Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via ning)

"SADLY for Kate Hudson, the men dressed in police uniforms who arrived at her pre-Halloween party around 1 a.m. Sunday morning were real LAPD officers. The cops came to Hudson's Brentwood home to move her party indoors and keep the noise down for the neighbors. A source told us that the single mom 'was dressed as a '60s flight attendant' and her son, Ryder Robinson, 'was nowhere in sight.' Among the guests: Courteney Cox went dressed as a witch with husband David Arquette as a warlock, Winona Ryder was a mouse .." (NYPost)

"Howard (Stern) laughed that he endured an uncomfortable elevator ride with Clay Aiken on the way to the Friar's Club's Matt Lauer Roast last week. Howard also complained about the long roasts from Martha Stewart, Joy Behar and several others: 'I just wanted to have a nap...I put my head down on the table for a while...I was gonna leave in the middle, but I didn't want to insult Matt' .. Toward the end, Gilbert (Godfried) almost killed with a curse-heavy set: 'Tim Russert's widow looked like she was gonna leave.'" (HowardStern)

"A boundary runs just west of Dulles International Airport in Virginia that you won't find on any map. It's a line that may mark the political divide that determines whether Barack Obama or John McCain wins the White House. The airport straddles Loudoun and Fairfax counties, suburbs and exurbs of Washington where a surge of working professionals and Asian and Hispanic immigrants have transformed the area's once predictably Republican politics. That transformation is replaying itself across the country: the ring around Columbus, Ohio; the outskirts of Denver; Reno and Clark County, Nevada; Jefferson County, near St. Louis; Tampa, Florida. In every case, the trend is working to Democratic nominee Obama's benefit, helping explain his commanding lead over Republican McCain in estimates of electoral votes less than a week from the Nov. 4 election. 'In many ways, these two candidates are the bookends of the demographic, racial transformation that's going on in the United States,' Bill Frey, a senior fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said at a forum last week." (Bloomberg)

"Quantum Of Solace came online for tracking and I'm told the good news has Sony doing somersaults .. That said, Sony is trying to ignore rival studio chatter that this may be the costliest film ever made minute by minute: $261 million for a 105-minute movie, which comes out to almost $2.5 million per minute. (As opposed to, say, the $300M pricetag for 165-minute-long Pirates Of The Caribbean 3.)" (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)



(image via style)

"Hello Kitty pouf seats, a basement bondage installation, a McDonald's Happy Meal stand, topless male-model cater waiters—it must be Allison Sarofim's annual Halloween party. As usual, the hostess left no detail undone, from her costume—a green-streaked wig, silver breastplate, and unitard that she sketched and designed herself—to the decorations, which she said she envisioned as the love child of Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons. The theme, in case it's not apparent yet, was 'Evening of Anime.'" (Style)

"At yesterday's (New York) Times State of the Newsroom meeting, a staffer asked executive editor Bill Keller if the paper was running out of money. Mr. Keller handed the mic over to Times Company President and General Manager Scott Heekin-Canedy who said, definitively, no." (Observer)

"Last night I went down to the Pierre where the New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children was holding their annual Gala. They were honoring Gerald Storch, the Chairman and CEO of Toys 'R' Us, and Liz Smith, the syndicated columnist who is featured in the New York Post ..Deborah Norville was last night’s emcee .. They raised more than $400,000 for the cause of helping children living in abusive situations and in need of rescue and restoration of heart." (NYSocialDiary)

"As Ronnie Wood flouted his new love at a Mayfair restaurant last night, his long-suffering wife Jo was across town — still wearing her wedding ring. The Rolling Stone took Ekaterina Ivanova, 20, to Scott's, where fellow diners say they put on a public show of affection between courses. While Ronnie, 61, was busy snogging like a teenager, Jo, 53, was at a catwalk event at the London College of Fashion." (Thisislondon)

"At the end of last week, the European Parliament found itself in a tight spot. Having made the courageous gesture of naming Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia this year's receipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the E.U. had to wonder how receptive would China be at the 43 country Asia-Europe Meeting over the weekend .. Saving face is important for China. But while the government clearly finds foreign criticism humiliating, it doesn't want to put a blight on its future in the global economy, of which it aspires to be a heavyweight player. It's also possible that China is just tallying up its resentments for the right moment." (ForeignPolicy)

"Speculation about post-election appointments for the FCC and other key policy posts reached fever pitch in Washington media circles this week. Should Democrat Barack Obama be elected, his chief kingmaker on showbiz-related policy issues is likely to be his old friend and Harvard Law School classmate Julius Genachowski .. Former FCC chairman Michael Powell has McCain’s ear on media policy and would undoubtedly play a big role in guiding a McCain administration’s pick for FCC chief ..The two names most buzzed about as possible McCain appointments to the FCC are Bill Bailey, a former telecom adviser to McCain who now lobbies for Disney, and Mark Busey, the GOP candidate’s chief of staff." (Variety)

"President Bush paid a visit to the Republican National Committee’s headquarters Tuesday morning to thank aides for their hard work and also to rally them for the last week of campaigning .. Bush has largely been absent from McCain’s campaign efforts, and the Arizona senator has run harder against the president in recent days, intensifying his criticism of Bush’s policies." (TheHill)