Thursday, August 16, 2007

Media-Whore's D'Oevres



(image via mediabistro)

"Ben Karlin, the 'Daily Show' and 'Colbert Report' guru who left the Comedy Central skeins unexpectedly late last year, has signed a comprehensive deal with HBO.
Pay net has inked the comic scribe to a deal that will see the writer create series, specials and TV pics for HBO; it also includes a first-look deal for theatrical films, presumably under the HBO Films-Picturehouse shingle. Deal will see the creator funneling project both to Carolyn Strauss' originals division and Colin Callender's HBO Films banner." (Variety)

" Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says it can get a little lonely being a Democrat in Nebraska. The last Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election was Lyndon Johnson, in 1964. But Buffett had plenty of company Wednesday night at a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama -and local organizers say Obama made a valuable investment ...The total raised wasn't immediately available, but the minimum price to get in was $500 a person, and organizers estimated the crowd at about 200. About 40 of those people attended an earlier reception, and each donated at least $2,300." (HuffPo)

"Fans outside The Odeon Leicester Square who'd braved a downpour hoping for a glimpse of his royal purpleness, were miffed when he was rushed straight inside.We hear: 'Prince arrived at 7.31pm and was seated by 7.35pm. Fans were so disappointed. His arrival was announced over the Tannoy and they had been waiting in the rain to meet him for ages. Instead, he and one of his entourage who had an umbrella were rushed straight through.'" (DailyMail)

" The dollar is no longer soaring but slumping, as the world engine for growth moves from the United States to the East. To get a sense of how critical Asia has become, consider that our economy is expected to expand by $526 billion this year. The Chinese economy, which is a fraction the size of the U.S. economy, is expected to grow by $420 billion. That divergence will persist as China, as well as India, grows at a 10 percent annual rate.This is the story virtually everywhere in the developing world-tightening markets for labor and product, with inflation pressures waxing. Central banks in Europe, China, and Japan are responding with rate hikes and hawkish rhetoric. Stronger growth around the world will portend even higher interest rates." (USNews)

"This week news broke that Eric Clapton shelled out $120,000 to buy twelve paintings by legendary graffiti artist Lee Quinones; each work depicts a shoplifter grabbing an album from the Seventies, including James Brown’s Sex Machine and the Isley Brothers’ Get Into Something. The guitarist’s apparent love of graffiti art dates back at least a decade, when he attended a London show that featured Quinones and fellow train-to-canvas artists Stash and Futura." (RollingStone)

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