Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via Keith Bedford/Bloomberg News)

"Unlike other elected officials embarrassed when the personal deviates from the public, the Obamas aren't even pretending to consider public schools, in spite of President-elect Barack Obama's praise in one of the debates of celebrated Washington school Chancellor Michelle Rhee. No matter where they stand on vouchers or charter schools, rarely does a member of Congress or a Cabinet official, Democrat or Republican, send their children to public school .. Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, who has picked up the mantle from Graham, is likely to host the Obamas at some point. She told CNN that she doesn't picture the Obamas 'swanning around town,' but they're Kennedy-esque, likely to have more state dinners than the Bushes, who had only six, and enter into the life of the city." (Bloomberg)

"'IN the future, if a gay person in California wants to get hitched, he'll have to do it the way God intended, to Liza Minnelli' - Stephen Colbert on 'The Colbert Report'" (PageSix)

"Trivia: Gillian Miniter was one of the original founders of the Apollo Circle, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's under-40 club. But in recent years, the elite group's annual benefit suffered from an onslaught of competing events that were conveniently located downtown (which even the uptown set is favoring these days). Calling Carolina! The beloved Mrs. Herrera signed on as sponsor for the second time this year, and tout à coup, the event became hotly ticketed. Last night, Herrera herself enjoyed a private dinner before heading over to the Met to join a bevvy of beauties like Tory Burch, Ivanka Trump, Elise Øverland, Marina Rust, Amanda Ross, Meredith Melling Burke and Tinsley Mortimer, further prettifying one of the most gilded rooms in Manhattan. Editorial types like Sarah Meikle, Kate Lanphear and Joann Pailey all sported Herrera's Spring 09 confections, rendering the scene a spitting image of one of Vogue's location shoots, à la that Kirsten Dunst/Marie Antoinette spectacle shot at Versailles." (Fashionweekdaily)

"William Ayers has stayed largely silent during the nearly two years of election coverage, even as his name was mentioned in many forms. But the Chicago activist who has been tied to President-elect Barack Obama is breaking his silence tomorrow when he appears on ABC's Good Morning America. Chris Cuomo conducts the live interview." (TVNewser)

"Restaurateur Chris Cannon hosted an intimate wine dinner for Baroness Sheri de Borchgrave and a small group of food and beverage writers at Alto in Midtown on Wednesday night. During the eight-plate, 16-glass meal prepared by Michelin-starred chef Michael White and sommelier Eric Zillier, featuring Bering Sea king crab, sauteed veal sweetbreads, and hand-rolled maccheroni with braised duck, Mr. Cannon was raving about a delicious dinner of 'horse cheeks' that he enjoyed during a recent trip to the Piedmont region of Italy." (Observer)

"Yesterday in New York: sunny and mild, temperatures in the 50s. The Michael’s lunch. Topic A: the financial markets. Topic B (among a certain set): the breakup of the thirty-three year marriage of the Henry and Nancy Silverman. Another woman is said to be the cause, first rumored to be a Russian lassie, later determined to be a 28-year-old lady from Cleveland or thereabouts, whom said tycoon met in a Starbucks. You see, you never know what you’re gonna find when you got looking for a cuppa java. The wives in their set, reported one very socially prominent businesswoman (now divorced and fine with it), 'are terrified' it might happen to them." (NYSocialDiary)

"Remember when, while talking to a pretty blonde woman at Beatrice Inn, I asked her name and it turned out to be Kirsten -- as in Dunst! Well, though I usually have spot-on celebrity radar, my old head injury does sometimes flare up and I become totally flummoxed by bold-face names making live apparitions. In fact, just the other night, I was hanging at the gay hangout Barracuda when a man approached me and said hello. He paused for me to recognize him, but I went blanker than a Price Is Right contestant on crystal and stammered, 'And you are..?' 'David Furnish,' he replied succinctly, as a lightbulb exploded over my head. OMG, it was Elton John's special man and an executive producer of Billy Elliot: The Musical!" (Musto)

"Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor's little girl, Ella, has a friend in Hollywood: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter Suri. Last evening outside of Cipriani 42nd Street, where Mr. Stiller was being honored by the Museum of the Moving Image, Ms. Taylor told us that Ella and Suri have had a couple of playdates. (Now that Ms. Holmes is in town performing in All My Sons, she and Suri have been spotted around New York.) 'And it's like any other playdate,' said Ms. Taylor, who was wearing a long black Carolina Herrera dress. 'I mean [Suri's] amazing and [Tom and Katie] are terrific. And when little kids get together you just let them do their thing, there's no outside elements..'" (Observer)

"The Russians want him to hold off installation of a missile defense shield in Poland. The Europeans want him to renounce the idea of “regime change” when it comes to Iran, while the Israelis want to be sure he doesn’t give Iran a pass when it comes to nuclear weapons. Oh, and let’s not forget the Taliban, which issued a statement this week urging him to 'put an end to all the policies being followed by his Opposition Party, the Republicans, and pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.' There’s a world of advice out there for President-elect Barack Obama. Within minutes of his election on Nov. 4, the calls from foreign governments began, Obama aides say, and they haven’t stopped." (NyTimes)



(image via dyli)

"There was so much drama, it's hard to believe the main characters were competing for an office, not an Oscar. Will Smith may angle to play Barack Obama and Tina Fey could channel Sarah Palin again if election '08 gets made into a movie. Which is why it only seems natural for Election '08 to be immortalized onscreen. If the tale of a rat-sized dog from Beverly Hills can rule the box office for two weeks in a row, surely, the saga of one of America's most emotional presidential races can draw audiences to theaters .. (Who would play Michelle Obama?) '(Emil) Wilbekin: Kerry Washington, hands down. She is beautiful, she's smart, she actually helped campaign for Barack. She, like Michelle, has an inner strength. Her personality seems in keeping with Michelle's -- very strong, very confident." (ABCNews)

"Nam Le has won this year's ..Dylan Thomas Prize. It recognizes the best young writer in the English-speaking world with the goal of ensuring that the inspirational nature of Dylan's writing lives on. I met with Nam in Toronto recently at the IFOA. This is part two of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery O'Connor thought best constituted a good short story. I've listed some of them here. Nam Le is author of The Boat, a collection of 'stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a fishing village in Australia to a floundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterful display of literary virtuosity and feeling.'" (NigelBeale)

"When Paramount Vantage and Overture announced Michael Moore's long-gestating follow-up to 'Fahrenheit 9/11' in May, executives stressed the film's foreign-policy scope. 'This is going to tackle what's going on in the world and America's place in it,' Paramount Vantage chief Nick Meyer said. But as the political winds shifted in the months before the election -- and gusted after it -- Moore subtly began reorienting his movie. Instead of foreign policy, the film's focus now is more on the global financial crisis and the U.S. economy. The untitled movie will contain an end-of-the-empire tone, say those familiar with the project, and Moore no doubt hopes that this will give it a more general feel that will untether it from a specific political moment." (TheHollywoodReporter)