A Little of the Old In and Out



(image via cbssportsline)

In: Sean McManus. He's got his work cut out for him, Sean does, this November 7th when he takes over The Ring of the Nibelungs from departing CBS prexy Andy Heyward. Can he draw out the synergy of football into the moribund news department at CBS? Time will tell. According to Reuters:

"McManus, who has served as CBS Sports president since 1996 and will retain the title, will replace Heyward on November 7. Heyward, who resigned, will stay on until the end of the year.

"The move comes at a time of much soul searching in the U.S. network news business as highly coveted younger viewers have tuned out the evening news in favor of seeking information on the Internet."

And the brilliant Staci D Kramer at Paidcontent sums things up, nicely: "However freaked people in the news division might be because he comes out of sports, his appointment shouldn't change the CBS News digital agenda and his involvement on the sports side probably makes him the best possible successor when it comes to maintaining that momentum."

Good luck old boy, say we, but please -- please! -- leave the "60 Minutes" formula alone!



Asshole. (image via TheObserver/ Drew Friedman)

Out: Al Franken. What a prick. He fairly reeks of prickiosity. There's something creepy about Al Franken that just rubs us the wrong way. We can't precisely say what it is, but it rankles mightily. Perhaps it was the way he hassled the adorable 14-year old Theo Spielberg on "Topic A" a while ago on the subject of goddam Social Security, before Arianna Huffington actually intervened in the conversation. We, quite frankly, don't like his ass; and we never -- ever -- laughed at a fucking "Stuart Smalley" skit (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). From the salmon-colored weekly:

"Comedians perform bits, and Mr. Franken was so pleased with his that he did the same shtick again, this time for the benefit of an even more Middle American crowd: viewers of the Today show the following Tuesday morning. It�s a constituency that he might be aiming to reach more often in the future. Mr. Franken recently announced that he�s uprooting his life on Manhattan�s Upper West Side and moving himself (and his wife) to Minneapolis to pursue a career in politics, including a possible run for a 2008 Senate seat in Minnesota, where he grew up.

"But his appearance on Mr. Letterman�s show raises the question of how the still very blunt, idiosyncratic and rant-prone Mr. Franken will make the transition to the typically staid and earnest world of state government, and whether he will change politics or politics will change him."

We can think of no one more blue-state-buffon than Al Franken; he is almost an obscene parody of the Manhattan, Chardonnay-sipping, I'm-Right-and-you're-a-hayseed crowd. We wonder how Al Franken, obsessed with defending the United Nations against the admittedly opportunistic depradations of the thoroughly sleazy Senator Norm Coleman, will fare in the heartland of Minnesota, where, to be sure, there is great philosophical sympathy with the ideas of internationalism. Right? (Averted Gaze)



Faux-talk. (image via thebscorner)

In: The Colbert Report. This show is like crack cocaine, despite the lamentable buzz-killing props from Alessandra Stanley (Hipness dies when lauded by the New York Times). Despite what the Baltimore Sun says, The Colbert Report is kicking ass and taking names (And the web appears to have embraced it as well). Colbert's arched brow take-no-prisoner- O'reillystyle is on the upswing, strengthening the already ferocious double-barreled stronghold that the Daily Show Empire has over Comedy Central. If comedy writers are on top, The Corsair is happy. According to MedialifeMagazine:

"Show on the rise: 'The Colbert Report,' Comedy Central, Monday to Thursday, 11:30 p.m. The new series premiered last week with 1.2 million total viewers, up 76 percent from the prior four-week average and improving on its year-ago time period average by 197 percent. 'Colbert' averaged a 0.7 18-49 rating, up 67 percent from the previous four weeks."



There's a Zucker born every minute. (image via nypost via wireimage)

Out: NBC, The Desperate Network. Is the Elder Brother of the New York Media Elite a "Zucker"? The usually sober Kurt Andersen may want to reformulate his Zucker-boosting in light of this news, from the NYPost (Via Bloomberg):

"NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright said the NBC television network is 'desperate,' and rebuilding its program schedule will take more than one season.

"'We are definitely a desperate network right now,' Wright said yesterday.

"'It's going to take a few years to get back to where we were,' he said of NBC's previous first-place ranking.

"NBC has lost viewers in the current season, in which 'The Apprentice: Martha Stewart' and 'Inconceivable' haven't appealed to large audiences. The network had ranked No. 1 for eight of the past nine years before last season."

