A Little of the Old In And Out



The Funder at work. (image via media.salemwebnetwork)

In: John Fund, "Lame-Ducks" The President. Set the TiVo on the sleepy province called C-Span in advance of -- dig this -- the Best. Borking. Ever. (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment) Gag Harriet Miers with a fork -- she's done (Averted Gaze). John "The Funder" Fund's Wall Street Journal column on Monday -- link here -- may have singlehandedly sunk the possibilities of Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court. That's what we call "juice." Our favorite Dickensian villain, Robert Novak, who hips us to the mother-jazz, writes:

"President Bush's agents have convinced conservative Republican senators heartsick over his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court that they must support her to save his presidency. But that does not guarantee her confirmation. Ahead are hearings of unspeakable ugliness that can be prevented only if Democratic senators exercise unaccustomed restraint."

"Unspeakable ugliness"? Oh, Novak -- speak; speak that we might know its name:

"Will the Judiciary Committee Democrats insist on putting under oath two Texas judges who are alleged to have guaranteed during a conference call of Christian conservatives that Miers would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade?

"... Bush was not prepared for the negative reaction from the GOP base when he nominated White House Counsel Miers. ... John Fund's column in Monday's Wall Street Journal chilled the president's backers. He reported a conference call with religious conservatives Oct. 3, the day the nomination was announced.

"Fund wrote that Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht and U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, on the call, flatly predicted that their friend Miers would rule against Roe vs. Wade. Although the two jurists deny that, I checked with two sources on the conference call who confirmed Fund's version. That raises the possibility of bringing two judges under oath before the Senate committee"

We predict both Democrats and Republicans will unite on the "incompetence" charge, and Harriet Miers will not get confirmed, thus, effectively "lame-ducking" President Bush.



(image via Lester Cohen/ WireImage.com)

Out: Brad Grey. Big Sumner pulled the rug out from under Brad Grey's bid for Dreamworks. Oof-a! According to Claudia Eller of the Los Angeles Times (via iwantmedia):

"Paramount Pictures' parent company, Viacom Inc., has nixed the idea of making a bid for DreamWorks SKG, according to three sources inside Viacom and Paramount. The sources said that Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, who controls the board, worried that shareholders and potential investors would balk at a major acquisition � DreamWorks is asking about $1 billion � at a time when Viacom is poised to split into two publicly traded companies.

"Viacom executives declined to comment, but a source close to the company confirmed Wednesday: 'DreamWorks is a great asset, but with the split pending, we couldn't make an acquisition at this time.' With Paramount out of the picture, NBC Universal is the only remaining suitor for the live-action studio of DreamWorks, which was founded 11 years ago by David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg. General Electric's NBC Universal on Friday put a revised bid on the table. DreamWorks has not formally responded to that bid.NBC Universal's latest offer came after Geffen halted negotiations last month when GE suddenly lowered its original bid.

"When those talks collapsed, Paramount Chairman Brad Grey immediately contacted Geffen to express interest in DreamWorks. Although Grey had Viacom's blessing to begin talks, he would have needed the approval of the Viacom board to make an actual bid.But things never got that far."

Ouch. Does that mean Grey still has to co-finance Geffen's quixotic "Dreamgirls" project(Averted Gaze)?



(image via nysocialdiary)

In: Michael Gross. We are roughly one-quarter into our pal Michael Gross' fascinating 740 Park (We're midway through The Great Depression), a study of the most envy-inducing apartment building in Manhattan (The Corsair lightly salivates). Last night's swishy party at Georgette Mosbacher's crib for the book had everyone from Cindy Adams and Warren Hogue to the lovely Phoebe Eaton, in, we cannot fail to note, a fetching little black number (The Corsair's legs go woozy). Our favorite social chronicler and all-around swell guy David Patrick Columbia sums up the talent in the room, in NYSocialDiary:

"Mrs. Mosbacher, the cosmetics and skin-care tycooness, invited 200 of the most prominent talkers, opinion-makers, blabbermouths and social gadflies, along with their best friends, acquaintances and the people who make up the media. Very smart, Mrs. Mosbacher, she is.

"Because practically everyone in the room is dying to read the book to find out if Michael Gross wrote what they already know (but wouldn�t tell him), and just exactly where he drew the line in revealing the 'inside' on all the families that have lived in this famously sought after residential building that sits on the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 71st Street.

" ... In many ways, New York is a small town, and like all small towns, there are the pieces of real estate (the biggest house in town, for example) that stimulate interest, envy, greed, and all the other Machiavellian traits that taunt our psyches at one point or another. 740 Park is the place that frequently haunts the dreams of the must-haves in Manhattan ... There will be discussions for some time as to whether or not Michael Gross was fair or mean to the tenants of the building. It doesn�t matter. As I�ve written here before about his book, it is a testament to the fact that all gossip ultimately becomes history, even, alas, the stuff that�s not true." More here.



To whence hath these luscious lips absconded? Bette? (image via edge.org)

Out: Michael Wolff, MIA at Michael's. Come out, come out, wherever you are! Michael, where are you? Michael ...? Aww, don't be like that Michael Wolff. According to FishbowlNY (Which, according to Gawker, The Corsair has 50-1 odds at running):

"As promised, here is 'Lunch at Michael's' replete with all sorts of sketchy details about who ate with whom at our media-centric world's eatery of choice that isn't Nobu 57 or Milos, which last we heard were Michael Wolff's eateries of choice. Wow. You know you cast a long shadow when you're the first boldface name in a post about boldfaced names, and you weren't even there. God, being remote and inaccessible really does work. Michael Wolff, now we only want you more."

So, it's been about 2 weeks since Michael abdicated Table 5; in his place were "CBS big gun Gil Schwartz" in a "diagonally-striped tie in citrus colors" and "NYT business writer Richard Siklos."

More "Lunch at Michael's"



(image via britishvogue)

In: Naomi's Golden Afro. We like. Shoot that Golden Afro through my heeeaaart ... This, on a rather slow news day, from British Vogue:

"NAOMI CAMPBELL hosted a party to celebrate the launch of Iman's new book, The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Guide for Skin of Color in New York this week and, no matter that she was standardly late � her new golden afro more than made up for it. As usual glamorous and professional, Iman took on the hosting duties with her husband David Bowie and welcomed plenty of A-list guests including Wesley Snipes, Andre Leon Talley, Star Jones and Mayor Michael Bloomberg."

That golden afro is more than sexy ... it's ... "sessy."