A Little of the Old In and Out

In: Ralph Macchio. The always excellent MyBlogisPoop (link via Defamer) asks the blogosphere the hugely pertinent question: Whither Macchio? To wit:



"Damn you Hillary Swank. Damn you for intruding on this amazing collection with your bogus 'The Next Karate Kid.' The wrong Karate Kid is getting all the sweet roles and name recognition in Hollywood, if you know what I mean. Cast Ralph Macchio in 'Million Dollar Baby' and it would've been a thousand times better, guaranteed."

Indubitably. No question Swank fucked the whole franchise shit up. Glad someone finally brought this pressing issue to the public's attention. Do you think (Million Dollar Baby Spoiler Alert) that Daniel-san would end up (Million Dollar Baby spoiler Alert!) paralyzed from a sucker punch? Laruso had his leg swept, people. And he still came back to win the All Valley Under 18 Tournament. After taking on, like, one-by one, the entire John Kreese led dojo of delinquent Kobra-Kai's.

Look at the picture above. Feel his pain. Laruso was a warrior.

Out: The Old Gray Lady. The Old Gray Lady inserts herself into the "Porn Chic" culture war. She got around to reporting on the NY premiere of Inside Deep Throat and the risurgimento of all things porny, but did so in a way that frankly kind of freaked us out. We expected a more Victorian approach.

Charles McGrath crafts a sentence ... we never thought we'd ever see within the folds of The Old Gray Lady's knickers. Perhaps it's the nausea-inducing onomatopoeics of the word --eew -- "oeuvre"? Or the fact that the paper of record just mentioned "Manbait 2"? Whatever:

"In interview segments, the director, Gerard Damiano (whose oeuvre also includes 'The Devil in Miss Jones,' 'Meatball,' 'Manbait' and 'Manbait 2'), the production manager, Ron Wertheim, and Count Sepy Dobronyi, in whose wine cellar some of the action was filmed, all seem a little raisiny - shrunken and overly tanned."

Fucking disgusting. We can't quite pinpoint what exactly, but the overall effects of that sentence makes us want to take a sauna and a shower.

In: Rethinking the American Social Contract. The current debate on Social Security, writes Newsweek's Howard Feinman, is a discussion on the American Social Contract:

"Is Social Security a retro but still cool program that needs only minor tinkering? Or is it an outmoded and actuarially unsound one that can be rescued only by an infusion of 21st-century market-based thinking?"

"... If Bush wanted to unite his opposition at the start of the new Congress, he's succeeded. The watchmen are racing to the towers of Castle Roosevelt, invoking the memory of FDR and the hard-times compact he made in 1935 between the citizens and the state: if you worked, you'd get a pension. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader in the Senate, claimed to have won a pledge from all 43 of his party colleagues to oppose the president's plan. In fact, there were a couple of holdouts, but Reid needs only 41 votes to block a Bush bill?and the senator will likely find at least one or two moderate Republican allies. The rejectionist front may get an infusion of energy next week, if, as expected, the fire-breathing Howard Dean becomes party chairman.

"Shrewdly, Reid is tapping into the blogosphere, hiring a 'director of Internet communication' to stay in touch with influential blogs, such as Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos. The talking points are clear: that Bush is manufacturing a 'crisis'; that his real aim is to attack the New Deal concept of government; and that, to the extent there is a problem, it can be repaired by raising the ceiling on taxable income, and, perhaps, by adjustments in cost-of-living indices. Bush's goal, Democrats say, is to do what much of corporate America has done: convert a "defined benefit" (a.k.a. a pension) into a "defined contribution."

" ... While the Dems work the blogosphere, Bush works the stratosphere?in Air Force One. Last week he was busily schmoozing midcabin with members of Congress and promising the over-55 locals on the ground that they will be untouched by any changes he's proposing. The president and Rove are betting that history is on their side."

Full article here.

Out: Steve Sands, photographer, Ass. According to Fashionweekdaily:

"Not only did photographer Steve Sands pursue little Mary-Kate Olsen at the IOC show, but at Luca Luca he tried to snag a second-row seat to snap Paris and Nicky Hilton. In the process, Sands and his equipment hit the front-row heads of the Bazaar editors, including a very displeased Glenda Bailey."

In: A Sociological Study of the Oscar De La Renta Show. Our favorite Social Register blog, Daniel Patrick Columbia's NYSocialDiary breaks us off a piece of his Charmed, I'm-Sure knowledge regarding the Oscar De La Renta FashionWeek Show. We'll supply Mozart on the sound system as DPC cooly surveys the scene, observing, dryly, the talent in the room, rendering his verdict:

"The young and wealthy and/or social New York women sit on the right side of the aisle as you face the entrance to the runway. They dress casually, if expensively, very often in pants and a jacket or sweater. As if they?re young, yes, with beautiful skin, good legs, beautiful hair, and not necessarily that much money. Marina Rust Conner, the Marshall Field heiress who is considered by some to be one of the best dressed and most beautiful young women in New York, was monochromatically restrained wearing pants, a cotton blouse and a trenchcoat ? about as far away from the popular concept of 'Best-Dressed' and 'heiress' as you could get. She may have been the most austerely turned out but she had a lot of competition on her side of the aisle. That is the signature style of this group ? as if to say: I don?t have time for the rest of it right now.

"On the other side of the row sit the older social people, with some of, if not all, of the really big Oscar clients in the first row along with certain journalists and photographers. Most of these women dress for the show as if they were going on to Grenouille or Swifty?s for a luncheon right afterwards. These are the girls who 'find' the time, no matter what. That?s their signature."

Arch, DPC, (sotto voce) arch. More here.

Out: Kelis. According to Fashionweekdaily, "At the 3:30 p.m. Imitation of Christ show: 'Kelis was invited to come, but said the show was too early for her,' says our source."

And, definitely In, via The Miami Herald, "Janet Jackson, wearing jeans, a turtleneck and camel coat, was among those in the Blass front row." Which, incidentally, Marilyn Kirscher didn't like:

"Then there was the Bill Blass show, which I?m no longer invited to. (I guess they didn?t like what I had said in the past about Michael Vollbracht?s efforts for the legendary label). But I got to view the collection anyway. Once inside the Tents, the shows are made public since they are televised on a number of large screens in the reception area. Suffice it to say that my opinion has not changed. It is a line desperately seeking a designer with a clear, strong vision and personality. And by the way, the hair and makeup rendered stunners like Carolina Ribiero practically unrecognizable. The models looked as though they had just gotten out of bed! It certainly did not help the clothes."