It's Springtime, When CultureGrrl's Thoughts Turn to...

a new MoMA PR person!

Here's the PR on the PR:

Glenn D. Lowry has announced the appointment of Cheri Fein as deputy director for marketing and communications at the Museum of Modern Art. As head of the marketing and communications division [repetitive, don't you think?], Ms. Fein will oversee some 24 staff in the departments of marketing, communications, and graphics. She will assume her new position in April 2007. Ms. Fein is currently a senior vice president at Rubenstein Communications, Inc., in New York.

She succeeds Ruth Kaplan, whose somewhat mysterious departure was unannounced when it happened a while back. The press release tells us only that Ruth "left the museum in March after five years, following the successful completion of the museum's expansion and renovation project." (Actually, they omitted the comma, making it seem as if she left five years after the completion of the expansion---impossible. We hope that Cheri will proofread all press releases.)

It seems to me that Ruth was absent from press previews some time before March. When I finally asked, a few weeks ago, why she was gone, I got the standard seeking-new-challenges reply and was told that she had been doing some consulting work for MoMA after she left her full-time post.

In this PR context, I feel compelled to inform you that my recent post on "How to Manage the Press" (Cheri, it's here) has soared to Number 3 on the CultureGrrl Hit Parade. PR people consulting this for helpful inside tips must be just as disappointed as the perverts looking for carnal cartoon characters in my Number 2 all-time post, More on Minnie Mouse Porn (the unsensational contents of which are actually more timely than ever, given Viacom's lawsuit against Google's YouTube). That post, about possible trademark and copyright infringement in online videos, continues to be savored internationally, thanks to its Number 1 status (which I've mentioned previously) on Google's search engine, under the heading, "Minnie Mouse porn."

I am also stunned and amazed that those who Google "vagina wallpaper" (as many, alas, have done) arrive at this post about a St. Louis art exhibition. It's Number 3 on the list of results for that bizarre Google search.

But, Philippe, you still rock for CultureGrrl's born-to-be-wild readers: My most popular post remains Who Should Succeed Philippe at the Met?