Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Lately, I’ve been reading the galleys of Peter Firstbrook’s 'The Obamas,' a history of the African side of the President’s family and a fascinating look at their tribe, the Luo. The book will be published in the spring by Crown; it is already out in the U.K. Firstbrook, a former director and producer for the BBC, interviewed Obama family members, friends, and scholars in Kenya and adds many interesting details to what we know of the President’s heritage. The most provocative pages are those in which some of Barack Obama, Sr.,’s relatives and friends cast doubt on the official version of his death—that he drove his car into a tree following a day of drinking in Nairobi ... During the research for “The Bridge,” my book on Obama’s life before the Presidency, I spoke to many of Obama, Sr.,’s friends and acquaintances, and the resulting portrait of him is even more tragic than the one in his son’s bittersweet memoir, 'Dreams from My Father.' Some background: Obama, Sr., was not only a thwarted politician and bureaucrat; he was also open about his anger at the Kenyan leadership for its tolerance of corruption and of scandals such as the murder, in 1969, of the politician Tom Mboya. Like “The Bridge” and other earlier accounts, Firstbrook’s book portrays Obama, Sr., as someone who can barely contain his disenchantment, especially when he is full of whiskey. (He was nicknamed Mr. Double-Double for his Scotch orders at various taverns around Nairobi." (David Remnick)

""'I think the idea of saving the world on a G-string is fantastic!' declared host Sofia Vergara last night during Seven Bar Foundation’s Lingerie New York event, a runway show presented by Freedom Bay St. Lucia in support of microfinance for women. The charitable event’s mantra is 'saving the world on a G-string,' and models like Veronica Webb did just that as they walked the runway at Cipriani clad in underpinnings. 'This is a special cause very, very close to my heart,' said Vergara warmly. 'This is exactly what we need—people to call attention to an issue like this and then get the funds to help these women.' But lacy underthings are not for all: Michelle Rodriguez admitted, 'I’m not really a fancy lingerie girl. You won’t see me on the runway. It’s not my thing.' While Rodriguez remained safely in the DJ booth, models took to the runway, as guests watched below, seated during dinner and refreshing themselves with Hennessy Black." (Fashionweekdaily)




"BENTIU, Sudan—Gen. Gabriel Tanginye has a complicated relationship with his home region of south Sudan. Born and raised there, he has spent much of his life fighting for the country's north. And during a 21-year-long north-south civil war, that meant Tanginye was fighting against his own regional kin. It's a role he seemed to have no qualms in undertaking; in 2000, he hijacked a U.N. plane to show his displeasure with the international body's assistance to south Sudan's then-vice president. Today, he lives in the northern capital of Khartoum, supporting his southern-based family from afar. Recently however, Tanginye has been back in south Sudan trying to make amends. With the looming January 2011 referendum, in which south Sudan is likely to vote for independence from the north, Tanginye realized that his future as a northern military commander may have a limited horizon. So when the men now leading the Southern Sudanese government came calling, Tanginye's calculation was simple: Take the hefty reward they offered him for switching camps, rejoin the south, bring his 44,000-strong ethnic militia with him, and express his solidarity with his former enemies ahead of the crucial independence vote. Then after the ballot, reconsider his options." (ForeignPolicy)

"Russell Simmons must have been high on veggie juice when he called his pal Courtney Love 'a crackhead' for posting nude photos of herself on Twitter. 'I think she is a sweet girl . . . It's probably exciting to be a crackhead, I wouldn't say I was a crackhead but I did smoke a lot of crack," he joked at the launch party for his new Oxygen series, 'Running Russell Simmons.' 'I had fun smoking a lot of angel dust . . . Right now I'm a monk. I'm boring, I'm on a green juice fast at this moment so I'm a little high now. I had a double shot of ginger, which makes you a little flighty.' Love, who didn't make it to his party at Midtown hot spot Lavo, told us last night: 'I'm fairly insulted that he associates me with that drug. What does that mean?'" (PageSix)

"... I high-tailed it out of there and five blocks down the avenue to 67th Street and the Park Avenue Armory, for the Preview Party benefiting The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (SMSKCC). This was the 22nd Annual for the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show (a Haughton International Fairs show). The first one was staged in 1989 by Brian and Anna Haughton, both antiques dealers in London who have become major players in the international art and antiques fairs business. The committee members of the SMSKCC always deliver a big fund-raiser. This year it was sponsored by Giorgio Armani and 1stdibs.com, with additional support from ELLE DÉCOR. There were more than a thousand guests, although the Armory space is vast and the Haughtons set up their exhibition stalls to lend to the sense of comfortable space. This year the committee members were outfitted in Armani. The Sloan-Kettering connection is prestigious for a number of reasons. Those who volunteer and contribute to its strength are exemplary, and are expected to be. Whatever 'society' in the old sense of the word that still might exist in New York, many of the SMSKCC, volunteers are members of it." (NYSocialDiary)

"His daughter, however, chose to attend to Duke University, which served as a major inspiration for (Tom) Wolfe's last novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons. The book delved into the sexual habits of college kids in work hard/play hard academic settings, so when The Observer approached the legendary novelist we couldn't help but ask about that university's most recent claim to notoriety. Have you heard about a certain Power Point presentation associated with Duke University that's come out recently, we asked? At first, he denied any knowledge of the scandalous list, but as we started to roll off some details, Wolfe perked up. 'Oh, wait a minute! You're not talking about the girl who... Ha, ha! I've never seen it. Is it on YouTube?' We told him it was everywhere online." (Observer)

