For Two Mouths, a Megaphone

By Richard Zoglin

"I am an easy target," says Judith Regan, "because I have a big mouth and people don't always agree with me." It is fitting that the editor who brought both Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern between hard covers is, in her own world, as controversial as either. A former reporter for the National Enquirer, she joined Simon & Schuster in 1988 without a lick of book-publishing experience. Yet she showed a nose for hot celebrities, bringing in books by Kathie Lee Gifford, Hollywood executive Dawn Steel and even (her next project) MTV superstars Beavis and Butt-head. To admirers, Regan is a passionate editor with keen commercial instincts; to detractors, an abrasive publicity hound; to readers of gossip columns, the most entertaining book editor in New York City. Three years ago she spent five hours in jail after an argument with a police officer who, she says, taunted her cab driver (the charges were dropped). Last year she picked a fight with Madonna over the singer's book of erotic photos (Regan claims it was her idea). Now she is involved in a nasty divorce from her husband of five years.

What was it like to work with the bigmouths of radio? No problem, says Regan. Limbaugh "is impeccable in his work, requires next to no editing. He is a gentleman, and I do mean gentle. He treated me like a queen." Stern, on the other hand, is "a slave driver." To crash-edit his book last summer, Regan spent weeks living in the guesthouse of his Long Island home. "It was pressure-cooker intense, very creative and very interesting. He is an extremely driven man. I needed a permission slip to go to the bathroom. He is a maniac, this guy."

Editing both authors' often inflammatory prose didn't seem to faze her. "My position is not to take a position," she says. "I sell books, and allow people to have their say." Yet she admits that some of Stern's material bothered her, especially his verbal assaults on her other clients, like Limbaugh and Gifford: "It is not my job to censor Howard Stern, although I have to say it was very painful to sit there and deal with the fact that he had some nasty things to say about some of my friends."

Regan, 40, grew up on a Massachusetts farm, moved with her family to Long Island and went to college at Vassar. After flirting with a music career, she got a job at the Enquirer, chasing down stories about Siamese twins and celebrity divorces. She moved on to TV as a producer for Geraldo! and Entertainment Tonight before Simon & Schuster hired her to revitalize their Pocket Books division. "I didn't come up the traditional way, but I paid my dues," she says. "I am a maverick, and people can't stand other people's success. How dare I appear to have it all? Believe me, it is just an appearance. I'd trade places with just about anybody at this point."

Yes, it's not easy being the hottest book editor in New York. Regan, who has custody of her two children (ages 2 and 12), is contemplating a move to Hollywood, but only "if I can get out of the most hideous, disgusting marriage to the biggest a--- who ever lived. I tell you, the pain and agony I have been through professionally is nothing compared to getting a divorce. Sure, they hate me and want to kill me, but try getting a divorce from my husband. It pales." Next to Judith Regan, so does practically everything.

With reporting by Elizabeth L. Bland/New York