A Well-Done Roast Honors Jim Brady

"It takes a rare breed of individual" to stand up to the roasting dished out last Thursday night to James Brady, said Nora McAniff, publisher of People magazine and president of Advertising Women of New York, the evening's sponsor.

But hey, what else would you expect from a name-dropping, three-martini-lunching, stogie-puffing yarn- spinner like the author of "Further Lane"?

The roast, at the Supper Club on Manhattan's West Side, easily rated NC-17 at times.

His Favorites

The jesting began with a serenade of sorts, sung by Pamela Fiore, the editor-in-chief of Town & Country. To the tune of "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things," she recited some of the targets that turn up most often in "Brady's Bunch," Mr. Brady's weekly column in Advertising Age - Martha Stewart and Jerry Della Femina prominent among them.

Mr. Della Femina got his own punches in soon after. He was there to talk about "a man of little talent," he said, who had "somehow mysteriously managed" to become one of the biggest names in the industry.

"What a travesty," said the adman. "How did this happen?"

The man he was speaking of, he said, is a "shameless name-dropper" who, having written seven books, now "has the nerve to call himself an author," a man who not only lunches at the Four Seasons but has Mortimer Zuckerman stopping on his way out to say hello.

"I'm more famous, and in the end that's all that counts," Mr. Della Femina declared.

"Now I'd like to talk about Jim Brady."

Stick It In?

Mr. Brady writes celebrity profiles for Parade magazine. His typical subject, confided Walter Anderson, its editor-in-chief, is "a wildly successful TV or film star who possesses one breast or one testicle."

When it was his turn, Mr. Florio called Mr. Brady a "simple, unpretentious, and straight-shooting guy," a "Will Rogers of the '90s" who "never met a celebrity he didn't like."

"He's managed to stroke so many, in fact," said Steven Florio, the president of Conde Nast, "that his book should be called 'Stick It in Further Lane,' which is so much more appropriate."

"You might get a juicy Liz quote on the cover of your book if you squeeze the gossip columnist between its covers enough times," Mr. Florio added.

Liz Smith said of "Further Lane" that no one does it with as much "panache" as Mr. Brady, Mr. Florio said, "and I guess Liz should know."

So should Coco Chanel, he continued. Mr. Brady told a reporter recently, Mr. Florio joked, that "he learned fashion at the knees of Coco Chanel."

"I heard you went a little higher than the old broad's knees."

W, Page Six

Mr. Brady began his diverse career in college, working nights as a copy boy for The New York Times. He was a Marine in the Korean War, a reporter for John Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily and its London bureau chief, and then, for seven years, its publisher, helping to launch its successful glossy spinoff, W.

Since then he has been editor and publisher of Harper's Bazaar, editor of The Star tabloid, editor of New York magazine, and, as associate publisher of The New York Post, the creator of the paper's Page Six.

He has done features and interviews for ABC-TV and CBS-TV in New York and has won one Emmy award and several nominations. In addition to his Advertising Age column and Parade profiles, Mr. Brady appears on CNBC's "Power Lunch" show, aired from the Four Seasons.

Living Lunch

Mr. Florio said of the latter job that Mr. Brady had learned "to make lunch into a living."

"You just wait for someone to pay for it, and you don't gain weight."

Ellen Levine, editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping, affectionately compared Mr. Brady's column to "a jock strap."

"When Jim loves you, he loves you, and when he doesn't, well, let's just say dog meat comes to mind."

"A lot of people believe Jim Brady, but then a lot of people believe President Clinton," she said, adding, "This is a guy who's come a long way - Angela's Ashes to Jim's Jacuzzi."

Dad On The Spit

Even Mr. Brady's two daughters, Susan and Fiona, got in on the act. Their father "loves the outdoors, and he loves to take his constitutionals" along the south-of-the-highway lanes of his neighborhood, they said, and to offer his neighbors his opinion on their poor choice of architectural style by sticking Post-It notes on their doors.

Mr. Brady is "often seen walking across the Maidstone golf course, but he's not a member." Sometimes, said one of his daughters, he picks up stray golf clubs. "He got caught once, and he lied about it."

They suggested East Hampton officials find him a job here, "so he could settle down and not do so many odd jobs in publishing."

The honoree had a chance to defend himself at the end of the roast - which, noted Ms. McAniff, had sold out very early - and a chance to ramble on a bit, as he is wont to do.

He thanked "this power elite, this A list," and joked that the only faces missing were those of "Linda Tripp and the Special Prosecutor. Is anyone wearing a wire?"

With more seriousness (was he getting choked up? It sounded like it), Mr. Brady said he was thankful for knowing first-hand "how fortunate we can be and how good life is."

Watch Out

In a glossy souvenir playbill created for the event, companies added a few parting shots.

"Contrary to what some people believe, the Brady Bill is not a tab at the Four Seasons," offered Hachette Filipacchi Magazines.

"Oooops. We really meant for Jim Brady to be our man of the year," said Time magazine.

"We still prefer not to see his expense report after a night at Elaine's," wrote Crain's New York Business.

If anyone offended Mr. Brady last Thursday, their name is bound to appear in his next column, Ms. McAniff suggested. Keep your eyes peeled.

Or, as Mr. Florio put it: "Watch out, babe. Here comes James."