A Little Of The Old In And Out



In: Valerie Jarrett and Desiree Rogers. The pendulum swings. The center of power has shifted. At the WHCD -- aka "Nerdprom" -- Valerie Jarrett and Desire Rogers, who has been tasked with "making Washington fun again," sat at the Glamour table (how meaningful!) with our bossman Kenneth Cole, Alicia Keys, Narciso Rodriguez and Kerry Washington. Not since Kennedy has there been a White House so comfortable in the exercise of a certain form of soft power that has been absent from the United States' geopolitical equation for the last eight years. From The SweetBlog:

"The profiles of Chicago pals White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers are skyrocketing. They team up--and glam up-- for the cover of the latest Capitol File magazine.

Rogers hit the cover of a recent Wall Street Journal magazine story by Amy Chozick titled Desirée Rogers--the former Mardi Gras queen who holds the keys to Brand Obama
While I think of Rogers as a Chicagoan--her New Orleans roots are part of every profile."

Out: Playboy. Perhaps Playboy should take Marty Engels up on his latest hacky publicity stunt and run nude photos of Shirley Jones. It might help their bottom line. Playboy's first quarter -- some pun intended -- sagged. From Paidcontent:

"Layoffs at Playboy — the company has cut a quarter of its staff since October 2008—helped counter some of the revenue declines during the first quarter of 2009, but they weren’t enough to lift the adult-entertainment company into profitability. Playboy’s revenue declined 22 percent, to $61.6 million, below analyst expectations of $71.7 million. Loss-per-share was $0.15 when one-time impairment and restructuring costs are excluded (and $0.41 when these costs are included)."

Worse: Playboy expects a 39% decline in magazine advertising revenue during the quarter ending in June.