Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"As I write this, my friend Dominick Dunne lay close to death, having been given his last rites at his home here in Manhattan. Dominick has been very ill for more than two years with Bladder Cancer. He has handled his illness with unrelenting courage. He has not allowed it to hinder his daily life for a moment more than required. When he was feeling his worst, if you happened to call him to inquire about his health, he’d say: 'don’t ask me about that, tell me a good story.' Story. The dish. Dominick loved that; it was his popcorn at his screening of the Great Game of Life ..It’s probably fair to say that Dominick Dunne is the Anthony Trollope of the last half of the American century. Murder was a common theme in his work. Murder and the universal injustice. The OJ Simpson trials made him a popular celebrity in a way commensurate with movie stardom. He couldn’t walk down the street or go into a hotel or airplane or restaurant anywhere in America, and often in Europe, where he wasn’t recognized and acknowledged and lauded and applauded. And he reveled in it." (NYSocialDiary)



"They are paintings created in the crucible of social turmoil, their sharp blocks of colour and abstract geometric forms signifying a bold new direction in art and society. The avant-garde works by the likes of Malevich, Popova, Kandinsky and Goncharova are attracting bigger and bigger prices at auction – last year Goncharova became the highest-selling female artist – and decorate the mansions of Russia's oligarchs and new business elite. There is just one problem. Most of them are fakes. Such is the popularity of the revolutionary art movements such as Constructivism and Suprematism, which spread through Russia in the early part of the 20th century, that forgers are glutting the market. Art experts estimate that at least 50 per cent, and as many as 80 per cent, of works offered for sale in a market worth millions of pounds are forgeries." (Telegraph)



"This Friday, the annual Best Buddies Gala took place in watermill. With a host committee complete with some powerful NYC couples: Tatiana and Campion Platt, Anne and Jay McInerney (who’s house the party took place at), and Haley and Jason Binn; this 'western chic' themed party was the hottest event out east this weekend. Governor David Patterson even stopped by! ... Other guests that made it out included Kathy and Rick Hilton, Amanda Hearst, Countess LuAnne de Lesseps, Jennifer Esposito, Patty Raynes, Nacho Figueras, Alejandro Santo Domingo, Sharon Bush and more." (Guestofaguest)

"WTF is Gov Patterson doing at the annual Best Buddies Gala in Watermill? Less socializing, more governing!" (Ron Mwangaguhunga/Twitter)

"GOLDIE Hawn and CNBC's Maria Bartiromo dining together at Monkey Bar .." (PageSix)



"David Gergen is working on a book about the Obama administration, according to Alice Mayhew, his editor at Simon & Schuster. Ms. Mayhew declined to go into detail about Mr. Gergen’s project, but characterized it as as being about 'watching an administration take hold.' 'It’s early days,' Ms. Mayhew said by phone this afternoon. 'He’s writing about this administration and how it takes office, but he’s writing from the perspective of Gergen, which is unique, I think, as he has worked in so many administrations on the inside.' UPDATE (6 p.m.): Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal clarified that Mr. Gergen's book will not deal with the Obama administration specifically, but will explore in general terms what happens when a new administration takes over the presidency. 'What Gergen is writing about is how any new administration gets rolling and assumes power,' Mr. Rosenthal said. 'It's much more of an historical perspective than an examination of the Obamas or any of the other administration he has worked for in particular. It's history, as opposed to current events.'" (Observer)



"So it got horrible reviews! That didn’t stop the stars from turning out for the opening night of The Bacchae. Joan Rivers, Lynn Redgrave, Kathleen Turner, Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad were just a few of the Broadway greats to turn out for the second Shakespeare In The Park production of 2009. (The first was notably Anne Hathaway’s theatrical debut in Twelfth Night). This production features music composed by Philip Glass, and stars Jonathan Groff and Anthony Mackie." (Guestofaguest)



