The tug of war for hot Brit editor Nicola McCarthy is over, The Post has learned, throwing the launch plans for an American version of OK! into question.
Richard Desmond, the one-time soft porn publisher in Britain who is trying to introduce the celebrity-friendly OK!magazine to the United States this fall was dealt a setback yesterday in his battle with Jann Wenner for McCarthy.
McCarthy was attempting to jump from Wenner Media’s Us Weekly – where she had worked for less than a year – back to Desmond’s North & Shell Group, where she once served as editor of the British edition.
A settlement hammered out yesterday blocks McCarthy from leaving Wenner to work for the American version of OK! at least until April 2006, when her current contract with Wenner Media expires, legal sources said.
Wenner initially obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the jump.
Desmond, gearing up for high-stakes litigation, had recently brought in attorney Paul Verkuil from David Boise’s law firm to handle the case. Earlier, Desmond had hired Cowan, Liebovitz & Latum in the legal battle. Verkuil and Wenner could not be reached for comment at presstime.
It’s not clear what the setback will do to the launch plans for OK! Desmond is faced with the prospect of dropping McCarthy entirely, filling the post with a new person or an interim editor or delaying the launch until she is available.
But the celebrity market, which is one of the few to show newsstand growth, is getting increasingly crowded.
The National Enquirer is staffing up for a relaunch in New York City with half its staff composed of new British reporters. And American Media is also launching Celebrity Weekly next month.
Bauer Publishing, which cracked the 1 million circulation mark with In Touch, is also trying to prime the pump for its new entry, Life & Style weekly, with a promotional 25 cents-a-copy promotional price for one week.
Wenner may have been particularly incensed by OK!’s pending launch because it was going to use CoMag, the Hearst/Conde Nast owned distribution company to get the magazines to market.
Wenner had jumped to CoMag last year when he grew dissatisfied with American Media’s Distribution Services Inc., fearing it was favoring the new glossy Star over Wenner’s Us Weekly.