Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"First, consider the image of American troops posted in remote and often barren outposts in the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan, working under fiercely difficult conditions to protect villagers and fight the Taliban. In the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death a former paratrooper with the U.S. Army Special Operations Command wrote of his deployment: 'Our job was to build a sustainable nation in a Mad Max wasteland, and we did our duty.' The crazy lawlessness of Mad Max similarly permeates the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, as well as the descriptions of other outposts in the Korengal Valley in Bing West's 2011 book The Wrong War." (ForeignPolicy)

"Men in kilts marched down the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to begin the Costume Institute Gala's procession of celebrities. The kilts-like the exhibit the gala was to fete, and the clothes many attendees wore-were intended as tribute to the late Alexander McQueen, though early arrival Anna Wintour, in glittering purple striped Chanel, made her own choice. The arrival of the queen of fashion signals the beginning of the party; unspoken rules indicate that no guest should arrive before the co-host's tiny form glides through. Ms. Wintour's entrance raised audible cheers from a crowd of photographers and journalists already beginning to cramp up from standing-and a long night lay ahead. Ms. Wintour's co-chair Colin Firth rushed past waiting shutterbugs and writers, pleading regally, 'Sorry-it's my duty!' ... Kanye West stood guard at the door, though he was not a co-host, greeting all of the guests and reserving special excitement for Christopher Bailey, creative director of Burberry. Dakota and Elle Fanning stood nearby, the elder Ms. Fanning looking nervous, the younger looking utterly in her element ... Of course, a fashion crowd is a bit of an echo chamber: Barbara Walters, in luminous green Oscar de la Renta on the arm of Charlie Rose, told The Observer, 'I don't think I'll discuss Osama bin Laden tonight. This is a celebration of a different sort.'" (TheObserver)

"Congress expressed fury at Pakistan Tuesday for its role in housing Osama bin Laden for the past several years, as a wide range of powerful lawmakers are raising new questions about the billions in foreign aid the United States has spent propping up what many believe is an unreliable ally. Lawmakers from both parties are weighing whether to put limitations on Pakistani aid, either through new accountability measures, tougher oversight – or even withholding portions of the funding if Pakistan fails to divulge how bin Laden was able to live in a huge compound just outside the country’s capital of Islamabad. And while a complete cut off of funding seems highly unlikely, it’s clear that Pakistan is losing support on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers expressed disbelief at the Pakistani government’s contention that officials were unaware of bin Laden’s presence." (Politico)

"Early in the evening there was a booksigning party for Molly Jong-Fast and her new novel Social Climbers Handbook. Molly is a young woman, 30-something. She is married, has three children (including twins) and lives the prototypical Upper East Side environment, the land of fresh, new money, and young families. Daughter of Erica Jong and Jonathan Fast, Molly’s point of view is infused with ironic detail of the surreal in contemporary life among the rich kids. You laugh and believe it at the same time. The party was at Isaac Mizrahi’s store at 23 East 67th Street (between Fifth and Madison), hosted by Molly’s pal Sharon Hurowitz, who also provided the candies and cookies including those chocolate dollar signs that, it turned out, were homemade in the hostess’ kitchen yesterday afternoon. I had to leave the store to get away from them." (NYSocialDiary)

"'Don’t ever play poker with him,' says (Charlie) Sheen’s manager, Mark Burg, recalling how, in 2010, he made Sheen’s $100 million deal with CBS between the national anthem and the start of a Lakers game. 'Warner Bros. was like, We’re offering a million dollars [per episode] for two years, and nobody walks away from $48 million. I said, Guys, he’s going to walk. I’m not bluffing.’ Burg tells Seal that CBS chairman Les Moonves 'had two different schedules—one if Charlie didn’t come back,' before he gave in and made Sheen the highest paid actor in television history. 'It wasn’t until the day before the up-fronts that I picked up my son at school, and we were driving to a Laker playoff game, and I had Charlie and his attorney Jake Bloom on speakerphone the entire drive down. At the time they were up to $72 million, a million and a half an episode. Jake gave Charlie a 25-minute speech about how this will set your grandchildren up and you could do whatever you want. This is more than Kelsey Grammer made on Frasier. I parked the car, I’m now on my cell phone, walking into the stadium, and Charlie goes, ‘Pass. Mark, it’s a hundred million or I’m not doing it.’ Charlie hangs up, and Jake called up Bruce Rosenblum [president of Warner Bros. Television Group] and Les Moonves and passed during the national anthem. I’m like, 'Wow, I hope he knows what he’s doing.’ Before the game began 'they said yes [to $100 million],' Burg tells (Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark) Seal." (Vanity Fair)

