Media-Whore D'Oevres



Dee Dee Ricks (image via JT/NYSD)

"Last night in New York. The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center held their first 'annual Spring Ball' at the Plaza in the Grand Ballroom ... The Sloan-Kettering events are top drawer, top of the heap in New York. The support for the hospital is so great that it is one of the few in the country that runs in the black and provides extraordinary services for its patients. The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering is one of the most prestigious charities in New York, the closest thing to an exclusive club that a charity can be ... (Event Chair Muffy Potter Aston) told the audience that they’d raised a record $2.25 million before the party started. This was more than twice last year’s record. She recounted how during one meeting to prepare for the evening, she suggested they have a '$100,000' table. No one could believe it possible except suddenly a woman named Dee Dee Ricks stepped forward and said, 'I’ll take it.' Ms. Ricks, a Wall Street executive was a cancer survivor and a patient at Sloan-Kettering. This was, in a way, her way of giving thanks." (NYSocialDiary)

"'Robertson just got a whole lot classier!' Sting's daughter, Kate Sumner, joked to girlfriends at Thursday night's cocktail party and silent auction celebrating the opening of Chanel's new boutique located on 'the boulevard,' otherwise known as one of Los Angeles' finest paparazzi playgrounds ...Tinseltown tastemakers and fashion plates including Angie Harmon, Amber Valletta, Kirsty Hume, Rachel Bilson, Leighton Meester, Malin Akerman, Ever Carradine, Emma Roberts, and Michelle Trachtenberg, who is currently reading Coco Chanel's biography and wants to visit her apartment in Paris this summer ... Tatiana von Furstenberg, meanwhile, gave a progress update on her latest film project. 'I've been shooting a film called Tanner Hall, about four girls in boarding school, starring Amy Sedaris, Chris Kattan, and Amy Ferguson,' she said. 'We're editing it now. We wrote and directed it. We've been holed up working on it, so we're just now starting to emerge from the cave. Hoping it will make it in time for one of the fall festivals, either in Toronto or Venice.'" (Fashionweekdaily)

"Forget the presidential race. Never mind the fact that we just landed on Mars. Sex and the City: The Movie is finally here ... On Tuesday night, the mob outside the film's rain-washed New York premiere at Radio City Music Hall approached The Day of the Locust territory. Brandishing camera phones, thousands of screaming SATC acolytes crushed up against the police brigades in hopes of catching sight of their idols ... (I)t was hard to miss Carrie's main squeeze, Chris Noth, who was posing for a photo op with Katie Couric and her blushing teenage daughter." (Style)

"KATIE Couric's ex is finding a second chance at love with a billion-heiress. According to West Coast spies, TV producer Tom Werner is dating Alexandra von Furstenberg - the Miller sister who was married to Diane von Furstenberg's son, Alexandre, until he left her for 19-year-old Ali Kay. If the new couple stay together, it could be the wealthy version of 'The Brady Bunch,' as they both bring several children to the equation." (PageSix)



"Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow enjoyed a girlie night out together - without their respective husbands, Guy Ritchie and Chris Martin, at Nobu Berkeley last night ... Madonna and Gwyneth looked decidedly low-key for their evening out, dressed head-to-toe in sombre black. With Madonna opting for a pair of huge sunglasses to shield her eyes. Later, the singer was seen heading home in her car, texting on her ever-present Blackberry." (Thisislondon)

"It's really good to be Wolfang Tillmans right now. The German-born photographer has a solo exhibit at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (up through August) and is featured prominently as part of the Tate Britain’s BP British Art Display ... To celebrate the exhibit, Paley held a private viewing this past Tuesday that attracted a cross-section of East London glitterati from the likes of Henry Holland and Cassette Playa to stylecons such as Diane Pernet." (Papermag)

"Oftentimes teachers complain of having to compete with the hurlyburly of iPod's, cell phones, video games and the internet for the attention of their young students. One wonders what effect this hyper-accelerated digital media universe has on those delicate nervous systems. Even to us grown-ups the daily multi-tasking is enough to induce cognitive vertigo. What better way to lengthen attention spans and promote general well-being in children than yoga? In 2002, Tara Guber, a former schoolteacher and the wife of Hollywood super-producer Peter Guber, asked an Aspen, Colorado public elementary school if she could implement her 'Yoga Ed' program into their curriculum. Christian fundamentalists had a serious problem with this clear violation of church-state separation. The solution? Take out the mention of Hindu deities and the Sanskrit, which was already above the heads of the kids anyway. It worked." (Ron Mwangaguhunga/ Kenneth Cole's AWEARNESS Blog)