Editor Guzzo is no help in plumbing the mystery; despite the many rumors spawned by the departures (particularly Lopez's), he offers a blanket "no comment" regarding any personnel questions. And conversations with the exiting parties reveal no single reason for fleeing. Hodges cites the wonderful opportunity to enter a burgeoning field, and his viewpoint is echoed by Keating. As for Fillion, whose upcoming gigs include occasional pieces about high-altitude cooking for the new Foodfit.com Web site, he trots out the old I'm-leaving-to-spend-more-time-with-my-family explanation (he's married, with a four-year-old daughter who, he laughingly admits, "sometimes likes my cooking and sometimes doesn't").
For his part, Lopez says that the "entrepreneurial spirit" that's been bubbling inside him for years finally convinced him to start a business that will pair him with Kristie Porter, a onetime public-affairs director for the City of Aurora who just happens to be his ex-wife. (Lopez and Porter have a very modern relationship; although they've been divorced since the mid-'90s, they remain so close that Lopez agreed to stand as godfather to Porter's now-eighteen-month-old son by her current husband.) Lopez Communications is planning a Web site that he describes as "a clearinghouse for information about Latinos and Hispanics" (Latinolife.com), and he hopes to supplement the project with jobs for a variety of corporate and civic clients. He's said to have been awfully cozy with folks in the Webb administration; when he went to pick up some of his belongings at his wife's home at the time of his divorce, he actually took one of the mayor's off-duty bodyguards with him. Perhaps that's why he says, "Hopefully, in the seven years I've been at the Post, I've built up a good name for myself with people around Denver, both businesspeople and officials."
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The timing of his exodus may look a little weird, Lopez concedes, but he insists that it wasn't based on a snap decision. "Before the announcement, I actually talked to Mr. Guzzo about whether I was going to be here longer. I know he was hoping that I would be part of the team, and I didn't want to stand in his way of what he's trying to accomplish. But my heart was burning another way. It's nothing against the Post or Mr. Guzzo. He's been absolutely fantastic to me."
Keating is also sympathetic to the newspaper's new editor, who's spent the last several months sifting through the wreckage left by his widely despised predecessor, Dennis Britton: "Glenn Guzzo inherited a tough situation at the Post," Keating says, "but he's turning it around. I would definitely work for him again." (In fact, Keating plans to do some "special projects" for the Post down the line.) Even Posties speaking behind the cloak of anonymity offer relatively sunny assessments of the new boss; although there's plenty of grumbling about low morale and high tension resulting from the News's strong circulation gains, no one contacted by Westword believes Guzzo is the reincarnation of El Britto Grande, and most feel he's got the ship headed in the right direction. But the question remains: Will there be anyone left to set the sails?
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