It seems like only yesterday (ok, it was last week) that Erin Broadley, peerless LA Weekly web editor and hardest working woman in web bizniz, told us she was leaving our scenic Culver City offices for greener pastures.

Well, today Erin's greener pastures have been revealed: she will be writing the first authorized biography of Marilyn Manson (not to be confused with his 1998 autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell).

To celebrate the occasion, Erin has procured for us exclusively from MM himself a picture of him looking bookish and adorably holding a kitten. Awwww.

More on how this only-in-LA story came to be:

A couple of years ago, Erin wrote a cover story for LA Weekly about Travis Keller, the notorious blogger (and occasional LAWeekly contributor) behind the Buddyhead franchise. Keller was quoted telling some tales of debauchery involving Marilyn Manson and the wrath of the Mansonites was unleashed onto an unsuspecting Erin. (See “Marilyn Manson Threatens to Kill Buddyhead, LA Weekly, Critics”.)

A long impasse ensued in which Manson and Erin were mortal enemies (ok, Manson tweeted a bunch about her and his followers called Erin names).

And then, in an only-in-LA moment, a truce was called. At the Magic Castle (yes, Manson hangs out at the Magic Castle).

Erin was then welcomed into Manson's inner sanctum (a normal-looking apartment, apparently) and became the star's confidante. She's even heard tracks from his closely-guarded new album, scheduled to be released by Cooking Vinyl Records in 2011.

And now they're BFFs! Here's Manson on his spankin' new biographer: “I asked Erin Broadley to write an objective account of my life because I have great respect for her. I think she has the balls to be the next Lee Miller.” (Lee Miller, the press release explains, “was a Surrealist-era journalist, famous for her work with Man Ray and breaking into Hitler's apartment while working for Vogue during WWII”).

Will they remain friends? Can Manson take the “objectivity”? Can Erin endure the Magic Castle and endless recitation of Eastbound & Down catchphrases (Manson's hobby, apparently)? Stay tuned!

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