"'WITH you in charge, I am at ease,; Mao Zedong is supposed to have told his successor, Hua Guofeng. It proved a disastrous choice. Mr Hua lasted a couple of years before being toppled in 1978. A decade later succession plans once again unravelled spectacularly, against a backdrop of pro-democracy unrest. Only once, eight years ago, has China’s Communist Party managed a smooth transfer of power—to Hu Jintao. Now a new transition is under way. The world should be nervous about it for two reasons: the unknown character of China’s next leader; and the brittle nature of a regime that is far less monolithic and assured than many foreigners assume. The man ordained to take over Mr Hu’s twin roles as party chief in 2012 and president the following year is hardly a household name. On October 18th Vice-President Xi Jinping was given a new job as vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, which Mr Hu heads. This is a position for leaders-in-waiting. The portly son of one of Communist China’s founders, little known to the outside world until a few years ago, Mr Xi is preparing to take the helm of a country with the world’s second-biggest economy and its biggest armed forces—and which is in the midst of wrenching social change. Quite how he has risen so high in a party that, for all its growing engagement with the world, remains deeply secretive, is unclear. Mr Xi’s appointment was eerily similar to the recent anointing of Kim Jong Un in North Korea: he too was made vice-chairman of a military commission after a closed-door party conclave, without public explanation. China’s leaders at least offered a sentence on Mr Xi’s appointment, albeit at the end of an arid 4,600-character communiqué after the fifth party congress." (TheEconomist)

"Many people who know 17-year-old Taylor Momsen predominately as rebellious, private-school-educated Jenny Humphrey -- her character on the hit teen soap Gossip Girl -- brush off her side gig as frontwoman of Pretty Reckless as nothing but angsty teenage rebellion. But the girl can sing, and she completely captivated the audience last night at Don Hill's during Pretty Reckless' performance at a party thrown by Express and PAPER. I sat down with Pretty Reckless members Ben Phillips, Mark Damon, Jamie Perkins and Momsen as they had a few smokes and drinks (Taylor's was alcohol free, of course) before they took the stage." (Papermag)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Richard Twesigye says he shops at Massmart Holdings Ltd.’s Game store in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, because the quality is better than at the local market. Like millions of other Africans, he can afford it if the prices are a little higher. 'These stores are high class,' Twesigye, a 61-year-old businessman, said while shopping at the chain store. 'In ordinary stores there are a lot of counterfeits, but these big stores care about their reputation.' It’s people such as Twesigye, members of Africa’s burgeoning middle class, who prompted Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Sept. 27 to propose purchasing Massmart, the continent’s third- largest retailer, for $4.6 billion. With 288 stores in 14 African countries, purchasing Johannesburg-based Massmart would enable Wal-Mart to profit from one of the world’s fastest- growing retail markets. Africa’s population reached 1 billion last year and after economic growth averaging 4.9 percent from 2000 to 2008 the number of families with an income of more than $20,000 a year has exceeded India’s, according to a report by McKinsey & Co. Inc. With China investing in African mineral and infrastructure projects and the continent’s population rising by more than 2 percent a year, that market is set to expand." (Bloomberg)

"This fall, a group of kamikaze conservatives, terrified by mounting debt, outraged by excessive government spending, and unafraid of hard truths, are rallying to save their children and grandchildren from a future mortgaged to the central bank of China. Too bad they live in England. I have my philosophical differences with British Prime Minister David Cameron, but give him this: He is what he says is, a man who hates debt. His new budget, unveiled this week, cuts government spending by a whopping $130 billion over the next five years. He’s proposed brutal cuts in pensions, welfare, and government employment. And more remarkably, for a conservative, he also wants to cut the defense budget by 8 percent and raise both value-added and capital gains taxes. To cut the deficit, he’s transgressing the ideological taboos of both left and right. He’s even slashed funding for the upkeep of the palaces of the queen. The contrast with our supposed deficit-haters in the GOP could not be starker. Cameron started attacking his country’s budget problem within weeks of taking office. Republicans held the White House for eight years and did exactly the opposite. Tea Party types are quick to say it’s not just Barack Obama’s deficit spending that bothers them; they were outraged, outraged by the Bush deficits too. Really? Where were the folks with flags, muskets, and mutton-chops when Bush masked the cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars, year after year, by funding them through supplemental appropriations that fell outside the normal Pentagon budget?" (Peter Beinart)

"The e-book rift between Random House Worldwide chairman Markus Dohle and lit agent Andrew Wylie really is in the past history books. The duo has formalized a far-reaching deal to publish a memoir by Salman Rushdie. The book will be published in 2012 and will cover the Booker Prize-winning author's entire life, including the time when he was forced into hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa on his life following the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. It revives a long relationship between the author and publisher. The seven-figure deal will involve multiple imprints under the Random House roof, and covers hardcover, paperback, audio and e-book rights for English, German and Spanish-speaking territories. Random House will publish in most of the territories, while Knopf Canada will handle the book up north." (Deadline)

"On an unlikely battlefield, second-term Rep. Phil Hare is amassing an army.  Unions are on the front lines, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has also joined with money, advertising and boots on the ground. At a weekend rally in a crowded union hall with Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) sitting in the front row, Hare, a former steward for UNITE HERE, drew the battle lines. 'Organized labor is who I am, where I came from, and my opponent talks about being a member of a union,' the Democratic lawmaker said. 'He talks the talk, except he doesn’t really support the Employee Free Choice Act because he says we’re taking away the right to a secret ballot.' On the other side is a scrappier contingent. Republican Bobby Schilling, the owner of St. Giuseppe’s Heavenly Pizza in Moline and the father of 10 children, is mounting his first campaign. Early in his career, he was a steward for the United Paper Workers International Union and later a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Following an event in Quincy, where he accepted the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Business, Schilling said his goal would be to bring labor and business together. 'The biggest thing we can do is let people know — business owners know — that we’re going to create an environment to where it’s going to be great for them to do business, rather than the environment that’s been created the last year and a half [that] has really just scared people,' he said. 'People are scared.' This is Hare’s first competitive race, and the fact that he’s in a dogfight is emblematic of the environment for Democrats." (CQPolitics)

(image via NYSD)

