Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via nydailynews)

"Anderson Cooper is interviewed by Choire Sicha in the Los Angeles Times, and the CNN anchor talks about the internet and life after the election ..When asked why he doesn't just 'quit your job and start a website,' Cooper says, 'I like the immediacy of television. I like going to a frontline, I like going to a story. I like the immediacy and impact of it. There's a real global impact with CNN.' But also: 'I don't have the energy of Arianna Huffington or Tina Brown.'" (TVNewser)

"Caroline Kennedy has lots of friends too although in a more circumspect way. New Yorkers in the game are well aware of the rungs on the ladder and who is who and what is where. Caroline Kennedy has chosen to remain out of that fray and above it. For whatever reason, the result of that 'out and above' has allowed her a highly privileged position. I have always wondered if her self-presentation was simply an expression of that position. Where her mother and her brother could nod and smile at a passerby or someone else at the lunch counter, the daughter is much less inclined." (NYSocialDiary)

"Child star Jaimee Foxworth, whose addictions landed her a spot on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, is five months pregnant by her longtime boyfriend, her reps tell PEOPLE. 'I haven't been this happy in years,' says Foxworth, 29. 'I am excited about what the future holds for us' ... After being unceremoniously written off as the youngest child on the sitcom Family Ties, she lost all the money she made on the show, then turned to adult films and acquired a marijuana addiction. 'Being sober has opened my eyes to a whole new world,' she says. 'I've been through a lot of pain in the past and I never really wanted a child until recently. I now look forward to years of joy to share with my child.'" (People)

"THE Queen has slapped a gagging order on all palace staff—to preserve royal family secrets. Servants must also GIVE BACK all royal mementoes, letters and gifts when they quit. Workers who don’t sign up to the extraordinary secret service- style contract face the sack. One angry employee said: 'We will fight this—it’s like working for MI5.'" (Newsoftheworld)

"Already, the street vendors who set up shop on downtown Washington sidewalks have pushed aside the T-shirts and hats emblazoned with 'FBI' or 'CIA' to make way for Obama T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts. It’s practically impossible to find any souvenir with the likeness of departing President Bush. In the souvenir world, he’s yesterday’s news. Across the country, TV viewers are being bombarded with commercials for such items as Obama collector coins or plates. For veterans of the political memorabilia trade, Obama’s arrival on the scene has been a godsend in tough economic times." (CQPolitics)

"Opposition researchers dredging up tough questions for Hillary Clinton's secretary of state confirmation hearings have just lost a key piece of ammunition: The global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, headed by her campaign strategist Mark Penn, has quietly ended a two-year relationship with the Pakistan People's Party, the ruling party of Pakistan. The questions could have been awkward for Clinton both politically and substantively, since she will have to manage relationships both with the Pakistanis and their cross-border rivals in India." (Politico)

"An antidote to Christmas for festivity-phobes is provided by the late writer, film-maker, drug addict and performer William S. Burroughs, who is the subject of a section of 'GSK Contemporary,' an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (supported by GlaxoSmithKline Plc.) Atrabilious, mordant, misanthropic and lizard-eyed, Burroughs was a perfect Beat Generation equivalent to Charles Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge. The contents of this sub-show, 'Burroughs Live,' include portraits of the man by artists and photographers including David Hockney and Robert Mapplethorpe. Annie Leibovitz’s study of the author looking like an aged turtle in 1997, the year of his death, is the most memorable. There is also a Damien Hirst cabinet piece containing bits of Burroughs memorabilia, among them some bullets certified as shot by WSB in person." (Bloomberg)

"The departures, along with the widespread knowledge that Bloomsbury’s parent company in Britain had become dangerously unstable when the hyperlucrative Harry Potter series came to an end, moved many in the publishing industry here to wonder whether the leadership over in London might just shut the American colony down, letting history remember it as a bold but finally botched experiment." (Observer)