Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"On Friday evening, the New York Times published Woody Allen's response to Dylan Farrow's accusation that he molested her when she was a child. 'Of course, I did not molest Dylan,' wrote the director, who once again suggested that Mia Farrow had manipulated Dylan into falsely believing that she had been sexually abused. Right after Allen's piece was posted online, Dylan issued a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. 'For 20 years, I have never wavered in describing what he did to me,' wrote Farrow, who went on to call Allen's claims the 'latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies.' She also included a bullet point list responding to Allen's explanation for why the 1993 investigation into the charges did not lead to prosecution." (Vulture)

Steve Jobs: Not your typical one-percenter. (Tony Avelar/AFP/Getty Images / February 7, 2014)

"Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert M. Solow has leveled a blast at a recent attempt by Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw to explain rising income inequality and the primacy of the 1% in the U.S. as the result of 'just desserts' going to the talented people making important economic contributions to society. The tenor of Solow's approach can be gleaned from the opening words of his piece, which fault Mankiw's analysis for its 'unstated premises, dubious assumptions and omitted facts.' Mankiw, in his return fire, dismisses Solow's attack as 'scatter-shot.' The exchange, which appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, was prompted by an article by Mankiw last year in the same journal titled 'Defending the One Percent.' Since the complaints of the one percent that they are woefully misunderstood and unfairly, even dangerously, targeted for obloquy is big these days (I'm talking about you, Tom Perkins), it's worth taking a look at what these two creditable economists have to say about the topic. Mankiw is a former chief economist for the George W. Bush administration and an advisor to the Mitt Romney campaign. He fashions himself a 'new Keynesian,' in which guise he spoke out strongly against the stimulus package of 2009. Solow occupies the other end of the philosophical spectrum; he was a senior economist for John F. Kennedy. He's an emeritus professor at MIT, and his 1987 Nobel was for his work on theories of economic growth. Mankiw's original article treated income inequality as an artifact of entrepreneurship. 'Think of the entrepreneur as Steve Jobs as he develops the iPod, J.K. Rowling as she write her Harry Potter books, or Steven Spielberg as he directs his blockbuster movies,' he wrote. 'When the entrepreneur's product is introduced, everyone in society wants to buy it.... The new product makes the entrepreneur much richer than everyone else.'" (LATimes)

























"Eliot Spitzer celebrated his divorce from Silda Wall Spitzer on Thursday by swiftly taking off for the mountains with his girlfriend, former Bill de Blasio spokeswoman Lis Smith. The beaming former Love Gov was spotted with Smith sitting in first class on a commercial flight to Vail, Colo. We’re told the amorous pair looked 'very affectionate and very happy' as they sat together while other passengers boarded. Spitzer ended his 26-year marriage to his long-suffering wife after The Post revealed his relationship with Smith. Over the holidays, he and Smith were seen frolicking in a hot tub in a Jamaican resort." (p6)

























"'This was a bad idea,' I tell him. I’m at Whynot Coffee in the West Village, and Francesco jumps up from his side of the table and cozies up on the bench next to me. 'We have a connection. What’s so wrong with that?'  He grabs my hand, and suddenly I have no bones. 'Maybe that you have a wife?'
How do you know when it’s the real thing or just a spark, a genetic match that sets your loins afire while turning your life upside down? I suppose that’s where intuition comes in, but in lust’s brutal wake, it is not always easy to follow. I met my soon-to-be-obsession after yoga, in the corner by the crystals. The teacher had singled him out as an example of 'what not to do,' but I was late for class and missed the message. Intrigued by his bohemian good looks, I approached. 'Hey,' I said, jumping on one foot while attempting to put my sneaker on. 'What did Siri Sat Singh say about you? 'He said I’m juggling too many balls,' he replied in a sing-song Italian accent. Instead of really hearing him, I blurted, 'I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having multiple interests. Look at Leonardo da Vinci. Or James Franco.' 'You have a point,' he laughed. 'But me, I’m a filmmaker, a painter, in real estate, and have too many businesses. I can’t seem to focus on one thing.' 'That is a lot,' I smiled.
He ran his fingers through his stringy brown curls and sized me up. 'I’m Francesco,' he said.We met at the Mercer Kitchen several days later. That’s when I spotted it on his finger, shining and silver and inexplicably there. And even though he wore a Euro leather jacket, and a brown strand of yoga beads hung from his neck, I couldn’t stop leaning in. Neither could he. I have a knack for singling out emotionally unavailable men, but a married one took things to a new level. (I feel guilty if I change my hairstylist.) For a while, I tried to keep our encounters quick, civil and limited to yoga. But when I saw him after class by the complimentary tea, I couldn’t stop giggling. Maybe it was because his eyes were wide and innocent or the playful way he had looked up at me as he methodically laced his black boots." (Observer)

























