Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via desireerogers.blogspot.com)

"DESIREE Rogers, the new White House social secretary, was the guest of honor yesterday in the Bar Room of the Four Seasons at a lunch thrown by new White House decorator Michael Smith to hobnob with some New Yorkers. Among the privi leged guests: Barbara Walters, Thelma Golden of the Studio Museum of Harlem, Elle Décor's Margaret Russell, Town & Country's Pamela Fiore and W's James Reginato. 'It was just a group of friends getting together,' one of them said modestly." (Page Six)



"At this afternoon’s Isaac Mizrahi show at the New York Public Library, the Daily Transom’s seat several rows behind Anna Wintour allowed us to observe a now-familiar pattern: Ms. Wintour arrived within minutes of the designated start time—as she always does, despite the fact that the show would’ve held for her indefinitely—and made her way to a front-row seat, where she endured a blinding wall of flashbulbs, as she always does. Then she waited while other guests dithered or strolled in late or worked the room and greeted friends and associates like they hadn’t seen them in months, even though Vera Wang had been mere hours before. A couple of brave reporters stuck tape recorders in Ms. Wintour’s face, asking her to provide pithy quotes; she obliged. She chatted with Vogue editor Hamish Bowles, to her left. She waited 26 minutes in total (an average, even short wait)." (Observer)

"There aren’t many places Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel where she’ll be less popular than George W. Bush and his minions—but China is certainly one of them (along with India and parts of Africa). For the most part, dictators (called disadvantaged democrats by business) prefer Republicans to Democrats. Liberals and 'progressives,' as they now often call themselves, are forever bringing up unwelcome subjects such as human rights and the environment. Dictators do not regard these mentions as friendly acts. With Republicans, it’s almost all business .. Clinton’s real push in private—with likely dabs of public rhetoric to prove the seriousness of private words—will be to lay the basis for a future strategic partnership between these two great countries. The pitch will be this: Deep down where they didn’t do business, the conservatives really regarded China as an adversary, as perhaps the one country in the world that could seriously damage American interests. Deep down, the George W. Bush types saw Beijing as gobbling up economic resources and riches and quietly building its armed forces, all for the purpose of supplanting the US as the world’s superpower. Clinton and her Democratic colleagues don’t really think about China that way. Instead, they like to figure out a path for the two great titans to discuss major issues across the board—political, military, economic, and cultural—and cooperate more fully than in the past." (Leslie Gelb/TheDailyBeast)

"Yeah, that was MK Olsen we saw bumpin' and grindin' w/ her bf Nate Lowman at the Wool afterparty. Dancing to Dolly Parton, no less." (CutBlog)

"Uncertainty can cause chaos. It can also breed opportunity. That’s especially true for banks. Questions about stress tests, and how the government will respond to them, have scuttled bank shares, especially those of the big, or final, four -- Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. Some preferred stocks and trust preferred securities issued by these same banks have also been hammered. At least one trust preferred issued by Citigroup, for example, has fallen harder since the start of the month than the bank’s stock. That may be an overreaction .. In the meantime, the carnage may present an opportunity. At least, that is, for investors with strong stomachs willing to gamble the government will stop short of all-out nationalization, or other moves that hurt more than just common stockholders. One issue of Citigroup trust preferred securities, or Trups, traded yesterday at about $6, compared with a face value of $25. At that price, the security, which pays a 6.5 percent interest rate, now yields more than 25 percent .. Of course, nationalization or seizure of a bank could wipe out common and preferred stockholders and lead to a restructuring of debt." (David Reilly/Bloomberg)

"they're bussing people from Project Runway to Ralph Lauren." (Partyhopper)

"The Oscars may still be a few days away, but Tinseltown is already abuzz with excitement. On Wednesday night, fashion and entertainment tastemakers including Melissa George, Angie Harmon, Kate Walsh, Vivaca A. Fox, Nonny Tochterman, Perrey Reeves, Liberty Ross, Lynn Collins, Arielle Kebbel, Kate Sumner, Amanda Brooks, Glynis Costin, James Patrick Herman, Casey Johnson, George Blodwell and Steven 'Kojo' Cojocaru gathered at the rooftop of The Thompson Beverly Hills Hotel for an intimate poolside cocktail party hosted by Nadja Swarovski. (FashionweekDaily)



(image via suprememagament)



"Stripping away any vestige of fussy old world grandeur, any supercilious haughtiness, showman Richie Rich turned the Waldorf Astoria into a fashion three-ring circus. 'Send in the Clowns' played as Aubrey O'Day, fresh from her recent Playboy spread walked down the runway. The show closed with eternal sexpot Pamela Anderson." (Papermag)

"Thursday was a sunny and mild winter’s day in New York. Dinner at Primola hosted by Jim Mitchell for his friend Joan Benny, daughter of the late great Jack; Mary McFadden and Marc de Bary, Colette Harron, Laura Montalban and this writer. Joan and Laura (daughter of the recently departed Ricardo and niece of Loretta Young) grew up in the land called Hollywood and were talking about the most recent Vanity Fair’s article on the kids who grew up there ..." (NYSocialDiary)

"ABC may have had to drastically lower its asking price to draw in advertisers for this year’s Oscar ceremony, but there is some good news for the network. Viewership should be well up after last year’s debacle. That’s according to a survey Media Life posted earlier this week asking media buyers and planners to weigh in on this year’s Oscar ceremony, airing Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. In addition to picking the winners in the major categories, respondents predicted that viewership for this year’s ceremony will be up smartly over last year, when a record-low 32 million watched a ceremony bereft of high-wattage stars just days after the writers' strike ended." (Medialifemagazine)