"It is 9am on a rainy Saturday morning at the beginning of London Fashion Week in February. Select Model agency's glamorous new offices in central London are surprisingly sleepy still, although the team were working late into the night confirming options for their girls, and planning schedules for Milan Fashion Week, which follows straight after. I am here to meet Liu Wen, the 24-year-old from Yongzhou, a city in Hunan province in central southern China, and the country's biggest fashion star. In September 2009 Liu broke with the stereotype and became the first Chinese girl to model for the raunchy Victoria's Secret show in New York. Last April she became the first Chinese face - or global ambassador as they like to call them - of Estée Lauder. The company is estimated to sell $300 million worth of face creams and cosmetics a year in China, the company's fastest growing market and the largest outside the US. Liu's latest ad campaign is for Estée Lauder's Every Woman Can Be Beautiful, which focuses on different skin tones." (TheTelegraph)

"In the weeks before President Obama ordered Navy SEALs into Pakistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden, administration officials weighed using American warplanes to obliterate the terror mastermind's fortified compound from the sky or sending commandos on a high-risk mission to assault the structure from the ground. But there's one option the administration appears to have never seriously considered: taking bin Laden alive. In an important new detail about Sunday's raid, the White House disclosed on Tuesday that bin Laden was unarmed when the SEALs shot him in the head and chest, killing him instantly. The administration said that bin Laden resisted capture, but hasn't suggested in any of its public comments that the SEALs were in any immediate danger when they opened fire on him during their assault on his compound in an affluent Islamabad suburb of Abbottabad. The SEALs' decision to fatally shoot bin Laden -- even though he didn't have a weapon - wasn't an accident. The administration had made clear to the military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions. A high-ranking military officer briefed on the assault said the SEALs knew their mission was not to take him alive. Publicly, the White House insists it was prepared to capture bin Laden if he tried to surrender, a possibility senior officials described as remote." (TheAtlantic)

"This morning the top Comcast execs in an earnings conference call admitted to Wall Street that NBCUniversal which the company just purchased is a fixer-upper and, in the short term, a money pit. NBCU chief Steve Burke says the company plans to spend $200 million more this year on NBC’s primetime schedule than General Electric did last year when it owned the network. (Burke is looking at 21 pilots, about the same number NBC ordered in 2010.) Comcast considers the turn-around to be a long-term project, but Burke says that simply lifting NBC to 3rd place from 4th would mean 'hundreds of millions' in improvement in the company’s cash flow. Meanwhile, Burke also says he plans to spend $100 million more this year on programming NBCU’s cable networks. He expects a 'very strong' upfront ad sales season. As for Universal’s film business, where 1Q revenues and operating cash flow declined, Burke says that 'we have to make better films' ..."  (Deadline)

"Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said the discovery of Osama bin Laden so close to a top Pakistani military academy indicates that some high-ranking Pakistani officials undoubtedly knew his whereabouts. The Democratic lawmaker, a key voice on anti-terrorism issues, said repeatedly that this is evidence that Pakistan is a 'schizophrenic nuclear power. Pakistan is not a singular entity, it's a schizophrenic superpower, a schizophrenic nuclear power,' Sherman said in a C-SPAN interview. 'The fact is, there were elements of Pakistan that I'm sure knew [bin Laden's location], and there were elements that did not.' Sherman, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, was briefed Tuesday on the raid that ended in the killing of bin Laden early Monday morning in Pakistan. He said on C-SPAN that he believes there is 'some real anger toward Pakistan in the upper reaches of the American government.' Sherman noted that bin Laden for some reason felt comfortable building his compound 'down the street' from what he called Pakistan's West Point. 'He must have thought, he must have been told, that this was a safe place to be cocooned with the Pakistani military,' he said." (TheHill)

"Later at the official Vogue/Stella McCartney after-party at new restaurant Crown, The Material Girl held court in a private room with Rihanna, Marc Jacobs, Paul McCartney and girlfriend Nancy Shevell. DJ Cassidy spun an after-hours set that got the former Beatle dancing to various Michael Jackson tunes. Also at the Crown, Beyoncé and Jay-Z -- earlier booed on the red carpet at the Met when they didn't stop for interviews -- hung out in a booth with Lyor Cohen and Tory Burch. 'Glee' buddies Matthew Morrison and Gwyneth Paltrow were spotted having an intimate chat during which Paltrow's hand rested on Morrison's chest. Billy Joel's ex Katie Lee was held up at the door of the bash, and was seen arguing with staff. Lee then headed to the Top of The Standard hotel, where new couple Amar'e Stoudemire and Ciara hung close while a well-heeled crowd -- including Salma Hayek, Kanye West, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys -- partied until 4 am. When a guest asked Mickey Rourke if he was wearing McQueen -- who was honored that night -- he replied: 'I'm not quite skinny enough to wear McQueen.' Rourke was later spotted holding up a wobbly Jason Statham as the Transporter star looked for his girlfriend, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who was upset when she lost an earring, sending Statham and Rourke crawling around the floor to find it." (PageSix)