Media-Whore's D'Oevres



"If we concluded our analysis in 2007 and confined our judgment merely to Mr Rove’s immediate electoral record, we would have no choice but to judge him a spectacular success. There is no doubt that Mr Rove won elections. He has perhaps one of the most remarkable win-percentages in modern American politics. If only things were so neat and simple. The evidence is now pretty conclusive that Mr Rove may have lost more than just an election in 2006. He has lost an entire generation for the Republican party." (James Carville on FT)

"Rove’s departure coincides with a piece about him by Joshua Green in the September issue of The Atlantic—an account of how Rove’s arrogance and political brutality cost Bush most of his domestic agenda even when Congress was in Republican hands. The pillars of Rove’s permanent Republican majority collapsed one after another even as the White House kept winning elections. Though Iraq doesn’t seem to have interested Rove much, it paid a high price for his realignment strategy." (George Packer in NewYorker)



"It's all true: Kanye West has invited Peter Bjorn & John for a live collab at the Way Out West fest in Gothenburg, Sweden this August, and now we have word that PB&J say 'yay!'" (Stereogum)

"'Eight hours ago I was on the movie set in Barcelona of Woody Allen’s new film,' said Harvey Weinstein as he introduced the film at an appropriate location, Cinema 3 on Third Avenue and 60th Street. Scarlett Johansson, on location in Spain filming with Penelope Cruz for the tentatively titled flick Midnight in Barcelona, was unable to attend, but as Weinstein read off a who’s who of host committee bold faced-types he had rounded up, including Tory Burch, Stefani Greenfield, Shoshanna Gruss, and Valesca Guerrand-Hermès, he quipped, 'Before I met Georgina [Chapman] I would never have known any of those names.'" (Fashionweekdaily)



"Each week, indieWIRE receives the final weekend numbers for specialty releases in theaters. This is our top ten for the three day weekend so far, with most numbers already in. The top ten is subject to change before the final chart is published tomorrow and the weekly box office column is written. Weekend box office data provided by Rentrak as of Monday, 6:00 p.m. EST.
1. '2 Days In Paris' (IDP/Samuel Goldwyn Films) $173,641 wknd ($17,364 per scrn) 2. 'Rocket Science' (Picturehouse Films) $58,536 wknd ($9,756 per scrn)" (Indiewire)

Barack Obama, meanwhile, is on the air in Spanish in Nevada, touting himself as the son of a foreign father, a family man and a Christian. Nearly one in four Nevada voters is Hispanic." (Politico)

"This wasn’t an easy choice for #1, since there’s no telling if Cheney will once again commandeer our foreign policy (as he did with Iraq) before leaving office. But Rice, the ultimate yes-woman as national-security adviser, has become a much needed check on the Office of the Vice President. Like Colin Powell, her predecessor at State, she now recognizes the pomposity of 'with us or against us' and the value in talking to one’s enemies. But the difference between her and Powell is: The president trusts her." (GQ)