Friday, March 15, 2013

Media-Whore D'oeuvres


"The elevation of Anna Wintour is the latest visible sign of a shift in corporate fortunes. Wintour, who will take on the added duties of Condé Nast artistic director, is likely to have little sway over news-driven titles such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair or Wired. Rather, she will have a heavy influence on any titles in the fashion or beauty realm — especially if they happen to be going through a rough patch. The 63-year-old editrix was commanding a $2 million-a-year package under her previous arrangement, one source said, and presumably she was given a bump up with the extra gig. While the news caught most insiders by surprise, some sensed a transition had long been under way ...It appears she will have little to do with David Remnick at The New Yorker,Graydon Carter at Vanity Fair or Scott Dadich at Wired. And for the moment, insiders are saying that Editorial Director Wallace will not see his role diminished. And while some have likened Wintour’s added duties to those of the legendary Condé Editorial Director Alexander Liberman, she is clearly not as powerful. 'When Alex Liberman was in the job, he reigned supreme,' said one insider. The question for Wintour may be how to give advice without alienating colleagues. She is also not expected to relinquish much of her day-to-day duties at Vogue. 'In the end, the power and influence of Vogue more than outweigh being a consultant to a lot of magazines,' said the insider." (Keith Kelly)


"... at a fund-raiser for Terry McAuliffe, who is running for governor of Virginia ... thrown by billionaire hedge-fund manager and longtime Clinton backer Marc Lasry and his wife,Cathy, at his Manhattan town house ..Bill Clinton headlined the $12,500-a-ticket fund-raiser for McAuliffe, and then many headed to a fund-raising dinner at Doug Band’s apartment. During the event, Clinton also revealed that Lasry is the new US ambassador to France." (PageSix)


"'Two laps around the room, no more than one glass of wine,' said art dealer Larry Gagosian last night at the New York Observer’s 25th anniversary party. 'Show up, and I don’t mean just physically,' said Deborra-Lee Furness, an actress, director and producer, and wife of Hugh Jackman, in between huddles with Katie Couric and interior designer Kelly Behun Sugarman. 'You never know what can happen.' The crowd packed into the Four Seasons Pool Room presented ample social opportunity, with actress Katie Holmes in one corner, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google Inc. (GOOG), in another. There was artist Chuck Close and Observer writer George GurleyLiving this New York moment required strategy.'Wear a great dress, so everyone stops to talk to you,' said clothing designer Stacey Bendet. 'We’re staying in one place, so everyone sees us,' said Broadway producer Jordan Roth. 'You say hi, you lie, and you move on,' said Peter Davis, editor of the Observer’s Scene magazine. Many guests were included in the newspaper’s list of the '100 most influential New Yorkers' published this week. 'I’m just a boy from Jersey,' said Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker of making the list." (Bloomberg)



""I also bought a PowerBall lottery ticket which is now up there in the centimillions. Actually I bought three for six bucks. I’m not a regular buyer of lottery tickets, although I have occasionally (and never won a dime). I’m not a casino-style gambler. My father was, and he was lousy at it. The domestic cost was in some cases insurmountable and threatening to the mental health of those living under his roof. It’s one of the few life lessons I learned early (if at all). The lottery ticket purchase was impulse. I had been thinking about billionaires -- as a category, as a type, because the other day a friend sent me a new list of billionaires that came out in the LondonDaily Telegraph. There were hundreds of them. About fourteen hundred. I was astounded by the number not to mention the aggregate fortune of that fourteen hundred. Growing up, the notion of a 'millionaire' was a rich fantasy in families like mine. Maybe everybody’s. Sometime in the late '60s or early 1970s, Forbes Magazine published their first annual Forbes Four Hundred Richest list. These were Americans.The richest of them possessed tens or hundreds of millions. No one had a billion. Or if they did, they weren’t talking about it. I think it was in the early '90s that the annual Forbes list contained its first 'billionaires.' Two men on the list I knew as fathers of friends, the brothers Jack and Lew Rudin who owned Manhattan residential real estate‚ a business started by their father back at the beginning of the 20th century.  Forbes reported their net worth as something like a billion and a half bucks. I was told later that both brothers were troubled by the number (and the publicity) and officially claimed that it was a gross exaggeration. I think that was  also the last time we saw them on any rich list. The Rudin brothers were old school: flaunting one’s wealth was not their style." (NYSocialDiary)



"Cindy Sherman’s MoMA retrospective opens in Dallas this weekend, and the artist’s already been feted by Big D’s biggest names. Dallas Museum of Art director Maxwell Anderson and W’s Stefano Tonchi co-hosted a bash Wednesday at oil billionaire and “Argo” producer Tim Headington’s Joule Hotel, with guests including mega-collectors Howard andCindy RachofskyRusty and Deedie Rose, Neiman Marcus scion Catherine RoseMarguerite Hoffman, billionaire Stefan Edlis and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. Anderson impressed the crowd by greeting Tonchi in fluent Italian, while Sherman wowed in Prada’s new 'super-high platform geisha shoes' in 'wild pink.'"(PageSix)

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