"And on this past Monday night over at Doubles, The Cresta SCARS Dracula in New York held a dinner. The party was so private, they didn’t even send invitations, only messages by separate email. They know who they are. The St. Moritz Tobogganing Club (known as the 'Cresta') has been holding an American dinner each year for past 19 years called 'SCARS.' Among its members are names like Habsburg, von Bismarck, Badrutt, Niarchos, al Saud, Heineken, Hohenlohe, Hohenzollern, von Bohlen und Halbach, Jackie Stewart, Arpad Buson, Flick, Furstenberg. You get the picture ... Dracula’s is the private nightclub in St. Moritz founded by Gunther Sachs and several other playboy tycoons like Gianni Agnelli and Heinrich Furstenberg almost 40 years ago. Rolf Sachs (whose link you just viewed), son of Gunther, is now the President and liked the idea of this first ever New York Dracula event, one night only.  There was a similar evening in London last November which was a huge success with many guests who flew in from all over the world to attend. This years group produced a bumper crop of Euros and Brits as well as friends from the Rio Country Club in Rio who also ski (as do many others present) in Corviglia InterClub each year." (NYSocialDiary)

Media-Whore d'Oeuvres

"The Democratic National Committee raised $11.1 million during the first 13 days of October, a figure that officials say puts the party on pace for one of its best months ever in a midterm election and a sum that wary Democrats say is encouraging them that Nov. 2 might not be as bad as it once looked. A Democratic source told CQ-Roll Call the DNC will file a report Thursday posting the $11.1 million figure. What's more, the DNC is revising its September figure to be higher than the $16 million previously announced. The party raised nearly $17 million, the source said. Like a Democrat close to the White House told us yesterday, the DNC believes President Barack Obama's campaign travel has helped. The source said fundraising has taken off as Obama has hopscotched around the country for Democratic candidates." (CQPolitics)

(Emily Smith, the new Page Six columnist, with the legendary Liz Smith via NYSD)

"The Michael’s Lunch. The place was especially lively yesterday. In the center of the room, Jolie Hunt, the director of public relations for ThomsonReuters was hosting a luncheon for her friend Tatiana Sorokko, the former Russian supermodel who has just published a book on her career ('lavishly illustrated') 'Extending the Runway.' The book captures the highlights of that glamorous career as well as the great couture collection Tatiana has been collecting for many years now. She is in New York for a booksigning tonight at the Roger Vivier boutique from 6 to 8 where books (and shoes) will be sold. Tatiana has been on the circuit with her new book. Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of Harpers Bazaar and Diego Della Valle, Chairman and CEO of Tod’s, hosted a star-studded dinner for 40 for Tatiana at Caviar Kaspia ... Meanwhile, their table served only to double the buzz in the room. Right across the aisle Matt Lauer was lunching with Jack Welch. Liz Smith was with the editor of People. Jean Doumanian and Ed Zwick were with Peggy Siegal. Next door to them, the Rubensteins pere et fils – Howard and son Steven were entertaining Emily Smith, the new head of Page Six, replacing Richard Johnson who is moving to California." (NYSocialDiary)

"With the biggest show on the night, Fox's Glee, airing a rerun, CBS' veteran 8 PM drama NCIS (4.2/12, 19.1 million viewers) got a 8% boost, which the network carried over to 9 PM where NCIS: Los Angeles (3.9/10, 16 million) was up 11% and 10 PM where The Good Wife (2.6/7, 12.2 million) was up 4%. All 3 dramas won their hours in 18-49 and total viewers and posted CBS' highest 18-49 Tuesday tally since February." (Deadline)

"Around lunchtime on Monday, staffers heard Danny Klaidman, one of two acting editors at Newsweek since the end of August, cursing in his office on Hudson Street ('Fuck! Shit!'). Mr. Klaidman had just read the news online from The Wall Street Journal that Tina Brown and Barry Diller had walked away from merger talks with Sidney Harman, the magazine's new owner. Mr. Klaidman told The Observer that any cursing was in jest, and had nothing to do with Ms. Brown or The Daily Beast. 'It was just the sense of frustration that is shared by everyone at Newsweek that it will take a little while longer before there's resolution for people. It wasn't so much for me, as venting on behalf of the institution,' he said on Tuesday. As of Monday afternoon, at least one other editor was holding out hope. Maybe this was just a bargaining technique? But by 3 p.m., those hopes were dashed when Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim and Mr. Harman announced to the staff that the talks were over. Most of the Newsweek staff has been largely kept in the dark about the future of the magazine. 'The place clearly needs a makeover,' said one staffer. 'People were ready for her to come in and just blow it up. A lot of people were just very disappointed.'" (Observer)

"Amanda Hearst and Colombian financier Alejandro Santo Domingo have broken up after dating for a year, according to sources close to the couple. But Hearst seems to have rebounded nicely. She was spotted in Ibiza in July with Luis Medina, count of Feria. Medina is one of the most eligible bachelors in Europe and a perennial on various international best-dressed lists. The two were very much together this past weekend in Toledo, Spain, at the wedding of Luis' brother, Rafael Medina, duke of Feria, to Laura Vecino, the creative director of Spanish retailer Mango. Hearst and her new love mingled with guests including Valentino, Carolina Herrera and a gaggle of European royals. Hearst, a great-granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, is an assistant fashion editor at Marie Claire." (PageSix)

"This is a critical moment for the United States's most fraught diplomatic challenge. Pakistani officials arrive in Washington this week for meetings designed to shore up a relationship that is both vital and exceedingly dangerous for both regimes. The Pakistani delegation will nominally be led by the country's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi. But the real focus will be the man who many feel is so powerful that the fact he is not yet president reflects only a personal choice on his part. As Pakistan's top military officer, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani might as well be known as General Plan B. If the current government stumbles, if unrest spreads, U.S. officials are fully counting on him to step in and put a lid on the problem. The conversations this week will be publicly focused on gestures of support for the Pakistanis from the U.S. government, from beefing up civilian and military aid to generating public statements of common purpose. But behind the scenes there will be palpable tension. The United States is dissatisfied -- the feeling being that Pakistan is not doing everything it can to assist in tracking down extremist groups living within their borders. That discomfort undoubtedly is not eased by the exclusive report in Britain's Guardian today that is entitled, 'Pakistan intelligence services 'aided Mumbai terror attacks.' The story describes a 109-page Indian government report based on the interrogation of David Headley; the Pakistani-American arrested in relation to the Mumbai attacks. 'Under questioning,' writes Jason Burke, 'Headley described dozens of meetings between officers of the main Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, and senior militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group responsible for the Mumbai attacks." (David Rothkopf)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Fashion's elite waited in line for a half hour to get a photo with Michelle Obama at a fund-raiser at Donna Karan's Upper West Side apartment last night. Diane von Furstenberg, Harvey Weinstein and wife Georgina Chapman, Andre Leon Talley, Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Kors and Tory Burch all came out to greet the first lady, who was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden's wife, Jill. 'Everyone stood in between Mrs. Biden and Mrs. Obama while staff held the guests' purses and sweaters,' said one attendee." (PageSix)

