Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Uhm, did Dorota pick up the wrong dry cleaning? In a complete departure from her buttoned-up Blair Waldorf character, Leighton Meester let loose last night when she performed at the American Eagle Times Square Store. Judging from the incredulous faces of Gossip Girl co-stars Jessica Szohr, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Matthew Settle, this is a a whole new side of Leighton." (Guestofaguest)



"Yesterday in New York: colder but not too, and mostly sunny. Traffic not too much. On my way down to Michael’s for lunch with Brooke Hayward, I got out of the cab at 57th and Fifth to see if Bergdorf’s had put in their holiday windows. They’re so creative and interesting and as a once-upon-a-time retailer myself, I’m still fascinated to see what people do to create interst, to sell their wares. Especially in times like these. Bergdorf’s windows serves as a guage (one of them) for me in taking stock of New York life ... Down at Michael’s, Brooke and I talked about books. Writing books. Our books. Her books. More than thirty years ago she published a family memoir called 'Haywire' which was a bestseller and made into a TV movie. It was the first movie star family memoir and it was a riveting modern American family saga. With a Hollywood backdrop. It was a family shot with holes and fraught with error, just like a lot of families we know or belong to. I’d like to see her write a second book but she doesn’t want to. There’s so much more to tell and now that she is in the processing of getting a divorce from Peter Duchin, there will be even more since divorces do that to us. She doesn’t want to. She turns the tables on me and tells me to write a book. At the next table were the Dixie Chicks. Yes! I thought Steve Millington, Michael’s GM and head backslapper, was kidding when he told us. I’d never seen the Dixie Chicks before. Just like Darryl Strawberry the day before." (NYSocialDiary)



"Sarah Palin was like a sparkling celebrity holiday gift in the Oprah interview. She was just shining with the thrill of being on that stratospheric studio sofa that would rocket her book sales even further off the charts. The only veiled moment of impatience that dimmed her gorgeous stare was when Oprah opened up with whether Palin thought she had snubbed her during the ’08 campaign by not asking her on the show. You could see Palin thinking, as we in the audience were, 'Huh? Why the eff are we wasting time talking about you?' Was it a rare small frisson of competitiveness that made the Queen of All Talk Show Hosts suddenly want to prolong the limelight on herself, rather than hand things over immediately to the mink-haired, fresh-as-a-daisy bombshell who could be the natural star to grab Oprah’s crown and her time slot?" (Tina Brown/TheDailyBeast)



(image via Caroline/Papermag)

"Pedro Almodovar's films are about much more than mere fashion moments, although the crowd at last night's screening of Broken Embraces became fixated on the wardrobe matters at hand. Perhaps it was because the event, held by Andrew Saffir's Cinema Society and Calvin Klein Collection in the Crosby Street Hotel's screening room, was dominated by chic--Michael Pitt, Kim Gordon, Donna Karan, Mira Sorvino, Billy Crudup, Fergie, and of course, Penelope Cruz in a Francisco Costa-designed sheath/jacket combo. 'Seeing Penelope get dressed today was, in a way, a cinematic moment,' said the designer ...Afterwards, guests braved the paparazzi waiting outside the Crosby Street Hotel (Fergie posed graciously) and taxied over to the Boom Boom Room, or whatever it's called, where trays of champagne (and an open bar) awaited. Mini-cheeseburgers, vegetarian spring rolls, crab cakes, Swedish meatballs, and mini croque monsieurs were consumed with abandon as Marion Cotillard showed up to support her friend Cruz in the bar's VIP section, which also drew the likes of Rose Byrne, Rachel Hunter, Mary Kate Olsen, and Gabourey Sidibe." (Fashionweekdaily)



"J.lo's ex Ojani Noa claims he is being followed and has had death threats after attempting to sell a book and steamy home tapes of the star. His business manager, Ed Meyer, told Life & Style: 'She's having him followed. We just ran the license plate of the car . . . and it goes directly back to Jennifer Lopez. Ojani's scared.' But a Lopez source said Ojani was 'paranoid' and was being tracked by a process server trying to hand him legal papers. Ojani's lawyer, Frank Sanes Jr., added: 'We have some concerns right now about the personal safety of Ojani. We believe he's under surveillance by someone. He's had death threats.'" (PageSix)



"One easily forgets how innocent those pretty young things really are… They are so good at having us believe they are experienced. Most men manage to resist the temptation of going after a ingénue, of course, but others, like the decadent and indecent Humbert Humbert and Roman Polanski, simply can’t. An Education, Lynn Barber’s memoir about growing up in 1960s London, is a classic story of innocence lost. A coquettish girl. A broken man. A lesson for all young women and would-be second-handers. Part of the journalist’s memoir was adapted for the screen by the illustrious Nick Hornby, and the BBC film is directed by Lone Sherfig, a Danish woman with only one other English language flick to her credit and experience outside the mainstream. The lecher is played to skin-crawling perfection by Peter Sarsgaard, a young American actor with an eerie resemblance to John Malkovich. His character, David, spots wide-eyed Jenny waiting for the bus in the rain. Immediately, he does his best to assure her he is trustworthy: he shows off his wealth. For any young girls reading out there, this is the first sign of a cheat." (Mandolyna Theodoracopulos/Takimag)



(image via Caroline Torem Craig)

"PAPERMAG: If you were to run your own magazine, what -- other than PAPER -- would it be?"
Christian Siriano: I love love love PAPER, but OK, it would be Vogue Italia.
PAPERMAG: What would you change about it?
Christian: Not one thing -- it's perfect!" (Papermag)



"I am at the Paley Center in midtown Manhattan, for their big yearly powwow on the future of global media and entertainment, listening to Katie Couric interview Jeff Bewkes and Les Moonves. Among the other questions, an audience member asked about the low ratings of CNN, compared to Fox and MSNBC. Bewkes’ response, paraphrased: We are not limiting ourselves to the center, we are a wider platform including left and right. Attention on us are due to habits of the press: they focus on primetime. It is important but not the most important thing. We have more people coming to our website; also when we put on news shows people come in for shorter times. We have a different aim, function and economic structure. We get much more revenues and earnings compared to them. Our business is 24 hours around the day, not just morning or evening." (Paidcontent)