Tatiana Siegel Leaves Variety for California Post’s Page Six at Launch | Exclusive

Variety Executive Editor Tatiana Siegel quit the trade publication to join Rupert Murdoch’s California Post on Thursday, where she will write for the new tabloid’s Page Six, one of several high-profile Hollywood trade poaches, TheWrap has learned.

Confirming her exit, Siegel told TheWrap: “I’ve been really impressed by the curated team of the best people they’re putting together,” pointing to recent hires including Dylan Hernandez and Jack Harris from the Los Angeles Times to head up the new outlet’s Dodgers coverage

Siegel added she loved working with Variety co-editor Ramin Setoodeh: “I’m excited by this opportunity … Ultimately I wanted a change.”

Siegel, a high profile journalist with deep sources in Hollywood, has written numerous controversial stories in recent years, including an expose of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola that alleged that he forcibly kissed female extras on the set of his 2024 film “Megalopolis.” Coppola denied the claim and sued Siegel and her co-writer Brent Lang as well as Variety.

She also wrote an article on the eve of the Oscars 2024 that suggested that “Holdovers” writer-director Alexander Payne, who was nominated for Best Screenplay, had plagiarized from another screenwriter Simon Stephenson. The Writers Guild had declined to investigate and Payne denied the allegation.

In 2023, Siegel was sharply criticized for an investigative story claiming that former CNN chief Jeff Zucker was attempting to buy the network. Zucker flat-out denied the report and disputed material facts in Siegel’s reporting, including a meeting with Turkish investors who Zucker said he’d never heard of. Variety ultimately revised the story but stood by its central assertion.

A spokesperson for The Post, which launches Jan. 26 under Editor-in-Chief Nick Papps, said Siegel starts next week on Tuesday, Jan 20. 

Other Hollywood-based journalists to join Page Six include Peter Kiefer, recently of The Hollywood Reporter, and former Variety film reporter Katcy Stephan. Tim Baysinger, who wrote for Axios and previously was a TV reporter at TheWrap, is joining the Page Six team as well, Siegel said.

As TheWrap previously reported, Ian Mohr will lead the Page Six effort and is moving to Los Angeles.

Siegel, who’s previously worked at The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone all also currently owned by Penske Media, marks the latest high-profile hire at the fledgling West Coast paper. TheWrap exclusively reported in November that Breitbart vet was Joel Pollak successfully courted as the California Post’s inaugural opinion editor.

“This is the next manifestation of our national brand,” New York Post Editor-in-Chief Keith Poole said of the paper’s expansion in August, noting the state as the epicenter of entertainment and tech.

“With The California Post, we will bring a common-sense, issue-based approach to metropolitan journalism. We’ll tell the stories that our readers care about the most, but others overlook, and we’ll do so with clarity and our trademark conviction, across print, digital and the platforms where audiences live today.”

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