Media-Whore D'Oevres



"She went on: 'I take offense at [Wright’s words]. I think it’s offensive and outrageous…it is part of just an atmosphere that we’re in today, where just all kinds of things are being said and people have to decide what they believe. And I sure don’t believe the U.S. government was behind AIDS.' This went farther than Clinton has previously ventured. Weeks ago, she went out of her way to make clear that she would not have been a member of Wright’s church, but she mostly left Obama to sort out his own mess. That she picked O’Reilly’s forum to broadcast the explicit suggestion that voters should use Wright’s words to judge Obama speaks volumes." (Observer)

"Pete Doherty is set to be released early from prison after serving only a third of his sentence. The Babyshambles frontman is due to be freed on Tuesday, just 29 days into his 14-week jail term. He was jailed after defying orders to take drug tests during a suspended sentence for heroin possession. Shortly after starting his stint at Wormwood Scrubs, photographs of the singer, 29, appeared in a national newspaper amid rumours that heroin was being smuggled into his cell at the detox wing." (Thisislondon)

"On 10 April, Chinese General Liang Guanglie and United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates conducted their first phone conversation using the new 'hotline' linking the Chinese and US defence establishments. During the call, Liang berated Gates for selling arms to Taiwan and for maintaining ties with the Taiwanese defence community. Gates in turn warned Liang that Washington would resist attempts by either Beijing or Taipei to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. The exchange epitomises why the Sino-American military hotline is unlikely to overcome the misunderstandings, misperceptions and genuine political-military differences dividing the Chinese and US defence and intelligence communities. A direct phone connection between two parties works only when the both sides are willing to listen." (Janes)

"Madonna pledged her allegiance to Dolce & Gabbana Wednesday night, when she staged a free promotional concert at the Roseland Ballroom clad almost exclusively in the designer's duds ... Needless to say, enough fashion designers were on hand to fill the CFDA. Zac Posen, Donna Karan, Narciso Rodriguez, Tory Burch, and Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough all took in the rare hour-long set of six songs. Holed up in the VIP balcony around the massive venue, the designers were joined by Rosie O'Donnell, Harvey Weinstein, and Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict ... Even at 11 p.m., Karan, Ingrid Sischy and Sandy Brant, Domenico Dolce, Michael Stipe, Alex Rodriguez, and Ali Wise were just beginning the night. They toasted Madonna and Co. until well after 3 a.m. Klein, for his part, was dressed stylishly in a dark suit as he surveyed the champagne-fueled rager from his center table in the VIP room." (Fashionweekdaily)

"The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S. The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked." (Brooks/NYTimes)



"Tomas Alfredson's 'Lat den ratte komma in' (Let the Right One In), about first love between a young boy and the vampire next door, won the feature prize as the Tribeca Film Festival named the winners of its seventh annual competish.
Competing were 120 features and 80 shorts from 40 countries. Huseyin Karabey won the new narrative filmmaker kudo for 'Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando,' a true story about a love affair between a Turk and a Kurd ... Documentary feature kudos went to Gini Reticker's 'Pray the Devil Back to Hell,' about Liberian women who steered the 2003 peace accords." (Variety)



(image via JT/NySD)

"Down at Michael’s I lunched with Brooke Duchin and Alex Hitz ... Sitting there at the table fifteen feet from the restaurant’s entrance, we noticed when a stunning couple appeared on the landing. They didn’t look familiar but they looked like they should have looked familiar ... They were: Daphne Guinness and Bernard Henri Levy. Many Americans have not heard of him but he is one of the most famous intellectuals of France, in Europe." (NYSocialDiary)

"Free Arts NYC is always a highly spirited free-for-all in the charity auction genre ... Guests in attendance included Michelle Monaghan, Erin Fetherston, Lindsay Price, Amy Sacco and Mary Alice Stephenson." (Papermag)