"The Alfalfa — a 200-member club whose only activity is this yearly off-the-record dinner—was founded in 1913 by a bunch of white, male Southern pols to pay tribute to the Confederacy’s biggest hero. Blacks were kept out till the 1970s, women till the 1990s. President Obama wryly noted the irony. 'This dinner began almost one hundred years ago as a way to celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee,' the new president said in remarks released by the White House. 'If he were here with us tonight, the General would be 202 years old. And very confused.' This was a room whose head table of 45 guests groaned with power. Not just one president, but two: Bush 41 was up there, with the indomitable Bar down at the other end seated beside Sarah Palin, who is surprisingly slight and dainty in real life, with star-struck glistening eyes. Chief Justice John Roberts was next to the president ('I see Chief Justice Roberts is here to administer my daily oath of office,' Obama teased him in his remarks). Further down was the new Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, who looks about 15 years old. He gave a deep schoolboy blush when Obama made a tax joke. Michelle Obama, sitting next to Madeleine Albright, was amazingly glamorous." (Tina Brown/TheDailyBeast)
"Barry Diller turns 67 today." (Cityfile)
"So what happens when NBC starts running Jay Leno five nights a week at 10 pm? The other networks applaud, for one thing. The Leno move strikes many in the industry as another step away from NBC's being a broadcast network. 'It felt like NBC was becoming Bravo before our eyes, like there's nothing special about NBC,' said an executive at a rival network. The head of one of the big talent agencies agreed. 'It's really a lesson in how to kill a brand,' he said. The decline of NBC may turn out to be a bellwether for the Big Four networks that once ruled the television landscape. And it seems to have taken one step closer to going off the broadcast cliff." (TheWrap)
"Michelle Obama may have replaced her as fashion's—make that the world's — favorite First Lady, but the arrival of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy at Sidaction's annual Dîner de la Mode on Thursday night still sent a frisson of excitement through Paris' Pavillon d'Armenonville. The appearance of her husband, President Sarkozy, brought a crowd that included Olivier Theyskens, Giambattista Valli, Diane Kruger, Vanessa Paradis, and Laetitia Casta to its feet. 'Few times have I been able to actually feel the glamour in a room,' sighed Milla Jovovich, who was sitting with Elie Saab. 'But this was one of them.'" (Style)
"If the nomination of New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg as Commerce secretary becomes reality, it likely would not change the number of GOP senators in the chamber, two top Senate Republicans said Sunday. 'Sen. Gregg has assured me that if this were to happen, it would not change the makeup of the Senate,' Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., said on CBS’s 'Face the Nation.' McConnell also said the person appointed by Gov. John Lynch , a Democrat, would caucus with Republicans, indicating that the choice could also be an independent.Gregg confirmed Jan. 30 that the White House is considering him as a potential Commerce secretary nominee, causing widespread concern among fellow GOP senators and party leaders." (CQPolitics)
"MediaByNumbers.com was first to spread the news Sunday: from January 1, 209 to February 1st, 2009, year-to-date North American grosses were $1.028 billion, compared to 2008's January take of $867.2 million. So revenue was up 18.57%. Attendance was up 16.78%. (Of course, none of these stats mean much because they're not adjusted for inflation or higher ticket prices. But that never stops anyone from celebrating these kinds of announcements. And they're a reason why Disney's Bob Iger and News Corp's Peter Chernin get paid annually in the $30M range.) Yet there's no lead story about this in either Variety or The Hollywood Reporter. At the same time, NBC set a record and sold out its Super Bowl ads for $201 million. But that isn't prominent in the trades either. Here's what I think: the studios and networks want this good news played on the downlow in Hollywood (as opposed to the layoffs bulletins) when the AMPTP is restarting contract talks with SAG's 'task force' -- aka the newly configured negotiating committee -- on Tuesday. Because isn't it amazing how Big Media can keep making so much money but never filter it down to either their staff or the showbiz guilds?" (Deadlineholywooddaily)
