Media Whore D'Oevres



"As John McCain neared his momentous primary election victory in Florida after a ferocious campaign questioning his conservative credentials, right-wingers buzzed over word that he had privately suggested that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was too conservative. In response, Sen. McCain recalled saying no such thing and added that Alito was a ''magnificent'' choice. In fact, multiple sources confirm his negative comments about Alito nine months ago. McCain, as the 'straight talk' candidate, says things off the cuff that he sometimes cannot remember exactly." (Novak)

"No one knows Mike Tyson—or wants to know Mike Tyson—as well as director James Toback (When Will I Be Loved, The Pick-Up Artist), who's completing a documentary about the tempestuous boxer. So what's the scary guy like? "He's a great guy," Toback told me at an event last night. "He's linguistically very gifted, although malaprops sneak in there from time to time. There's no line between what he's thinking and what's being expressed. No guile and manipulation." I guess when he bites your ear off, he does it without any silly game playing!" (Musto)

"Mr. Mickey knows Sundance is last week's news but he just has to post about the fabulous Ray Ban Visionary Award party that happened there last week. Ray Ban honored Quentin Tarantino who made a delightful speech and proved what a fabulous freak he is. Speaking of fabulous freaks, the award was presented by Dennis Hopper! Two great tastes that taste great together. Meanwhile, the super hip band the Bravery performed and were soooo fun ... Anyhoo, sadly the boys didn't create such a great impression at the ski lodge where we were all staying. Mr. Mickey heard tales of belligerent drunken shenanigans from several Lodge employees! That's rock 'n' roll!" (Papermag)

"Obama campaign manager David Plouffe seemed to be setting expectations low for February 5 on a conference call with reporters this morning, but he also seemed optimistic about the relationship between his candidate’s supporters and Edwards’ supporters ... 'We will be announcing, later today, that we’ve had a lot of supporters of Senator Edwards join us,' Plouffe went on. Later he said, 'In our view, first of all, we are trying very very hard to make the case to his supporters to join out campaign…these are change voters.'" (Observer)

"Gisele Bündchen has been confirmed to attend the Rag & Bone show in New York, less than 24 hours before the Super Bowl. Does that mean that she won’t be supporting her man Tom Brady in what is possibly the biggest football game of the modern era?" (Fashionweekdaily)

"The 15 January car bomb that exploded beside an armoured United States embassy vehicle in Beirut, killing three bystanders, was the latest in a spate of violent incidents in Lebanon. It was similar to previous bomb attacks against Lebanese political, media and security officials over the past three years. While Syria has been accused of the earlier bombings, Lebanese investigators and analysts were more cautious in attributing blame for the US embassy vehicle attack as they believe independent Sunni jihadists have been responsible for a spate of security incidents in January ... It was the first attack on an official US target since the 1975-1990 civil war ... Investigators told Jane's the remotely detonated device weighed approximately 10 kg and was buried 15 cm below the ground in the central meridian separating the north- and south-bound lanes. Unlike other IEDs used for assassinations in Lebanon over the past three years, it was not a shaped charge explosion, but a simple blast device containing no shrapnel." (Janes)

"Final ballots to pick the winners of the movie industry's most sought-after awards -- the Oscars -- were sent to voters on Wednesday, four weeks out from Hollywood's biggest night of the year. The ballots, sent to 5,829 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, list nominees in 19 categories for the Oscars, which will be announced on February 24." (Indiewire)