Media-Whore's D'Oevres



(image via seattletimes via ap)

"The moguls are in session. This, finally, after dozens of their Gulfstreams dropped down Tuesday in nearby Friedman Memorial Airport, with families often in tow, for that annual schmoozefest sponsored by Allen & Co. Among the first making his way past a journalistic gauntlet that Barry Diller would later call 'a gaggle' was, fittingly, host Herbert Allen. It’s his 25th year of bringing media and entertainment biggies together, and he’s smartly expanding the 300-something guest list to include digiterati as well. Allen, whose arrival at the Sun Valley Inn preceded the 7:30 a.m. kickoff session by an hour, reported the opening would feature a presentation from Time Warner Inc. captains Dick Parsons and Jeff Bewkes. A while later, within a distance of 20 yards, Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng trailed Diller, his wife, Diane von Furstenberg, and at least one of the wife’s offspring. Murdoch played coy as he ducked past journalists, who are denied access to the sessions, until asked if he wasn’t about to yank his $60 per share offer for Dow Jones & Co. 'You never know,' he said, hurrying past security." (TheDeal)

"In a further sign of Iraq's deepening sectarian divisions, security chiefs in Iraq's Shia-dominated government have formed a shadow intelligence service to rival the Iraq National Intelligence Service (INIS), created and funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that is manned largely by Sunnis and former members of Saddam Hussein's mukhabarat (secret police). The head of the INIS is General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani. The hostility between these two services is intense. The overall Shia objective seems to be to eradicate, or at least drastically reduce, US influence within the security establishment and put intelligence gathering firmly under Shia control. This is at a time when speculation is growing that a large-scale US military withdrawal may be ordered in the coming months. The emergence of this new service could be bad news for the US because it might facilitate penetration of Iraq's security establishment by the intelligence services of neighbouring Shia-majority Iran." (JanesDefense)

"On the eve of negotiations between Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Writers Guild of America, some high-level entertainment execs created a burst of publicity by holding a rare on-the-record briefing to lay out their case. CBS chief Leslie Moonves, Disney’s Anne Sweeney, Warner Bros. chairman Barry Meyer, and chief studio negotiator Nicholas Counter explained why they want to defer the decision on the pivotal issue of multi-platform pay by doing a study." (Paidcontent)

" Cooperation, not mutual destruction, is a major theme at this year's summer gathering of the media and technology elite in Sun Valley. And the Scandinavian founders of new online video service Joost -- Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom -- perhaps embody this new spirit best.Friis and Zennstrom, who once terrified the media industry with file-sharing technology company KaZaa, and then the telecommunications industry with Skype, are first-time guests at Allen & Co's 25th annual media conference in Idaho." (Reuters)

"CHAD Hurley appears to have gone from rock star to falling star. Last year, the YouTube co-founder was the cause célebre at Allen & Co.'s mogulfest at Sun Valley, Idaho, a position that helped him sell his video site to Google only a few short months later for $1.65 billion. As of yesterday afternoon, he had yet to show up at this year's event, leading to speculation that he was either too busy - or had not been invited. An early version of the guest list for this year's confab listed Hurley as an invited attendee, according to a source. But in a later copy reviewed by The Post, Hurley's name was absent; only the names of Google's brass were listed. Roughly 25 percent of the guest list changes every year, and an invite is not only a coveted status symbol among the media elite, it's also a telling indication of who's in and who's out in the media world." (NYPost)

"Mario Testino gave New Yorkers a peek at the inside of his London town house at the Tuesday-night opening of his show At Home at the Yvon Lambert gallery .. 'I like to hang everything together, salon-style,' said Testino, in between greeting Vogue's Anna Wintour, Vanity Fair's Michael Roberts, and Marchesa's Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig. 'The [art] is all mine; I've been collecting for a long, long time.' Afterward, the chic gang gathered at Ian Schrager's yet-to-open boîte Wakiya in the Gramercy Park Hotel. Sienna Miller breezed in Edie Sedgwick-style, wearing a short glittery shift by Stella McCartney and large vintage hoop earrings. Upon seeing the shutterbug, she broke out into her trademark megawatt grin. 'We've been practically living together for the past week,' she said, noting that they were in Rome together for a Vogue shoot and the Valentino anniversary. With that, the Peruvian began to rub the actress' flat stomach. 'We're announcing our engagement,' he said with a laugh. 'This is Mario the fourth.'" (Style)

"Macy’s Herald Square windows turned into art installations, while their second floor Impulse section transformed into a cocktail fête Tuesday night when the Macy’s Sidewalk Gallery Exhibit opened with Art Under Glass Summer 2007, a mixed media exhibition that celebrates the fusion of art and fashion ..From the windows overlooking the city, decorated with drawings of major New York City landmarks by Florence Deygas, to Maxence Cyrin’s performance of 'Yellow Variation,' an original piece created specifically for Veuve, everything was a tribute to the hue. Cellar master Jacques Peters celebrated his interpretation of yellow literally, allowing guests to taste the champagne—normally a treat only his wine makers are privy to—while Jay McInerney gave guests the opportunity to continue a short story he began just for Veuve. At least five languages were represented by the end of the evening, making the story an international pastiche that even McInerney couldn’t translate. 'It’s certainly interesting to think about how stories germinate,' quipped the writer." (Fashionweekdaily)

"Saturday, July 7 .. At dinner in the candlelit courtyard of the Hotel di Russie, we were privy to a fashion moment. The well-heeled guests of the Valentino gala congregated at the bar waiting for their limos. Tom Ford held court in his usual white dinner jacket. Jennifer Hudson (barefoot!) was laughing with the ever-commanding Andre Leon Talley" (TheStar.com)