"Last night I went over to the Frick where they were holding their annual Autumn Dinner. Like the Conservancy luncheon, this is an important dinner in New York. As a major museum, it has its own special cachet and group of supporters. The house has an air of distinction ... This annual dinner is a fund-raiser. There were 250 guests and they raised $940,000 which goes to help support the full range of programs of The Frick Collection, including educational and curatorial initiatives, and the Frick Art Reference Library, which is considered one of the best in the world. The tables are set up in the West Gallery as well as the Oval portrait room and another gallery beyond that. There was a cocktail reception in the atrium – the Garden Court – with a lighting and an atmosphere that under the circumstances, the guests, black tie, long dresses, always conjures up for me shades of Edith Wharton’s New York. I took a couple of pictures in an effort to capture the idea. Guests were allowed to wander through the permanent collection galleries including the newly refurbished Boucher Room and the major fall exhibition The Spanish Manner: Drawing from Ribera to Goya. In the nearby Frick family Dining Room, one could see four newly installed pieces of royal Hanoverian silver on loan from a private collection, never shown before in the United States, surrounded by 18th century English portraits by Hopner, Gainsborough and Romney. I was seated in the West Gallery with its Rembrandts, Vermeer, Veronese, Turner."(NYSocialDiary)




"One of the interesting things about elections is how races ebb and flow. Some incumbents who seemed to have no chance to survive a couple of months ago are still hanging in there, even giving themselves a real chance to win. On the other hand, some presumably safe incumbents suddenly look to be in serious trouble."(CQPolitics)

"Howard had the guys bring in Nick Di Paolo. Howard said it was good to see him. Nick said Robin was still skinny. Howard said he thinks there are a few guys out there who are at the top level and Nick is one of them. Howard asked what happened to Greg Giraldo. Howard said Greg was a Harvard graduate. Nick said that he quit that to do comedy so that's one of the reasons they loved him. Howard said his parents must have gone insane when he quit school to do that.Nick said he used to hang out with Greg at clubs and they were very friendly. Howard said it has to be hard being a comedian. Howard said he walked away from something that could have led to making millions. Nick said that Greg hated that though so he admires him for walking away from it. Nick said the guy didn't have a minute to himself because he had to take care of his kids after being out on the road. Howard asked Nick about what happened to Greg and if he was clean or not. Nick said he's not a good judge of that. Howard said he wasn't very good at it either because he believed Artie when he said that he was clean. He said he'd fall asleep during the show and he had no idea he was on drugs. Nick said he's the same way. Howard asked Nick if he went to the funeral for Greg. Nick said he did. He said it was way out on Long Island. He said that he was from Queens so it should have been out there. Nick said it really did suck going to that funeral. He said the kids were running around and it was rough. Nick said that Colin Quinn killed at the wake the night before." (Marksfriggin)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"What is unique, and uniquely concerning, about digital media is the speed with which properly packaged (dis)information can spread and how hard it is for fact and reason to catch up. Sarah Palin quickly adopted Twitter perhaps because it enabled her to blast forth dramatic proclamations that, given the 140-character limit, she couldn’t be expected to explain or defend. Henceforth, election-changing controversies will be ginned up with simple, misleading phrases such as death panels or Ground Zero mosque. The fact that the Islamic cultural center in question is being built two blocks away from Ground Zero is immaterial, because laborious explanations of the truth—or even relentless mockery by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert—cannot stop the meme from propagating like a contagious disease. Palin’s handlers like to refer to 'the message' ('As the message continues to succeed, the messenger will continue to be attacked,' etc.), which is prima facie incontestable because it is not an argument. Once the meme is out there, it’s very hard to quash. No amount of evidence will stop a certain segment of the public from believing that Obama is a Muslim or foreign-born, in part because GOP leaders continue to stoke such ideas, as Newt Gingrich did with his grotesque references on September 11 to the president’s 'Kenyan, anticolonial behavior.'" (Michael Hirschorn/TheAtlantic)

"If previous seasons are any indication, Sunday night's finale of Mad Men will likely pull the rug out from the audience yet again. After a tumultuous season that upended the life of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and the staff of newly formed agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, numerous questions are swirling around the fates of the show's numerous characters. Will Don's radical attempt to get new business save the company or doom it? Will Joan (Christina Hendricks) choose to remain with her doomed husband (Sam Page) or create a life with Roger (John Slattery)? Will icy Betty (January Jones) punish Sally (Kiernan Shipka) by moving away? The Daily Beast spoke to Mad Men creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner to discuss the overall themes of Season 4, the origins of Miss Blankenship (Randee Heller), Don's journal and his journey, Sally Draper, and what the future holds." (TheDailyBeast)

"One of Hollywood's biggest directing gigs looks done. Darren Aronofsky's deal to direct 20th Century Fox's X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2 is close enough that discussion has turned to shooting the sound stage portions of the film in New York so the filmmaker and Hugh Jackman don't have to inconvenience their families. A March start date is being eyed so that Aronofsky has time to open Black Swan and be available for the inevitable awards season obligations. When the New York scenes are completed, they'll head to Japan to shoot the bulk of the Christopher McQuarrie-scripted movie." (Deadline)

