Posted: 3:38 am
October 1, 2008
PUBLISHERS have been chasing Tina Fey to write a book for years.
But now that the "30 Rock" and former "Saturday Night Live" star is the doppelganger to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, her celebrity status has turned white hot - and her book prospects are even hotter.
With very little prodding, Richard Abate, who left ICM to head up the East Coast operation at rival talent agency Endeavor, has begun sounding out publishers on their interest and - surprise, surprise - the lit set is panting for the chance to publish Fey.
One publisher out of the gate offered to pay a $5 million advance. Others jumped in, which, according to our sources, triggered a bidding war and sent the price tag to toward the $6 million range.
Abate declined to comment.
A source said that there is no proposal and that Fey, who has made two return appearances on SNL to satirize Palin, has been too busy to meet with publishers face to face.
One source familiar with the talks said that her book is not being pitched as a memoir, but instead as nonfiction humor, more in the style of author, screenwriter and film director Nora Ephron.
Paper talks
The Star-Ledger's unionized truck drivers and the paper's controlling Newhouse family are very close to a deal that could save the embattled Newark-based newspaper from extinction or a sale, according to top sources on both the labor and management side of the divide.
Talks are continuing even as the clock ticks toward a final deadline of Oct. 7.
"We are almost there," said Doug Panattieri, head of the Newspaper and Mail Delivery Union, which represents the drivers.
Donald Newhouse, president of Advance Publications, which owns the Star-Ledger, said, "We have agreements on many of the points with the drivers. We are still hopeful we can reach an agreement."
Neither side would go into specifics but it is believed that the drivers would model their agreement on accords that the pressmen and mailers, the other two unionized crafts, have already ratified.
In those deals, the unions agreed to set aside their collective- bargaining agreements, forego wage increases and accept a workforce reduction with buyout offers.
The 350,000-circulation daily is the largest paper in New Jersey but is said to be losing between $35 million and $40 million a year.
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