Oops! The Times Did It Again!

It doesn't quite sink to the depths of the NY Times' Oct. 6,2002 Page-One article that solemnly chronicled Britney Spears' "process of refashioning herself for a new career," but it must surely rank as the all-time apogee of tackiness for the paper's "Arts & Leisure" section.

I am, of course, referring to what must be the largest, sorriest photo ever run on that section's front page---the above-the-fold full-color display in yesterday's paper of a pudgy, unattractive Las Vegas showgirl in full plumage, for an article featuring such trenchant quotes as, "I don't want to hip-hop topless. I want my tatas to stay where they are."

The Times thought so much of this story that it also used the cheesecake shot as a Page One teaser. Strangely, the photo caption failed to identify the rhinestone showgirl who got such prominent play.

I know that the "Arts & Leisure" section has been devoting more space to the lowbrow---a beneath-contempt attempt to appeal to its many readers who have no use for high culture. But a 1943-word, six-photo spread devoted to the demise of the showgirl is just too much of a bad thing. Fittingly, another headline on the same page queries, "How Do You Say 'Desperate' in Spanish?" That article chronicles another topic of burning cultural interest---the Latin American incarnation of "Desperate Housewives."

The infamous Page-One article and photo devoted to Britney Spears appeared during Howell Raines' reign as executive editor. Perhaps the editors of the "Arts & Leisure" section will have to defend their news judgment in similar terms to those offered by the now deposed Raines: The Spears article, he said, elucidated "the fame machine, the economic engine that's behind it, Our readers are interested in reading a sophisticated exegesis of a sociological phenomenon like that."

We can only wonder whether the audience-hungry "Arts & Leisure" editors will next week give equal time and full-frontal coverage to the Las Vegas phenomenon said by yesterday's article to be supplanting showgirls: sexually explicit female revues. After all, we must all stay current with the latest "sociological phenomenon."

I think the NY Times needs to get its "tatas" in place.