Following are the submissions received by year’s end from Variety’s former muggs. The number of replies is unfortunately down from those of last year. I guess that is to be expected, but it bodes ill for the future in respect to keeping this tradition viable.
ELIZABETH JENSEN
Dec. 15, Ann Arbor, MI
Greetings from Ann Arbor! I’m spending the academic year on a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at U Mich, working on strategies to support the local news ecosystem in Northern Michigan. Not easy work, but I’m having a great time on campus, pretending to be much younger than I am (and telling stories from the good old days). My best to all. Bet
BRUCE BROSNAN
Dec. 18. Atlanta, GA
I took an early retirement over five years ago from The Home Depot corporate marketing department. I was so ready to spend time relaxing and enjoying my many hobbies. What I wasn’t expecting was that not having a job or structure in my life, would result in an existential crisis. I won’t bore you with the details but suffice it to say that watching the news around the clock wasn’t terribly satisfying.
So, 18 months ago, I took the plunge and applied to Georgia State University. I was surprised when they requested my high school transcripts, SAT scores, immunization records, and letters of recommendation. It was complicated but I complied. When I received my acceptance letter, I was both thrilled and terrified.
I’m happy to report that life as a full-time art student has been pure bliss. Crisis averted. I now have a place to be. Usually in the sculpture studio, wood & metal shop, or painting studio. I’ve learned to weld and have improved my woodworking skills. I now routinely use 3D printers, and computerized C&C routing machines. This semester I cast sculptures in clay, glass, bronze, aluminum, and iron. I also have produced a piece with the “lost wax” technique first invented by the Romans.
The school is located in busy downtown Atlanta, so the student body is a very diverse group. They have been incredibly welcoming and supportive of this old white man. Many ask me when I will get my degree. Hopefully never. The longer I can keep doing what I’m doing, the happier I will be. A degree is just a piece of paper; what I now have is a lifestyle. A lifestyle of being around young curious people who love to discuss and create art. For me that’s an A+.
Wishing all the muggs a Merry Christmas and a Trump-free New Year.
MIKE EVANS
Dec. 19 Columbia, SC
Greetings to All!
The Evans Family finds itself spread out across the land! Diane (Daily Variety – LA/Variety-NY and daughter to Daily Variety’s Steve Smith) and I (Variety/Chicago – Variety/LA – Variety/Daily Variety/Daily Variety Gotham/NY – Variety/Daily Variety/Daily Variety Gotham/LA) live outside Columbia, South Carolina, with our great dane, Rocky, and dachshund, Daisy. Son Tyler just graduated from SDSU and lives in San Diego and youngest daughter, Kennedy, is a Junior at UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina!
Michael officially retired after a semi-successful forty-year publishing career this past June! Post-Variety (Publishing Director) he held publisher stints at Palm Springs Life, (Associate Publisher), San Diego Home/Garden Magazine and KUSI-TV (Publisher), San Diego Home/Garden Home Shows at the Del Mar Fairgrounds (Co-Owner), KVEZ-FM “Easy Listening” format in Lake Havasu City (Co-Owner), Havasu News Herald/Parker Pioneer/Havasu Life Magazine (VP/Associate Publisher) and, finally, Greenville Business Magazine, Columbia Business Monthly, Charleston Business Magazine, B2B: Myrtle Beach and B2B: Pee Dee River publications (VP/Publisher)!
Diane is adverse to working from this point further as well! Her post-Variety career saw her in publishing roles for Desert Guide Real Estate Magazine/Palm (Palm Springs), San Diego Home/Garden Magazine, SDHG Virtual Design website, and Havasu News Herald/Parker Pioneer/Havasu Life Magazine (Lake Havasu City, AZ). Diane and I have worked together over the years at four family-run publishing organizations!
