Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Barack Obama spent the first three years of his presidency invoking Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Now he’s found a new presidential model: Teddy Roosevelt. Just over a hundred years after the Bull Moose delivered his New Nationalism speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, Obama is scheduled to tout his own square deal — he’ll describe it as everyone getting a fair shot — there on Tuesday. The president will call for broader consumer protections and for the Senate to confirm his director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By conjuring the legacy of a president who was both a pioneer in taking on Wall Street and a Republican icon, Obama is working some big-stick politicking of his own, trying to harness the Occupy Wall Street populist passion and also the frustrated moderates he needs to win next year." (Politico)



"If you plan on throwing a dinner party full of VIPs, whatever you do, don’t seat Bob Woodward next to Al Gore. In a speech at the Organization for International Investment’s annual dinner at D.C.’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Thursday, the famed Washington Post journalist, who helped uncover the Watergate scandal, disclosed that he doesn’t enjoy the former vice president as a tablemate. Describing an event where he was paired up next to the monotone-talking ex-vice president, Woodward said, 'Now, sitting next to Gore is taxing.' After some laughs from the crowd, Woodward continued, 'In fact, it’s unpleasant.'" (TheHill)

"'Sex and the City' creator Candace Bushnell is divorcing her handsome ballet dancer husband Charles Askegard, sensationally alleging in court papers he had an affair with ballerina Georgina Pazcoguin. The feisty sex columnist and novelist who inspired Carrie Bradshaw has taken the dramatic step of naming beautiful 'Nutcracker' ballerina Pazcoguin, who danced with Askegard for eight seasons in the New York City Ballet, as a co-respondent in her divorce proceedings. Sources tell us Bushnell discovered Askegard’s alleged affair with Pazcoguin after they had agreed to separate. One source said, “The divorce was proceeding amicably, then Candace found out about Georgina and became very upset. She believes their affair could have gone on for some time. Humiliated, it was her idea to take the unusual step of naming Georgina as a co-respondent in the divorce papers.'" (PageSix)

"If Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain had never thought about running for president, pretty much everybody would now see Newt Gingrich as the Republican front-runner. He’s soaring in the national polls and building a large lead in the early states, while his main competitor, Mitt Romney, continues to sag. (In the latest Iowa poll, by PPP, those planning to vote in the GOP caucus express a 62-31 percent favorable view of Gingrich, against a 49-45 percent favorable view of Romney.) Because all those other candidates did run, though, and all subsequently collapsed, political reporters are approaching the Gingrich surge skeptically. Gingrich is like the heavy-metal roadie your daughter brings home after having fallen for the motorcycle guy, the drug dealer, and that creepy way-too-old one. She lost interest in all of them, so no reason to worry too much about the latest. Except, of course, it might be a sign she really isn’t going to wind up with the nice accounting student down the street you keep hoping she’ll go out with." (NYMag)

"Last night I went up to Jesse Kornbluth and Karen Collins’ apartment on Carnegie Hill. I had thought it was their annual holiday party. The Kornbluths attract that unique New York literary-ish crowd. Not all writers but a lot of writers. So there is easy conversation. You can start right up and get to know each other immediately. Writers like to talk. All the conversations at the Kornbluths are like that. And the people are very agreeable and congenial. And relaxed; maybe that’s the key. So are the host and hostess. The host is an especially ardent conversationalist and has a sharp eye for the ironic (funny) twist to the story. Last night, however, I later learned, had another purpose. It was a party for Paige Peterson and Jesse’s adaptation (my word, not his) of Dickens' A Christmas Carol; for the youngest generation. Paige did the art in the book." (NYSoailDiary)

"I knew Andrew Embiricos from the scene. The 25-year-old grandson of movie legend Rita Hayworth and son of Yasmin Aga Khan and shipping magnate Basil Embiricos, he was a strikingly handsome, personable guy who radiated charm no matter what crisis he was weathering. He battled HIV and had been in rehab more than once to fight drug addictions. And now, newyorkpost.com reports that Andrew was found dead, with a plastic bag over his head--an apparent suicide. Or is that really what happened? He left no note. His Facebook comments had recently been cheerful. He was set to go on a trip to London with a friend. And his viral load had been way reduced. Yes, he had tried suicide before, but onlookers felt he'd gotten past that extreme despair." (Musto)