Media-Whore D'Oevres



"Mumbling through songs, swearing into the mic and sweating like a wildebeest, Pete Doherty scooped his first music award last night - Hero of the Year.The 28-year-old Babyshambles frontman's accolade was met with a chorus of guffaws - and a few boos.The Enemy's Tom Clarke was unimpressed, telling us: 'Doherty doesn't deserve to win anything. He isn't in the music industry any more, he's in the drugs trade.'" (3AMGirls)

"Focusing on foreign-policy issues does shed light on the question of why Medvedev was chosen as the heir apparent. Despite Putin's often harsh statements, one important thread of Russian policy abroad has been an effort to improve Russia's image internationally. Putin and the various elites of siloviki -- people connected with the military, police, and security organs -- that surround him are concerned with legitimizing their status and their assets in the West. They know that only people who are perceived in the West as 'liberals' -- people like Medvedev -- can advance the interests of the new state megacorporations abroad and open up new international markets for Gazprom and other companies the Putin-era elites control. Only these 'liberals' have a chance of attracting significant foreign investment to Russia. The siloviki need the cover these liberals provide, and Medvedev is seen as a reliable intermediary ... And the harsh rhetoric will likely continue, simply because the ruling elite in Moscow has come to believe that it gets results. Since Putin's notably belligerent anti-American speech in Munich in February 2007, Russia has rarely been far from the center of attention internationally. In this way, Russia is following the same policy as Iran and North Korea." (RadioFreeEurope)

"Tilda Swinton has two lovers and an Oscar! The younger of her two paramours, Sandro Kopp, is a talented artist whose price hopefully will go up now. As a reader points out, these very genital works by him didn’t exactly go through the roof, bid-wise, on a New Zealand version of eBay. (Forty dollars??? Surely people are willing to pay more than that for a dick or a vadge, even if they’re just representations!) And as the same reader notes, Kopp’s own website curiously omits them." (Musto)

" Last night I went over to Elaine’s to meet Paige Peterson and Chris Cerf for some later dinner (early supper) about nine o’clock. You’ve read about Elaine’s before, been there before, heard about it before. So have I, although I’m not one of the regulars who hit the place at least two, three times a week. So I’m always amazed that this saloon, this clubhouse which Chris Cerf started coming to when he was a kid in the mid-1960s, is not only still going, but still going strong ... Last night the author Frederic Morton came in and joined our table. Two tables down Dominic Chianese from 'The Sopranos' was at a table with friends and was joined by Tony Danza." (NYSD)

"New Line Cinema co-CEOs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne were out the door Thursday as the 40-year-old studio - which produced the 'Lord of the Rings,' 'Rush Hour' and 'Austin Powers' franchises - was absorbed as a unit of Warner Bros. Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes, New Line's corporate overlord, signaled the move might be likely earlier this month. But the news was broken in a memo to distraught employees shortly before an announcement to the press. 'This is, of course, a very difficult and emotional time for all of us,' Shaye and Lynne told colleagues." (Gatecrasher)

"Reading about Sen. Barack Obama's undergarment preferences seems to be of more interest to Us Weekly's readers than Britney Spears' custody battles. The magazine posted a excerpt on its Web site from its three-page feature on the presidential candidate late Wednesday night, slugged 'Barack Obama Refuses Boxers or Briefs Question.' The story generated the second-highest traffic ever for a single article on the site, second only to the news on Heath Ledger's death. In just 12 hours, the Obama story got 434,002 unique visitors and more than 3.6 million page views." (WWD)

"U.S. and Polish officials 'made a good start' Friday in hammering out a possible deal on how Washington can help modernize Poland's military in exchange for Poland hosting a missile defense base, a U.S. diplomat said. Poland is demanding Washington's help in upgrading its armed forces if the U.S. wants to base 10 missile interceptors in the country. The American plan would also involve a radar system in neighboring Czech Republic. Washington says the system is necessary to protect the U.S. and its European allies from possible future attacks from Iran." (IHT)

"Givenchy's Wednesday-night dinner at the Elysée Montmartre was a throwback to old-world elegance. The lighting was an artful manipulation of candlelight and shadows. A string quartet played skillfully as guests like Emmanuelle Alt and Dita Von Teese filed into their seats at the orchid-filled tables. But no sooner had the dessert plates been cleared than the door scene turned into a frenzied mosh pit, with after-party invitees jostling to squeeze inside. Even Chloë Sevigny had a hard time getting found in the shuffle. 'That wasn't easy,' she sighed, catching her breath at the top of the stairs. 'But it was worth it.' Revelers like Liya Kebede flooded the dance floor. Dancing to the musical stylings of 2 Many DJ's, the soft-spoken mother of two giggled, 'When I'm not in New York, I get a little wild.'" (Style)

"One VIP who almost didn't make it to Ungaro was Kanye West. The Grammy-winning music mogul was forced to sit discreetly on the floor after a late night of partying at the Balenciaga after-party at Le Baron threw his sleep pattern off-schedule. Ungaro publicists rearranged the seating in section D, hoping he would show, and he finally arrived at look 16. Undeterred, he took his spot beneath the photo pit and whipped out his camera, snapping away." (Fashionweekdaily)