Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"In fact, (The Countess') marriage to the Count Alexandre de Lesseps has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks, with her rep ultimately confirming rumors of a split. She vowed to cling to her noble title, nevertheless, she told the Daily Transom. 'And the jewelry!' she added, laughing." (Observer)



"George W. Bush was rarely heard from during his final months in office. Hideously unpopular, and never personally interested in policy matters, he did his best to stay out of the limelight. Even as his administration took repeated, drastic policy measures—nationalizing AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, requesting $700 billion in TARP funds, etc.—to deal with the unraveling of the global financial system, he lurked in the bankground and left the sales job up to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. But now Bush is back, with a speech delivered yesterday to the Economic Club of Southwest Michigan. It's a pretty obscure gig for a guy who was, until recently, the leader of the free world." (TheDailyBeast)



"'Jon and Kate Plus 8' may soon be minus one parent, but the show itself is gaining viewers. After the tabloids whipped themselves into a frenzy the past month covering the marital discord between reality TV stars Jon and Kate Gosselin, Monday’s fifth-season premiere of the TLC reality show scored the best numbers in network history. Jon and Kate averaged an astounding 9.8 million total viewers, likely the biggest audience ever for a cable reality show and easily the most-watched program on TLC. That was more than 4 million better than the previous most-watched episode of Jon and Kate, the fourth-season finale, which averaged 4.6 million in March. The show averaged a 9.1 rating among women 18-34 as well as a 6.3 among 18-34s, beating broadcast in the 9 p.m. timeslot." (Medialifemagazine)

"MADONNA'S ex, Alex Rodriguez, is nursing his hurt ego with Kate Hudson. They've been together for little more than a week, but already Hudson is following A-Rod around. She even stayed with him at the Hotel ZaZa in Dallas Wednesday night after the Yankees played the Texas Rangers." (PageSix)



(image via humorrisk)

"In the aftermath of the Gawker poopiness it now seems pertinent to look at what can be learned. When BloodCopy became a 'part' of the editorial body (despite being an advertisement for HBO's True Blood), it sort of prevented the edit staff from disemboweling the campaign as they might normally — don't bite the hand that feeds etc etc and so on. But the real questions are, why not let the edit staff run rampant and what would happen if they did?" (AgencySpy)

"On Tuesday, New Jersey Republicans will go to the polls to choose their nominee to battle Gov. Jon Corzine in the fall campaign .. The state does not have its own media markets, so it is extraordinarily difficult to achieve the name identification and favorability ratings necessary to win a statewide contest. Wide swaths of New Jersey voters watch television shows broadcast from Philadelphia and New York. For every dollar spent on broadcast television campaign advertising on New York or Philadelphia television stations in a statewide GOP primary, only 7 cents is spent communicating a message to people who can vote for your candidate. That means 93 cents goes to spread the word to people who live in Pennsylvania or New York or Delaware, or to Democrats, Independents and unaffiliated voters in New Jersey. Consequently, smart GOP campaigns will spend their advertising dollars on direct mail and radio. That makes for efficient primary campaigns. But oh, does it create a challenge in a general election. Because only Republicans get the targeted mailings during the primary, the nominee doesn't start out as a known quantity among the Independents, unaffiliated voters and Democrats who make up more than 60 percent of the fall electorate." (CQPolitics)



"'I've never entered the Armory this way,' observed Marc Jacobs as he arrived to collect his Hall of Fame honor during the 37th Annual Fragrance Foundation FiFi Awards ceremony Wednesday night .. Lisa Hoffman went empty-handed with her unique boutique nod that went to Tom Ford. But she did have husband Dustin to console her. After all, she's been there for his Oscar wins and snubs for the last 30 years. 'I so prefer when the spotlight is still on him, so I can come to industry things like this and still relax,' she explained. 'But it's kind of amazing to be nominated for this so I can actually drag Dustin to one of my awards shows.'" (Fashionweekdaily)



"Anthony Marshall, accused of swindling millions of dollars from his mother, Brooke Astor, didn’t disclose his fee for arranging the $10 million sale of a Childe Hassam painting she owned, her former lawyer said. 'You were not told of a $2 million commission?' Elizabeth Loewy, assistant district attorney, asked lawyer Henry Christensen III yesterday in Marshall’s trial in New York State Supreme Court. 'I certainly was not,' said Christensen, 64, who represented both Marshall and Astor in tax and estate matters until 2004. Marshall, 84, is charged with grand larceny for his role in the 2002 sale of 'Up the Avenue from 34th Street, May 1917,' the most serious accusation in an 18-count indictment. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors allege Marshall induced his physically and mentally frail mother to sell the artwork by convincing her she was running out of money. Philippe de Montebello, former chief of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, testified earlier this month that whenever he visited Astor’s Park Avenue duplex she promised to give the Hassam painting to the museum." (Bloomberg)



"I.F. Stone, known to his friends and admirers, as 'Izzy,' was one of the great political reporters of the our time. D.D. Guttenplan, whose friends call him Don, is a London based correspondent for the Nation. Guttenplan has written a brilliant biography about the maverick muckraker. The son of a peddler, I.F. Stone. was born in the slums of Philadelphia. A high-school dropout, he was by the age of twenty-five, an influential New York City reporter. In his 20s, he met the young woman, Esther Roisman, who would become his wife and life-long partner on a blind date, wooing her with poems he wrote himself. Esther would later handle the business side of the I.F. Stone Weekly. A party celebrating the publication of this book, which coincides with the twentieth anniversary of Stone’s death, was held this week at the apartment of Annie & Victor Navasky." (NYSocialDiary)



"Matthew McConaughey's head lately appears hairier than before because, says Kate Hudson, 'He constantly rubs his scalp with tonic. Doesn't even bother him that everybody sees it.'" (CindyAdams)