ITSY BITSY’S BIG PLAN: A MAG FOR TELETUBBIES FANS
DON’T tell the Rev. Jerry Falwell, but the “Teletubbies” TV show on PBS is already such a big hit in the book publishing world it may soon have a magazine spin-off here.
There are 5 million Teletubbies books in print, including those from a licensing deal with Scholastic Inc. that was hatched only last September.
Now, the power behind the cute foursome may be thinking about spinning off a magazine in a joint venture with the BBC.
“We’ve had discussions on that,” said Peter Phippen, CEO of BBC Worldwide Americas, the New York-based profit seeking arm of the British Broadcasting Corp. The BBC already publishes the Teletubbies magazine in England under a licensing agreement with its creators, Rag Doll Productions.
“I think there is a magazine opportunity here,” says Phippen.
Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which brought the British TV show to the U.S. last year, has to sign off on any deals.
“We’re thinking about it,” says an Itsy Bitsy spokesman, but no deals are imminent.
On the book front, five new titles are ready to hit in July, according to Michelle Kanter, senior marketing manager at Itsy Bitsy. Setting the pace for the 18 titles in print so far: “Teletubbies Hide and Seek” is No. 1, just barely ahead of “The Magic String.”
The show, as most toddlers and their parents know, features four roundish, cuddly characters – Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-laa and Po. They roam around in a make-believe meadow and babble in baby talk. Mini-television sets built into their tummies pick up broadcasts from a special pinwheel radio tower.
In remarks that triggered a national uproar in February, Falwell said that the largest Teletubbie, Tinky Winky, could be serving as a gay role model. He pointed to Tinky Winky’s purple color, a triangle-shaped antenna atop its head and a handbag that the character carries.
That national uproar has not seemed to dim the appreciation of parents or their youngest tykes for the show – or for the books.
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How often does a fictional character come to life at a book party?
The bash for Kurt Andersen’s first-ever novel, “Turn of the Century,” published by Random House, attracted an assortment of heavy hitters, media celebrities and bright lights Monday night at Da Silvano in the Village.
Chief among them, was a hyperactive James Cramer, the hedge-fund manager and founder of TheStreet.com, the online news service that went public yesterday.
While the Andersen book uses composites for many of the characters, Cramer is one of the few who is identified by his real name in the book. Cramer wasted no time in favorably reviewing the book in yesterday’s TheStreet.com. [He disclosed that he is a character in the book, as well as a friend of Andersen.]
Cramer just renewed his one-year contributing-writer gig with Time magazine, sources said, although after seeing his stake in TheStreet.com grow to $203 million, he probably won’t need the cash anytime soon.
Also on hand at the Andersen bash, writer Lynn Hirshberg, who skewered one-time super agent Michael Ovitz in the cover story of last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. Everyone was hoping for fireworks when she ran into Ovitz, who was expected at the bash.
“He was invited and responded ‘yes,'” said a spokeperson for The New Yorker, which tossed the party for Andersen. Alas, Ovitz was a no-show.
Party goers weren’t cheated though – two antagonists did meet Monday night.
Esquire Editor-in-Chief David Granger and his one-time mentor, and now archrival, GQ Editor-in-Chief Art Cooper, bumped into one another.
Did they bury the hatchet?
“There is no hatchet,” insisted Granger. “We just chatted very pleasantly.”
And what about the peace lunch that was supposed to hinge on who did or did not win a National Magazine Award earlier this month? Both mags were nominated but were ultimately shut out of the winners circle.
“We’ll have lunch sometime, I’m sure,” said Granger.
Cooper says, “The ball is in their court. I said if neither of us won, then Valerie Salembier [Esquire publisher] was supposed to buy us both lunch.”