Lipstein pleads guilty

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1992

Jackie Leo, editor of Family Circle, may be thinking these days about the old saying "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen," after the flap that grew out of the magazine's Barbara Bush-Hillary Clinton chocolate-chip cookie bake-off. The magazine's July 21 issue invited readers to vote for their favorite recipe-Barbara's or Hillary's.

However, Newsweek's Periscope section disclosed that Barbara Bush's press secretary claims that the Bush recipe isn't even Barbara Bush's. A White House chef created the recipe, not Barbara Bush herself, according to the report. Leo says the recipe was drawn from a mid-eighties issue of McCall's, which, like Family Circle, is a New York Times Magazine Co. property. But she admits that her staff didn't check it. "There's nothing wrong with not calling the White House once it's in the public record," Leo says. To make matters even hotter-and perhaps make Hillary the winner-Clinton staffers lobbied delegates at the Democratic National Convention in July, passing out nearly 6,000 cookies with Family Circle's address attached. At press time, about 13,000 pro-Clinton votes had arrived at the office. But those won't be tallied, Leo says. Does she feel burned by this? Hardly. In fact, she says Tipper Gore may be pitted against Marilyn Quayle one of these days in a potato salad tussle.