"And that's the essence of what's hurting the mainstream music business, it's just not cool. Focusing on money first, there's no heart, no genuine quality that bonds you to the acts. You know they're being purveyed by money-hungry fucks. And you might want to go to dinner on their dime, but you don't want to give them your money, not much of it anyway. Don't confuse this with the hip-hop ethos. It's almost as if the whole country believes it's African-American. The blacks have been second class citizens in the U.S. of A. from time immemorial, literally the beginning. To see a former dope dealer triumph in the entertainment and business spheres made you want to thrust your arm in the air in appreciation. Yes, Jay-Z beat the big boys at their own game, he got his. Same deal with Russell Simmons. Then again, did they win relative to the real big boys, the bankers? In order to make it and sustain in the music business, it can't be about the money. I know, I know, this is the last thing you want to hear. But that's why you're never going to make it. If you're going to make it, it's got to be about the obsession, the need to make it. That's what Mr. Nocera points out in his column. Facebook may have been the Winklevoss twins' idea, but they never would have made it successful. They were obsessed with rowing, Mark Zuckerberg was obsessed with coding, with changing the world. Are you obsessed with music? And, if you are, do you own the musical equivalent of a Harvard degree? If I mention some obscure band from the seventies, do you know it? You'd be surprised how many successful young musicians do." (LefsetzLetter)

(Sette Mezzo via NYT)

"Friday night I had dinner with friends at Sette Mezzo on Lexington and 71st. You don’t hear about it much from me but it’s one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants. I’m not alone; it’s almost always packed, as it was Friday for dinner. For a lot of the guests, it’s also a neighborhood destination. Among Friday night’s crowd: Tracy Ullman and friends; Caroline Kennedy and Ed Schlossberg and their daughter Rose; Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis, CeCe Cord and Maurice Sonnenberg, Ellen and Ian Graham; Casey Ribicoff with Adolfo and Alex Hitz; Jackie and Gene Williams. I had the Potato and Pumpkin Soup and the Fusilli al Pesto. This was followed by a table-shared Lemon merengue tart. Couldn’t be more perfect." (NYSocialDiary)

 "I’m not sure why you'd actually want to know how to pick up a young hipster woman. We’re all too-skinny obnoxious know-it-alls who sneer at you for listening to last year’s Billboard Charts topper (unless it’s Lady Gaga, of course). Maybe you like the masochism, I don’t know. Maybe you have a tattoo fetish. Maybe going to rock shows and eating all-organic locally sourced beef and/or vegan meals found in dumpsters is cheaper than that new Ferrari you’d otherwise get in your quarter or mid-life crisis. Maybe you’ve been reading the collected works of Mystery the Pickup Artist and want to expand your repertoire (in which case, stop; there’s a strong chance you shouldn’t be dating any girls, anywhere, ever). Maybe you’re a slightly nerdy boy in a low-fi surf rock band who loves to bake his own pies but is too desperately shy to work up the nerve to talk to the gorgeous brunette with half her head shaved and a tattoo of some Joy Division lyrics on her thigh (in which case, you’re adorable, email me). Whatever your reason, it’s obvious you’re going to need some help. Because I've seen you doing it wrong.  Here’s the big secret about dating hipster girls: we’re just the same as everyone else, only cuter, better dressed, and know way more about music and pop culture than you do." (TheAwl)

Three Reasons Why Obama Should Pick Hillary As Veep

Of course President Barack Obama should pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate in 2012. But it is also entirely possible that Barack Obama, anticipating the inevitable "thrown Biden under the bus" attack from the Right-- perhaps also wanting, misguidedly, to be seen as operating wholly from political principle and not enlightened pragmatism -- will stick with Joe as his veep in 2012.

That, alas would be a fatal political error. Bush the Elder -- miscalculating within the hierarchical Republican party -- kept Quayle, valuing loyalty over political practicalities. He was, of course, a one term wonder.

And even Vice President Joe Biden -- and god bless him for his ungoverned and ungovernable tongue -- questions whether Hillary might not have been a better pick as a running mate. And she may have been. But Obama would have been, to a degree, trapped under the Clintonianin his first term would probably have been ensorcelled in Clintonian psychodrama -- something the President, a sanguine personality, clearly abhors. Of course, it is the nominee's prerogative once victorious to choose whomever the heck he or she wishes. Journalists, who would have loved an Obama-Hillary team for the sake of stories that would write themselves, would have loved this but, alas, we have no say in the final decision.

And Obama chose Biden.

2010 is a new day; probably with new Congressional leadership. Barack Obama -- a relatively young but supremely talented politician -- has learned a great deal on the fly about the operations of global leadership. And so he might be willing to reopen the argument as to whether or not Hillary would be a more effective running mate. Here are my 3 reasons as to why she is:

1) New Congressional Realities. Let's face it -- Congress is probably going to change hands. Obama will no longer be dealing with politically sympathetic allies like Pelosi and Hoyer and Dingell and the other Committee heads. Obama will be dealing with a a far more obstructionist, muscular, mandated Congress -- even on the low possibility that it doesn't change hands -- a Congress that will have their eyes on the 2012 ball.

Hillary, in 2012, would help Obama gain ground in battleground states -- West Virginia, Arkansas -- that he lost in 2008 and states -- Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida -- that he will have trouble convincing to vote Democrat again in 2012. The effect of Hillary-as-running-mate is that Obama will not just solidify his chances of winning re-election, but it would help provide coattails for victory downticket, in districts in Indiana and Kentucky and Virginia. Let's face it: Biden --quite simply -- provides no such extra coattails.

Joe Biden was put in charge of stimulus package implementation. And that has become a millstone, unfortunately, around the administration's neck (as the Obama-ites appear unable to communicate its benefits to the working class and public sector employees). Biden's only other net political plus -- working class cred in PA, strength on foreign policy -- are not nearly as strong as Hillary's. Hillary actually won the Pennsylvania primary; Hillary, as United States Secretary of State, is the most popular figure in the administration.

Add to all those points the naked political fact that as SecState Hillary has become the consummate statesperson with high positives and, most importantly, a demonstrated loyalty to the administration. This -- we cannot fail to note -- begs the question: What has Joe done for Obama lately?

2) The Hillary Democrats. All this chatter of populism, of the President's inability to speak to the angry white working class voter, of "Chicago style academics," is pejorative code word for Obama's personality minuses in democratic politics -- sanguine, intellectual, pragmatic. Hillary is strong in ways that Obama is weak (though, we cannot fail to note, that didn't stop Obama from defeating her in 2008). And now that Obama's political weaknesses -- his minuses -- are becoming more and more evident under constant global media scrutiny, the international sausage-making machine, it seems obvious that Hillary completes his political persona. Such a partnership seems, in retrospect, obvious.

