Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"In my experience, mountain climbers are the exact opposite of social climbers. They’re brave, healthy, adventurous and down to earth, pardon the pun. I’ve done my share of climbing small mountains, and the way up can be hell. Reaching the top, however, always brings a rarefied feeling of blessedness ... Off season the Alps are as good as it gets. I have good friends here: the Gibsons, the Fairchilds, the Weisses, the Nicholsons, and so on. We get together in each other’s chalets, I get drunk, and they tell me stories. As there is Aids all around us—Aids meaning Acute income deficiency syndrome—many of the most egregious types, who give lavish parties for people like Bianca Jagger, have already gone back to places like Milan, Brussels, Geneva, even Athens. Gstaad is now almost on the same level as it was 25 years ago. The barbarian invasion is still threatening but the locals are doing something about it. We have all signed petitions and have written to the local newspaper saying that the mad building has to stop. One German billionaire has bought almost half the town and nobody seems to know what he plans to do with it. I know the man and he’s not as bad as people think. It’s the wife who worries me." (Takimag)



"By now, you know better. By 7:45 p.m., the front row at Marc Jacobs was filling in nicely, as flacks directed top types to take their seats in preparation for MJ's on-the-dot start. 'We just came from Rose Bar,' said Anne Slowey, sidling up to Robbie Myers and Joe Zee (who arrived well in advance). 'I literally ran into her, but knowing me, I didn't recognize her. Whitney (Vargas) had to point it out.' Ingrid Sischy and Sandra Brant also secured their spots on the early side. 'She can't talk!' said Brant, laughing. 'She spent 6 hours talking over the music at the Boom Boom Room and the doctor said no speaking for a week!" Luckily, Sischy's invite--which had a serial number this year--yes, really--was able to sub in as a communications device. The Nylon group of Marvin Scott Jarrett, Dani Stahl and Jay Errico were also firmly in formation. 'The Muscle Milk is the only thing keeping me going right now,' said Stahl. 'But with only 100 calories,' mused Errico, 'What could it possibly taste like?' Editors and retailers like Stephen Gan, Aliona, Linda Fargo, Jim Gold, and toute la reste were essentially trapped and seated in the all-white gallery-style space by the time Madonna and Lady GaGa arrived. Stern looks from event organizers didn't stop Godfrey Deeny from standing, camera in tow, to capture the celebiness. Brava!" (Fashionweekdaily)



"On Saturday, filmmaker Lee Daniels sat in the bar at the Four Seasons in Toronto and held a strategy session with his team. 'What do you think? Do we have a shot? Don’t you think our film has heart?' he asked friends about 'Precious,' the film he directed about an inner-city teenager and her battle to overcome abuse. It does. And Oprah Winfrey, one of the film’s producers, was wandering around town to make sure everybody knew it. When Oprah starts rolling up her sleeves, you know things are getting serious. The race for the year’s movie awards kicked off this weekend at the Toronto Film Festival, and judging by the velocity and energy here, it’s going to be one of the most hotly contested battles in years. From 'Precious,' which already won Sundance, to 'Up in the Air,' which has a trifecta of pedigree, movie stars and zeitgeist going for it, the movies here are setting off buzz-meters, winning over critics and dragging enthusiasm in their wake. (Read about 'Up In the Air's' enthusiastic press conference here.) How else to put it? This year Toronto has a glut of great, satisfying movies .." (TheWrap)



(Daisy via NYSocialDiary)

"It was a beautiful night out and I was only a few blocks from the Frick where Paul Soros was giving a birthday dinner for his wife Daisy. Daisy’s birthday was last week – the seventh. I think this dinner was scheduled to accommodate all those people who would not have returned from the summer yet. The guest list was two hundred. The Frick, remember, was once a private house. Of course it has been added on to but nevertheless it is a very grand house. So those who have the rare privilege (and for a price of course) of throwing a private party there, also share with their guests, the sense of being at a dinner in a very grand house full of a vast collection of masterpieces of sculpture and painting." (NYSocialDiary)



(Ice T and Coco)

