Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Karl Rove called conservative Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol 'inexplicable' on Monday for criticizing Rove’s super PAC Hillary Clinton Benghazi attack ad, adding that more people have seen the ad than subscribe to The Weekly Standard. On Fox’s 'Fox News Sunday,' Kristol said that Rove’s American Crossroads shouldn’t have released an ad last week that criticized former Secretary of State Clinton for her handling of the September 11, 2012, attack at the U.S. post in Benghazi, Libya, in which ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed. 'I do not like these conservative Republican groups putting ads out about Hillary Clinton. What is the point of that? That is just fundraising by American Crossroads and other groups. It’s ridiculous. There’s no campaign going on. Let’s pull the partisanship back,' Kristol said on “Fox News Sunday.' Monday, Rove responded to the criticism on Fox News saying that his conservative super PAC was completely justified in the released the ad. 'You know, look, I understand that criticism of the Obama administration is going to immediately have Democrats saying, ‘You’re politicizing, it is all politics.’ [But] I’m surprised Bill Kristol — whose magazine has been critical of the Obama administration — would join in the chorus. That chorus consists of [White House press secretary] Jay Carney and people in Democrat leadership and it is a little bit inexplicable. I just say this: This [ad] was appropriate. We need to help the American people grasp this,' Rove said on Fox News." (Politico)

"It is a quiet evening in Place des Vosges, Paris, when, all at once from every direction, crowds of men and women, hundreds of them, descend upon the square. The people, dressed elegantly in all white—the men in clean, crisp trousers and jackets and the women in summer dresses or light pantsuits—quickly set small tables and chairs in perfect straight lines and lay out elaborate picnics, along with excellent bottles of French wine, of course. They take their seats and wave white napkins in the air, and begin to enjoy their lavish picnics, conversation and merriment. As day fades to dusk, the group lights sparklers and dances to live music. Then, when the clock strikes midnight, they pack up their things and leave the park as if they had never come. This magical event marks the opening scene of Diner en Blanc: The World’s Largest Dinner Party, a recent documentary film by director and producer Jennifer Ash Rudick, an Upper East Side author and journalist. Ms. Rudick’s film showcases an event that is simultaneously perfectly public—it is out of doors, after all—and very exclusive—'Diner en Blanc,' the elegant, impromptu picnic that has graced Paris’ most beautiful outdoor spaces annually for nearly 25 years, and has now expanded into 22 cities around the world, including New York. The film, which offers the first behind-the-scenes look into the making of the unusual yet surprisingly simple celebration, premiered at the Palm Beach International Film Festival in Florida last month to a warm reception, and will hit the Hamptons International Film Festival this summer. Diner en Blanc, perhaps Paris’ best-kept and most refined secret, is a sort of flash mob for the sophisticated set." (Observer)