Even Pat Buchanan -- the sourest of nativist right wing sours -- admires "Hillary Democrats," a sobriquet, incidentally, that just might in the future replace "Reagan Democrats" in describing a particularly white, particularly older and particularly un-rich demographic that has been quite screwed in the new global economic order.

When Hillary, on the stump in 2008, spoke of women who work standing on their feet all day, she not only captured -- poignantly -- the daily struggles of waitresses who have to smile and bartenders who make their living on the graciousness of gratuities. No one could have been more eloquent about America's forgotten -- the Clinton demographic -- the guys who played fair, worked long hours, put their children first, who did the right thing, but continue to fall behind economically. Obama's personality appeals to the intellect, the ideals -- to the angels of our better nature. It says little to the gritty realities of American manufacturing.

The economy has erased most such idealism in the minds and hearts of American voters, who are more apt now to vote from their guts. Populism speaks to the guts. And if you've ever seen the President roll up his sleeves and talk to white working class voters with attempts at true grit you'll know Obama -- again, bless his intellectual, academic heart -- is temperamentally incapable of such a populist rhetoric. Such are the mysteries of the human personality ....

Hillary, who developed her political persona as a rara avis -- a progressivish Democrat in red state Arkansas (!!)-- a master at Southern fried populist rhetoric. This, incidentally, plays just as well in Pennsyltucky and Ohio's working class districts, places that are going to be a hard sell this time around for democrats.



3) Bill Clinton. Obama is now reading Taylor Branch's magisterial Clinton Tapes -- the best book ever on Clinton's Presidency and a must-read for any student curious of the politics of the last decade of the 20th century. Obama can learn much from it.

The wretched, simian Charles Krathammer -- and his noxious ilk --- have labored mightily at portraying Obama as another Jimmy Carter. Those narrative comparisons are becoming increasingly sticky. And that is not a good thing for a sitting president trying to get real legislative accomplishments through an increasingly recalcitrant United States Congress. From Politico:

The president wants to be more Bill Clinton than Jimmy Carter. Obama knows Clinton recovered from his party’s midterm drubbing in 1994 to win a second term two years later; Carter was a one-term president. Obama is reading “The Clinton Tapes,” Taylor Branch’s account of his secret interviews with Clinton. “I was looking over some chronicles of the Clinton years,” Obama said, “and was reminded that in ’94 — when President Clinton’s poll numbers were lower than mine, and obviously the election ended up being bad for Democrats — unemployment was only 6.6 percent. And I don’t think anybody would suggest that Bill Clinton wasn’t a good communicator or was somebody who couldn’t connect with the American people or didn’t show empathy.”

Lately there are also a lot of LBJ comparisons as well. LBJ and Jimmy Carter have a lot in common -- they are perceived publicly as one-term Democrat Presidents that are generally regarded as failures. It is no wonder that Obama abhors any such comparisons.

Enter: Bill Clinton. Clinton's two terms and the economic prosperity contained therein -- again: perception; no matter how irrational, illusory or exuberant that is -- are regarded as a golden age of Democratic politics. Unemployment was under 6% (the good old days). Barack Obama, enough of a student of University of Chicago social sciences, will study Clinton as a man and as a President. It is what, quite frankly, Chicago social science intellectuals do.

What will Obama learn? Obama will learn, among other things, that he and Bill Clinton have more in common -- the health of the Democrat party and the success of Hillary, for instance-- than they have in difference.

Alpha males, naturally, will have their jealous moments (we are still a part of the Great Ape family, after all; perhaps politicians more so). Some form of closer political alliance between Bill Clinton -- who has been there, two times, with a hostile Republican Congress led incidentally by John Boehner -- and President Barack Obama (who is facing a second term run with a hostile Republican Congress), is destined, inevitable, particularly at this moment of exigency. And the destinies of these two powerful alpha male Presidents meet fortuitously in the person of -- Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Media Whore D'Oeuvres

"On a busy afternoon in the West Wing late last month, President Barack Obama seemed relaxed and unhurried as he sat down in a newly reupholstered brown leather chair in the Oval Office. He had just returned from the East Room, where he signed the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 ­— using eight pens so he could give away as many as possible. The act will be his administration’s last piece of significant economic legislation before voters deliver their verdict on his first two years in office. For all intents and purposes, the first chapter of Obama’s presidency has ended. On Election Day, the next chapter will begin ... If there was something incongruous about the president of the United States checking out reviews of his décor by Arianna Huffington, well, let’s face it, he has endured worse reviews lately. The president who muscled through Congress perhaps the most ambitious domestic agenda in a generation finds himself vilified by the right, castigated by the left and abandoned by the middle. He heads into the final stretch of the midterm campaign season facing likely repudiation, with voters preparing to give him a Congress that, even if Democrats maintain control, will almost certainly be less friendly to the president than the one he has spent the last two years mud wrestling." (NYTimes)

"Yes, we’ve got to give Howard Stern credit. He got the story. And there’s no story without David Arquette. And the facts were interesting, but not as great as the performance. David Arquette gave the performance of a lifetime. With Howard Stern as director and Robin Quivers assisting. You just couldn’t turn it off. Every human emotion was evidenced. It was a roller coaster you refused to get off. I would have poured quarters in the dashboard to keep the story going. Because you just can’t get this honesty anywhere else. Oh, you can get it from your buddy. In the bar. On the phone. But when it comes to entertainment, it’s all phony all the time. Fake reality TV shows. Movies made for people who don’t exist. And music so vapid, so whored out to labels and radio and TV and the Fortune 500, as to be impossible to relate to by normal human beings. Sure, some will dance to the track for a while, but then the cuts are discarded, they’re meaningless. The mainstream trots out sales figures, trumps up the story, but no one cares. Otherwise Katy Perry would sell out stadiums, who’s gotten more publicity than her? But it’s dishonest." (Lefsets Letter)

