Media-Whore D'oeuvres



"Hollywood mogul Steve Bing didn't just lend Bill Clinton his private plane for the former president's trip to North Korea -- he's footing the cost of the whole flight. Bing, a real estate heir and the owner of Shangri-La Entertainment, will pay an estimated $200,000 for the round-trip flight, said Marc Foulkrod, the chairman and CEO of Avjet, the charter company that operates Bing's plane, a Boeing 737. Clinton used the plane on his successful trip to secure the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two American journalists held by North Korea on allegations that the two illegally entered the country. A representative for Bing said he was not available for interviews. Bing, a long-time friend of Clinton's, has a colorful background: He fathered a child with supermodel Elizabeth Hurley and once sued billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, claiming that private investigators hired by Kerkorian invaded his privacy by sorting through his garbage. Bing is also known for donating millions to the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates, including Clinton's wife, former presidential candidate-turned-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton." (ABCNews)



"Today, the mess that is post-election Iran becomes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s problem, and bets are already being placed in Iran on just how long his second term as president will last. Ahmadinejad’s most immediate challenge will be to name 21 cabinet ministers, the three most important of which are the minister of defense, the minister of the interior (who also oversees the elections), and the minister of foreign affairs. He can also nominate up to 10 vice presidents, one of which, the first vice president, will be charged with taking over the presidency should some horrible fate befall Ahmadinejad (God forbid). According to Iran's constitution, the president has two weeks from the day of his inauguration to present his cabinet to the parliament for approval. This will not be an easy task." (Reza Aslan/TheDailyBeast)



"PRODUCER Marty Bregman played the race card when Universal honchos balked at casting Denzel Washington to co-star with Angelinia Jolie in 'The Bone Collector' (1999). Interviewed for a segment airing tomorrow on BlogTalkRadio's 'Film Festival Radio,' Bregman said the moguls told him, 'We'd have a hard time marketing Denzel in the south.' Bregman said the suits named areas 'where a black actor is not going to do any business. So at one point . . . I asked to be alone with the head of that division. And I said, Are you aware that your chairman, [Edgar] Bronfman [Jr.], has [three] black children? He was married to a black lady [Sherri Brewer] then ... And I said, 'How is it gonna look if this gets out?' And he said, How's it gonna get out? And I said, Trust me, it'll get out. And the next day, I got an approval.' Bronfman Jr., who was vice chairman of Vivendi Universal in 1999, is now chairman of Warner Music Group. His eldest son, known as Ben Brewer, is a rocker engaged to M.I.A., who gave birth to their first child, a son, Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman, in February." (PageSix)



(One Night at Swifty's via NYSocialDiary)

"Last night, to add to this scintillating account of life in New York on a hot summer’s day in August, I went to Swifty’s for dinner. Does it seem like I have no imagination? I am a creature of (compulsive) habit. Swifty’s was very busy. Gale Hayman and Dr. Richard Bockman was there with His Nibs, Mr. Kenny Jay Lane. If you have never met Kenny, then by all means read our NYSD HOUSE interview with the man. His excessively successful costume jewelry business may be a fortune in fakes, but Kenny is the real thing. No peers there. Also, closeby, Alexandra Schlesinger with Marife Hernandez and Joel Bell, Martha Kramer and Neal Fox were dining two tables away with Mai Hallingby." (NYSocialDiary)



"It was to be expected that our present economic traumas would call into question the state of economics. 'Why did no one see the crisis coming?', Queen Elizabeth reportedly asked one practitioner. A seminar at the British Academy tried to answer and the FT has taken up the discussion. The Queen’s question is understandable, given the subject’s claims on its own behalf. Ever since modern economics started in the 18th century it has presented itself as a predictive discipline, akin to a natural science. Since the future a year ago included the present slump, it is natural that the failure of the economics profession – with a few exceptions – to foresee the coming collapse should have discredited its scientific pretensions. Economics is revealed to have no more clothes than other social science. One cannot imagine the Queen in, say, nine months’ time, asking a leading political scientist: 'Why did no one tell me that Labour was going to win the election?' She would understand that this was not a prediction that any political scientist could make with conviction, however much time he had spent studying present and past opinion polls. Nevertheless, the Queen’s question was wrong, because it accepted at face value the predictive claim of economics – a feature that has distinguished it from all other social sciences. Karl Popper produced a famous argument against the possibility of prediction in human affairs: one cannot anticipate a new invention because, if one could, one would already have invented it." (Lord Peter Skidelsky/FT)



"The supermodel enjoyed a day soaking up the heat of the French Riviera on a luxury yacht with friends and her musician boyfriend Jamie Hince .. She was also joined on board by Yves Saint Laurent designer Stefano Pilati and former supermodel Karen Mulder, who put modesty to one side as she lounged around the boat topless." (Thisislondon)



"During discussions about a climate change TV ad last year, a staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi nixed a line from a script that had former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calling her Nancy. 'She will not want Newt calling her Nancy in the ad, though, so I am removing that from what I show her," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill wrote in an April 2, 2008, e-mail to the communications director for the Alliance for Climate Protection, the group that produced the ad. In the final script of the ad, Pelosi sits with Gingrich on a couch in front of the Capitol and calls him by his first name. But he doesn't refer to her by name or title at all." (Politico)