Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"IT was a bacchanalian Golden Globes weekend in Los Angeles despite the economic fears hanging over the entertainment industry. On Friday night, Creative Artists Agency held a dinner and party at the Buffalo Club in Santa Monica, where high-maintenance Leonardo DiCaprio tried to have the agency set up a makeshift ladder from a parking structure next door so he could climb in undetected by paparazzi. The idea was abandoned .. As the night wore on at the Edison, a drunk Jim Sheridan 'jumped onstage and started rapping to 50 Cent songs,' a spy laughed. Sting also performed while a 'disheveled' and 'gross'-looking Jared Leto 'went up to girl after girl after girl, put his arm around them and said, 'Let's go [bleep]!' No one took him up on his offer." (PageSix)

"Casts, families, and of course, the chic set coalesced Monday night for the Cinema Society's screening of Defiance, co-hosted by Nextbook and The New York Observer. To tell the story of the Jewish Bielski brothers who escaped Nazi-occupied Poland and started a community in the forest, cast members Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, and Alexa Davalos came out to the Landmark Sunshine Theater on the Lower East Side, where they were joined by the likes of [significant others] Naomi Watts and Satsuki Mitchell, Ivanka Trump, Andre Balazs, Rachel Roy, Tory Burch, Russell Simmons, Ellen Barkin, Martha Stewart, and Saffir regulars Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone .. Schreiber and Watts, looking svelte and lovely despite having had a baby less than a month ago, could not stop gushing over new baby Samuel and his older brother, 18-month-old Sasha .. 'Sunday Rose [6-month-old daughter of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban] is after our boy really heavy, and I think it's kind of weird and early, and I think she should back off, slow down and get her act together before that all happens,' he joked. 'And [year-old daughter of Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher] Olive's been after our baby for a while too. They're going to take their time. They're young men, they live in New York, they've got the world in front of them, lots of things to do before they have to settle down. There's no rush.'" (Fashionweekdaily)

"Last week, members of President-elect Barack Obama's Inaugural Committee announced that they had chosen HBO to televise the opening ceremony of the inauguration, which will take place at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, Jan. 18, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Today, HBO announced its lineup for the ceremony—dubbed 'We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration' — which the premium cable network will make available for free to nonsubscribers. According to the press release, the event will include 'historical readings' by the likes of Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington. The musical lineup will include performances from Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am and Stevie Wonder." (Observer)

"Then down at Michael’s it was fairly busy. I think the tables were full although the energy seemed somewhat quieter. In the bay was a table of prominent women including Louise Grunwald, Mica Ertegun and Cynthia McFadden .. couple tables over, underneathe a red and green David Hockney painting, Anna Wintour was waiting for her lunch partner. Ms. Wintour is one of those people who -- because of her physical image as well as her now somewhat mythic Devil-Wears-Prada reputation – looks like the character in a movie. Her lunchdate seemed to be running really late. Ms. Wintour checked her Blackberry, then took some of her roll and delicately slathered on some butter and waited. Then she checked her Blackberry. Then she sat chin resting on her hand. Waiting .. Finally, a tall, very slim women with a gamine smile and a frowning look of remorse and apology rushed by us to the table. Ms. Wintour looked up and flashed a warm smile at a friend. It was Diana Taylor. (So it wasn’t a movie after all)." (NYSocialDiary)

"(On The Howard Stern Show Benicio) Del Toro denied any romantic encounter with Lindsay Lohan, despite tabloid reports. Del Toro gives Stern a ribbing for not seeing his movie, which created an entertaining on-air exchange. Del Toro also gets serious during the interview, discussing in detail the effect of his mother’s death when he was only nine years old in Puerto Rico. The interview was quite early in the morning for the jet-lagged, LA-based star, who wished the show was later in the day…'Your show is early in the morning for someone who is out banging all night!' Still, there was a party atmosphere with Artie Lange back in fine form after a short stint in a 'spa rehab,' and Benicio asks if the liquor display in on the studio bar was real. Producer Gary 'Baba Booey' Dell’Abate obliges and Del Toro toasts the cast with an early morning shot of Jack Daniels." (TMRZoo)

"Now that Tinsley and Topper Mortimer have reportedly split up, we thought we'd give the Tinz a quick call to see if she'd changed her cheery Tinsley-and-Topper answering machine message, which we shared with you over the summer. Tragically, the situation is much worse than we could have possibly imagined: Tinz has disconnected the number! Was it us? Did she ditch the line when she moved out? We don't know, but we have no doubt that you'll do just fine, Tinsley." (CityFile)

"Paul Volcker, one of the men President-elect Barack Obama is counting on to save the U.S. economy, last night helped the Museum of American Finance raise about $470,000 at a gala dinner. The former Federal Reserve chairman’s Rolodex and clout helped the museum come within $30,000 of the money raised at its inaugural gala before the crisis started last year. Jeanne Driscoll, the museum’s development director, smiled as patrons arrived, including Merrill Lynch & Co. Vice Chairman William McDonough and Blackstone Group L.P. co-founder Pete Peterson. She said a Volcker-less affair and the absence of many of his rich and powerful friends would have raised much less in the current economy, which he is charged with fixing as head of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. 'The financial environment is difficult,' Lee Kjelleren, the museum’s president, said over cocktails in the second-floor exhibition room that displays stock certificates, photographs, and historical artifacts." (Bloomberg)

"But after thirty years of independent film, have we reached an end? Is the independent arena creatively moribund and/or has the audience itself changed either because of a generational shift or simply a transformation in public taste? Perhaps more critically, are the changes with financial or structural models that fueled the independent arena’s growth now outdated or passe? For over three decades, video/DVD and cable were the revenue safety net for independent film and equity financing its fuel, and that may simply no longer be the case. So where are we now? I know most media and journalists seek definitive answers. All I know are the questions but I think they are instructive." (Indiewire)

"FOX serves us school lunch for the school-set 'Sit Down, Shut Up' -- mac 'n cheese, corn niblets, fried chicken pieces and Twinkies .. 'Sit Down, Shut Up' is the only animated show ever to have a location manager, producer Josh Weinstein says. It has live-action backgrounds." (Tweet/Zap2It)