"Last night, one of the most anticipated afterparties of Fashion Week took over the Hiro Ballroom. Marc Jacobs (after showing up with a slew of body guards) brought Lady Gaga to celebrate another eclectic and successful show, demonstrating that the designer who has delivered everything from kilts to cameltoe is showing no signs of slowing down. WWD live tweeted the evening, which included Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Patrick McMullan, Janet Jackson, Lindsay Lohan, Lily Donaldson, Mickey Boardman, Lorenzo Martone, Lauren Santo Domingo and Perez Hilton, right after he spoke with Rachelle about his adventures in show hopping .." (Guestofaguest)



"MM was thrilled to make an appearance in the legendary Bill Cunningham's New York Times 'Evening Hours' column. Bill ran some photos from Paper's 25th anniversary party at the New York Public Library including a shot of Mr. Mickey with Johnny Dynell, Ladyfag and Half-Nelson. MM was the only person identified by name and we hear it's because the Times didn't feel comfortable using the name Ladyfag!! Frankly, we understand!" (Papermag)



"Rep. Joe Wilson’s loss of self-control during President Barack Obama’s address to Congress could give Senate Democrats a crucial 60th vote as they try to block Republican filibusters this fall. Wilson’s outburst has moved Democrats in the Massachusetts legislature closer to fulfilling Senator Ted Kennedy’s dying wish—to change state law on how his empty seat would be filled. And that could well put Michael Dukakis in the Senate. Massachusetts, now short one U.S. senator, is weighing whether to return power to the governor to appoint an interim senator until a special election is held in January. As Kennedy, an astute head counter, argued before his death in a letter to state legislative leaders, the change would give the state two votes on crucial Senate legislation over the next five months." (TheDailyBeast)



(Waris Ahluwalia, center, and Leigh Lezark right via style)

"Purple magazine, according to its founder, Olivier Zahm, prides itself on making high fashion glamorous in a gritty, underground manner. The same could be said about the publication's dinner party at the Standard Hotel's Boom Boom Room on Sunday night (if you can call tea saucer-sized portions of vegetables and white fish dinner, that is) ... 'That's what I like about Olivier: He's the classiest sort of sleazy,' Milla Jovovich, who appears scantily clad in the magazine's fall issue, joked to Carine Roitfeld. That was just before a gentleman dragged the newly married actress over to meet his fiancée and show off the matching tattoos the couple had done of her character in The Fifth Element. Speaking of scantily clad, Leigh Lezark chose an Hervé Léger swimsuit for her evening look. 'Hey, you never know what's going to happen,' she explained. 'I hear there's a Jacuzzi somewhere up here.'" (Style)



"A year ago, the fall of Lehman Brothers marked the end of Wall Street. Fundamental reform was just around the corner. ... Or so we thought. One year later, Wall Street has been reconstituted, refinanced, and refurbished. The biggest bull rally in history has followed swiftly on the heels of its greatest collapse. Top traders are still pulling in nine-figure salaries, and top banks are back to record-breaking profits. Why? Part of the answer is that we went from a world in which regulators and politicians refused to see systemic risk to one where all they see is systemic risk. As a consequence, the lesson of Lehman was that not only are some banks 'too big to fail' -- we also found out that the system as a whole is "too big to bail.' This subtle change lies at the heart of our current regulatory climb-down. Since Lehman's collapse, rather than making the world safe from financial firms, we've made the world safer for them by socializing the risk and privatizing the profits. Governments in highly financialized economies like the United States and Britain prioritized shoring up financial firms rather than regulating them, turning Wall Street into something like a big inflatable bouncy castle for the kids -- where they can bounce higher and harder than ever before, with the guarantee that the government will keep the whole thing inflated. How did we get here?" (ForeignPolicy)



"Colorado has quickly become one of the most entertaining Senate races of the 2010 election cycle. Until recently, appointed Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) looked to be headed for a matchup with a poorly funded Republican. But in the space of 24 hours last week, he got a primary challenger and an established Republican opponent. When former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff (D) and former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R) launched their exploratory committees, they threw the calculus into doubt in both primaries and left an already wide-open race even more so. Now Democratic voters will face a choice between an unknown appointee of Gov. Bill Ritter (D) and an unknown former leader of the State Legislature, while Republicans will decide between a low-profile former second-in-command and two small-timers who appear headed for the big time." (TheHill)