during the months between shows, they revamped the production, adding a more lavish set and several new songs and scenes that further develop the show’s nine principal characters. “It’s special in the same way that ‘Funny Girl’ was so much about Fanny Brice, or ‘Evita’ ... because of its central character, who you get to know inside and out,” Mayer said. “We’ve taken a fun idea in a less-than-perfect movie and improved on it significantly.”

Now the question is whether the Tony Award judges (their peers in the business) agree.

Stallone Hams It Up for Italian Company

There’s a new face in Italian meat products this spring: Sylvester Stallone.

The actor last week earned some extra cash posing as a James Bond-type character in a TV commercial for Citterio, an Italian company. During a one-day shoot aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Stallone donned scuba gear in one scene and rappelled off the side of the ship in another. His mission in the spot is to stop a couple of jewel thieves from escaping with their loot. Stallone succeeds, but when he reveals his name as “Bubi,” his mystique dissolves and he becomes the butt of a joke. “This company is saying, not only do you have to have a good product, but you have to have a reputable name,” said Matthew Feitshans of commercial production company Movie Magic L.A. The spot airs for one year in Italy starting May 21.

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