Media-Whore D'Oevres



"OFFICIALLY, Art Basel, the highest-profile event on the jammed calendar of international art fairs, began on Tuesday ... It used to be that collectors, dealers and exhibiting artists showed up in Basel, about 50 miles away, the night before the fair’s invitation-only preview day, which was held last Tuesday for 8,000 V.I.P.’s, including Brad Pitt, Owen Wilson, the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Sheik Saud al-Thani, a cousin of the emir of Qatar ... Other members of the art-world jet set made preliminary stops in London, where there were new exhibits by Jake and Dinos Chapman at White Cube and a reception for 'Artists Playground,' an exhibit of sculptures on the verdant grounds of Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds. After-parties may be the coveted tickets during New York Fashion Week or the Oscars in Los Angeles, but in the art game, it is all about the pre-party." (NYTimesStyle)

"First, let's recap: On May 21, Eugene posted about Spike Lee's continued criticism of Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima for not including African Americans. Lee was asked why Eastwood did it as he did, and I have to say, I don't blame him for responding: 'If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that -- that was his vision, not mine...' Today, we got word that Eastwood has responded, with the eloquent 'A guy like him should shut his face.' He then went on to talk about revisionism. So, MTV went back to Lee, who is taking, and I quote: 'the Obama high road.' (New political slang alert! What's next?) He continued: 'I've said my statement. I have no ill will towards Mr. Eastwood. What I said to him was not a personal attack, it was an observation. So that's really the end of it.'" (Cinematical)

"Yves Saint Laurent was bid a final farewell in appropriately reverent form, as nearly 1,000 guests--and hundreds more onlookers--bottlenecked the immediate area around the Eglise Saint-Roch on Thursday to mourn one of France's national treasures.As Saint Laurent's coffin arrived at the 17th-century church on the Rue Saint-Honoré, the crowd of bystanders delivered several rounds of applause reverberated from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy ceremoniously adorned Saint Laurent's coffin with the French flag before presenting the designer, who died of brain cancer on Sunday at age 71, with military honors .. Among Saint Laurent's fellow designers who attended the 3:30 p.m. service were Alber Elbaz, Vivienne Westwood, Marc Jacobs, Manolo Blahnik, Stefano Pilati, Giambattista Valli, Riccardo Tisci, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Hubert de Givenchy, Sonia Rykiel, Christian Lacroix and Valentino. Giorgio Armani and Hedi Slimane were also expected, but were unable to attend." (Fashionweekdaily)