Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Jon Huntsman is betting his campaign on the proposition that old-fashioned retail politicking still matters. He’s made 111 campaign appearances in New Hampshire, more than any other candidate this year, including a 90-minute stop at the American Legion post here Sunday night. During five town halls last weekend, he answered 51 questions — an unheard of number by the tightly scripted standards of the 2012 GOP primary.  He’s hustling harder than any of his rivals to win the first-in-the-nation primary, gambling that voters will ultimately reward him for his accessibility, and yet he’s still stalled in single digits." (Politico)

"In what could be a devastating blow to Herman Cain’s Republican presidential bid, Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White gave an interview to 'Good Morning America' on Wednesday in which she divulged new details of her alleged 13-year-long affair with the candidate and panned Cain's suitability to be president. 'I can’t make this up,' White said. 'And frankly speaking, I wouldn’t want to make this up.' White said that Cain took her to a Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield boxing match in the late 1990s, and said that the former president of the National Restaurant Association had given her money for 'the last two and a half years consistently,' but that the money was 'not sex for cash.'" (TheHill)

"It was a busy one on the city’s social calendar ...Traffic and the weather got in the way. My cabbie decided it was faster to take Park Avenue down to 64th Street (and the Horowitz gallery) but by the time we got there I was getting anxious about my following stop: 583 Park Avenue where the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute was hosting its annual Gold Medal Gala. The invitation called for 7:30 arrivals (and it was already past that). I had been told by one of the public relations staff that the Queen would be arriving between 7 and 7:15. Knowing how the Spanish time schedule runs much later than the typical American, I doubted that, but skipped Michael’s book party just in case. At 7:45, guests were just arriving at 583 Park. The reception was being held on the lower level. There were a few dozen people milling about and no sign of Her Royal Highness. Fifteen minutes or so later, the royal retinue arrived with Oscar de la Renta who is chairman of the board of the Institute, along with the honorees, Mario Testino, Ken Chenault, Ferran Adrià, and Javier Bardem. Then came the flurry of photographers including Bill Cunningham of the Times and Mary Hilliard, who often shoots these parties for Vogue, as well as several other photographers. Everyone, with the exception of this photographing non-photographer had major equipment to work with, some large enough to push people (as in, other photographers) out of the way. Fortunately I was taller than everyone else and so, holding my digital above my head, I could work over them rather than around them." (NYSocialDiary)