Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"There is a more important reason of principle that the fate of the Gaddafis must not be left to the Libyans. The colonel is charged with crimes against humanity—the mass murder of civilians by perpetrating offenses so barbaric that the very fact that a fellow human being can commit them demeans us all. Ordering the massacre of 1,200 captives in a prison compound, blowing 270 people out of the sky over Lockerbie and almost as many in a UTA passenger jet over Chad a few months later, are merely the most egregious examples of international crimes committed by the worst man left in the world. It is essential, therefore, that he face justice in The Hague and not in Benghazi. Moreover, liberation has come to the Libyans by courtesy of international law, and they have a reciprocal duty to abide by it." (TheDailyBeast)

"Here in New York, late Tuesday night Casey Ribicoff, the widow of the late Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut died peacefully at home after being ill for several months with throat cancer. I don’t know the exact date of diagnosis, nor would I have asked, but when she told her closest friends, she added that she was not going to seek treatment .. The last thirteen years of her life, after her husband died, she kept an active social schedule in New York, often attending charity galas, opera, ballet and theatre openings as well as frequent dinners and lunches with friends with a wide variety of interests and professions. She had a lot of much younger friends, both men and women from 30 on up. She attended the fashion shows, with Ralph Rucci as her most favorite designer, sometimes buying much of a season’s collection. Casey was chic." (NYSocialDiary)

"Nearly 50 employees were laid off at Jive Records yesterday when the iconic label was folded into RCA. As we first reported in June, Jive, which signed Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, would be dumped into RCA as Sony Music consolidates its labels. An insider said that none of the artists have been axed -- yet -- but most of the promotions department has been demolished. Usher, Chris Brown and Pink will now be managed under RCA. A label rep declined to comment." (PageSix)

"'I was very angry when Consuelo died. We were so close for 82 years. That’s longer than any marriage.' Over dinner at the Colony Club, New York’s oldest and most exclusive private club for women, Gloria Schiff was talking about her identical-twin sister, Countess Consuelo Crespi, who had passed away three months earlier, on October 18, 2010. The daughters of upwardly mobile Irish immigrants, Consuelo and Gloria O’Connor—they were said to have been named after Consuelo and Gloria Vanderbilt—were famous models in their teens, in the 1940s, and went on to become international fashion trendsetters and high-society insiders, protégées of Diana Vreeland in her heyday at Vogue, confidantes of Jackie Kennedy’s in her White House years and beyond, connected to everyone who was anyone from the Via Veneto to Locust Valley. Both girls made what in those days were called brilliant marriages: Consuelo to Count Rodolfo Crespi, a handsome Italian P.R. man whose grandfather had made a fortune in cotton in Brazil; Gloria to Frank Schiff, an equally good-looking and even richer New York insurance magnate whose father had been the first Jew to have an apartment at 740 Park Avenue, albeit having adopted the Episcopalian faith long before taking up residence a few floors below John D. Rockefeller Jr. These unions lasted till death did them part, Rudi Crespi going in 1985, Frank Schiff in 2004." (Vanity Fair: iPad app)

"When Horrible Bosses passed the $100 million worldwide gross mark recently, it became the eighth film in the last eight years to hit that milestone with Jennifer Aniston in a starring role. Right now, only a few actresses mean much at the box office, a list that includes Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon and Katherine Heigl. Has Aniston quietly joined that group? While Aniston hasn’t had to carry all of those films, her worldwide gross track record compares favorably to the other actresses over the same eight-year period. Aside from Horrible Bosses, Just Go With It, The Bounty Hunter, He’s Just Not That Into You, Marley & Me, The Break-Up, Along Came Polly and Bruce Almighty all passed the $100 million mark worldwide. Over the same corresponding period, only Jolie had that many cross the $100 million WW mark. I didn’t count animated films, but for Jolie I did include Beowulf, because she gave a performance that was converted to performance capture format. Jolie’s other films that passed $100 million worldwide in the last eight years: The Tourist, Salt, Wanted, Changeling, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Alexander, and the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider sequel." (Deadline)