A Little of the Old In and Out



(image via nysocialdiary)

In: Dick Parsons. His game is tight. We used to lasciviously blogstalk Larry Kramer of CBSNews.com, because he was so consistently interesting; but now, we've moved on to Dick Parsons (whom we hope has a more conservative policy on restraining orders than Larry --Kiiding!), who appears even more intriguing in this rapidly changing media space. AOL, once the millstone around the neck of Time Warner, is now the centerpiece of their portfolio. The new AOL.com strategy -- whatever it ultimately is -- will not include selling the property outright to Microsoft. Parsons spoke at Goldman Sachs Communacopia XIV Conference (link via Paidcontent), spending 15 minutes of a 44 minute chat on the subject of AOL, saying, dramatically:

"... I think we are at a very interesting point in time, a very interesting -- sort of -- confluence of events. This whole area is shaping up rapidly. People are jockeying for what are going to be the advantaged positions going forward. We really believe we are at a crucial juncture ... (AOL is) a key piece on that gameboard. And what we are trying to do now is explore all of he opportunities that are out there for us in terms of how do we maximize the value of AOL in our portfolio.

"What we're not likely to do is .. having carried this ... what some people thought was a burden we should have offloaded three years ago. To this point in time, I really do believe that not only does AOL represent an undervalued asset in our portfolio, it also -- if we can get it to work the way I think we can get it to work -- it will actually not only increase in value or at least the perception of value itself, it will help all our other businesses because the day is coming when all of these things are related in a way, you can call it strategically alligned so we want to hang on to that potential but we want to do what we can at this time and this market to jumpstart ... to further accelerate AOL's presence in the online ad space."

Sounds positively pimpy.



(image via savemarthastewart)

Out: Martha Stewart's Apprentice. We thought it would be a hit, but in the end, Martha just didn't fit in, says the DrudgeReport, which fairly shouts (As Drudgie poo is wont to do), "'Martha Stewart flops in Prime time 'Apprentice debut 6.8 rating/10 Share, last place for night on BIG-3 NET Primetime, according to overnights ..."

And then there's that civil suit that may bar Martha from being a CEO ever again.



Forstmann, Master of his domain. (image via forbes)

In: The Forstmann Gathering. We are pretty sure this gathering could compete with the Bohemian Grove for prestige if only they dropped the Jackie Mason borsch belt routine (Averted Gaze). Nothing spells "first room of power" more excruciatingly than a conference-gathering with Catskills-circa-1983 calibre entertainment (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). This, from Bill Husted of the Denver Post: " ... And the titans were there - from Fed chief Alan Greenspan to homemaker Martha Stewart. Teddy Forstmann, who owns an 8,000- square-foot house on Aspen's Red Mountain, heads the high-profile buyout firm Forstmann Little & Co. and hosts the gathering. This year the gang gathered for various seminars, starting on Friday with a political roundtable with Andrea Mitchell, Bob Novak and Jonathan Alter moderated by Charlie Rose, and a talk about Iraq and Afghanistan with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. In the afternoon you could play tennis with Monica Seles ... Later that night I ran into Gov. Bill Owens in the hotel bar chatting with filmmaker Harvey Weinstein and Jimmy Choo president Tamara Mellon (who's getting plenty of tabloid ink these days for dating 'Girls Gone Wild' creator Joe Francis). I believe Owens was the only elected official at the gathering.

"Best sightem: (George) Lucas buying 50 vintage movie posters at Omnibus Gallery for about $5,000 each."



(image via thesun)

Out: "Kate's on Crack." The disintegration of Kate Moss reminds, vaguely, us on some lines from Nabokov's poem (yes, he wrote poetry too), "Model," which goes, "Ballerina, black-masked/ near a parapet of alabaster./'Can one' -- somebody asked --rhyme �star� and �disaster�?�

The latest, from ContactMusic:

"Disgraced supermodel KATE MOSS has slammed new newspapers reports she is using crack cocaine, as more fashion houses consider dropping the troubled beauty from their advertising campaigns.

"The English model is furious at British tabloid The Sun's allegations today (22SEP05), that she smokes rocks of crack twice a week, as well as snorting cocaine and taking ecstasy tablets."



(image via (AFP/Lluis Gene)

In: Gori De Palma's Spring 2006 collection. This, from Gori de Palma's Spring/Summer 2006 collection presented during the Barcelona Fashion week. Although this is a highly impractical collection(Could someone real wear this, other than -- we mean -- at FIT in Manhattan?) , it is visually arresting -- and, yes, this is officially our gayest blog post ever. Still, we like it mightily.



(image via (AFP/Lluis Gene)