Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Understandably a magazine like Vanity Fair feels it necessary to change up editorial content occasionally. Even if the ossification is due to bicoastal restaurateur Graydon Carter playing at publishing too long. (As the New York Observer illustrated at left.) That may explain why the October issue’s annual 'New Establishment' list is incredibly anemic this year: only 50 in number (it’s usually 100) with no Big Media barons but instead a bunch of Hollywood never-weres. Moguls may find their names on this year’s inaugural VF list of 25 called the 'Powers That Be' which to me reads more like the patrons of Graydon’s many eateries. But Carter claims: 'These are the people who have shaped the world we live in today — and continue to wield enormous influence. Many are longtime New Establishment members, and their destinies are intertwined with the members of this year’s New Establishment.' The magazine also sweeps some mainstays over to a new and unordered 'Hall Of Fame' because 'some power is permanent'. Or, more likely, Graydon needs new investors for his next café." (Nikki Finke)

"Matilda Gay's diaries bear witness to a way of life that no longer exists. Her reflections on the changing times are trenchant and remind us of how 'the experts' are very often the last to notice. She had her eye on the future but not on the pulse. She wrote of Matisse, with much agreement in the art world, 'There is a certain force in his things, but they are shocking in color, in drawing, and in subject. Diseased art.' She called Art Nouveau 'a modern atrocity.' Of Impressionism, she said,  'What is amusing is that the wild impressionists try to trace their inspiration from Ingres and admire him reverently; I wonder what he would say to them?' Her observations bring her past to life: 'Tea with Anne Vanderbilt in her gorgeous white marble palace on Fifth Avenue. Why do such houses always seem like splendid prisons?' After a visit to the studio of their friend John Singer Sargent: 'His personality gives one no idea of his great talent. No glimmer of genius ... It is all absorbed by his pictures. What remains is a pleasant, embarrassed, affected society man, with an artificial accent and the fond is distinctly ordinary.' Matilda's abiding main interest was her husband and his work. She never saw a picture of his that she didn't like and she never met a professional opportunity for him that she didn't encourage. His work, his art, was her work and her art." (NYSocialDiary)

"Yesterday Betabeat broke the news that Tumblr fashion director Rich Tong was hoping to get big brands to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for product placement and branded content from Tumblr’s 'select bloggers'. In essence, Tumblr was acting like a talent agency, promising work from a group of writers who use their platform. The proposal offered 15 posts with the 'content to be agreed upon prior to the start of the week'. For $10,000 the brands could get some face time with the bloggers at a private party and for a negotiable price brands could get product placement from all 20 select bloggers. Betabeat has learned however, that Tumblr had no formal contract with any of these bloggers. In fact, the bloggers Betabeat spoke with had no idea their services were being promised, no clue about the terms of the proposal and were blissfully ignorant that Tumblr was asking to be paid hefty sums for their work." (BetaBeat)

"There's a bit of an art world brouhaha unfolding right now, and, not surprisingly, Banksy is at its center. The controversy surrounds works created at the tail end of 2007, during a project called Bethlehem Santa's Ghetto in which the famed, anonymous graffiti artist left his mark upon several public surfaces in the West Bank.  The pieces — one, called Wet Dog, features the image of a dog shaking itself dry, the other, Stop and Search, features a little girl in a pink dress patting down a soldier — have now resurfaced far, far away from their original home in the Palestinian territories. They are on display, literal chunks of wall cut out of the sides of buildings and bus shelters, in a show called Banksy: Original Street Works at the Keszler Gallery in the Hamptons. Banksy harvesting is certainly nothing new, but the scope of this effort, detailed exhaustively in this promotional video released by Keszler, is certainly unprecedented, as is the gallery's sheer brazenness in showing and selling these thought-provoking works that were so clearly meant for public consumption in an area of the world desperately in need of some thought-provocation. So what gives, exactly? Are these works even real?" (Gawker)

"'There were so many flashes that I couldn't even see,' said Jonathan Cheban, who accompanied Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries to their welcoming party hosted by Colin Cowie and Jason Binn at Capitale last night. When Cheban came out of the newlyweds' hotel, he was greeted by 'about 200 people,' he said. 'I don't even know how they get to the car; I knocked over five people getting to my car because it was, like, blinding.'" (NYMag)