Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Saturday’s New York Times online carried a piece on their Opinion Pages, and Opinionator. Dick Cavett writes a piece for them occasionally, and he is always both entertaining and enlightening. For those of you who are not old enough to know, in the early 1970s after the talk show boom that started in the late 50s with Steve Allen and Jack Paar, and then Carson and Merv and all kinds of people, along came this kind of studious, dry-sense-of-humor wit, sorta comic with his own talk show. The Dick Cavett Show. In that late night slot on ABC which was then the “we try harder”network. And much better too. Cavett’s shows were usually one-on-one interviews and they were always compelling, like sitting in on a brilliant and often hilarious conversation with very intelligent and accessible people." (NYSocialDiary)

"James Jones is out as national security advisor; Tom Donilon is in. What does it mean? Among other things, that we may be headed for one of the greatest civilian-military showdowns in decades. If you haven’t read Bob Woodward or Jonathan Alter’s accounts of Obama administration Afghan policy, here are the CliffsNotes: Since the moment Obama took office, the military, led by David Petraeus, has been pushing for a full-on counterinsurgency effort. In other words, a lot of troops for a very long time. Obama, from the start, has resisted, raising awkward questions about why we’re expending massive amounts of blood and treasure in Afghanistan when Pakistan is the country that really matters. Vice President Biden has gone further, warning that given the mind-boggling corruption of Hamid Karzai’s regime, committing to an Afghan counterinsurgency war would be lunacy. This policy struggle has not been waged according to the Marquis of Queensbury rules." (Peter Beinart)

"Like all gossip merchants, (Nick) Denton fancies himself a truth-teller who relishes flouting the conventions of good taste and privilege. He grew up in London, where the Fleet Street tabloid culture is cutthroat, and he shares the Murdochian view of American journalism as effete, earnest, and uncompetitive. 'The staples of old yellow journalism are the staples of the new yellow journalism: sex; crime; and, even better, sex crime,' he wrote in a memo to his staff. 'Remember how Pulitzer got his start.' To that old game he brings the conviction of a futurist, someone who is engaging with the world as it must soon be, and speaking with the assured perspective of having experienced success in all its antiquated forms. He was a newspaperman. He has written a book. He taught at Berkeley. But Denton was also an early believer in the transformative nature of the Internet, the kind of guy who, if you’d known him back then, would probably have sent you your first e-mail, and set you up with your first blog. He made his millions in a couple of dot-com-era ventures." (TheNewYorker)

"Richard Johnson's out as Editor at Page Six, so who's taking his place? She's blond, she's British, and she's stepping into some of the biggest shoes to fill in the history of the New York Press. Meet Emily Smith, your new Page Six Editor. British-born Emily Smith got her start as US editor for The Sun, a daily British tabloid famous for covering the monarchy. Like the NY Post, The Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and, like the Post, famous for its outlandish, sensational headlines. ('TONGUE SNOG MILLIONAIRE', on Dev Patel and Frida Pinto dating, and 'WHAM BAM! SAM CAM TO BE MAM (SHE'LL NEED A NEW PRAM)' on Samantha Cameron being pregnant.) She then moved on to East Coast Director of Life & Style, before joining Page Six as deputy editor in the summer of 2009, as a replacement for Paula Froelich." (Guestofaguest)

"So, to sum up: 1) Every country is free-riding/buckpassing on this issue, hoping that the United States can dislodge China on its own. 2) The international regimes designed to prevent free-riding like this -- namely the G-20 and the IMF -- are not up to this task. [What about the WTO? -- ed. Fuggedaboutit.] 3) The source of China's rising power is not its hard currency reserves or its command over scarce rare earths, but its burgeoning domestic market. 4) Ironically, the United States and other countries want China to accelerate the growth of its domestic market, which would in turn give it more power. Even more ironically, China doesn't want to do this right now. 5) The sum effect of all of this will be a series of uncoordinated interventions into currency markets that will increase market volatility, political posturing, and eventually lead to the erection of capital and/or trade controls. " (Daniel W. Drezner /ForeignPolicy)

"Just a few short weeks after the Fashion Week tents were cleared out of Lincoln Center, the chic set congregated again up on Columbus Avenue last night for the New York City Ballet’s Fall Gala at the David H. Koch Theater. Sarah Jessica Parker served as the honorary chairman of the evening (the actress is, after all, an alum of the American Ballet Theatre, after dancing in the Cincinnati Ballet Company as a girl), catching up with pals like Candace Bushnell—whose husband, Charles Askegard, is a NYCB principal dancer—and ballet master in chief Peter Martins. The performance opened with I’m Old Fashioned, a piece based on a dance scene from the film You Were Never Lovelier with Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, followed by the evening’s main draw: the New York premiere of Plainspoken, choreographed by NYCB principal dancer Benjamin Millepied. If you don't know his name, pay attention: the dancer choreographed and starred in the upcoming Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan. (A little ballet gossip for vous: the set of the film is where Millepied met his latest love, girlfriend Natalie Portman—and The Daily’s table mate at the gala’s dinner, a collaborator of Millepied’s, swore that since he’s been with her, his previously very dark work has never been better.)" (Fashionweekdaily)