Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(John Forte via Frank151)

"These days, you just never know who you're going to meet on Wednesdays at Michael's. If we'd come yesterday, we would have been able to chat with Willem Dafoe. Oh well. This being New York Fashion Week, I was thrilled when Donna Karan came in .. I was lunching at the bar with fellow People scribe and soul sister Natasha Stoynoff when Ed Victor came up for a chat. Our favorite uber agent told us he was meeting Fugees producer/rapper John Forte and his lawyer Aarti Tandon. Here's a tantalizing tale: John was one of 14 people who got a presidential pardon from departing President George W. Bush. John received a 14-year sentence in 2000 for drug trafficking when he was caught with two suitcases of liquid cocaine worth $1.4 million in Newark Airport. Carly Simon and Senator Orrin Hatch (now there's an odd couple) both championed his release, says Ed. Now, he's blogging about his experiences for Tina Brown on The Daily Beast, and Ed is shopping a book about his adventures in and out of jail. Sounds like a page-turner to us..." (FishbowlNY/Lunch at Michaels)



"With his flamboyant fashion sense and Amazonian female bodyguards, it is sometimes difficult to take Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi seriously on the world stage. Yet the Libyan strongman's recent selection as chairman of the African Union, which caps a lengthy diplomatic push on the continent, demonstrates that his country's international rehabilitation has been very effective indeed. No impulsive whim -- there is a clear purpose to Libya's assertive foreign policy on the continent, with distinct implications for the United States. Qaddafi sees himself as a symbolic and de facto leader of Africa. But if U.S. President Barack Obama does not want Qaddafi to undermine counterterrorism and human rights initiatives in the region, he would do well to keep watch of the mercurial Libyan leader's continental ambitions. The colonel's self-proclaimed betrothal to Africa has been a relatively recent affair. Although he has ruled Libya since 1969, it was only a decade ago that he unveiled his plan for a 'United States of Africa.' Up to that point, Qaddafi expended his considerable energies touting Libya's Arab heritage and pursuing Arab unity. Disappointed again and again, Qaddafi promised, 'If the revolution does not believe in Arab unity, it will not be a revolution, and I will work for another revolution.' He soon proclaimed his conversion explicitly: 'We Libyans are Africans.' Since then, Qaddafi has renewed relations with the United States, transforming Libya from a terrorism-supporting state responsible for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 to a reluctant U.S. ally, much to the delight of many in Washington." (ForeignPolicy)



(Manon von Gerkan via askmen)

"HAS Mickey Rourke found his date to the Oscars? Craggy-faced Rourke, who scored a Best Actor nod for his work in 'The Wrestler,' hung out with Paris Hilton on her birthday on Tuesday, but may have scored a classier companion in German supermodel Manon von Gerkan (ed: see above). On Wednesday, Gerkan, who previously dated illusionist David Blaine, went with Rourke to fashion designer Domenico Vacca's show and the after-party at Pink Elephant. 'They were cozy all night and then left arm-in-arm,' says a source." (PageSix)



"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric continues to defy the odds, which started to play in her favor during her presidential campaign coverage. If you believed the skeptics, Couric might have been gone from the show by now. But not only is she still front and center, her third-place show is gaining on #2 World News with Charles Gibson. (NBC Nightly News is solidly in first place, coming in #1 for 18 weeks straight.)" (TVNewser)

"I hope Les Moonves can kiss those days goodbye when his pay package was 200% more than other CEOs. I, for one, will never forget that, while striking writers and Hollywood networks and studios were still negotiating a contract, Les made 'a honey of a new one' despite the fact that CBS' performance had been on a steady decline. Now CBS is in the crapper and its shareholders will get the shaft. One of them is Viacom boss Sumner Redstone, CBS' heavily indebted controlling shareholder who received around $87 million in dividends from that company in the last year. Well, that gravy train is ended. CBS said today that its 4th-quarter profit plunged 52% on huge advertising declines at its television, radio and outdoor display units. So it's slashing its quarterly dividend by 81% in reaction." (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)

"I've written a column and blog posts on what seems to me a decline in, and perhaps a reversal of, Latino immigration. Here's some more anecdotal evidence of this, an article on the growing number of vacant apartments on Tucson. The housing bubble was especially large in Arizona, and so has been the decline over the past several years in housing values. In addition, the state has passed some tough laws targeting employers of illegal immigrants. The Tucson Citizen article notes that vacancy rates aren't very high around the University of Arizona (where the market is presumably students) but reach 25 percent on the heavily Hispanic south and west sides of town. If this trend is real and continues, I think there will be a lot fewer Hispanics found in the 2010 census enumeration than 2000-07 demographic trends would lead Hispanic leaders and others to expect." (Michael Barone/USNews)

"At the NASDAQ Theater in New York, Simon Constable, Dow Jones, and John Batchelor focus on the imminent visit of President Obama to Ottawa, Canada, the first foreign trip for the new president, and why he may be greeted by 'Buy Canada' growling in the Parliament and the streets if not from the miffed but polite PM Stephen Harper. Ever since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi permitted her House member Jim Oberstar and others to write in a "Buy America" mandate to the stimulus bill, now law, that directs a favoritism for American steel and iron products, the Canadians have been rallying against American protectionism. The 'Buy America' clause was a major alarm for the G-7 ministers meeting in Rome with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last weekend. However the protectionist rhetoric is not just about the US. France, Russia, Egypt are openly favoring their products.." (TheJohnBatchelorShow)



