Media-Whore D'Oevres



(image via JT/NYSD)

"I was back out into the intense heat of the night and caught a cab down to Lexington Avenue in the 60s where Shirley Lord Rosenthal was hosting a cocktail party for her old friend (and her late husband Abe’s good friend) Warren Hoge, the New York Times reporter and editor who has retired from the paper and will soon begin a new career as Vice President and Director of External Relations for a think tank called the International Peace Institute ... Anyway, I got to the cocktail a bit late but there were still quite a few present including Carl Bernstein, Gay Talese, Suzanne and Bill McDonough, Mort Zuckerman, Henry and Nancy Kissinger, Happy Rockefeller, Lynn Nesbit, Mica Ertegun, Mr. Hoge’s beautiful wife Olivia (whom he met in Brazil); Mitch and Sarah Rosenthal, Wendy Vanderbilt, Gail and Kevin Buckley, Wendy Luers, Peter Brown, Pete Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney." (NYSocialDiary)

"Newt Gingrich, who led the GOP takeover of the House in 1994, is now coaching Republicans on how to recapture the Senate. The former House Speaker and icon of the right is quietly expanding his influence in the upper chamber, where he is selling ideas on refurbishing the GOP’s image. Facing the harshest climate for their party in over a decade, Senate Republicans are hungry for his counsel. 'He’s trying to identify a path to victory in the fall,' said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), adding, 'It would be wise for us to listen.'" (TheHill)

"'Mongol,' Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov's epic drama about the boy, who rises up and becomes Mongol Empire founder Genghis Khan, stormed past all specialty releases with a sky-high $27,065 per-screen average from five runs. The Picturehouse release earned $135,326 in weekend box office, granting the soon-to-be-shuttered, Warner Bros. specialty shingle the first blockbuster specialty debut of the summer." (Indiewire)



"On Saturday, Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg asked the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to delay the ratification of its tentative primetime TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. AFTRA declined, upsetting SAG. So this morning, SAG rallied actors together at its Los Angeles headquarters in 'solidarity.' The goal? To persuade enough of the 44,000 people who are members of both unions to vote against the AFTRA deal, thus forcing AFTRA to renegotiate its agreement with producers. Several hundred actors showed up for the event, many passionately pumping their fists in the air, chanting 'AFTRA sucks' and 'Vote No'; their instructions were to shout loud enough for AFTRA to hear them on the 9th floor." (EW)

"LAPD unofficially estimated the SAG Solidarity Rally crowd at 550. SAG leaders Rosenberg and Doug Allen gave impassioned speeches explaining that they want to negotiate a fair deal for actors and a cohesive pay grid on New Media. Also taking the podium was actor Keith Carradine. In the crowd could be seen former SAG prez Ed Asner, David Arquette, William Mapother, Joe Bologna, Renee Taylor, Justine Bateman, David Clennon, Scott Wilson, Lisa Ann Walter, Kate Flannery, Willie Garson, Joely Fisher, David Marciano, Erica Gimpel, Michael Dorn, Marg Helgenberger and more. WGA leaders Patrick Verrone and Dave Young also spoke and urged SAG to improve upon the writers' terms and 'move the ball down the field.'" (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)

"Sen. Barack Obama’s ban on contributions from lobbyists and PACs has irritated Democratic lobbyists and fundraisers, who say that Democratic congressional candidates can’t — and won’t — turn their backs on such a steady stream of campaign cash. 'Quite honestly, we’re taking what we can get,' said a top aide to a House Democratic candidate facing a competitive race in November. 'The amount of money needed for a campaign today is just so huge that you really have to look under every rock.' At a campaign appearance in Virginia last week, Obama said that lobbyists don’t fund his campaign and 'will not fund our party,' either. The Democratic National Committee will play by Obama’s rule, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said last week that they would continue to accept contributions from lobbyists and PACs; spokesmen for the committees said new ethics rules already provide plenty of transparency." (Politico)