Diane and I were hit hard and saddened with the news of Frank Segers passing by dear Barbara! My God, the Good Die Young! In ’84, I got my first advertising job at Variety/Chicago w/Morry Roth (Bureau Chief)! I didn’t meet Frank until three weeks later after his return from his first Asian trip under the tutelage of Harold Myers! It didn’t take long for me to take the temperature of our three-man Variety Chicago operation housed on the Wrigley Building’s North Tower, eleventh floor – Morry was wined and dined by the Chicago TV o&o’s and theatrical producers and would produce a couple of monthly in-depth features on the Chicago TV market’s latest ratings and syndicator Tribune Entertainment across the street. Sege, on the other hand, was a workhorse and produced for each weekly Wednesday issue! He brought his tupperware salad every day, shied away from big boring lunches, and produced stories on the rest of the Midwest and wrote/sold to the Asia market! I had no problem coaxing him to jointly build the new Annual Minnesota Entertainment Section (28 ad pages) and the Annual Ohio Entertainment Section (24 ad pages) along with the Annual Illinois Entertainment Section (48 ad pages)! I traveled next to him on my first Cannes fest trip. We were close. He and his son Matt and I went to the two 1985 Chicago Bears Championship Games outside in Soldier Field in late December! We also went on a Spring Training (baseball) boys trip (w/Matt) to Arizona one year! He was a mentor, friend, and no matter my future publishing advancements, he would never let my head get too big! RIP Frank!
Happy Holidays Muggs!!!
DON GROVES
Dec. 20 Sydney
Greetings to the surviving muggs and special thanks to Besa for keeping Simesite alive and the grand tradition of the annual wraps. It’s hard to believe it’s 38 years since Variety changed hands.
Well, 2025 was a milestone for my wife Jenny and me as we sold our Sydney abode of 23 years and moved to the Southern Highlands. We bought a California-style bungalow in the town of Bowral (population 11,000), down-sizing and a tree change.
It was a co-ordinated move with our daughter Matilda, her husband Cian and their kids Banjo (three and a half) and Stevie (19 months) who are relocating to Moss Vale, a 15-minute drive from our house, in January. Both are paramedics and will be based in Bowral.
As noted on Simesite, we mourned the passing of David Stratton (Strat), the Variety vet who was much admired as the co-host of TV’s At the Movies, author and educator.
Jenny and I continue to enjoy retirement, often collecting our grandkids from daycare, feeding and bathing them while their parents were at work, and having Banjo for sleepovers.
We spent a glorious month on an APT-conducted tour of Spain and Portugal, including a 7-night cruise along the Douro River and stops in multiple towns such as Lisbon, Barcelona, Seville, Granada and Cordoba.
Our Melbourne-based daughter Claudie is thriving in her new job as Communications and Digital Marketing Officer of the government-funded Mental Health Professionals’ Network.
The year ended on a tragic note with the slaughter of 15 innocent people on Bondi Beach, the kind of violent event that is thankfully rare in Oz, and will lead to numerous measures to further tighten gun ownership, outlaw hate speech and incitement to violence, and ramp up antisemitism education in kindergartens, schools and universities.
Best wishes to the muggs for 2026.
Dogo
REBECCA LIEB
Dec. 20 New York
Rebecca Lieb here, filing from Gotham. In semi-retirement, New York is the city I’ve always dreamed of. I’m gorging on movies, museums, and all the culture I can shake a stick at. I’m taking a break from university teaching, but still working as an educator at two museums: MoMA and Neue Galerie. I’m also writing a book about a local artist. Travel is a huge priority right now, under the motto: “while I still can.” My husband and I were on a safari in Kenya and Tanzania in October, heading to India in January. Everyone gets to PH this city eventually, I’d love to hear from any MUGGS passing through.
BRUCE ALDERMAN
Dec. 26 Paris
In this rapidly changing world, we still have Peter and Ian to carry the legacy. Thank you! The person who hired me at Variety nearly 40 years ago, Bill Grantham, is visiting our Paris apt tonight. Bill is doing well and is working on a fascinating project with the support of Trinity College in Ireland. No connection to the film/tv business. I also try to stay in touch with the person who replaced me as Paris bureau chief, Mike Williams. His health is a bit shaky lately and we haven’t been able to meet in person. As for me, the dream continues, I finished the umpteenth draft of yet another script that will have zero chance of seeing the light of day. But this was a project that has been percolating for decades, and I have the moral support of a film veteran – who could ask for more? I retired from the Brooklyn D.A.’s office two years ago, and my new Parisian routine consists of two days a week of Tai Chi martial arts, practice the tenor sax almost daily (ha, I wish). And an oyster Sunday dinner club. Hope everyone is well and wish you all a cheerful holiday season.
