Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via beaufortcountydemocrats)

"Why on earth would (Senator Hillary Clinton) want to be secretary of state? First of all, the job is an awful launching pad for the White House. It’s true: long-serving senators don’t have a great track record of winning the presidency, but they’re practically shoo-ins compared to secretaries of state. The last former secretary of state to even seek the presidency was Alexander Haig in 1988, and his candidacy was a joke. To find a former secretary of state who actually won you have to go back 150 years, to James Buchanan. There are reasons for this. The job of secretary of state offers little opportunity to till the fields of American politics: to go to Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners in Sioux City or slip a little campaign money to the guy running for state senate in New Hampshire. It forces you to turn your energies away from domestic issues, which is what Americans usually vote on, and towards international questions that many find exotic and obscure. Solving the Kashmir crisis might win you the Nobel Prize. But it won’t win many votes in Portsmouth." (Peter Beinart/TheDailyBeast)

"He's happy to show the world his assets in larger-than-life billboards for Armani underwear, but soccer stud David Beckham is a little shy when it comes to, ahem, relieving himself in public. Posh Spice's other half ate with a male friend at the West Hollywood outpost of New York's STK restaurant and was friendly to fellow diners, even signing autographs, but when he had to use the men's room, Becks' studly pal actually 'blocked the entrance to the bathroom so that David could have privacy,' a fellow diner says. 'Other patrons were asked to wait just a moment for him to finish up.'" (PageSixMag)

"Dear Secretary (Henry) Paulson: First, allow me to explain that unfortunate incident the other morning in the Treasury men’s room. I failed to observe best practices. Faced with a dozen empty urinals one should always put some space between oneself and a lone urinator. I took my place right beside you only because I hold you and everything you do in such high regard. If my whispered praise and steady gaze made you as uncomfortable as you appeared to be, I take full responsibility." (Michael Lewis/Bloomberg)

"Ripples from the economic crisis have spread to television in the form of curtailed spending on new projects. Already tight-fisted from the migration of viewers and advertising dollars to other mediums, broadcast networks are now cutting development costs in the face of perhaps the most challenging economic environment the TV industry has ever experienced .. The slowdown in deal flow stands in stark contrast to as recently as nine months ago, when the writers' strike ended and networks were greenlighting everything they could find to fill gaping scheduling holes due to the work stoppage .. CBS boss Les Moonves said the overall development process at his network hasn't changed much, it's just that they are being smarter about where they are placing bets. 'We're not going to do dumb deals, and we're not going to get into bidding wars,' Moonves said. CBS typically buys 20 pilots per year, but might buy fewer this year because there aren't many slots to fill its schedule." (NYPost)

"Remember all those arguments over U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq? It may not be up to him anymore. On Sunday, Iraq's cabinet finally approved a troop agreement with the United States. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari and U.S. Amb. Ryan Crocker signed the security pact in Baghdad today after nearly a year of arduous negotiations. Under the terms of the deal, which must still be voted on by the Iraqi Parliament, all American troops must leave the country by 2011 and pull back from cities next summer." (Blog.ForeignPolicy)

"ROCKER Rod Stewart was among the guys having all the luck last night—supping champers at Prince Charles’s private 60th birthday bash ... The Do Ya Think I’m Sexy singer belted out his hits as a gift to the Royal host—while other celebs dined on top-notch nosh from his Highgrove estate .. Among the stars attending were Dames Judy Dench and Maggie Smith, Stephen Fry .. Kenneth Branagh .. Joan Rivers." (Newsoftheworld)

"Presidents and dictators come and go, and rarely with their egos not distended by the rights of privilege. The Throne of England, however, isn’t just some term in office or regime. It has hung in there for an awfully long time. In terms of a 'good family,' Charles comes from the goodest. This sort of thing doesn’t escape the old boy. And it doesn’t do him any favors mentally either. What must be odd for him is the Royal Waiting ..It does seem unfortunate that a man of that energy must devote so much of it performing the role of Waiting, flacking the Palace, as it were, as a respectable member of the Royal Family. It must be exasperating." (NYSocialDiary)

"Sen. Chris Dodd’s effort to keep his home-state colleague Joe Lieberman in the Senate Democratic Conference is the latest chapter in a nearly four-decade relationship that has frayed in recent years. The two men are trying to move past personal divisions that surfaced during the last two elections, as Lieberman seeks Democratic support to retain his coveted chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. While Lieberman says he will refuse to caucus with Democrats if they take his gavel away, Dodd won’t take a public position on Lieberman’s chairmanship. 'We’ll see how it works out,' Dodd said." (TheHill)

"Brooke Butler tucks her silken hair behind her ears, flashes a wide smile, and digs into her dumplings ... I want to have a million dollars saved and then come home,' Butler says. In Dubai, it is a plausible target, even for a saleswoman only three years out of Dallas Baptist University; she is certain she’ll meet it. But how long will it take? When she arrived, fresh from being laid off by the San Antonio office of Liberty Mutual, for whom she sold home, auto, and life insurance, she thought that she would be in and out in two years. 'I know a girl who made $2 million U.S. in commissions last year,' she said then. 'And that’s tax-free! Within a year, I’ll be a millionaire. It’s not that difficult over here' ... Layla is 24, a graduate of Columbia; she has a biting air about her. When a pale, overweight French boy does a cannonball only a yard from where she is sitting, she flashes him a scowl and complains that Dubai can make people prejudiced. 'ou’re surrounded by people from different countries, with different ways of doing things,” she says. 'It can be hard to handle.'"(NyMag)



(image of Pat Cleveland via style)

"The Guggenheim laid on plenty of Champagne for the downtown art types who slogged their way up to 89th Street on a wet Thursday night to discover who won the $100,000 Hugo Boss Prize .. Smuggling a glass of Champagne out into the rain, legendary supermodel Pat Cleveland was much more chatty. 'I love being here at night and being able to drink out of something that's not in a brown bag,' she said. 'That's how it used to be back when everyone lived up here. We used to drink at the Guggenheim all the time, right out of paper bags.'" (Style)

"We know reality TV isn't always true-to-life, but an insider says that MTV producers are shooting much of their Real World: Brooklyn in the East Village 'because nobody in Brooklyn wants the losers on the show to be in their bar,' snipes an MTV staffer." (PageSixMag)

"If you want to get a handle on that, just check out the bags . . . and we don’t mean the ones under wizened rocker Ronnie Wood’s eyes ..While Jo, 53, was slumming it at Marks in London’s Kings Road, with daughter Leah, Ron, 61, was treating new love Katia Ivanova to a monster spend-up in Paris. Smugly showing off her Chloe carrier bag, ex-waitress Katia, 20— who used to dress like a cash-strapped student—led her lover around the city’s pricey designer stores, including Dolce & Gabanna, Louis Vuitton and Prada." (Newsoftheworld)