A Little of the Old In and Out



(image via dga.org)

In: "It's on Comedy Central, Bitch." This Page Six item is quite curious, considering the fact that Dave Chappelle still owes, at least theoretically, some, ehr, "hard labor" to Comedy Central with regards to that unfinished comedic product, youknowwhaddImean?:

"WHEN the going gets tough, so they say, the tough go shopping. Or Dave Chappelle does, anyway. The popular comic, who went AWOL from his big-bucks Comedy Central show last month and was said to be recovering from various ailments in South Africa, hit Los Angeles fashion emporium Fred Segal the other day for a big-time shopping spree. Chappelle was 'extremely amiable,' our spy reports. 'He chatted with everyone who came up to him, was lighthearted, smiling and seemed in the mood for some big spending.'"

Which, all told, must hurt the top brass at Comedy Central, who spent North of "a boatload of dinero" advertising the May 31 debut of the Chappelle Show on virtually every flat surface in the known Western world, only to come up as empty as Paris Hilton's head.

Rumor had it Chappelle was last seen skipping in Fred Segal's aisles, clicking his heels in mid jump, chuckling to himself, tearing labels off of mattresses, tossing Hawaiian shirts willy-nilly into the air, chiming allthewhile in a cracked little singsongish voice, "Doug Herzog's paying for it all, bitches!"



Above: Sophie Okonedo, Hello, delicious. (image via digitalhit)

Out: Usher, Diva. The 3AM Girls whale on Ush for the second time in as many days, blowing up his spot as a cool crooner, revealing aplenty his flourishing inner bitch:

"The 26-year-old singer - who we reported yesterday makes fans queue up to dance with him - stunned organisers at the Glamour Women of The Year awards by insisting a bigger star than Radio 1's Trevor Nelson present him his Man of the Year gong.

"So tipsy actress Sophie Okonedo did the deed.

"'It was hilarious. Usher had to hold her up,' says an onlooker.

"And on accepting his award, arrogant Ush moaned that a Justin Timberlake track was played as he went on stage. He said: 'Justin's not man of the year!'"

We nominate Usher, Diva of the Year, sashay stage left, and make a curtsie.



(image via rapidcityjournal)

In: Senator John Thune is His Own Man. The Corsair thought that Senator John Thune would end up as just another Aministration yes-man in the Imperial City. All the evidence pointed in that direction. It seemed like the obvious progression for Thune, as he owed everything to Bush and Rove. Thune was urged (handpicked, practically) by the President to run against the sitting Minority Leader of the United States Senate. A dubious project with dismal hopes of success at best, but one undertaken with the full backing of the White House. The Cheney's actually attended a fund raiser for Thune in Sioux Falls in the thick of the '04 race.
The President actually took time out of his own reelection frenzy and campaigned for Thune (In a state, we cannot fail to note, that was already firmly in Rove's Iron Kung Fu Grip). Of course Thune won, and it would be the logical thing for Thune to do to show his gratitude; no one would fault him for being an ally in the Senate for Bush. Some love is definitely warranted. But John Thune, is standing on his own, a move which suggests, quite possibly, acrid whiffs of "Dead Duck" wafting in the air interspersed with the sweet seasonal cherry blossom in that august, Imperial City. According to TheHill:

"Thune's boldest move yet is his not-too-subtle signal that he will oppose the nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations to protest the administration's decision to close Ellsworth Air Force Base, the state's second largest employer.

"'I don't think he's the best person for the job,' Thune said of Bolton yesterday. 'People can ascribe whatever they want to [this decision]. What I've said is, I take our foreign-policy posture very seriously and I take our defense posture very seriously. The base issue is something extremely important to me.'

"He added, 'I'm going to do anything and everything within my power, and use all tools at my disposal' to get Ellsworth off the base closure list.

"But Thune has also demonstrated an independent streak on other issues, including agriculture programs, healthcare and trade.

"I'm going to do what is in the best interest of South Dakota always, first and absolutely,' Thune told The Hill. 'If I disagree with the president, I'm going to let him know that.'"

Sounds ducky.



Out: Thomas Friedman's Lust. First, before you read this post, you might want to put on the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to get yourself in a sassy, Tom FreakyFriedmanish sort of vibe. Okay, ready?

Oh, dear lord, Thomas Friedman, desist ... desist! Thank god Slate's Jack Shafer takes the resident windbag at The Old Gray Lady, Our Thomas Friedman to task for this "flatulent" hawking of his "The Indians are going to eat our Lunch" tome (link via Poynter):

"I can't begrudge Friedman for his success in getting on television to promote the book, but I take issue with the promotional drumbeating in his Times column. Since the book came out two months ago, his columns have stated that the world has become 'flat,' is 'increasingly flat,' has become 'flatter,' or some other variant ('flattened,' 'flattening,' 'flatten') at least six times, and that's not counting the 5,000-word excerpt ('It's a Flat World, After All') from his book, which appeared in the April 3 New York Times Magazine or Fareed Zakaria's 2,400-word review in the May 1 New York Times Book Review (over which Friedman obviously had no input). I give Friedman no brownie points for not mentioning the book by title in his six recent columns."

Such "flattery."



(image via ElizabethSpiers)

In: Elizabeth Spears' Lunch at Michaels. Navel gazing and gossip and effervescent snarkiness rendered wittily on issues surrounding concerning power politics, the fashion houses, Hollywood, High Society and, finally, The Media all converge in the lovely confluence that is Michael's in New York (Emphasis on The Media angle). The Corsair loves the FishbowlNY idea of posting who's at whose table at Michael's. Fucking brilliant. Wish we had thought of it, quite frankly. Darn that clever Elizabeth Spiers, and those dark ... soulful yet intelligent eyes.

But we digress. Let's hope this becomes a regular feature, because enquiring minds need to know things like which cantankerous mogul is Michael Wolff presently wooing? Knowledge of whom Lady Tina Brown or Charlie Rose is lunching is imperative in this business. We don't know why we covet it but we just goddamn do. We're old school like that, see.