TOM GILBERT
Dec. 28 New York
It’s hard to believe 38 years have passed since Variety was sold to Cahners — and 28 years since my last day at Variety in L.A.!
I’m still living mainly in Manhattan and working part time on the New York Post copy desk — remotely, which is a nice convenience that allows me to continue to do my job during the two months a year I spend on Fire Island.
During 2025 I did a bit of traveling. In January I went to Bonaire for 10 days and then to St. Croix, V.I., for a week. Both were tropical and relaxed, but I was particularly taken with Bonaire and its gorgeous beaches and interesting Dutch influence. Then in November, three friends and I took a Viking Ocean cruise from Athens around Greece (finally got to Thessaloniki, whose film fest Variety was always writing about!) and the Greek Islands — plus the amazing ruins of Ephesus (Turkey). Truly a great experience!
New York City continues to amaze me with its ability to seem never-changing while it’s constantly changing. At this point, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. It has been very good to me.
Looking forward to catching up with you other muggs here. And, as always, thanks to Peter and Ian for maintaining the Old Variety flame.
BOB KING
Dec. 29
Hello Variety Muggs,
Many thanks once again to Peter and Ian for sailing the Simesite Flagship!
David Stratton’s passing was so nicely dignified by the two posts from Don Groves. What a roster of things accomplished and heartfelt comments from his many associations in the entertainment industry.
Other notable passings like: Brian Wilson, John Lodge, Robert Redford and Diane Keaton. While I don’t know them personally, but through their music and movies throughout my life I feel like I do.
Condolences to Australia for the tragic loss on Bondi Beach of people celebrating Hannukah. How very very sad. Kudos to Australia for swiftly limiting Social Media to youngsters 16 years and under. Will likely result in better adjusted children and adults.
A volcano in Grindavik, Iceland lay dormant for 800 years. In April 2025 it decided to Wake Up!
I had the great pleasure of a vacation/tour in Iceland that same month. Iceland: home to cleanest water, purist air, lowest crime rate AND….a 4 day work week! Bus tour traveled over 1000 miles, we saw: Glaciers, Lava Beds, Orca Whales, etc… and NO TREES! It was like no place I’d ever seen. Nice folks those Vikings!
My older brother Gary passed away in June at age 81.
On a happier note: I became an uncle again in my old age. A niece named Somi, born in Atlanta, Georgia. And in October a grandson born named Lorenzo. I’m a grandfather for the 4th time!
It was good to see the Man of Steel flying again in Superman and he even has a dog! (who knew?)
Read a good book: Twice by: Mitch Albom. Cover tag reads: What if you got to do everything in your life — again? Now there’s something to think about.
And as for the non-show business part of the world….well…. “the Jury is still Deliberating!”
Best wishes to all for a good New Year 2026!
That’s All Folks!
NORMAN SCHERER
Dec. 30 Sparta, NJ
Hello Muggs
I’ve been driving my love to schools all over the Bronx, where I was living for two days after being born in the St Luke’s Women’s Hospital. She supervises student teachers in the craziest hoods. I can’t let her do it alone. Nowhere to park too often, too dangerous. So we leave before sunrise and follow the red streams of the highways for a few hours. It’s ok, and we leave way before rush hour back to Sparta.
My favorite high school teacher, Mr Micho, once set up a class screening of Citizen Kane inside a church. Creating all weekend screenings of Gone with the Wind inside the school made me a big fan. So when I assisted my love by driving her to a conference near Dublin this summer, I had to drive to up to Tara, which I loved. That’s where I could see escaping America to. Close enough to Rosie O’Donnell’s Dublin. Cork was beautiful too. Good weather but no rainbows. I was really hoping to party with leprechauns, next time. I finally got to drive on the left side of the road and only messed up once in a parking lot.
Took her to Paris for the first time; stayed at the Hilton across from the Louvre. All the streets were invaded by a huge music festival which made the last day crazy, the streets of Paris were so wild.