"This past weekend, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire became the highest grossing film ever at New York’s Angelika Film Center. Its gross at the Angelika alone, which stands at $1,157,497, surpassed the record of $1,135,141 held by Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful. More over, 'Slumdog's average box office per week at the Angelika is $96,122, three times 'Beautiful's $39,143. There is no question Slumdog's nearly unprecedented sweep of almost every single Oscar precursor awarded, as well as its frontrunner status at the Oscars themselves, has helped. The $15 million budgeted film’s total gross now stands at $86,696,000, with at least a few weekends of potent numbers to come. But somehow, Slumdog is not the box office story of this year’s Oscar season. For a few weeks now, bloggers and reports (including indieWIRE's own box office columns) have been wondering, 'what happened to the Oscar bump?' 'Slumdog' aside, very few Oscar nominated films have seemed to find much of a boost from the season. As it stands, Milk has grossed $26,528,000, The Reader has grossed $18,996,000, and Frost/Nixon has grossed $16,430,000, making them the second, third and fourth lowest grossing best picture nominees of the past decade .." (IndieWIRE)

"As she frolicked topless in the surf with friends at a five-star South American beach resort Peaches (Geldoff) showed off an incredible total of TWENTY tattoos which document a catalogue of broken love affairs and bonkers obsessions." (Newsoftheworld)

"During the CBS Q4 earnings call, CEO Leslie Moonves offered TV.com’s relaunch as an example of how CBS Interactive is doing post-CNET Networks acquisition: 'It’s clearly going to be a very, very big player in what is clearly a fast-growing category.' The numbers sound great—TV.com has added thousands of video and is delivering more than five times the number of video streams it had a year ago—and would sound even better if it weren’t for the tiny little problem the site is having right now delivering shows from NBC, Fox or any other content it received from Hulu. The analysts, on the other hand, were more concerned with matters like slashed dividends and the like, which offers a clue or two about how important this is in the overall scheme of things for CBS—as in not close to material." (Paidconent)

"Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) officially announced his candidacy for Senate on Thursday, saying he will battle the 'liberal monopoly in Congress.' In a statement posted to his new Senate campaign website, Blunt made it clear he will frame his candidacy as being against the Democratic Party, and he said the Senate is the best place to make an impact. 'The Senate is where the real battles will be fought for America’s future. It is where every voice must be heard,' Blunt said in the statement. 'One-party control in Washington has created a dramatically new setting. Common sense and open debate are in danger of being suppressed by the overreaching liberal monopoly in Congress and the White House. Never has Washington been in greater need of hearing from people who work hard, pay their taxes, and want solutions to urgent economic problems and the ongoing threat of terrorism.'" (TheHill)

"Idea. Let's move the only Dem who can win senate seat in KS into HHS. That way, we can have 1 less sen to vote for healthcare! #RAHMFAIL!" (FakeHowardDean)

"At a moment when the nation is engulfed in an economic crisis, and showbiz is enduring layoffs and cutbacks, the theme for this year's private Oscar bashes is shaping up to be: Throw a party, have fun, but don't do too much.
'You want to celebrate nominations but at the same time be respectful of the fact that a lot of people have lost jobs, and it's a bad economic climate,' said one studio exec involved with event planning. 'You want to have an appropriate level of celebration without being ostentatious.' Balancing modesty with glitz is no easy task, but award season veterans are definitely seeing some changes this year. Saturday's seventh annual Night Before party at the Beverly Hills Hotel benefitting the Motion Picture & Television Fund is cutting out the gift bags, and it is not holding the Friday night pre-event as in years past. 'It was the sponsors who suggested we find ways to have the same kind of evening but without being lavish,' MPTF Foundation topper Ken Scherer said. 'They wanted the cost savings to hit the bottom of the charity.'" (Variety)



"Recession or not, the Oscar party scene will be in full swing this weekend. Yes, the mood seems somewhat subdued, but all in all, events are shaping up to seem more festive than last year, when the dark cloud of the WGA strike caused Vanity Fair to cancel its soiree. This year, few events have been called off. Instead, many party-givers have saved their money to focus on one main event, rather than a week of goings-on ..So when Vanity Fair announced it will be reusing décor from past events, not only does it look eco-chic and environmentally responsible, but it can save loads of cash. The magazine set the scaled-back tone back in November when editor-in-chief Graydon Carter cited the flailing economy as the reason behind its less-luxe affair, which will now take place at the Sunset Tower Hotel rather than Morton’s Steakhouse, where it had been for the past decade or so. That means the notoriously exclusive A-list haven just got a lot more so with even fewer people on the invite list. In years past, there was a tent and a grand topiary bearing the magazine’s name, but this year simplicity will reign with comfort food like chicken pot pie." (TheWrap)

"Yesterday, Hillary Clinton took a break from meeting with government leaders on her pan-Asian tour to drop by the set of the Indonesian youth-oriented music show Dahsyat, which means 'Awesome' in English. To think about how odd a pairing of person and setting this is, consider what it would be like if the Indonesian defense minister visited the set of TRL (which, yes, we're vaguely aware is no longer on TV). Clinton was able to hold her own despite the language and generational barriers, discussing topics from her music preferences (Stones and Beatles) to the Middle East peace process. However, Clinton may have seriously strained U.S.-Indo relations when she declined a request to sing, a faux pas diplomats are likely scrambling to correct." (NYMag)