Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via deltaknightone)

"SCENE AT the Capitol on Inauguration Day. Samuel L. Jackson was standing in front of a zealous group who shouted at the star, 'Sit the %&* down!' He turned to apologize and then said, "I'm glad to see there are New Yorkers here!" The crowd that had yelled at the actor then cheered him." (Liz Smith)

"Barack Obama has given his first sit-down TV interview as president to an Arabic-language TV network, Al-Arabiya, based in Dubai, officials say, just as presidential envoy George Mitchell heads to the Mideast." (Politico)

"PRINCE Harry and his girlfriend Chelsy Davy have SPLIT, we can reveal today. Weeping Chelsy ended their rollercoaster five- year romance after tiring of her prince’s playboy antics, according to her pals. The blonde heiress 'sobbed her heart out' after dumping the playboy royal last week following a series of heartbreak phone calls, one told us." (Newsoftheworld)

"When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- flanked by President Obama -- introduced Richard Holbrooke as the formidable new U.S. envoy to South Asia at a State Department ceremony on Thursday, India was noticeably absent from his title. Holbrooke, the veteran negotiator of the Dayton accords and sharp-elbowed foreign policy hand who has long advised Clinton, was officially named 'special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan' in what was meant to be one of the signature foreign policy acts of Obama's first week in office. But the omission of India from his title, and from Clinton's official remarks introducing the new diplomatic push in the region was no accident -- not to mention a sharp departure from Obama's own previously stated approach of engaging India, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a regional dialogue. Multiple sources told The Cable that India vigorously -- and successfully -- lobbied the Obama transition team to make sure that neither India nor Kashmir was included in Holbrooke's official brief." (ForeignPolicy)

"Howard (Stern) asked (CBS Vice President of Programming, East Vinnie Favale) what's going on with Craig Ferguson because he read that he's beating Conan in the ratings. Vinnie said that he's doing very well over there. Vinnie said that the guy is very competitive. Howard asked if he thinks that Dave will benefit when Conan goes up against him. Vinnie said that it will clear the deck and it should be great. Howard said that taking Leno off a hit show is crazy. Vinnie said that it doesn't make any sense. Vinnie said that it should be great for Dave. He thinks that Dave will beat Conan. Vinnie said that they should keep winning prime time even when Jay moves to prime time .. Howard asked Vinnie if they will fire Dave if he doesn't beat Conan. Vinnie yelled out 'I'll be right there!' and said he had to get going." (Marksfriggin)

"When it comes to culture, Obama doesn’t have a public agenda; he has a public anti-agenda. He wants to remove culture from the political debate. He wants to cut our three-sided political game back down to two. As recently as the early 1990s, the idea that a black man could end the culture war would have been unthinkable, because the culture war was—more than anything—about black versus white. From busing to crime to welfare to affirmative action, race saturated the politics of the 1970s and 1980s, making it extraordinarily difficult for candidates to appeal to black voters and white working-class voters at the same time. In the mid-1980s, when Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg went to Macomb County, Michigan, to interview Democrats who had defected to vote for Ronald Reagan, he found that they saw government in almost wholly racial terms." (Beinart/TheDailyBeast)



"Guy Ritchie enjoyed some breathing space from Madonna as he hit the slopes after a family visit to a Kabbalah centre. The Marylebone-based film director visited a ski resort in New Jersey with his sons Rocco, eight, and adopted David, three, on Saturday." (Thisislondon)

"Russian corruption may decline this year as the slumping price of oil reduces the amount of 'easy' money available to pay bribes, said Evgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Troika Dialog in Moscow." (Bloomberg)

"The byzantine set up of the Condé Nast internet operation is finally getting a facelift. The company announced today that CondéNet properties (style.com, epicurious.com, et. al.), will finally be consolidated with Condé Nast's other digital properties—like b brides.com—into one big happy family called Condé Nast Digital. The idea, hopefully, is that it'll make it a little bit easier to make some money selling ads against the Condé Nast brand, instead of dividing the entire empire piecemeal." (Observer)



"He's been hiding away in the country for a while, but the bonkers world of Pete Doherty is still very much in full swing. New footage from a brave MTV crew who spent 24 hours with him show the singer living in squalor in his Gloucestershire home. Potty Pete can be seen chatting to a human skull and showing off some very peculiar possessions .." (Thisislondon)