A Little of the Old In and Out



(image via theobserver)

In: Woody Allen, Dramatist. Thank God Woody Allen is done with comedy. Granted, he needed to go "light" after that dreadful row with Mia Farrow; but still. (Averted Gaze) Comedy is a young man's game.

Suzy Hansen does a wonderful profile of Woody Allen in the salmon-colored weekly, which says, in part:

"For New Yorkers of a certain age�and I�m 28�he is still our director, the Jewish Male of All Jewish Males, an important and orienting force for nascent American shiksas everywhere. He has celebrated a kind of perpetual adolescence. He is the New York of wit, banter, bookstores, infidelity, hardwood floors, moldings and area rugs, cocktail piano, live television studios, gray skies, sell-by-date romances, movie lines and movie-line references, fallible best friends and fragrant dinner parties, young and na�ve beautiful women, older and smarter quirky men. His milieu is his memory, his persona not him, he says, but a construction: Alvy, Isaac, Gabe, Harry. Fielding Mellish.

"Then, black clouds, etc. Mia culpa.

"The past decade has been another era: Soon-Yi, children, Europe, some empty art houses, Small Time Crooks, Anything Else, a cruel crack in the jaw from his old safe port, The New York Times�the paper whose late, great film critic, Vincent Canby, saw Renoir and Bergman in Woody Allen. Then, a stunningly successful stand-up at the Oscars after Sept. 11, a couple of more stinkers, and, out of the mists of Variety, a cry: 'Woody�s back!' It was for Match Point, a somber, violent, stirring film, shot far away from New York in dank, posh London, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. The hype returned, but calmly, without the strain of wishful desperation."



(image via blunt.house.gov)

Out: Congressman Roy Blunt. The DeLay limbo has placed acting Majority Leader -- and Majority Whip -- Congressman Blunt in a delicate position. One, Blunt is widely regarded as being a less-capable leader than his predecesor.

Two, Blunt was expected to be nothing more than a loyal placeholder for Tom DeLay; but now that the Texas legislator is going to trial (and facing a primary challenge or two), other, more ambitious members of the House (John Boehner, cough, cough) are gunning for the job. According to TheHill:

"Committee chairmen in the House have defied and frustrated leadership officials this year by publicly questioning their decisions and, at times, voting against high-profile bills.

"... Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), who has publicly called for leadership elections, believes that the chairmen are challenging interim House Majority Leader and Whip Roy Blunt�s (R-Mo.) authority.

"In a November interview on C-SPAN, Bass said, 'I believe [the House Republican conference] works better when he have open elections, when we have a real majority leader.'

�'I have no qualms or reservations about the hard work [House Majority Leader and Majority Whip] Roy Blunt [R-Mo.] has done but he is shackled by the fact that he�s only acting [majority leader], and the committee chairmen, most of whom have been there a lot longer than he has, don�t feel the kind of allegiance to him that they might feel if the whole conference had elected him and he fought for the seat against other qualified candidates.'"



Paltrow and her newly plump decolettage at Annie Hall. (image via wireimage/ Ferdaus Shanim)

In: Gwyneth Paltrow's Boobs. We are not really a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow. She strikes us as exciting as a magnum of chloroform. (Averted Gaze) But, we have to admit, pregnancy has done wonders for her, uhm, form. (A considerable pause) And we're not the only ones noticing. According to the 3AM Girls:

"(Orlando Bloom) was bowled over by her curvy new look when he spotted her at the celeb-packed Motorola Grand Classics screening of Annie Hall at Notting Hill's Electric Cinema on Monday night.

"The 28-year-old Lord Of The Rings star obviously hadn't rumbled the worst-kept secret in showbiz - that Gwyneth is expecting her second baby. But she soon put him right.

"Our insider at the exclusive bash, who overheard snippets of conversation between the two, tells us: 'Orlando hasn't seen Gwyneth in a while and he remarked how big her chest looked.

"'She just laughed and said, 'I know, they are big. I can't believe it. It's amazing, isn't it? It's the best thing about being pregnant. I love the way I look!'"



(image via forbes)

Out: Carl Icahn. Perhaps he has some strong ideas, but Carl Icahn really comes off like a massive prick. Hey, dude, mellow out: Cut Richard Parsons some slack; get up off his ass! According to Staci at Paidcontent:

"What a great present having this settled by the end of the year would be ... and what an unlikely one. Now Carl Icahn wants Time Warner to cough up the minutes of board meetings where, according to Steve Case, breaking up the company was discussed and vetoed. (SEC filing.) He also wants an accounting of PR spending by the company. (When is another shareholder going to ask for an accounting of how much Icahn's effort is costing the company? Just curious.)

" -- Keeping an Eye on Icahn: A scathing take on Icahn, who author James B. Stewart recalls from his own reporting days as 'a notorious 'greenmailer,' a corporate raider'

"... Based on past experience, I don't entirely trust the new activist Icahn to function in the broader interest of Time Warner shareholders. *Chairman and CEO Richard) Parsons has delivered so far on his promises and has impressed me as someone with integrity. He has rightly stressed the need for a sound, long-term strategy, not just an attempt to make a quick killing. But it's time to take the debate over Time Warner's future out of the privacy of the boardroom and into the public arena.' He suggests that could help the company with investors.

"-- Proxy Fight For Time Warner Predicted: Now that would be a shock ... "

More Staci here.



(image via nysocialdiary)

In: Donna Karan. The past few days have been all-Karan-all-the-time. According to our favorite social chronicler David Patrick Columbia in NYSocialDiary:

"I went around the block and up the avenue to Donna Karan�s boutique where the designer was hosting a party with Jay Johnson, Sandra Brant, Bob Colacello, Arthur Dunnam, Tom Cashin and Temo Callahan in celebration of Jed Johnson�s work and the publication of Jed Johnson: Opulent Restraint (Rizzoli New York).

"We covered the publication of the book when Barbaralee and Carl Spielvogel gave a party for Jay, the twin brother of the late interior designer who lost his life in the Flight 800 tragedy over Long Island several years ago.There is a great lingering Andy Warhol influence in this crowd.

"Bob Colacello took his first steps in the media celebrity firmament as a/d/c and editor for Andy. The Johnson twins were prominent members of Andy�s Factory gang. Indeed, Sandra Brant and her partner Ingrid Sischy own and run Warhol�s creation Interview Magazine which set the tone for popular culture magazines.

"Karan�s large and elegant shop was beautifully decorated for the holiday season with a large Christmas tree covered in white lights and lots of red garments on the mannequins."



A magnum of our best fizzy stuff for our sweet. (image via 2rosas)

And, definitely In: Socialitelife. Congrats to our magnificent blog wife, Miu. We've always regarded her as number one, but now others are in on the not-so-secret. Cheers, Luvy.