"Madonna has found herself a new toy boy after splitting from her former flame, Jesus Luz -- and he's a choreographer 19 years her junior.  The Queen of Pop was out Thursday night at Meatpacking hot spot SL with her handsome 'Sticky & Sweet' tour choreographer, Brahim Rachiki. 'They came in together and were holding hands in a private area,' a spy told us. 'Madonna got up and was dancing for an hour straight before going back to her man. They immediately started making out in front of other guests' ... Rachiki and Madge stayed late into the night and even chatted with DJ Tiesto, who arrived shortly after they did. A rep for the club couldn't be reached. The duo moved on from SL to the Sullivan Room in Greenwich Village at 1 a.m. for a Libation Party, where they showed off their dance moves before indulging in more public kissing. A spy said, 'After working the dance floor, they found more private seating where they hugged and kissed for the rest of the night.'" (PageSix)

"China has mounted a strenuous diplomatic campaign to block the publication of a U.N. report claiming that Chinese ammunition was shipped into Darfur, Sudan, during the past year, in clear violation of U.N. sanctions, four U.N. diplomatic sources familiar with China's effort told Turtle Bay. The findings by a U.N. Security Council-mandated 'panel of experts'provide some of the strongest evidence to date that the Sudanese government in Khartoum imported arms and ammunition in violation of an arms embargo, routinely channeling them into Darfur, where it is engaged in a military campaign against local rebel groups. The expert panel, which monitors a 6-year-old U.N. arms embargo in Sudan, presented its report in a closed-door briefing to the U.N. Security Council on October 4. The panel claimed that Sudanese forces had used more than a dozen types of Chinese ammunition in battles with Darfurian rebels in north and west Darfur over the past two years. The report does not claim that Chinese arms dealers were aware that their munitions would make their way to Darfur. However, shell casings from Chinese ammunition were found at the sites of numerous attacks against U.N.-African Union peacekeeping forces, carried out by unidentified assailants. The casings show that the ammunition was manufactured after 2009, half a decade after the sanctions went into force. In all, the panel uncovered a total 18 varieties of shell casings, including 12 from China, four from Sudan, and two from Israel." ((ForeignPolicy)

"It's not very often that the CW wins an hour of primetime among adults 18-49. The network accomplished just that last night with the 200th episode of Smallville, which led the competition at 8 PM with a 1.3/5, matching its season premiere demo number and hitting a season high in total viewers with 3.2 million. Supernatural (1.2/4, 2.8 million) was also strong, matching its season premiere numbers and finishing tied for second place in 18-49 at 9 PM behind CSI: NY (1.7/6, 9.5 million)." (Deadline)

"Meeting the scholarly and genial Nicolas Joly in the picturesquely cluttered library of the 18th-century manor that houses his winery, you would be hard pressed to imagine him dancing naked in his vineyard at midnight while burning rabbit skins. This was the image of Mr. Joly purveyed recently by a major French magazine. Mr. Joly is perhaps the world's leading practitioner of biodynamic viticulture, and as such he engages in some practices that may seem unconventional, although none of them involve naked dancing. Mr. Joly is the proprietor of Coulée de Serrant, a domain in the Loire Valley. His property borders the river and encompasses the ruins of an ancient castle destroyed in the wars between the Huguenots and the Catholics. ('Now we just have the war between good farming and bad farming,' he says.) The vineyard was first planted in 1113 by Cistercian monks, and the excellence of its wines has been acknowledged for centuries." (Jay McInerney)

"Mayor Bloomberg’s love affair with fashion (and what it can bring to the local New York economy) continues apace. After cutting the ribbon on the Armani flagship store on Fifth Avenue, celebrating Burberry’s new store on Madison, and opening New York Fashion Week’s new home at Lincoln Center, the Mayor has turned his affection to Ralph Lauren, whom he awarded the key to New York City last night during a celebratory cocktail at the new RL womens’ flagship on Madison Avenue. In front of friends (Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld), clients, and other executives likewise on the receiving end of Mr Lauren’s corporate largesse (the editors of pretty much every glossy magazine based in the city that carries Ralph Lauren advertising, from Harper’s Bazaar to Vanity Fair and In Style) the two men descended the gracefully curving staircase of Mr Lauren’s store like a newlyweds, pausing on a landing to make brief speeches." (FT)

"Francis Ford Coppola wrote it and, very surprisingly for such a good writer, he messed it up. Looking cool and calling everyone a 'sport' was not what Gatsby was about, nor was the hero symbolized by having a hell of a lot of new shirts and beautiful clothes. That was Shapiro’s view, or rather, Evans’s. Many have called The Great Gatsby the best American novel ever written. Something to do with the way it’s structured. I don’t know how one measures such things, but good books to me are like beautiful women; you can’t compare them ... Hollywood types see Fitzgerald’s gem as emerald lawns, silk shirts, golden sunlight, and great mansions by the sea. That’s what drew me in at the start. I had been on the Riviera age 14, had read Tender is the Night, and then came upon the American Riviera in West Egg. I was shut away in boarding school, but during home-from-school breaks I lived at the Sherry-Netherland on 5th Avenue across from the Plaza Hotel. I could imagine Daisy, Jordan, and Jay across the street from me better than anyone. I still can. Writing, you see, does not exist without a consenting reader. And no two readers are alike. I knew Jay better than anyone, except that I knew Dick Diver better. It all seems so long ago now. When I first read about Fitzgerald’s tragic life, his work had begun to be appreciated again. He reached superstardom during the 60s and 70s and is still selling well. But he’d died broke and forgotten decades earlier before he turned 45. Zelda died in a fire while institutionalized." (Taki)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"We here at PAPER love the nightlife. (In case you hadn't noticed.) And we loved the nightlife whole lot last night at our Sixth Annual Nightlife Awards presented by Russian Standard Vodka, supported by Perrier and held at Good Units at the Hudson Hotel. Our annual awards, which the New York Times recently deemed 'the Oscars of the city's clubland,' were a rollicking good time, and featured a veritable hodgepodge of New York's most prominent nightlife personalities, designers, reality TV stars, musicians, and.... Pee-wee Herman!! Our October cover-boy, whose new Broadway show starts previews week, started the evening off with a hilarious set in which he told Carl Paladino 'I know you are but what am I' and name-checked the Boom Boom Room, Guest of a Guest and Michael Musto to the delight of the crowd. We overheard more than one attendee mutter in awe, "I cannot believe that Pee-wee is here." (Papermag)

