Media-Whore D'Oevres



"If there's one reason to lament not having (read: not being able to afford) HBO right now, it's that you're missing the new stateside version of the hit British sketch comedy show Little Britain. (This reporter is among those without premium channels. Sigh.) The show's vulgarity. The over-the-top-ness. The willingness to tackle even the most un-PC topics. We love it all." (Observer)

"The massive advertising campaign behind Showtime's hit Dexter paid off. 1.2 million people saw the show's third-season premiere — 21 percent more than last year — making it the most-watched premiere of a drama on the network since 2004 when Nielsen altered its ratings formula." (FishbowlNY)

"Quest magazine held a party at Doubles for the Quest 400, a list of New York's society staples (I'm on it every year. Phew!). The junior 10021-ers were all there: Annabel Vartanian, Edward Barsamian, Georgina Schaeffer and Elizabeth Meigher to name a few." (Papermag)

"The trap door under rock bottom has opened and I've been bitch slapped by my own sisters, folks. I was dissed by the gay bar mag HX. They asked me to judge their illustrious Mr. HX contest coming up soon at a local bar and I nicely said yes, since I basically say yes to anything (except anything that pays lots of money). I've even presented at their HX awards for years and have not only enjoyed it, I've given them huge writeups in my column. Well, I just got an email from the HX worker who'd booked me and she (under orders, no doubt) studiously un-'hired' me! Can you imagine being 'fired' from judging a contest at Splash?" (Musto)

"In case you haven’t been following it, shares of GE have been taking it bad lately. On one side, you have the industrial division, highly exposed to a slowing economy and any difficulty among customers in financing big purchases. The other side is finance, and everyone fears it’s sitting on a hand grenade. In a bid to stem the decline and reassure the markets, the company took a $3 billion investment from Warren Buffett, in part to raise cash, and in part to say 'Look, The Oracle trusts us!' It also announced a $12 billion common stock offering—diluting current shareholders, but giving it an injection of much-desired cash. So where does this leave its 80 percent-owned NBCU unit, which fits awkwardly between the industrial and finance sides." (Paidcontent)

"From its simple title font evocative of another era to its opening and closing shots reminiscent of 'The Graduate' to its casting of filmmaking icon Peter Bogdanovich, 'Humboldt County' acknowledges its immodest aims early on. Taking as their subject matter a happy, hippie hideaway in the marijuana-rich forests of Northern California, writing and directing team Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky seem to believe that representation of the unconventional marks their debut effort as such, but the film fails to break any new aesthetic or narrative ground." (Indiewire)

"Yesterday I went down to Michael’s to lunch with Ann Ziff. Mrs. Ziff is a Vice-Chairman of the Board of Director of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. NYSD readers saw our visit to her home a couple of weeks ago to a cocktail kick-off for the upcoming 'Lincoln Center’s Night of Dinners Celebrating Fifty Years.'" (NYSocialDiary)