"Following the visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, North Korea appears to be ratcheting down its confrontational rhetoric for the time being, and making some conciliatory gestures. On Wednesday, North and South Korean will hold talks on resuming the reconciliation of families, separated since the end of fighting in the Korean War in 1953. Pyongyang has also invited U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth to visit for nuclear talks next month. It will be the first formal diplomatic meeting between North Korea and the Obama administration. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is proposing a plan in which the South will resume and expand the humanitarian aid program he suspended when he came into office in exchange for the North suspending its nuclear program. However, few believe the Kim Jong Il's government will agree to this demand. South Korea also launched its first rocket this morning, but failed to put a satellite in orbit." (ForeignPolicy)



"It has become a tradition almost as established as laying a wreath at Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day: the much-hyped annual release of the president’s vacation reading list. But how seriously can one take it? Well, here’s a clue. Obama’s spokesman told reporters Monday from Martha’s Vineyard that No. 2 on the president’s list was Tom Friedman’s environmental bestseller Hot, Flat, and Crowded. The only problem? Obama was reading the same book, talking about it, even quoting from it a year ago on the campaign trail. Hot, Flat, and Crowded. By Thomas L. Friedman. 448 Pages. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $27.95. At an event in Flint, Michigan, last September, the Washington Independent noted that the book was 'on his nightstand.' The then-presidential candidate tried to refute the arguments of the 'Drill, Baby, Drill' crowd by touting Friedman’s environmental bestseller. 'He calls it E.T., energy technology,' Obama said of Friedman. For Obama, Friedman’s book has apparently become a renewable resource." (TheDailyBeast)



"From the first, string-laden tracks laid down by Stuart Levin and W.G. 'Snuffy' Walden, to recorded songs from well-known artists like Ray Charles and Rickie Lee Jones, 'thirtysomething' was a series full of music. But music is also the main reason why the groundbreaking drama by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick will only, finally, be issued on DVD on Tuesday -- more than two decades after the hit series went off the air. Licensing all that great music was expensive -- $1 million for the project, according to one knowledgeble person -- and very nearly prohibitively so. As the studios have rushed to get TV series on DVD, a handful of well-known shows have been held up because licensing their music has been deemed too expensive or time-consuming. On Oct. 6, for example, Fox will finally release season one of 'Ally McBeal.' 'Cop Rock,' the one year Steven Bochco experiment in cop camp, 'China Beach' and 'Cold Case,' have all been delayed for similar reasons. (See sidebar of top shows not out on DVD). Indeed, virtually all of Thirtysomething’s less popular running mates from the fall 1987 broadcast TV schedule, when it premiered, have been out on disc for some time, including CBS’ 'Jake and the Fatman' and NBC’s 'Crime Story.' 'Not only do you have to clear the rights with the publisher, but you also have to clear the master rights with the labels,' says Garson Foos, co-head of Shout Factory, which is distributing 'thirtysomething' for studio MGM. 'And in some cases, rights could be split up among three different publishers.'" (TheWrap)



"'[W]e believe that our government is weak, stupid, overbearing, dishonest, and inefficient, and also believe it to be the best in the world and would like to offer it to others.' This insight of Professor Michael Kammen came to mind as I drove around the teaming, dusty streets of Kabul last week. The United States has an enormous military, political, and economic presence in Afghanistan, which will increase before it decreases, trying to bring to the Afghan people the kind of government against which Americans have been screaming in so-called towns meetings recently. Many Afghanis are dying and risking their lives to achieve even a semblance of the kind of government many Americans seem to distrust at best and hate at worst. Perhaps it is because this ancient culture -- an historic truck stop of sorts for traders from the days of Marco Polo and the Silk Route, the gladiatorial arena for aspiring world powers over the centuries, and, as a new book calls it, 'the graveyard of empires' -- simply is tired and wishes a halt to everyone using it as a modern day version of the OK Corral or Chicago-in-the-1920s style running gun battle arena between the U.S. Army and the Taliban." (Gary Hart/HuffingtonPost)