The media event all New York is waiting for takes place next week when Tina Brown launches her new magazine called Talk.
And yes, everyone who is anyone is talking about it. Tina Brown has that effect on people. When she gave up her job as editor of the New Yorker magazine last year, the New York Times ran the story on the front page.
Incidentally, the same Times made a point of not making the disappearance, and then the death, of John F. Kennedy jnr its main front page story or lead. That editorial judgment took some nerve when the rest of the media was on a JFK orgy for a full week.
The launch party for Talk will be at the Statue of Liberty on Monday night and fireworks will emblazon the unforgettable event across the New York sky. I have taken out a founding subscription but have not been invited to the party, but then there are said to be 100,000 subscribers so obviously a selection had to be made.
There is a lot riding on the success or failure of Talk. The investors are said to be putting $50 million into it and will have little hope of seeing a profit for several years. The investors, however, are well-heeled. The magazine is owned by Miramax Films, which in turn is owned by Disney which also owns ABC television.
Synergy is what it is all about. The best articles in Talk will be turned into books published by Talk Miramax Books and then into a film to be made by Mira max, of course, and perhaps a TV series to be shown on ABC. That way all the profits stay inside the company and the shareholders should be very happy.
There are the nay-sayers who think the whole thing is mad. Tina Brown has made a reputation as the editor who revived the languishing London Tatler, and then crossed the Atlantic to do a similar job on Vanity Fair and then the venerable New Yorker, where she increased the circulation but failed to turn a profit.
Along the way the blow-in has made enemies as well as admirers. The former are hoping that Talk will turn out to be a disaster and that the uppity English girl will be taught a lesson.
A Vanity Fair writer sneers: "Who would want to sacrifice themselves on the altar of Tina's ego? She has surrounded herself with these wet men who treat her like schoolboys would treat a favourite schoolmistress, bringing her jam jars of wild flowers, saying `Ooh, that's a nice dress Tina.' And by all accounts, she's got a pretty grotty lot of articles."
Tina in last-minute interviews is not giving much away about her new infant. An essay on JFK jnr was hurriedly rushed into the magazine.
There will be a profile of George Bush jnr, who may be the next president, and of the woman married to the present president. Writers are said to include novelist Martin Amis, travel writer Paul Theroux and historian Simon Schama.
The cover is supposed to be a secret but it looks as if it will be shared by Hillary Clinton, George Bush and film actress Gwyneth Paltrow of the Miramax stable and star of Shakespeare in Love.
Having Hillary's face on the cover turned out to be a publicity bombshell for the magazine, which had planned its launch party for the old navy dockyards in Brooklyn.
Mayor Rudi Giuliani, who is running against Hillary for senator in New York (neither has officially declared but both are campaigning like mad) banned the event on public health grounds. The real reason was Hillary but the ban has been a godsend for Tina and her magazine as the press flayed Giuliani for being a bad sport.
Tina, who is married to Harold Evans, former editor of the Sunday Times and the Times until he fell out with the owner, Rupert Murdoch, says tongue in cheek that she is "really astonished by all the attention", but "it confirms my feeling that the time is right for a new magazine, that there is enough interest out there".
Her publisher, Ronald Galotti, whom she lured from Vanity Fair, told the New York Times that "you can never, never under-estimate the fundamental level of interest there is in Tina".
His contribution to stirring the media pot was to send prospective advertiser Louis Vuitton, a rubbish bin with copies of the New Yorker and Vanity Fair stuffed inside. It was not exactly subtle and has not gone down well with these rivals.
Galotti says he wrote a note with the bin saying: "I have taken the liberty of selecting the trash, the garbage, on your media schedule. I suggest you put it out on the kerb."
Photographs are going to be a striking aspect of Talk which was originally subtitled "The American Conversation" until that was thought to be too puzzling for buyers who will see a glossy magazine which will be a cross between Paris-Match, Life and Stern. Tina herself says Talk will be a "cultural search engine", whatever that means. She describes the atmosphere at Miramax as invigorating. "It's like a mobile cardiology unit. There's a general sense of tension which is only broken up by moments of mania."
And talking of synergy, if you rent out the video of Miramax blockbusters such as Shakespeare in Love or Titanic, you will first see Tina plugging her new magazine.
"I think the new century needs a new magazine with a new voice . . . Conversation! . . . Discussion! . . . Chatter! . . . Context! . . . Emotion! . . . Intimacy!"
I can't wait to get my hands on it.