Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Michael McCarty, the man behind the power lunch spot Michael's, recently launched a new Korean-influenced bar bites menu and seasonal cocktail list that's drawing younger media types to the bar after work. His 27-year-old executive chef, Kyung Up Lim, has developed delicious snacks like spicy beef tacos, fried oysters and Korean-style, fried chicken drummettes to go along with Michael Flannery's creative, seasonal cocktails. McCarty took some time out to talk after a hectic Wednesday lunch, the day when bold-face names often converge. Papermag: I have to ask you about the devastating review Frank Bruni gave Michael's in 2008. Michael McClarty: That was a completely ridiculous review, the dumbest thing I ever read. There might have been a few clunkers on the menu, but it was an insult to my restaurant, to my chef, to my industry. He was mad because he got sat in what he thought was Siberia. Go fuck yourself, buddy." (Papermag)

"The Wednesday’s Michael’s lunch was predictably jam-packed. Just inside the door Michael Douglas was lunching with Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood mega-agent, founder of the Endeavor Agency, whose brother is the Mayor of Chicago. Next to them Star Jones was lunching with a distinguished looking gentleman. In the bay at Table One Bonnie Fuller was hosting her monthly confab which included Gerry Byrne, Enka Slezak, Mallory Andrews, Tommy Hilfiger, Amanda Foreman, Ben Sherwood, Ramona Singer, Lisette Sand-Freedman, Carlos Lamadrid. Next door, PR honcho, Richard Rubenstein. Next to them William Lauder, Cindi Lieve and Bill Wackermann; and next to them Michael Mailer." (NYSocialDiary)

"If you read Condoleezza Rice's books, she has exhaustively explained how the U.S. worked with Benazir Bhutto and General [Pervez] Musharraf to form their own type of puppet government. Now this government is responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians and soldiers who have been killed in [the war on terror]. With the extent of corruption that this government has been indulging in, it was inevitable that they had this clash with the Supreme Court. The day the Supreme Court had called the NRO [National Reconciliation Ordinance] government unconstitutional, it was decided right then that this government couldn't have survived a good relation with [the Supreme Court]. Sadly, we have had no genuine opposition in this country. [There might have been] an opposition within parliamentary members who could have stood up and questioned the government, but that did not happen. The government did not resign, and everyone else was busy trying to save democracy -- while of course the government was trying to save their corruption. The Supreme Court of any state [is the institution that should have] the highest reliance and authority. Such an institution in a democratic state has no [ground for] military intervention and has the highest power to launch a control system for the corrupt actions, or a corrupt state. If and when any other democratic institution fails to perform, the Supreme Court can control them and make them accountable. No one can challenge the Supreme Court. Our government, on the other hand, is a corrupt government." (Imram Khan/Foreignpolicy)

"Midway through our visit to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, your blogger decided it would be a good time to stop and assess the slushy, star-studded scene on Main Street and beyond. Ahead, the most notable films, festival-goers, and swag in Park City so far this year. Be warned: your opinion of Lil Jon, agency parties, and 'meal-soup chalets' may never be the same ... Best star sighting in Park City: Sean Penn, in town to promote This Must Be the Place. Most diverse celebrity crowd: A three-way tie between Friday night at Tao, the club that entertained both Paris Hilton and Harvey Weinstein simultaneously; Saturday night at the Bing Bar Drake concert, which was attended by William H. Macy, Anthony Mackie, Quincy Jones, and Melanie Lynskey; and every day at the Bertolli Meal Soup Chalet, which has fed the likes of Seth Rogen, Andie MacDowell, and Casper Van Dien. Funniest public putdown: After Cuba Gooding Jr. stormed the Bing Bar stage during Aziz Ansari’s underwhelming comedy set on Saturday night to quiet the inattentive audience ('Have some respect for the black men onstage!'), the Parks and Recreation comedian—who, it should be noted, is not black—cracked, 'Y’all would be paying more attention if we were showing Boat Trip up here!'" (VanityFair)

"Edmund Wilson was America’s premier man of letters during the middle of the 20th century. The Wound and the Bow, To the Finland Station, and Memoirs of Hecate County are still in print, as are his journals about the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He was a literary critic par excellence, a friend of both Scott Fitzgerald (whose death at 44 shook him greatly, as Wilson was only a year older) as well as Hemingway, who counted Wilson as one of the few men he would not bully. Wilson was often married, his third wife being the beautiful Mary McCarthy—as good a writer as he was—whom he divorced in 1946 for champagne heiress Elena Mumm Thornton. I admire Wilson’s prescient thoughts on Greeks back in 1945, when he flew into that tortured country reporting for The New Yorker. One of the first Americans he met on the ground asked him whether the war between Sparta and Athens was still going on. Wilson does not comment on the breadth of the man’s ignorance. He lets it stand by itself, which does the job perfectly. Uncle Sam’s foreign policy has always and will always be based on total ignorance of history. Mind you, there was a war going on back in 1945. It was a civil war, but Athens and Sparta were not the protagonists; nationalists versus communists were on center stage. But at least the poor ignoramus who asked the dumbest of all questions long before George W. asked about Sunnis and Shi’ites had an excuse—he was a simple military adviser, not president of the United States." (Taki Theodoracopulos)

"Luckily, your Daily got just that at last night's second Cinema Society screening of W.E. at the Ziegfeld. This time, The Cinema Society paired up with the diamond purveyors at Forevermark for a second go at premiering Madonna's directorial debut, followed by a bash at the Boom Boom Room (do Vita Coco cocktails make for a lesser hangover? The jury's out on that one....). What was different this time around? The lady of the eve—well, she's the lady of any eve!—brought out another starry coterie, including co-stars like James D'arcy and Andrea Riseborough (decked out in a marvelous Marchesa number, andpeppered with Forevermark gems, like a number of other glittering, bauble-d starlets), Martha Stewart, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, Helena Christensen, Lou Reed, Julia Stiles, Ewan McGregor, Gina Gershon, chef Alain Alegretti, and Andre Balazs. Also in attendance: a bunch of serious fashion stalwarts—Donna! Calvin! DvF!—plus a large number of runway successes, like Proenza's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Cynthia Steffe, Rachel Roy, and Zac Posen (avec a dramatically crimson-clad Crystal Renn). 'I can't remember if it was at the DJ booth at the Palladium, or at Studio 54,' reminisced Klein of his first encounter with Madonna. Why did the dynamic duo strike up a friendship amid the glammed-out zenith of the clubbing days of yore? 'Um...we were both looking for the same thing! We all were.'" (Fashionweekdaily)