half -"Naked Ambition." (image via longislandpress)
Out: Kelly Bensimon. According to Fashionweekdaily, "Kelly Bensimon is said to be vying for Anne McNally's fashion director's post at Vanity Fair."
Here we go again. Is vying shorthand for another titanic struggle? Why is it that we always hear about Kelly Bensimon's career ambitions in the media? Is her unique brand of social climbing -- even before she gets the position -- actually news?
Not that we have any juice at VF, but we prefer Joe Zee for the post. He doesn't wear his outsized ambitions on his sleeve. Like ... some people do. (Averted Gaze)
(image via sfgate)
In: Larry Kramer. Our favorite unrequited media boycrush (Platonic, of course), Larry Kramer, has put out there the interesting proposition that Google might buy CBSDigital. Possiblymaybe.
"Merc: Internet search is a big way that people are beginning to find video. How do you see that playing out?
"Larry Kramer: That, to us, will be a big business, because you'll be able to go on Google and say, 'I'm doing a report on Jackie Robinson for school.' And you can go and find out that `60 Minutes' did a piece on him in the '60s. And you can go get it, and now see it for a buck, if that's what we decide to do. Or you can see it with commercials. I'll be able to sell entertainment programming from Paramount. And maybe it will cost you, or maybe we'll inject ads. Those are dollars we wouldn't have been able to take in before. We could have never matched that buyer with that content without a search mechanism.
"Merc: Have there been discussions with Google to make your video more find-able?
"Larry :Everybody. Google, Yahoo, MSN.
"Merc: There have been predictions that Google and Yahoo will begin to build up news staffs. Do you see them becoming content- providers?
"Larry: Yahoo is obviously further down the road there, and they're wrestling with that question... And I do not believe that they've made that decision that question that they want to go big. Right now, they don't think they can. They don't expect to be CBS News or CNN. But they do want to do more and more programming of their own. Because the problem is, they were dependent totally on partners for content. And guess what? The partners are starting to get stingy because they want to build it themselves on the Web. There's a built-in conflict.
"If you take that to its logical conclusion, Google buys CBS. They've got the kind of money to buy someone or a content-creation machine. (But) that hasn't gone well historically with technology firms."
Plenty uptop.
Out: Jamie Foxx. You can take the man out of the ghetto, but, well ... old habits die hard. And, besides, urban riots are best observed -- or, for that matter, best incited -- from the balcony. According to those intrepid Page Sixxies:
"EVER-clever Jamie Foxx has a new party trick. The other night at Teddy's in L.A., the Oscar winner was drinking champagne with actors Dylan McDermott and Djimon Hounsou, PM Lounge owner Unik and some others. When the bill came, Unik grabbed it and Foxx said, 'Let me get the tip.' He reached into his shoulder bag, pulled out some cash and started slowly counting out singles. As his buddies began to giggle, Fox kept reaching and kept counting, finally dumping out 1,000 $1 bills on the table. Foxx got the last laugh - as he did two weeks ago in Las Vegas, when he tossed a huge roll of bills from a nightclub balcony. A small riot broke out but subsided quickly when the money-hungry mob realized they were jousting over $1 bills."
Crazy like a Foxx. To paraphrase the great Roger Ebert, who, like Foxx, prefers his dark meat "plump" (you go, Roger; you do your thing), the balcony is closed.
(image via the-tidings)
In: Jim Nussle. All paths lead to Nussle. Follow the money, said Deep Throat, in All The Presidents Men. That's what USnews&WorldReport did, cleverly, in pursuit of who in the 2008 Republican game is showing their poker hand, unintentionally:
"If money talks in politics, then it's already getting pretty loud in Iowa, home to the first presidential caucus slated for 2008. Here's the 411: Rep. Jim Nussle is the Republican front-runner in the Iowa 2006 gubernatorial race, making him the go-to guy for likely presidential candidates hoping to curry favor with a potential GOP guv. But when Nussle asked the political action committees of some possible 2008 candidates for donations, not everybody ponied up. Those who did, according to soon-to-be-released financial reports: Virginia Sen. George Allen $10,000; Arizona Sen. John McCain $5,000; Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback $2,000; and Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum $1,000. Who didn't: Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, New York Gov. George Pataki, and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But, we're assured, Pataki and Romney showed their love by offering to help raise money."
Note to Rick Santorum: You have to get past a stiff challenge from Bob Casey before you can even begin to think of 2008.
(image via thestage)
In: Rob Lowe. Goddamn that Rob Lowe. If it isn't bad enough that he has major buzz to replace John Spence on NBC's spectacular West Wing, he's still catnip to the ladies on the continent. That man got more ass in the 80s than the seats at Madison Square Garden, and his cup still runneth over. According to Taki in TheSpectator:
"Three weeks ago in London, I went to a party at Tramps and sat down with the Bismarks and the Hoares. A very pretty girl across the room kept staring at me. I pointed to my white hair, meaning that she could not be looking at an old man, that she was either blind or suffering from extreme gerontophilia. But she kept looking, so I crossed the Rubicon and went up to her. Me: 'Oh, hello, how are you ...' She: 'What do you weant?' Me: 'Well, I thought perhaps you'd like to come over and have a drink ...' She: 'Are you a friend of Rob Lowe's:" Me: 'Er, not really, but my friends are ..' She: 'I only care to meet him ...' In other words she told me to bugger off.
"Once back at the table, the penny dropped. Rob Lowe was sitting with us and exactly between the girls view and me. The pretty one was trying to catch his eye. So I told my sorry tale to the lady next to me, who, having heard me out, told me her name -- Mrs. Rob Lowe."
Adrien Boredy. (image via wiredimage)
Out: Boredom. Is this The End of Boredom? Marc Cuban seems to think so in a provocative post:
"Portable media devices, whether Ipods, portable gaming devices, phones with all their features, or whatever have solved what has been a generations old nuisance for all of us, boredom.
We have our little devices and now we are never bored. We dont find ourselves staring off into space unoccupied, wondering what to do. We dont find ourselves muttering about how bored we are sitting on the train, or on a plane, trying to do anything to make the time go by more quickly.
"Our little mobile devices are so popular because they are the ultimate, continuous distraction. They are the easiest cure for boredom.
"Check your email. Call your friend. Play a game on your phone or PSP. Watch a movie on your Ipod. It doesnt matter where you are anymore. You always have at least one.
"When we leave the house now, its keys, wallet, phone/pda/IPod, lock the door. The minute we have nothing better to do, or our mind starts to wander, regardless of where we are, meetings, events, elevator, exercise bike, walking down the street, out it comes."
You know, of course, The Corsair's position on the dangers that our society -- via video gaming and MTV -- is shortening the length is its attention span. We disagree completely with Cuban's thesis (And, we know, sound like olf fogeys). But it is interesting, and it is here.
2 comments:
Two things:
1) Please find another picture of Larry Kramer, even if you have to draw one.
2) Jamie Foxx's companion is hot.
2) She is. I'd do her.
1) Doesn't he have a sort of teddy bear quality?
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