In other news, CBS was seen offering the "desperate" NBC a crisp C-note and an armful of smack for a quick "beej" on the hush-hush.



(image via edge.org)

In: Tuesday's at Michaels. And speaking of "beej": Where's Michael Wolff? Still no sign of him at Table 5 (Could he have moved his base of operations to Bette? The Four Season's?). Our favorite social chronicler David Patrick Columbia recounts some of yesterday's power lunch crowd in NYSocialDiary:

"Tuesday at Michael�s the beautiful-can-be-funny Candice Bergen was lunching with super-agent Toni Howard. Authoress Doris Kearns was there with her husband Richard Goodwin; Peter Brown with Eden Collingsworth. Around the room: real estate magnate and philanthropist Elihu Rose; the new Time editorial director John Huey, literary agent Binky Urban, Atoosa Rubenstein, Lisa Birnbach, Steve Mosko, Jack Meyers, Meredith Brokaw; Angela Mariani with shoe-guru Candy Pratts Price and Eva Cavalli; former Marlboro man Chuck Pfeifer, film director Fred Schepisi; Clinton fund-raiser, investor Alan Patricof, Robin Melanie Leacock; Grace Meigher with Hilary Geary Ross, and Jamee Gregory, et al."

And, as the NYTimes' T Magazine informs us obliquely, via "talking points," Candice Bergen has the best "neck work" they've ever seen.



(image via cheapestdvdmovies)

Out: The Wesley Snipes, Jean-Claude Van Damme Vehicle. (The Corsair takes on a grave aspect) Jean Claude Van Damme is not an ass. (A considerable pause) Okay, yes, yes he is, who is The Corsair trying to fool anyway? Only an ass would wear the name "The Muscles from Brussels" wholly without irony. Who in their right minds would pay to see a Snipes-Van Damme collabo pic, in the 21st Century, no less (Averted Gaze). The whole project reeks of the late Bronze Age. This, from EW's Popwatch:

"Wesley Snipes and Jean Claude Van Damme are teaming up as a boxer and his bodyguard in The Hard Corps -- get it? (The story is at Production Weekly -- click on 'october twenty-six.') Is this a step up for JCVD, or a step down for Snipes?"

It's a flavorful step, with ass akimbo, in the direction of Spengler's Decline of The West (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment).



(image via fashionweekdaily via wireimage)

In: Harajuku Lovers' LA Launch. The Corsair has always wondered whatever happened to our old Paper Magazine crush, the sizzling Jauretsi Saizarbitoria, who ran Paper Special Events -- parties -- back when we did an online gig there back in the mid-90s; Jauretsi always struck us as someone who would one day become a celebrity of some kind. It appears she's now a DJ in LA, spinning records for the likes of Demi and Ashton. Go, Jauresi! According to Peter Davis of the excellent Fashionweekdaily:

"To get to the party, guests rode an enormous elevator that had a small bar serving glow-in-the-dark drinks in plastic test tubes. Upstairs, DJ and documentary filmmaker Jauretsi Saizarbitoria (in a hot pink dress) spun old-school disco and rap. The music was so slamming that Demi Moore�s daughter, Scout, spent hours gyrating like an MTV video star with a small posse of her teenage friends. The Daily is now totally obsessed with Scout, who boogies better than anyone we�ve seen out in a long time (and we go out a lot).

"Nearby, Scout�s step-dad, Ashton Kutcher (in black jeans and a black leather jacket) had his arm around wife, Demi. At one point, Ashton, Demi, and Scout were all moving to the music while simultaneously tapping out emails and text messages on their T-Mobile Sidekicks. In L.A., a family that Sidekicks together, stays together.

"... Also in the crowd: Daryl Hannah in white jeans and ankle boots, Robin Anton, founding member of The Pussycat Dolls, The Los Angeles Times� Booth Moore, Scott Baio (making out with a young blonde in a corner), Vogue�s Amy Hall Browne, writer Peter McQuaid and actress/Zac Posen muse Paz de la Huerta, who hung out mostly by the DJ booth."

This sounds like a perfect LA event, all but the well-past-the-expiration-date mentioning of Scott Baio, which, truth be told, was entirely unnecessary -- What's next, a Bai Ling reference? -- and kind of made us dry heave, just a little. Just a little. The full story here.