Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"RAHM Emanuel's tough side is known to everyone. Even bin Laden is now cowering. But he also has a soft feminine side. Attended Sarah Lawrence, which was founded as an all-women's school. Was a ballet dancer. Was even offered a scholarship to the Joffrey." (Cindy Adams)

"As President Bush prepares to leave office, the pundits will start to produce their balance sheets. It is hard to know what they will list under 'achievements', but easy to predict their 'disasters': Iraq, Afghanistan, economic meltdown, soaring debt and America's loss of global stature. One other debacle should feature prominently in that second column, but probably won't because it has occurred in a faraway country that most Westerners know only through the film Black Hawk Down - or from recent reports of rampant piracy including the seizure early on Sunday of a Saudi tanker, carrying more than two million barrels of oil, which had an immediate effect on crude prices. I am referring to the Bush Administration's intervention in Somalia in the name of the War on Terror. It has helped to destroy that wretched country's best chance of peace in a generation, left more than a million Somalis dead, homeless or starving, and achieved the precise opposite of its original goal." (TimesOnline)

"Last week, it was revealed that America's sweetheart Jennifer Aniston had finally broken her silence on Brangelina by telling Vogue that Angelina having spilled the beans on details of the relationship 'was very uncool.' Wow, THAT'S hot stuff isn't it! A really incendiary barrage of pure rage! Almost as torrid and fiery as if Jen had bellowed, 'She's not very nice, is she?' Jennifer, darling, I know you're trying to be diplomatic and not take the low road here, but you've been hurt deeply and I know you'll feel much better about things if you dig into your hate pit and simply let it rip." (Musto)

"Colder in New York yesterday. Went out without my overcoat. Not a good idea. Down at Michael’s movie publicist/ fashion plate/world traveler/party girl Peggy Siegal had taken over most of the front of the restaurant for a party for one of the films she’s screening these days. I’m not certain what the film was but there were lots of famous faces and names in the room including Dustin Hoffman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tina Brown, Harry Evans, Phil Donahue." (NYSocialDiary)

"Three blocks from the White House, on the 10th floor of a sleek glass building, young workers pound at computers, with giant flat-screen TVs overhead. It has the look and feel of a high-tech startup. In many ways it is. The product is ideas. Thanks in part to funding from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros, the Center for American Progress has become in just five years an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals, including many that are shaping the agenda of the new Obama administration." (Bloomberg)

"MADONNA is being paid handsomely to be the new face of Louis Vuitton's 2009 marketing campaign. The pop queen, who's getting divorced from Guy Ritchie over issues ranging from sex to kabbalah water, is raking in $10 million for her modeling gig, sources told Page Six. And, despite online buzz that the shoot would be done by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot, WWD reports the nod went to legendary Steven Meisel, who did Madonna's notorious 1992 book, 'Sex.'" (PageSix)

"Are Paris Hilton and Stavros Niarchos back on? Four days after bickering with rocker boyfriend Benji Madden at a party in L.A., the heiress flew to Miami, where she cozied up to the Greek shipping heir she once hoped to marry. 'They were nuzzling all night,' says our witness at club Mokai." (Rush&Molloy)

"Angelina Jolie welled up at the London press conference for her new film, Changeling, today. The 33-year-old tried to hold back her tears when she started talking about her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died in January 2007 following a seven year battle with cancer. Changeling, which is released in the UK next week, tells the true story of Christine Collins whose child was abducted in 1928. Jolie said she related to her mother when taking on this role; drawing comparisons between her strength and that of Christine Collins. 'My mother was very much Christine,' she said." (Thisislondon)

"Sundance Channel is taking an in-depth look at the challenges facing Newark, N.J., in a new documentary series executive produced by Forest Whitaker and filmmakers Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin. 'Brick City' will center on Newark Mayor Cory Booker, local citizens and key figures from real estate developers to former gang members as they try to remake the city, working to stamp out violence, poverty and corruption and make improvements in housing, employment and education." (TheHollywoodReporter)



"According to our friends at Videogum, (Noah) Baumbach has been directing short films for none other than Lorne Michaels and Saturday Night Live. This past weekend's hilariously over-the-top (or utterly humorless, depending on who you talk to) edition hosted by Paul Rudd closed with a pre-taped sketch called 'Clearing the Air' which was directed by Mr. Baumbach. Filmed on location at West Village restaurant Bellavitae, the short film felt more like one of those Albert Brooks helmed ventures from the early days of Saturday Night Live, and not the Andy Samberg viral-ready Digital Shorts that have become so prevalent in recent years. 'Air' wasn't ha-ha funny, but it was an exciting departure from the normalcy of the show--such a departure in fact that the audience didn't seem to know quite what to make of it." (Observer)

"Summit Entertainment has arranged with the major theater circuits for Thursday midnight or Friday morning shows. As of noon ET today, Twilight has already sold out 389 performances at MovieTickets.com, including more than 140 this past weekend alone. Four days prior to its release, Twilight is already No. 20 on MovieTickets' Top-20 Pre-Sale List of All-Time." (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)

"Senate Democrats have voted to allow Joseph Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee -- despite his support for John McCain and criticism of Barack Obama during the presidential race. Lieberman's punishment for what many Democrats saw as an unacceptable betrayal: He will lose his seat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. The vote on Lieberman's fate came in a closed-door session in which Lieberman, members of the Democratic Senate leadership and some current and soon-to-be-senators all spoke." (Politico)

"YouTube is in danger of being upstaged commercially by a smaller upstart backed by News Corporation and NBC Universal as the video-sharing site struggles to make its massive global audience appeal to advertisers .. Neither company breaks out its advertising revenues but Arash Amel, analyst at Screen Digest, forecasts that in 2008 YouTube will generate about $100m in the US, compared with about $70m at Hulu. Next year both sites will generate about $180m in the US, he says. YouTube currently earns around half of its revenues in the US, while Hulu has not yet launched internationally. 'YouTube is in a very tough place right now,' said Mr Amel. 'Most of that user-generated content is worthless or illegal. The next 18 months will determine whether or not it was just an expensive mistake for Google' .. Advertisers prefer to associate products with well-known entertainment brands, said Tracey Scheppach, video innovations director at Starcom, a media agency. 'YouTube hasn’t done a great job justifying why advertisers should migrate online.'" (FT)