What’s Europe without enjoying Amsterdam where I handed out my cannabis cup and coffee shop bag to old haunts. I created the bags to boost my presence in the modern weed business. This new weed biz is so weird to me, kids today won’t always chill out smoking my joints, they need to filter this burning herb thru treated paper or plastic? The vape thing I really can’t stand, mixing marijuana with metals. No thanks and who knows what you’re toking? And concentrates ok a bit too much, but I liked Thai sticks back in the late 70’s and early 80’s (thanks Vietnam war which set up the connections). It’s like eating fast food why? When better more pure alternatives are so easy to eat, why poison yourself? So without a filter, a bit of herb comes out in your mouth sometimes, no biggy. With asbestos finger I like to smoke the whole roach and not get paranoid about those beautiful last hits. I really love a gunked up roach, good to the last toke.
I’m documenting some of the willing Caretoker clients and boosting my social media to give me a larger audience for my upcoming sitdown comedy. Tune into Caretoker on Instagram for my act.
Off to Florida soon to see my dad and to turn my American greenbacks (worth less each day) into Hawaiian shirts from Goodwill for my next summer’s NYC street fairs sales/parties. I’m ok on mediums, larges and ex larges but I need a lot of smalls and extra extra larges and up for my inventory. So I always call it Goodwill Hunting. It will be 11th year doing summer NYC street fairs, ten years w/o prices.
We did the Smokey’s the Ozarks to eat bbq for a few weeks and even the best Mexican joints in Arizona again. I love the vibe in Sonoma Arizona. Hot tub heaven.
eBay has been providing our restaurant and travel budget. I’ve been working with three clients selling off their music art and comic collections. With the increased following in eBay I just listed my VHS collection from Video Oyster before Xmas. I had to clear them out as many started getting mouldy. The best tapes were the early ones. Quality went down quickly. A red box Clockwork Orange went for over $1,200. Still getting old Video Oyster prices on some of the rarest. The red box Warner’s were before art was available from their own studio. Talk about red tape. I was afraid without art they would not get interested bidders. Wrong. When I approached that Pawn Stars Guys show out of Vegas, they nixed the values I had on the rarest ones. Have got ’em, mostly.
I watched the Indy’s create the video store market and witnessed their slaughter by the studios’ deals with the chains (who washed drug $ thru supposed cash rentals of catalog). They used rentals of Gone with the Wind to wash their $, gruesome.
Then I watched DVD kill off the rest of the Indy stores with the mobs rackjobbers. Now I see America as all mob run, the foods, health care, politics, all part of the new world order, I guess. This Epstein case should help bring back sanity one day, I hope. My x-rated video store at 62 Pearl St, was directly across from Bear Stearns office in Wall Street one decade after that perverted screw head.
With Video Oyster I was printing my own $, it started losing meaning after a while. Even today I don’t really care much about $, but i guess it helps traveling and enjoying life for sure. I would never have stayed at Variety if it was about the $. ….. When I switched from messenger to sales I only got a $5 a week raise. Still using my Basquiat-signed postcards to do projects, Syd would look down and smile. So $ madness should still not drive my life. Keep sane, muggs. The international scope of journalism is enough to make any of us crazy. Investigative journalism has almost gone extinct. WTF. Just cheers to the life we got to lead before it ended up in this state. Our poor children, if they only gave up their toys and regained the old hippy spirit we could take it all back, with the help of willing journalists of course. Simesite should be a place beyond obits.
PETE PRYOR
Dec.31 Malibou Lake, CA; Applegate Valley, OR.
Wow, another year gone by.
More importantly, grateful that things continue to go well for me, Barbara, the sons and their families. Grandchildren, all in their teens now, are truly a joy. All eight of us got together for a most-enjoyable four-day Thanksgiving family celebration.
Hope all muggs and their families have a Happy, Healthy, Fulfilling and Prosperous 2026!
MIKE MALAK
Dec. 31 Los Angeles
Of course, it’s Dec.. 31st, deadline looms and there’s no time to waste with spare words. Pam and I are doing well, nicely buoyed by a clement climate and the gentle people who populate our city, a congenial mix of all types and ages. Helped, perhaps, by a five- mile buffer of strawberry fields between the peninsula where we live and the busier parts of town off the 101. It’s very beautiful and conducive to creativity. Too bad there’re only so many hours in a day.
