• by John Gaffney , July 11, 2002

OPRs (Other People’s Riffs) of the Week:

Didn’t They Leave Something Out of His Bio?Like His Source For Column Info? Best-selling author and leadership trainer Stedman Graham has joined the staff of Personal Branding as a Senior Editor and regular contributor. Graham has authored several best-selling books, including You Can Make It Happen and Build Your Own Life Brand! He is also one of America's most respected experts in corporate training, leadership development and sports marketing. Graham's column, The Cult of Celebrity, will look at some of the methods famous individuals use to successfully build Personal Brands.

Maybe They Should Try Someone That Only Has Two Names: In the latest shake-up at the Harvard Business Review, publisher Penelope Muse Abernathy has been forced to resign amid a broader overhaul of the university's business-publishing empire, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Abernathy will be replaced as publisher of the review by Cathryn Cronin Cranston, who had been associate publisher.

Maybe Mr. Madden Should Put His Puns On the Back Burner: TransMedia Chairman Thomas J. Madden, who is also the author of "Spin Man" took on Martha Stewart this week: He put out a statement saying: “Poor Martha has stirred up a salad of just about everything you shouldn't do in a crisis. Until she gets cooking on the one dish in which everyone's interested, her image is just going to boil away to nothing on the front burner, perhaps causing irreparable harm to her company.”

Dennis Miller On Martha: As posted on his show’s website “So when Martha gets kicked around for insider trading, the real reason jealous people are upset is because she is a female billionaire who got some of the same secrets usually reserved for men.”

He Neglected To Mention The $20 Mill Involved: David Letterman on Up Close with Ted Koppel, talked about his thought process in weighing a move to ABC. “It's like dating," he said. "You show up at the prom with a girl and look across the floor and think, 'Maybe I'll have more fun with that girl over there.' It's human nature."

Did Someone Get Paid For Writing This Tagline?Express, a division of Limited Brands, announced its first national television advertising campaign. It will be supported by a national print advertising campaign featuring the tagline: "Express Jeans ... for women and men."

Reader Riff Of The Week:Hanft,. Byrne and Raboy managing partner Adam Hanft responded to a series of riffs on celebrity CEO’s and their importance to brands: “I agree that the celebrity CEO, a co-dependent creation of news-hungry media and limelight-hungry bosses, was a nutsy blip. Jack Welsh getting a larger book advance than the Pope, and all that. And I think it's true that a charismatic figure at the top was a distraction from fuzzy business models at the bottom. But there is something deeply tribal, even evolutionary, about wanting to believe in (and invest in) a leader. What's likely to change is the nature and character of those we want to follow, which will probably be someone closer to the "Level 5" leader, as Jim Collins, the Good-to-Great guy, describes it. After Nixon we chose Carter, because he represented what was (at least we thought) the opposite: humble, authentic, honest, not driven by the accumulation of power or grievance. I suspect the same swing in the kind of corporate leaders we will want to follow."