"This is Davos week, where the once Masters of the Universe meet on top of the mountain Thomas Mann made famous. This year some big names are absent. The heads of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch and other corporations which once upon a time flew in on their G-5s and Bombardiers are missing, but Gordon Brown is not. In fact he’s the star of the show, which is in a way like having Bernie Madoff lecturing at Oxford on ethics. Or Captain Edward Smith on safety at sea. Brown has steered Britain into an iceberg, has not gone down with the ship as poor Captain Smith did, but is swanking around Davos looking like the fattest tubercular the world has ever seen. Again, who was it that first said there’s no more shame? .. The loss of confidence is just a symptom of bad credit and over-leverage, said the sage. The banks are not lending because they know their balance sheets are loaded with future losses, and capital has gone the way of good manners." (TakiMag)
"Yesterday morning I went over to the Frank Campbell Funeral Chapel on 81st Street and Madison Avenue .. The funeral was for a man named Greg Speiser, a lifelong New Yorker who was the husband of our Executive Editor Sian Ballen who also collaborates on the NYSD HOUSE .. I knew that he was a guy who had grown up in the city and gone to Horace Mann, that he worked for Bear Stearns in Money Management until the bottom fell out. I knew that he quickly resurrected himself business-wise and was working hard." (NYSocialDiary)
"Madonna is poised to take her children to the US after winning a residency battle with her ex-husband Guy Ritchie, the Evening Standard can reveal. The pop star is understood to have been given temporary permission to remove their two sons from Britain. The agreement is expected to be made permanent within a fortnight. A source close to the negotiations said today: 'Everything is going to be resolved in the next couple of weeks. Everything is going well. It's pretty amicable at the moment. Things are progressing.'" (Thisislondon)
"Flavor Flav star of Flavor of Love and Public Enemy was on Howard Stern today promoting his new DVD film Night Tales. Flavor Flav told the crew he had a girlfriend the entire time he shot the VH1 series Flavor of Love. The former rap star also detailed his gritty past. Flavor of Flav spoke openly about being in a gang, his time in prison, and the beatings he took as a kid. Flavor Flav said his parents would strip him naked and whip him with electrical cords up until the time he was about 16. Flavor Flav says he has no anger or animosity against his parents and says his mom and dad did the best they could." (Gather)
"This is one birthday Justin Timberlake won't soon forget. Jessica Biel, 26, threw her singer beau a Super Bowl-themed surprise birthday party in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel's ultra-exclusive penthouse on Sunday afternoon, PEOPLE has learned. 'Justin was totally blown away when he walked in. He had no idea,' says a source. On hand were close to 100 friends and family of the couple, including both of their parents, Biel's brothers, Timberlake's cousins and his best friend Trace Ayala, who joined the happy pair to toast Timberlake turning 28." (People)
"Madonna's found Jesus - Jesus Luz, that is. The Material Girl had a lunch date with the hunky Brazilian model in New York Sunday afternoon, more than a month after speculation surfaced that the two were an item. The pair hasn't been photographed together since late December, when they were spotted leaving a Sao Paolo, Brazil, restaurant together. The twosome first met on the set of a steamy W magazine photo shoot that same month, with Madonna reportedly asking the 22-year-old to join her for the remainder of the South American leg of her Sticky & Sweet tour soon after. Luz's modeling career received a mega-boost after he was spotted with the 50-year-old." (NYDN)
"New York Democrats have picked political newcomer Scott Murphy as their nominee in the special election for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) former House seat. Murphy, a venture capitalist who was selected over three other candidates for the nod, will face Republican New York Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco in what is expected to be a competitive special election." (TheHill)
"Papermag: What's the most L.A. thing you've ever done as a couple?
Danny Masterson: For our third anniversery, I bought her calf implants. Bijou Phillips: I bought him ass implants." (Papermag)
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