Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via observer)

"Nancy Pelosi is in an enviable position, the most powerful Democrat in Congress at a time of national ascendancy for her party, but she seems a little nervous. Part of this is her nature. Just like her two-decade climb up the Democratic ranks, Pelosi’s two years as House speaker have been marked by a style that might best be described as justifiably paranoid. She has relied on a close and tight-lipped circle of loyalists, frozen out those who have crossed her, and made examples of those who have threatened her hegemony. It may sound ugly, but this is how you survive in the U.S. House, especially when you’ve risen higher than any woman in history. But there’s something else going on, too: For all of her success in consolidating power within the House, one man has eluded her grasp these past few years – and he’s about to be the second-most powerful man in the White House. That would be Rahm Emanuel.." (Observer)

"Guy Ritchie is now one of the most eligible bachelors in town, so it was no surprise to see him attracting the attention of several ladies last night. The director was drinking with a few pals at his Mayfair pub The Punch Bowl when he was accosted by two attractive young blondes .. Our spy said: 'The first went over to try her luck, but was greeted by a frown and a look of disapproval. Once she had failed, another tried her luck. She was very drunk as it was her office Christmas party, and she sat at Guy's table and began chatting away. But she too was sent packing. When she returned to her friends, she moaned that Guy had told her to f*** off.'" (Thisislondon)

"Jeez, but it's bewildering why Paramount took out 7 pages of full-page ads in The New York Times today for Revolutionary Road. Talk about overkill. Or why Paramount commissioned a full frills 'making of' The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button coffee table book published by Rizzoli and selling for $45 which the studio bigwigs are sending out as Xmas gifts to Hollywood. 'It's so unbelievably pretentious and self-promoting and self-aggrandizing that I just can't not comment on it,' one recipient phoned me. But the studio isn't alone. Oscar campaign spending, which went into reverse when Harvey Weinstein left Miramax, is now back in overdrive." (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)

"CALVIN Klein heiress and 'Saturday Night Live' producer Marci Klein is having a rough holiday season. We hear Klein and her sexy model husband, Scott Murphy, are on the rocks, and 'have been in the process of splitting up for the past few months.' The couple, who married in 2000 and have two sons, live in a $10 million apartment on Mercer Street. A spokesperson for the family declined comment." (PageSix)

"Chuck Todd never saw it coming. NBC's fast-rising political director -- named today as chief White House correspondent -- was 'shocked' when he was offered the plum late last week. 'It came out of left field,' says Todd, 36, who joined NBC in March 2007. 'It's not a job I aspired to, and I don't mean it negatively. There were 500 different ways I thought they could go. I never viewed myself as a correspondent. I didn't even view myself as a TV guy.'" (TVNewser)

"How many anonymous sources add up to a fact? In the case of Dennis Blair, it looks like about a half dozen. It's now all but official that the former Navy admiral and CIA official has been tapped to be Mike McConnell's successor as director of national intelligence .. Speaking of the threat of North Korean missiles back in 2000, for example, the Pacific Fleet commander growled, 'I think an ICBM with a return address and its signature is not a very good recipe for regime survival by a rogue regime like North Korea.' But Blair was far less on target when he dismissed the threat of Somali pirates to oil lanes, in an essay entitled 'Smooth Sailing: The World's Shipping Lanes Are Safe,' only last year .. The editors of the rival Foreign Policy magazine called that one of 'The 10 Worst Predictions for 2008.' Somali pirates seized a Saudi oil tanker in the Indian Ocean on Nov. 15 carrying 2 million barrels of crude. 'Hopefully,' Foreign Policy's editors sniffed, 'Blair will show a bit more foresight if, as some expect, he is selected as Barack Obama's director of national intelligence.'" (Spytalk/CQPolitics)



(image via guestofaguest)

"As you may have noticed, a not-unsignificant amount of New Yorkers are laid off. Nowhere is this felt as keenly than in the ranks of the media. Last night, Aaron Gell of now-gone-for-good rag Radar hosted the inaugural event for ASSME, The American Society of Sh*t-canned Media Elites, at Ella, an East Village bar .. We spied in the corner the official Radar cluster. Greg Garry, the ever ebullient fomer art director, was telling Matt Harvey, the Observer scribe, his pink slip secrets: 'I always carry a flask. It's cheaper.' Julie Bloom (employed) of the New York Times said hello. She was with Danielle Stein of W (employed). "We have the same last name," she said. (True.) Ilya Marritz, a reporter/editor for WNYC, was interviewing as many available employees as possible. Jeff Bercovici of Portfolio was holed up at a table with two ladies, both of whom were still employed .. Then Sheila McClear, the most high-profile former Gawker writer, showed up."I'm actually looking forward to stopping,' she said. 'My boss [Gabriel Snyder] asked me to do a post. I told him no. Assign it to someone who you didn't fire.'" (Fashionweekdaily)