Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via stuff)

"JAMES Franco says Sean Penn pushed the gay sex scenes in 'Milk' further than he expected. 'In the original script I read, there was only one real kissing scene,' Franco tells next month's Elle. 'A month after [director] Gus [Van Sant] asked me to do it, they sent me another script, and on Page 5 there was a full-on love scene. And I was like, 'Gus, what the heck?' He says, 'Well, it was Sean's idea.'" (PageSix)

"His side of the marital bed is barely cold but Madonna is already airbrushing Guy Ritchie from history - and her London home. While she's happy for their kids to see him, Madge is adamant she won't be constantly reminded of his beaming mug or dulcet tones ..We're told: 'She's removed all photographs of the pair of them, leaving only the ones featuring Guy with the children. The joint answering machine message has been replaced with a neutral one.'" (3AMGirls)

"There was Thanksgiving Day at the Four Seasons with David and Helen Gurley Brown and their longtime friend Charlotte Kelly Veal. Mrs. V and Mrs. B go way back to when Helen was a copywriter for Foote, Cone and Belding in Los Angeles before she wrote 'Sex and the Single Girl.' David was living on Hollywood too (Los Angeles/Beverly Hills, etc.) .. This is the eighth or ninth year I’ve shared Thanksgiving dinner with the Browns as their guest. Always at the same table in the Pool Room. Both have had stellar professional careers in media and entertainment, having met and known everyone all over the world and gone practically everywhere. For a number of years Cosmo was the Hearst moneymaker supporting many other titles (and business plans) .. The Four Seasons was packed and it looked as though that was the case for the three or four seatings. It’s glamorous hometown New York, the kind out-of-towners might dream it to be, the closest you get to the Hollywood version .." (NYSocialDiary)

"I read in the papers .. that my old friend Dennis Blair is up for the top intelligence job in the Obama administration. They used to be called 'Director of Central Intelligence,' but then it was decided that we need someone more even more central, and if possible, more intelligent, so our top spook is now called 'Director of National Intelligence.' Calling Admiral Blair 'my old friend' is probably putting it a bit strongly, inasmuch as I haven’t spoken with him since February 1983. Our friendship, if it could ever have been called that, really just consisted of spending nine days on Air Force Two together ..In February 1983, Vice President was dispatched on a hand-holding mission to our allies in Europe .. this was a vice presidential mission .. the White House sent along Commander Blair, to keep an eye on things and — we figured in West Wing paranoid fashion—to report on us ..I was informed that I would have to 'clear' my speech drafts with him ..He had given me back the draft of speech number two. I went through it, page by page, and then found it had two extra pages. He had accidentally paper-clipped something to the bottom of my draft. What was this? I read. My eyes widened. My jaw dropped. This was no boring, bureaucratic jibber-jabber. Au contraire — it was a TOP SECRET/CODEWORD document of sizzling import. My little hands practically melted, just holding it." (Christopher Buckley/TheDailyBeast)

"Insiders tell us NBC won’t be picking up Rosie O’Donnell’s variety show, 'Rosie Live.' Despite the good-luck jigsaw puzzle piece that her partner, Kelli Carpenter, slipped into Rosie’s bra before the show, low ratings may force network co-chairman Ben Silverman to dash O’Donnell’s hopes for a Christmas special aboard the Intrepid, says a source." (RushMolloy)

"Britney Spears's long-awaited visit to London was branded a disaster after her diva behaviour upset fans and TV bosses..Britney was in London for 24 hours before her album Circus is released on her 27th birthday. She flew out at 10.30am yesterday. Earlier on Saturday evening, she was accused of lip-synching through her appearance on The X Factor - performing her new single Womanizer - and snubbing both the contestants and judges. She reportedly banned them from going to her room and posed for one picture with the judges in the corridor." (Thisislondon)



"CELEBRITY chef Gordon Ramsay revealed to mistress Sarah Symonds that he had TWO other lovers. The married TV star, who this week denied cheating, confessed to extra flings during his seven-year affair with Sarah - who today tells her sensational story .. Last week Ramsay, 42, tried to brush aside our revelations of his long affair with Sarah during a BBC cookery demonstration attended by his wife and mother. He told the audience: “I didn’t do it! Mum, I love you' .. The Welsh beauty—who had a fling with shamed top Tory Jeffrey Archer and then kissed and told—admits she’s no angel herself. Her reputation as a professional mistress was cemented by her book Having An Affair? A Handbook For The Other Woman — which she says Ramsay loved and promised to promote." (Newsoftheworld)

"The suits at NBC are doing far more agonizing over who should fill Tim Russert’s shoes on Meet the Press than Obama is over appointing his cabinet. They're taking more time over it, too. I guess that’s because the president-elect has something the NBC front office doesn’t have: self-confidence. Unlike him, they’re so terrified of making a mistake they can't make a decision. That’s why they have tortured the long-suffering Tom Brokaw — who has gallantly occupied the transition chair—with a refusal to let him go back to his ranch in Montana and work on a book. Brokaw has done a stately job of holding the show together for the last five months but now that the election’s over you can see the boredom flaring from his iconic nostrils as he quizzes Senator Joe Lieberman or former Secretary of State James Baker while he waits for the brass to make up their goddamn minds. One of the problems for NBC that was showcased during Russert’s media version of a state funeral in June is the way the chair of Meet the Press has become above all a Washington social and status position and only secondarily a journalistic assignment." (Tina Brown/TheDailyBeast)

"Waistlines expanded on Thanksgiving Day, and this 3-day weekend and 5-day holiday shaped up as big for moviegoing, too. Maybe it's because of the grim economy that audiences wanted laughs, but the mediocre PG-13 comedy Four Christmases, helped by a short 80-minute running time, knocked off Twilight for No. 1 on T-Day and easily stayed on top all weekend. The expected frontrunner from New Line/Warner Bros starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon overperformed for $31.6M for the 3-day weekend (which is far better than Vince's last seasonal outing of $18.5M in the just plain awful Fred Claus) and $46.7M for the 5-day holiday." (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)

"Losing an election by just a little can create a lot of temptation for a candidate to try again, figuring that an earlier start, a change in strategy or some other campaign tweak will produce a victory on the second try. That is why there typically are several rematch contests in each congressional election cycle. But the second time, it turns out, is rarely the charm for challenging candidates, and their track record in this year’s round of rematches was no exception. Eighteen races in which the same major-party candidates faced off for the second consecutive election were rated as at least somewhat competitive by CQ Politics. And in 15 of those 18 contests, the same candidate won both elections. In fact, the defeated challenger candidates in a dozen of those races actually lost ground, with the incumbents winning more handily in the second round. Of the three exceptions to the rule, the one with the highest profile came in New Hampshire’s race for the U.S. Senate. In this year’s only Senate rematch, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, a former governor (1997-2003), defeated one-term Republican Sen. John E. Sununu, reversing the outcome of their first showdown in a 2002 open-seat race. Shaheen, who lost in 2002 by 4 percentage points, this time won by 6 points." (CQPolitics)

"President-elect Barack Obama has raised $1.170 million from 1,776 donors to help bankroll his presidential transition effort. He is releasing the named of his donors at his transition web page. He's not taking any more than $5,000 from individuals. This fund is separate from the money Obama is raising to help pay for his inauguration festivities." (LynnSweet/Sun-Times)