Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Prince Andrew’s press secretary has called ahead to say that he, the private secretary and the British consul-general for New York will accompany the duke. Given the unexpected crowd, Buckingham Palace is offering to pay .. Cipriani, on the south-east corner of Central Park, is made for Manhattan royalty. The compact but open room seems designed for a court of publishers, dealmakers and admen who are there to be seen. I have been briefed that the duke doesn’t go for flashy restaurants, and I assume a discreet private room has been booked. Instead, we have been given the VIP table, slap bang in the middle of the crowded room. Shows of power are everywhere, as one man gives another a painful-looking back slap, Botoxed cheeks are kissed and the maître d’ makes small talk with his regulars. There is not much room, so I step outside in time to see the tinted windows of a consular Chevy Escalade pull up on Fifth Avenue. The duke emerges, marching briskly into the restaurant as members of his small security detail disappear into the crowd. He sits down at the table, but quickly decides it is too big. The consul-general has stayed behind, so we will be four. The duke suggests a cramped table on one side, where we squeeze in, knees almost touching, as confused waiters try to keep up. The duke is in town on a rapid-fire tour of financial firms and regulators in his role as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment. The position – part ambassador, part travelling salesman – has no obvious parallels elsewhere in business or government so I begin by asking how he defines it. 'It is the application of royal patronage to the business community,' he says. Just as other members of the House of Windsor might lend their support to a ballet company or a homeless shelter, so 'the business community needed somebody to take an interest in it.'" (FT)



"Pamela Anderson has spoken for the first time about her huge debts after building her dream home left her millions of dollars in the red. The actress has been forced to move into a trailer park during construction of her beach home in Malibu, California. But the 42-year-old now fears she may have to sell it after going over budget. She said: 'I am $3m over budget and I should have moved in over a year ago. I'm tiling the whole pool in platinum — that's expensive!' The Playboy and Baywatch star sobs whenever she visits the house, which she bought for £850,000. She said: 'I'm going to sell it. I hate it. People commit suicide over constructions. Relationships break down over constructions and I can see why. It rips your heart out.' Anderson was speaking to former EastEnders star Joe Swash for a documentary called Pamela Anderson: At Home With Joe for Living TV. She showed Swash, 27, and his film crew round the house and told him the financial situation was so bad that she lives in a trailer with her electrician boyfriend Jamie Padgett, 42, and her two sons Brandon, 13, and Dylan, 11. She reportedly has just $4,000 in the bank and needs to spend at least $800,000 more to make the house habitable." (Thisislondon)



"Tracy Morgan, the king of quotable quotes and titilating tweets, recently sat down for twenty questions with Playboy magazine. The results are extraordinary. Not only does Morgan break down in tears over his relationship with SNL honcho Lorne Michaels and declare Tina Fey his 'sister from another mother of a different color,' he also enthusiastically proclaims his love for anal sex, calling it, among other things, 'a delicacy.'" (AirAmerica)



"Jay McInerney and and Euan Rellie threw a party at the Bespoke Lounge, in celebration of Assoline’s new book, 'Vintage Cocktails,' which explores 'the lost art of mixing the perfect drink'. Except, it isn’t really a lost art at all, because as countless magazines, newspapers, and blogs have pointed out, Vintage Cocktails are totally en vogue again, and being served up all over the city. But anyway. Candace Bushnell, Helen Schifter, and a host of other ever-on-trend New Yorkers showed up to celebrate and try out some of the Don Draper-esque drinks." (Guestofaguest)



"NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin says the network's messy decision to dump the critically admired drama 'Southland' should not be taken as a sign the Peacock is getting out of the quality drama business. In an interview with TheWrap, a candid Gaspin took full responsibility for the controversial cancellation and tried to set the record straight about why -- and how -- NBC decided to reverse course on the series. And in a significant directional shift, Gaspin also signaled the network was moving away from NBC U's previously expressed philosophy of 'managing for margin.' He cited recent blockbuster deals with J.J. Abrams and Jerry Bruckheimer as proof that NBC was interested in more than just the bottom line for programming costs. 'I have been going around town and talking to agencies and talking to producers and trying to make myself visible to say that, while we think we need to produce economically, the goal is not to manage for margins,' Gaspin told TheWrap. 'It is to put the best possible programs we can on the air.' And while NBC's overall programming budget may have shrunk, 'Our development dollars have not changed one bit from five years ago, even though we have many less hours to develop for,' Gaspin said. 'Our goal is to produce good shows that get whatever's considered good ratings today.' Gaspin's statement is a direct repudiation of former NBC Entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman, who frequently cited the "managing for margin" mantra and used it to justify many of the Peacock's programming decisions, including NBC's replacing 10 p.m. dramas with 'The Jay Leno Show.'" (TheWrap)



"Although Simon Doonan’s writing career has blossomed, with several books under his belt — one was even picked up for serialization on BBC2 — he never gave up his job as Barneys creative director. And now that the media industry is on life support, the longtime Observer columnist is the only journalist in town who is not worried. 'For years, all my writer friends would say to me, what the fuck are you doing working in a store every day? And now they’re saying to me, how can I get a job in a store?' Doonan told us last night at the FGI Night of Stars dinner. 'I seem like the most prescient person on earth, because I’ve always had, like, a day job along with my writing projects.' Doonan says his fellow writers always thought his working in a department store was déclassé and strange. Until now." (NYMag)



"In what was no doubt the biggest assembly of Fashion A Listers since Fashion Week, The Fashion Group International’s 'Night Of Stars' proved to be just that. Michael Kors, Fern Mallis, Dita von Teese, Iman, Mary J.Blige, James Franco, Tommy Hilfiger, Jon Bon Jovi, Oscar De La Renta, Grace Coddington, Aerin Lauder, Emmy Rossum, Hamish Bowles, Vera Wang and Andre Leon Talley all gathered Cipriani Wall Street to honor oustanding individuals in the world of Fashion. Also in attendance was a very demure Gwen Stefani, whose face is so drastically changed with softer makeup we weren’t sure it was even her." (Guestofaguest)