When Ned Met Sally

For those who love to hate Sally Quinn, there’s more to come. The Washington Post may have killed her column The Party but she’s likely to keep appearing in the paper thanks to her champion, Style-section co-editor Ned Martel.

Quinn met Martel at President Obama’s inaugural festivities. A magazine writer and editor in New York, he plugged into Sally’s world with the help of mutual friends Shelby Coffey, former Style editor, and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Quinn gave Martel the thumbs-up at the inaugural; after many interviews, the Post hired him a few months later.

Last fall Quinn started a newspaper column about entertaining. But she then used one piece to defend how she was handling a conflict between the wedding of her son, Quinn, and that of her husband Ben Bradlee’s granddaughter. Executive editor Marcus Brauchli killed her column.

Was Martel her champion in Style? I asked Sally.

“Was?” she responded.

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