'Esquire' Cancels Jayson Blair Assignment

By: (AP) Esquire has canceled a movie review it commissioned former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair to write, the magazine said Friday.

Blair, who resigned from the Times after editors learned he had embellished and plagiarized parts of dozens of reports, was to have reviewed "Shattered Glass," a film about another journalist found to have fabricated stories, Stephen Glass.

David Granger, editor in chief of the 68-year-old men's magazine, said Esquire reversed its decision after news of Blair's assignment became public.

"It was intended as a joke that readers would see when they picked up the issue," Granger said. "All the news reports took away that element of surprise. Mr. Blair never got to see the movie and was very understanding when we told him of our decision."

Glass left The New Republic in 1998 after editors learned he had fabricated stories for their magazine and others where he freelanced.

The review had been scheduled to run in the November edition. Granger had earlier said it would be "a clever way to do a movie review, to have the most infamous fabricator review another infamous fabricator."

The scandal surrounding Blair, a 27-year-old former national correspondent, was followed by the resignations of Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd.

Bill Keller, a former Times managing editor and foreign correspondent, was appointed as Raines' replacement last month.