Who

Until May 2008, Fuller was the editorial director at David Pecker's publishing conglomerate AMI, where she looked after tabloids like Star and the National Enquirer. She is now the editor of Hollywood Life.

Backstory

A "Canadian Jewish girl from a dysfunctional family," Fuller has been plotting her next step since she launched her career in the early '80s. After starting out as a fashion reporter at the Toronto Star and moving to New York to work at Women's Wear Daily as sportswear editor, she returned to Canada to edit a magazine called Flare. In 1989, she was tapped to oversee YM; by 1993, she'd moved on to Hearst to launch the American edition of Marie Claire. "The morning Bonnie starts work at her latest job, she's sending out resumes for the next," Forbes once wrote. Indeed. By 1996, Fuller had decamped to Cosmo to take over from Helen Gurley Brown. Two years later, she assumed the editorial reins of Glamour, which she sexed up with trashy cover lines like "Become Moregasmic!" But after her bosses at Condé Nast learned that she was in negotiations to take over Harper's Bazaar, she was axed in 2001. She soon landed at a new glossy: Us Weekly, which Jann Wenner hired her to overhaul. During her year long tenure she gave the flagging title a new design, ramped up circulation, and massively boosted the entire celebrity tabloid genre in the process.

Conveniently, Fuller had never bothered to sign her contract with Wenner, and in 2003 she jumped to David Pecker's American Media Inc. as editorial director, overseeing the company's portfolio of 23 titles. She stayed for an eternity (in Fullerian terms, at least): She stepped down in May 2008 after five years.

Of note

Although Fuller was ostensibly hired by Pecker to oversee AMI's entire stable of publications, her primary task was to revive the sagging gossip titles like Star and, to a lesser extent, the National Enquirer. She didn't exactly fail per se, but she didn't earn her $2 million-a-year salary either: Us Weekly continued to dominate under her former No. 2, Janice Min, and AMI was plagued by troubles, including shrinking budgets, job cuts and a revolving door of editorial talent. With Fuller's influence at AMI clearly on the wane and her authority diminished, in May 2008 she announced she was stepping down as editorial director. In July 2009, she announced plans to become the editor-in-chief of Hollywood Life, an entertainment website controlled by Jay Penske.

In person

The queen of tabloid journalism has a rep as a notoriously demanding boss. Turnover at Fuller titles was always high, and tales of her punishing office environment abounded. (One disgruntled underling was so fed up, she allegedly blew her nose into Fuller's coffee.) Not surprisingly, her gossipy tendencies never earned her much love from the people she covered either. Gwyneth Paltrow once memorably referred to her as the "the devil."

In print

Her book, The Joys of Much Too Much, about how to live a "jam-packed, maxed-out" life, was published in April 2006. Donald Trump, Isaac Mizrahi, Tommy Hilfiger, Cynthia Rowley, Barbara Corcoran, and Bobbi Brown all issued glowing blurbs.

Personal

Fuller lives with her husband Michael, a former architect and now a stay-at-home dad. They have four children: Noah, Sofia, Leilah, and Sasha. Two of Fuller's daughters have faced life-threatening illnesses in recent years: Sofia had a brain tumor and Leila had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Both girls have since recovered. Fuller and family live in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. They bought their three-story house for $550,000 in 1996.