Peaches Geldof And James Brown Interview : Celebrity Interviews - Access interviews with the world's biggest stars

Peaches Geldof and James Brown

Headline:

'Both of us are quite outspoken'

Synopsis:

Launched into choppy waters, can personality keep Peaches' style mag afloat, asks Stephen Armstrong.

They are one of media's more unlikely partnerships. Peaches Geldof - 19-year-old paparazzi favourite - and James Brown - 43-year-old ex-men's mag editor and TV pundit - sit side by side on a large grey sofa in a Soho office and flick through their joint magazine, Disappear Here.

They call it a "women's mag that appeals to men", and the first issue boasts a column by Tony Benn, wind-up calls to the BNP, Geldof interviewing Vivienne Westwood, Pete Doherty at the opera, fashion shoots and lots of new bands. "When I read Cosmopolitan, Company or Marie Claire I feel so patronised," Geldof, the editor-at-large, explains. "I'm not spending my time worrying about how to give my husband great sex so he stays with me. This isn't the 1950s. Women's magazines have no sense of humour. That's why I read Vice, GQ or Heat. I don't mind Heat. It's so insulting but in a really funny way - unlike Closer or Now, which are basically pointless."

Not entirely coincidentally, Disappear Here was also the name of a celebrity magazine Geldof created for an MTV reality show - which garnered plenty of (mainly negative) column inches but not too many viewers. Geldof and Brown met on the programme - he was the mentor who critiqued her work - but both insist the new title is connected to the TV celebrity version by name alone. Brown, the editorial director, denies that the magazine is a reality show stunt.

"The TV programme was a bit of a disaster," he says, "but while we were making it, I realised Peaches would actually be a really good magazine editor. Both of us are quite outspoken, which can cause friction with your peers, the industry or even the press, but it means you're very focused on a particular world-view and that's what a magazine editor needs to have. It's about letting the reader into that world." ...