Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"The International Criminal Court has now brought charges and an arrest warrant to Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan. He is indicted for crimes against humanity. It’s the first time a sitting president has been charged by The Hague. By the time the ICC got to them, Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor were both finished with their reign of terror. Omar al-Bashir is not. Not by a long shot. How effective these indictments will be is now in the hands of the rest of the world. Will his government turn him over? Not likely. Will the UN go in after him? Doubtful. Even if he’s caught travelling outside the safety of his country would his government be much better with other equally dangerous leaders like 'The Sudanese Six'—Harun, Taha, Kushayb, Hilal, Minawi? If I were a refugee I wouldn’t bet my life on it. So then why is this such a significant moment? Because it tells the 300,000 brutally killed and 2.5 million displaced and raped and maimed that justice must always prevail. That the rest of the world sees their struggle and stands up and demands justice." (George Clooney/TheDailyBeast)



"Former President Bill Clinton had quite a busy schedule yesterday. First, he gave a speech to honor his good friend Billie Jean King at Madison Square Garden then watched an exhibition match between Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams. Williams won the mini-tournament last night, but Clinton enthusiastically clapped and rooted for the Serbian during the semifinal. He then took his car (and entourage) downtown where he caused a stir at the Tribeca Ball for The New York Academy of Art. He joined Eileen and Isabelle Guggenheim for a quick drink and made a toast to the $400,000 raised for the institution at the event .. The dinner guest list encompassed familiar fashion faces like André Balazs, Jason Wu, Kate and Andy Spade, Monet Mazur, and Liev Schreiber who attended the ball alone. Wife Naomi Watts meanwhile had flown abroad for another art ball last night...in Milan. Poppy de Villeneuve and Alek Wek had a reunion of sorts after discovering they both had attended the same art school in London .. Guests who stayed for the dinner--catered by Mary Giuliani--indulged in ancho chili rubbed filet of beef and mini cheesecakes, while Justin Timberlake only got to sample the truffle grilled cheese sandwiches and seared tuna appetizers." (Fashionweekdaily)



(Photo by Alex Pasternack/Papermag)

"If 'praise music' weren’t already a term for the insipid pop-rock used in many contemporary Christian worship services, it would be an apt description of what happened during David Byrne’s recent two-night stint at Radio City Music Hall. If you listened and watched closely, you were transported to an art rock tent revival, with Byrne as wriggly, silver-haired preacher man .. Pay no attention to the sad man behind the harsh New York Times review of the concert. As Byrne notes in his Journal, this is the same guy who accused My Life in the Bush of Ghosts of cultural imperialism for its appropriation of African music. (I’d hate to hear his thoughts on Cubism, or every genre of American music ever). To approach this show with such a jaundiced critic’s eye is to miss the point, and the today in which everything happens." (Papermag)

"DON'T play Britney Spears when Madonna is in the house. Lady Madge stopped by Hell's Kitchen gay bar The Ritz on Monday to attend her trainer Tracy Anderson's birthday party when the DJ threw on a Spears track. 'She flipped out, stormed upstairs, and spent the rest of the night aggressively making out with Jesus [Luz, her new boy toy],' says a spy. Madge and Luz later slipped out the back door and into an idling SUV." (PageSix)



"The Accompanied Literary Society hosted Andrew Cramer: Happiness/Brain War at Milk Studios Tuesday night in New York City. Award winning artist, Andrew Cramer unleashed his latest collection Art War, a series of 'photo abstracts' and 'new wave drawings' diving into the culture of violence by fusing oil painting techniques with modern technology as Cramer is known to do so brilliantly. Guests including Paul Sevigny, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Jenn Wirtz, Kristian Laliberte, Camilla Staerk, David Chines, browsed Kramer’s explosive collection, sipped Moet and Belvedere, and even took part in Party Trivia hosted by Accompanied Literary Society founder Brooke Geahan." (GuestofaGuest)

"With the upfront still some two months away, Les Moonves isn’t afraid to make predictions. The CBS chief executive officer, talking at this week’s Deutsche Bank media and telecommunications conference, voiced a few bold predictions about pricing and his network’s position in this year’s market. He predicted that pricing will be up over last year and said that CBS is willing to hold back some of its volume for the scatter market, forecasting that it will be stronger as well thanks to some advertisers spending less money during the upfront as ad budgets take longer to be set .. Moonves also said CBS will produce fewer pilots this year and will only have three or four new shows on the fall schedule, reflecting both economic caution and the stability of the network’s schedule. It’s the only Big Four broadcaster seeing gains over last year in adults 18-49." (Medalifemagazine)


"Evidently $30 million and 10 years wasn't enough to finish the job of declassifying records on the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies with Nazi and Japanese war criminals. Congress has just budgeted another $650,000 to finish the job - really, they're serious this time -- of poring through some 8 million postwar pages. 'There's a million pages of Army and CIA documents left' to read and catalog, said Miriam Kleiman, a spokeswoman for the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA." (CQPolitics)

"Bill and Ann Nitze gave a cocktail reception at their East Side penthouse for Thaddaeus Ropac, the European contemporary art dealer who has galleries in Salzburg and in Paris. Ann is also a private art dealer here, in Washington (their main residence) and Aspen where Bill is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Institute which was founded by his uncle William Paepcke, who also founded the Aspen Skiing Company." (NYSocialDiary)

"The plight of the broadcast networks is in the news, and like the newspaper industry, their fate is all about the loss of monopoly power .. The threat isn’t the Internet. Yet. Traditional TV viewing is at an all time high. While online video viewing is growing, it has had little effect on TV viewing, yet. The threat isn’t DVRs. Yet. The median broadcast primetime show still only has about 12% of its viewing via DVR, and DVRs are only in about 25% of the nation’s households (projected to rise to 44% in 2014). And because of the new way advertising is priced, measurements may have been propped up a bit in the short term by DVR viewing. In fact, The threat *today* is advertising supported cable networks. Today’s threat to the broadcast television industry comes from a lot closer to home, its cable network rivals.Ad supported cable now commands 50% of the primetime audience and rising. They threaten the advertising pricing premium of broadcast networks." (TVByTheNumbers)



"Jim Florentine returned to The Howard Stern Show today. It was Florentine's first visit to the studio since he and Robin Quivers ended their romance several months ago.There was definitely tension in the studio, so Howard asked Jim was nervous. He admitted he was. Howard also asked Florentine if he was going to try and win Robin back. Jim said you can't predict the future, but also admitted to two are good friends now and he doesn't really think they can go back to being a couple. Robin said Jim is now one of her best friends. Howard asked Florentine if he stays friends with all his ex-girlfriend's. Jim said he tries hard to remain friends with them after they break up. Howard asked Jim and Robin if they're close enough that they can talk about who they're dating with each other. Robin said she's pretty sure Jim would tell her about that. George Tekkai then piped in, saying he sensed a strong "warmth" between the pair." (Gather)