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''Spy'' magazine was a satirical monthly founded in 1986 by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter , who served as its first editors, and Thomas L. Phillips, Jr., its first publisher. Primarily a magazine of satirical journalism and humor, but also featuring some more serious investigative journalism, the New York -based ''Spy'' was modeled loosely on the British magazine '' Private Eye ''. It specialized in intelligent, thoroughly researched, highly irreverent pieces targeting the American media and entertainment industries. Some of its features attempted to present the darker side of celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger (printing a nude photo of him and a picture of his father's Nazi Party membership card), John F. Kennedy, Jr. , Martha Stewart , and especially the real-estate tycoon Donald Trump and his then-wife Ivana Trump . The mogul was repeatedly described as "short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump," and in fact such elaborately pejorative adjectival phrases became a ''Spy'' trademark. '' New York Times '' op-ed columnist A.M. Rosenthal became Abe "I'm Writing as Bad As I Can" Rosenthal, and his wife became "bosomy dirty-book writer Shirley Lord." ''Spy'' 's most widely successful column was probably "Separated At Birth?," an imitation of a '' Private Eye '' standing feature in which surprisingly similar photographs of celebrities were printed side-by-side. Despite its relatively short life, ''Spy'' was among the most influential of American magazines, chiefly for its detached and ironic tone, its use of quasi-scientific charts and tables to convey information, and its elaborate, classically influenced typography and layout. The magazine was also divisive: Many established journalists considered it abrasive and tawdry, whereas many younger ones felt it precisely reflected their worldview. ''Spy'' briefly broke even in 1989, but was ultimately not successful as a business, particularly after a recession affected the U.S. economy beginning in the early 1990s. Several months after the founders sold the magazine to European buyers in 1991, Carter left the magazine; Andersen departed 18 months later, replaced by Tony Hendra . The magazine briefly ceased publication in 1994 , was revived soon after under new ownership, and finally went out of business in 1998 . Its last editor was a recent Harvard graduate named Bruno Maddox. For a humorous magazine, ''Spy'' was often aggressive about straight feature reporting. In the summer of 1992 it ran the only serious investigative story on President George H.W. Bush 's alleged extramarital Affair s with Jennifer Fitzgerald and other women. The following year, ''Spy'' ran an article entitled " Clinton 's First 100 Lies," detailing what it described as the new president's pattern of duplicitous behavior. After O.J. Simpson was acquitted on charges of murdering his former wife and her friend, ''Spy'' ran a cover story under the headline "He's Guilty, By George!" that presented a long list of details that its writers said proved conclusively that Simpson was the killer; he did not sue. (The cover illustration parodied that of the much-hyped premiere issue of '' George '' magazine, with Simpson standing in for Cindy Crawford .) ''Spy'' used lawyers to vet such potentially Libel ous material, but its stories often angered their prominent subjects, occasionally driving away advertisers. In October, 2006, Miramax Books will publish SPY: The Funny Years (ISBN 1401352391), a greatest-hits anthology and history of the magazine created and compiled by Carter, Andersen, and one of their original editors, George Kalogerakis. BOOKS
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