"Philip Seymour Hoffman's death was not on the bill.If it'd been the sacrifice of Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber, that we are invited to anticipate daily, we could delight in the Faustian justice of the righteous dispatch of a fast-living, sequin-spattered denizen of eMpTyV. We are tacitly instructed to await their demise with necrophilic sanctimony. When the end comes, they screech on Fox and TMZ, it will be deserved. The Mail provokes indignation, luridly baiting us with the sidebar that scrolls from the headline down to hell. But Philip Seymour Hoffman? A middle-aged man, a credible and decorated actor, the industrious and unglamorous artisan of Broadway and serious cinema? The disease of addiction recognises none of these distinctions. Whilst routinely described as tragic, Hoffman's death is insufficiently sad to be left un-supplemented in the mandatory posthumous scramble for salacious garnish; we will now be subjected to mourn-ography posing as analysis. I can assure you that there is no as yet undiscovered riddle in his domestic life or sex life, the man was a drug addict and his death inevitable. A troubling component of this sad loss is the complete absence of hedonism. Like a lot of drug addicts, probably most, who 'go over', Hoffman was alone when he died. This is an inescapably bleak circumstance. When we reflect on Bieber's Louis Vuitton embossed, Lamborghini cortege it is easy to equate addiction with indulgence and immorality. The great actor dying alone denies us this required narrative prang.The reason I am so non-judgmental of Hoffman or Bieber and so condemnatory of the pop cultural tinsel that adorns the reporting around them is that I am a drug addict in recovery, so like any drug addict I know exactly how Hoffman felt when he "went back out". In spite of his life seeming superficially great, in spite of all the praise and accolades, in spite of all the loving friends and family, there is a predominant voice in the mind of an addict that supersedes all reason and that voice wants you dead. This voice is the unrelenting echo of an unfulfillable void. Addiction is a mental illness around which there is a great deal of confusion, which is hugely exacerbated by the laws that criminalise drug addicts." (Russell Brand)

























"George Soros’ ex-girlfriend flew into a rage and hit the billionaire before slapping Hollywood lawyer-to-the-stars Marty Singer in the face, knocking off his glasses, during a heated hearing in her $50 million lawsuit against the mogul. Court papers filed by Singer say Brazilian actress Adriana Ferreyr, who dated Soros for five years until 2011 and is suing him for allegedly reneging on a promise to buy her a $1.9 million apartment, screamed 'f - - king a - - hole' at the mogul then lunged at the lawyers during Soros’ deposition at her attorney’s office.The papers filed Friday include an account by Singer — who also reps Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger — that Ferreyr 'suddenly and without warning . . . lunged at Mr. Soros, who is 83-years-old, and struck his head with her hands, knocking off the headphones he was wearing to amplify the audio . . . Ms. Ferreyr pulled back her arm to strike Mr. Soros in the face. I was able to grab both of Ms. Ferreyr’s arms to move her away from Mr. Soros.' Singer continued, 'I let go of her arms. Ms. Ferreyr immediately swung at my face, knocking off my glasses. She then moved toward my glasses that had landed on the floor as if she were going to jump on them . . . I again grabbed her arms and moved her away from my glasses. After I let go of her arms, she resumed swinging at me and attempted to kick me.' Soros aide Jose Santos stepped in, and 'Ferreyr slapped Mr. Santos across the face and kicked him in the shins.'
Ferreyr, who’s suing for 'intentional infliction of emotional distress,' had arrived with a cameraman and flipped out when told he could not film Soros’ depositon." (P6)