My new bench campaign began yesterday. You can donate if you are an American citizen. Am structuring this campaign in an unorthodox fashion, and if it all clicks should be unique. To devote the most time possible, have been declining most new matters. Will know if that decision is wis, or not, soon enough.
My daughter, Marilyn Agnes Malak, age 7, began 1st Grade in Sept. She was born two days after me and we celebrate our birthdays together. A picture is attached. Every night we walk to see the Christmas lights in the neighborhood. She is quite taken by the 12-16’ blow-up dinosaurs that decorate a few front yards. There are smaller pre-historic animals, too, but they’re easier to understand than trying to figure what a Brontosaurus has to do with Christmas, unless the Wise Men traded in their camels.
A gift of a 1980’s set of silk screens by Peter Max from a lady friend was a sweet reminder that there are still kind and generous people in this world which brings me to a favorite memory of Syd that I call:
FATHER CHRISTMAS
At the Daily, people were still in the throes happiness, real and feigned, at deposits of the usual boring booty that flowed into the news room, with enough lucre spilling over into advertising to keep my crowd happy, too.
Do not think Mr. Silverman was in town when he made the dramatic gesture that diminished every ounce of rot gut, box of tooth decay, and hidden cards through which you could see a president’s face. But if not, his presence loomed over Cahuenga Blvd. bigger than any name above a picture’s title, at least for the Davarian employees.
The blissful moment was heralded by a very short note, typed on those funky green half-sheets, announcing the act that forever cemented Syd in his employees’ pantheon of the greatest bosses of all time. People, naturally, were always happy to see envelopes from him at this time of year because he regularly gave employees a two-week annual Christmas bonus, except for one very slim year, with the antiquarian brother and sisterhood faring somewhat better.
This year was superbly special, however, because inside the small envelopes that fit the half sheets typed the words on his very tired old Underwood were the fly-away letters that read, “Thanks to your effort we had a very good year. This is to show my appreciation.” (Signed) Syd.
It took a moment, but when the staff read the digits on the checks inside it went bonkers. If there is such a word as “boffolicious” because, it would describe the universal ecstatic sentiment of that warmed each employee’s wallet at seeing their bonus check was equal to a year of their salary, paid without withholding.
If you weren’t on board at the time, you can imagine the loyalty this generosity engenders, so on behalf of all still living who were thusly gifted, I’ll say, once again, God Bless Mr. Silverman! We hope you’re winning every race. Wishing all a very prosperous and interesting new year from the Pacific Ocean to Hollywood, to White Plains, Madrid, Oz, London, and all points in-between.
PETER BESAS
Dec. 31 Madrid
As the modern world spins by, ever accelerating with electronic gadgetry, AI, and remakes of old films, I have hunkered down in my comfortable digs, re-reading old books, listening to classic music, watching vintage films and occasionally lunching with family and friends. I don’t miss crowding into airports or fighting the tourist mobs in the Louvre, Venice or the Fontana di Trevi, all of which I first visited 50 or more years ago. The years of TWA and PanAm, of the Carnegie Deli, of the Lyons corner tea rooms are long since gone as are so many of the muggs and friends.
So I spent my time writing up a tome called “Translator, Traitor”, about the pitfalls and oddities involved in translating texts in different languages, from the times of Cicero, Martin Luther and Mark Twain to Vladimir Nabokov. The effort was a pleasure to undertake and was published in a limited edition in Madrid in June.
As for 2026, I’ll try to “keep punchin’” for another year.
MARIE SILVERMAN & BOB MARICH
Jan. 1 White Plains, NY
Hello from Westchester County NY!
Marie Silverman Marich received yet another accolade! In October, she was honored by White Plains Beautiful Beautification for 25-years of service to the non-profit (last year, another civic org did the same). The event was an evening gala replete with proclamations from local organizations and speechifying. Marie’s brother Matthew Silverman was on hand.
Parents Syd and Jan were longtime supporters of WPBF, which is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to making White Plains beautiful. In particular, getting flowers planted in public places.
Now in early 70s, Bob is winding down work. He ended a dozen years of freelancing for Variety last year, occasionally peppering his prose with Slanguage (“boffo” will never go out of style!). His final journo project is cranking a final edition of his film promotion book Marketing to Moviegoers, though with artificial intelligence data mining it’s not clear what the future will bring for such informational works.
