by Kara Baskin
Rolling Stone, once the anti-corporate vanguard of underground style, is now allegedly modeling itself after Donald Trump. This is very painful, not least because the man's hair would have once gotten him evacauted from the RS premises. But the times just might be changing. The New York Post via Gawker reports that RS founder Jann Wenner is in talks to do an Apprentice-style reality show on MTV. Aspiring writers would set out to cover stories for the magazine, and one lucky wordsmith would get published. However, getting published in Rolling Stone isn't quite the outlaw badge of honor it once was. (Jann Wenner, if you're reading this, I'm only lying for the sake of the next paragraph. I would love to work for you. Why did you stop taking my calls?)
This bizarre rumor leads me to wonder: What would have happened if the show were taped during Rolling Stone's 60s and 70s heydey? I picture Hunter S. Thompson ravaging the hotel minibar while Cameron Crowe berates him for not being a team player; Lester Bangs breaking down in tears and collapsing on the boardroom table after a firing; and Joe Eszterhas getting booted from the show after Annie Leibovitz slips shots of him in compromising positions to the tabs. (He would eventually triumph, of course, going on to write a screenplay about it, perhaps casting Sharon Stone.)