Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(Bernie Madoff in his penthouse apartment via NYSocialDiary)

"In the past three days I’ve had calls from three different organizations in production on some kind of documentary film or television show on Bernard Madoff and his kind. One producer wanted to hire the apartment from which JH once took a picture of Madoff and his wife relaxing in front of the TV in their penthouse apartment. The producer’s plan: to sit from noon to midnight on the terrace of said apartment until they saw someone moving about. The offer: $500 a day for five days. Or until they could get their shot (or shots). However, since the time that JH took that picture, the Madoffs have pulled their shades." (NYSocialDiary)



"The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times. In an interview, Mr Greenspan, who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laisser-faire capitalism, said nationalisation could be the least bad option left for policymakers. 'It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring,' he said. 'I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do.'" (FT)



(Justin Timberlake, Emile Hirsch, and Trace Ayala via style)

"The Rose Bar is nothing if not used to celebrity drop-ins, but Justin Timberlake isn't your everyday celebrity. Shortly after his entrance at Monday's intimate William Rast after-party, all bodies seemed to shift toward the middle of the room. That's where the pop star, lounging on a banquette with his arm around girlfriend Jessica Biel, hung out for most of the night. (Did anyone notice Gerard Butler and Emile Hirsch were right next to him?)" (Style)

"just had lunch @MichaelsNYC with Magid's Mike Vorhaus, Larry Kramer (Polaris, formerly of Mktwatch) and Jack from Metacafe.com ... lunch @MichaelsNYC: we'll do a write up of it later, highlights: Joe Armstrong, Bonnie Fuller, Gerry Byrne, Spitzer's wife, Joanne Lipman." (Laurel Touby/Twitter)

"It's been a pretty tough year for Goldman Sachs, the perennial gold standard of Wall Street. Its stock price is down dramatically from the $200 a share it traded at last spring. Even more frightening is that Goldman nearly went the way of Bear Stearns, Lehman and Merrill Lynch—fighting off a near meltdown that was threatening to bring the firm to its knees .. As a consequence of the financial crisis, Goldman has been forced to ditch its long-held business model of making huge bets in the securities markets and pocketing the billions of dollars made on betting right, which it did more often than not. Now the big swinging dicks at Goldman will have to act more like the investment bankers at Lazard Frères, and spend their time focusing on advising clients on mergers and, shockingly, gathering deposits on its way to becoming a full-fledged commercial bank. It's unclear if Goldman will be opening branch offices and ATMs any time soon, but I hope they do just so I can be first in line to get a Goldman-monogrammed toaster. But the trouble in Goldman-land, is not just of the financial, or balance-sheet variety. It’s more like a crisis in confidence." (Charlie Gasparino/TheDailyBeast)

"WHICH movie producer is finding out bad habits die hard? Despite being married, he asked a gorgeous, dark-haired woman back to his hotel for a "late-night private audition" after a dinner at the Berlinal Film Festival. As the actress accepted, look for her to appear in his upcoming pictures . . . WHICH kooky fashion figure asked for illegal substances on her contract rider? She said in order for her to appear at a fashion show, she needs two bottles of Cristal and 'cocaine - a lot of it.'" (PageSix)

"And Fashion Week, necessarily about seeing and being seen, was still delivering. At Ms. von Furstenberg’s show, Diane Sawyer and Charlie Rose, both dressed in two-piece black-and-white suits, seemed amused by the commotion. Two seats away, Diana Ross’ big hair was being lit up by the dozen or so camera flashes. Ms. Furstenberg’s husband, IAC chairman Barry Diller, strolled in and gave Ms. Ross a hug and Ms. Sawyer a kiss on the forehead, and waved at model Natalia Vodianova’s two ..children seated directly across from him. Meanwhile, French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, stylist Rachel Zoe, actress Julia Stiles and model Heidi Klum were still filtering in and doing rounds of mandatory hellos." (Observer)

"At Nanette Lepore show, PR people rushing to get all the empty seats filled." (USAToday)

"The Roitfeld clan is headed to Indochine for Vladimir's exhibition, Kirsten Dunst is partying with the Mulleavys, and 1Oak is bumping .." (GlamMedia)