Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"...(S)eated in one of the elegant, colonial-era reception rooms at the presidential residence in Pretoria as he prepares for a state visit to the UK next week, Mr Zuma is very much at ease. In ebullient form, he insists that Bafana Bafana ('the Boys, the Boys'), the underperforming national side, will surprise everyone when the sports contest starts. When the conversation turns to South Africa’s social and economic challenges he is equally confident, frequently tossing his head back to chuckle at ironies in the political complications ahead. Sixteen years after Nelson Mandela was elected to head South Africa’s first post-apartheid government, these difficulties are considerable. South Africa is still a deeply divided society with high unemployment, educational underachievement and poverty continuing to plague the majority black population. But the current uncertainties raise fresh questions about the ability of Africa’s largest economy and most sophisticated democracy to rise to the challenge." (FT)



"Jesus Luz had a bad night in Rio on Sunday. Madonna's boy toy was deejaying at a party for the best samba schools that participated in Carnival when a guest came up and threw beer in his face, saying, 'Get out of here, I don't wanna see your face here anymore!' As reported by iG Gente magazine, Luz 'went to a corner and started to cry.'" (PageSix)



(image via JH/NYSD)

"Lisa Falcone is a New York woman in the prime of her life who has made something of a name for herself in the community, or rather her community – that being the young very rich New Yorkers. She is married to a very rich hedge fund owner/investor named Philip Falcone. He is listed on the Forbes 400. It is said they have five residences including a large mansion here in New York that once belonged to Bob Guccione, the man who invented Penthouse magazine. She caught everyone’s attention last summer when at a benefit for the HighLine with an audience populated by the high mucky mucks of community philanthropy, she suddenly took the podium – seemingly out of the blue -- and pledged $10 million to the project. In New York, a ten million dollar pledge can get you angel wings in some people’s eyes." (NYSocialDiary)



"Inside a secret detention center in an industrial pocket of the Pakistani capital called I/9, teams of Pakistani and American spies have kept a watchful eye on a senior Taliban leader captured last month. With the other eye, they watch each other. The C.I.A. and its Pakistani counterpart, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, have a long and often tormented relationship. And even now, they are moving warily toward conflicting goals, with each maneuvering to protect its influence after the shooting stops in Afghanistan. Yet interviews in recent days show how they are working together on tactical operations, and how far the C.I.A. has extended its extraordinary secret war beyond the mountainous tribal belt and deep into Pakistan’s sprawling cities. Beyond the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, C.I.A. operatives working with the ISI have carried out dozens of raids throughout Pakistan over the past year, working from bases in the cities of Quetta, Peshawar and elsewhere, according to Pakistani security officials." (MARK MAZZETTI and JANE PERLEZ/NYTimes)



"The Love Ball, a fundraiser for Natalia Vodianova's Naked Heart Foundation, which builds playgrounds in underprivileged parts of Russia, debuted in London on Tuesday. And in a way that neither the supermodel nor her co-host, British Harper's Bazaar editor in chief Lucy Yeomans, could quite have anticipated, it was a night that no one will likely forget. Moments after all the VIPs arrived—perhaps that should be VVIPs, as in the likes of Diane von Furstenberg, Carolina Herrera, and Kate Moss—the fire alarm went off due to an overactive smoke machine. That sent everyone (yes, even you, DVF) outside to the parking lot. 'Grab that bottle of vodka,' Hilary Alexander announced to her table, not entirely in jest. About half an hour later—and for some, after a drink across the street—everyone made it back to their seats, and the program could begin." (Style)



"Howard Stern may finally get to tell Americans without Sirius how he feels about Jay Leno. Stern, who said he turned down an opportunity to appear on the last week of Conan O'Brien's 'Tonight Show' because of a fear of flying, told his satellite radio listeners on Wednesday that he has agreed to appear on CBS' 'Early Show' next week, where he will voice his opinions on NBC's late night. 'I am the only ---hole that's willing to talk about Jay Leno,' Stern said. "Everyone else is so afraid.' Letterman, he added, is 'still his guy.' Stern said the interview will be broadcast simultaneously on his radio show." (Dylan Stableford/ TheWrap)



"If you were in Latvia's capital earlier this month, you would have noticed the snow, waist-deep in some places. For days, even big streets in Riga remained unplowed -- impossible for anything other than an SUV to navigate. Still, parking inspectors walked through the city, coldly ticketing cars stuck at expired meters. Riga has had mild, rainy winters of late, and the snow caught the city by surprise. But the real reason for the wintry mess is that the city government has slashed its road maintenance budget by a third. Although the world is watching Greece, Latvia's economy is the most imperiled in Europe -- the country is in the midst of a collapse as bad, by some metrics, as the United States' during the Great Depression. At the peak of the "Baltic Tiger" boom in 2006, Latvia was the fastest-growing economy in Europe, having transformed, seemingly overnight, from a sleepy former Soviet state to a flashy eastern Copenhagen. New condos and tech start-ups sprouted all over Riga; German luxury cars patrolled the streets. The skyline changed, with 10 of the country's 20 tallest buildings constructed in the last six years. Personal income doubled to 60 percent of the European Union average, introducing many Latvians to full-fledged Western consumerism for the first time. Then, in 2007, the Baltic real estate bubble burst." (ForeignPolicy)



"As mentioned previously, earlier this month, local adult publication XBIZ held their eighth annual XBIZ Awards at Avalon in Hollywood. While the AVN Awards may be considered the Oscars of the adult industry, the XBIZ Awards should not be considered the equivalent of the Daytime Emmys as TMZ joked, but rather the Golden Globes, and as a result are still highly-coveted. Hosted by Teagan Presley and Sunny Leone, the show awarded prizes in 67 categories spanning five fields (Web & Tech, Movies & Production, Novelty & Retail, People's Choice, and Special Recognition), with Adam & Eve's The 8th Day winning Feature Movie of the Year and X-Play/Hustler Video's Not the Bradys XXX: Marcia, Marcia winning Parody Release of the Year." (LAist)