Son Nick lives across town and is New York State certified screen printer, working at a corporate branding company for five years. He enjoys short overnight trips in the region with friends.
Many thanks for Peter Besas and Ian Watkins for keeping Simesite going!
MARK SILVERMAN
Jan. 1 New Canaan, CT
Thanks to Peter and Ian for keeping the Simesite flame burning for another year. I missed last year’s deadline (not the first deadline I ever missed, but the first in a long time, trust me!) so I’m trying to make up for lost time. BTW, you all need to re-read Norman’s note last December about POTUS 47, i.e. “Donny was always dogging all the models at Studio 54….” That cat has not changed his stripes, people! Norman recalls it first person, back in the daze, as he would say. Who needs the Epstein Files when we have The Norm?
Sad to learn about the passings of Frank Segers, David Stratton, Lenny Borger, and Jay Blickstein, all of whom I spent quality time with on many roads and many late nights both on press and pressed for time. Nothing like deadlines to see the true character of people, sometimes, and I can say almost every mugg I worked with on the road could work later than you would believe to get the review in, or the pages to the printer. I’ll never forget Jay’s face asking if we could close the final NATPE show daily early because the Jefferson Airplane spinoff, Hot Tuna, was playing that night in San Francisco, and he was desperate to go see them. I asked what time did it start? He said, “8:00.” I said, “Our close is at 9:00.” He dropped his shoulders and his head, and looked up at me, a beaten man. I paused two beats, and said, “Get 8 tickets, we’re all going.” Best management decision ever.
Pam and I have been to the bijou about five times in the last year, most recently to see Marty Supreme Christmas week. Chalamet has talent, and an agent who knows how to pick great material for the kid. It’s not a ping pong movie, BTW. But sad to say, I wouldn’t want to be selling popcorn as a plan anymore. That model is broken. I have a 75-inch 4K screen with Dolby surround in my den and gazillions of choices to stream. Tough competition. And I’m not buying Bari Weiss’ explanations about CBS’ new way forward towards the light of journalism. I call BS. Keeping all my filters on “high.”
We’re playing a lot of golf, 118 rounds this year. I’m still pretty good, low was 74, still a 7 handicap. And we’re traveling while we still can. Pompeii was closed on our honeymoon, so we went last year for our anniversary, along with Florence and Rome again. Last year, Pam took a bite out of golf in Scotland in Guillane and Edinburgh castle, and St. Andrews. I’m going back in August for my fifth visit, 12 rounds in 10 days. Nuts.
We also hit Chicago and Old San Juan for weddings and golf; did Napa with our family and Pam’s in August 2024, more golf and wine. With US Senior Golf Assn., Pam and I hit events at Ekwanok, VT, Chicago, Maidstone and National Golf Links, LI, and Palm Desert, CA, and just visited Michael and Adrienne Silverman in December for more golf at Desert Mountain, AZ. We also visited Turks & Caicos with our kids in April, never been, incredibly beautiful waters.
My son Alex and I finished 2d low gross of 48 teams in Golf Digest magazine’s regional qualifier for their National 2-man tournament at Streamsong in Florida in September (did not win the finals, but it was a blast anyway).
I also attended two Dead & Co shows with my college amigos at The Sphere in Las Vegas in 2024 and 2025 on my way to play in Michael’s annual member-guest golf tournament (best thing Jimmy Dolan did with his MSG monies, forget his NY sports teams). It’s an amazing tour de force of technology, have not seen The Wizard of Oz there, but I’m sure that’s a pretty spectacular way to see Munchkin Land.
Pam and I did London and Copenhagen for our 40th anniversary in September, she had never set foot in Denmark. Great museum trekking in London, and you have to see the Danish Resistance museum. Fascinating stuff. We lastly had a great 40th Anniversary weekend in Lenox, MA with our kids and grandkids in October (photo attached). Lastly, I’m still working at the Merrill Lynch office in Greenwich, CT, so if you’re passing through, give me a yell. Hope all the Muggs continue to have a happy and healthy New Year. Best wishes – Silv.
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