"The soup on the menu right now is a Pumpkin Squash finished of with a dollop of crème fraiche. I had that along with my regular Barbara Bush (iced-tea and orange juice), and a steaming hot roll. I was going to sit there and take in the crowd like an innocent bystander but I was soon looking at one of the iPads that Michael’s now features for its guests while they wait for their guests. You can sit there and read the papers, or the NYSD (Michael’s has links to all) or visit Michael’s blog or the Santa Monica Michael’s. I took in the California stuff just to indulge my own memories. Over in the bay, a group of young women were having a book publication lunch (just like yesterday with Deb Shriver and her book on New Orleans). This one was for Hoda. You don’t know Hoda? I don’t even watch the Today Show and I know Hoda. I also know Hoda and Kathie Lee are the Fric and Frac of morning television (until it’s time for The View, which I’ve also never seen except for clips on the web). see Hoda herself fairly often at Michael’s. Kathie Lee too. Also Kathie Lee’s husband Frank Gifford, who often lunches there with our mutual friend Herb Siegel. I can imagine what Hoda’s like on TV because you can see it in the persona. A pistol they used to call girls like her. And a very nice woman. Her book is named after herself (you probably know all this already), plus: HODA; How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee. As the group were leaving after lunch, Steve Millington, the GM of the place, came over and told me about the lunch, and asked if I wanted a picture. So he organized them just as they were all about to leave." (NYSocialDiary)

"'Am I boring you yet?' Paz de la Huerta cooed into the microphone, her inflection such that it could have been whispered in bed. She was reading an excerpt of the new Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary at last night's Playboy party at a makeshift tea room set up under the austere metal buttresses of the High Line. Much to her dismay, however, the din of the crowd had risen. 'Yes!' cried a few people standing nearby, perplexed as to why a reading would interrupt the usual routine of music, schmoozing and liquor. 'Well,' she sighed. 'I'll try to make it more interesting. Maybe I'll start stripping for you.' Coming from Paz, this was far from an empty threat. Star of the new HBO series 'Boardwalk Empire,' the stunning actress, model, and embodiment of sex was brought in to justify calling this sub-High Line gathering a "literary salon," and Flaubert's deflowering of the stodgy 19th-century novel goes well with Paz's proclivity to shed clothing. If you saw the pilot of HBO's Atlantic City nostalgia spectacle, you saw all of Paz de la Huerta." (Observer)

"Didn't the big New Yorkers for Children gala just happen? Yes, but that's a trick question, because the charity's events are one of the constants on the New York social scene. Case in point: last night's shopping party, co-hosted by Salvatore Ferragamo and W magazine. Socialites, as if separated by war (dating back to last month's gala) reunited for some retail therapy at Ferragamo's Fifth Avenue flagship. Massimo and Chiara Ferragamo hosted the affair, which included a presentation of Resort 2011. 'This gala has plenty of big dresses and celebrities, but behind it all are some amazing kids,' noted Chiara. 'Every time they sing, like at this year’s event, you almost want to cry from happiness.' Other co-hosts included Julie Macklowe, Karla Martinez, and Alina Cho who greeted guests like Annelise Peterson, Lisa Anastos, Tinsley Mortimer, and Selita Ebanks. 'I’ve been doing too much over the last few weeks,' sighed the model. 'It feels like we screened Kanye’s Runaway everywhere but New York. But it's coming next week! I feel I’m recreating my phoenix role with this Ferragamo armor.'” (Fashionweekdaily)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

 

"In his new memoirs, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton offers an interesting twist on why Iraq went so badly: He argues that Rumsfeld elbowed aside Gen. Richard Myers and the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and also intimidated and flattered Gen. Tommy R. Franks while working directly with him, and so basically went to war without getting the advice of his top military advisors. The war plan that Rumsfeld and Franks went on to cook up, Shelton concludes, was 'a fiasco.' (479) (Hmm -- interesting choice of words.) Shelton also writes that there was no reason to go war against Iraq. 'The fact is that we had Iraq contained and they were not a threat.' (419) Also, 'There was absolutely no link between him [Saddam] and 9/11.' (474) No big revelations, but I was glad to see this stated so flatly by a former high official. His bottom line: 'President Bush and his team got us enmeshed in Iraq based on extraordinarily poor intelligence and a series of lies purporting that we had to protect American from Saddam's evil empire because it posed such a threat to our national security.' (474-475) Just in case you weren't paying attention, he elaborates on that charge later in the book." (ForeignPolicy)

"As Senator Harry Reid stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Bill Clinton in a high school gym in Las Vegas earlier this week, the contrast was impossible to ignore. One man controlled the audience the way a conductor might lead an orchestra, with well-timed pauses to bring the room to a hush, pithy swipes to lift the crowd to a rousing crescendo. This man projected energy and a relish for battle. The other man was Senator Harry Reid. This appearance with the 42nd president was Reid’s first big campaign event of the fall in Nevada, and that’s saying something, considering the most powerful politician to emerge from this state has less than three weeks to save his political life. He’s given a few speeches here and there over the summer, visited with small pockets of constituents at intimate events, raised loads and loads of money and flooded airwaves, websites and email in-boxes with messages defining GOP opponent Sharron Angle as extreme or even crazy. Running against a candidate who has just raised an impressive $14 million this quarter, the Senate majority leader is locked in a too-close-to-call race and must now get out on the stump, his least comfortable place." (TheDailyBeast)

"So, after six weeks of near-unanimous cartwheeling and trumpet blasts from the nation’s book critics (including me), after a touching reconciliation with Oprah, after losing and then recovering his world-famous glasses, Jonathan Franzen has suffered an indignity: He has been left off the short list for the National Book Award, the prize he won nine years ago for The Corrections. What should we make of this surprising refusal to shower acclaim on Freedom, the most acclaimed novel of the millennium? Is it a snub, an injustice, a petty backlash? Or is it a brave act of rebellion against the PR-driven literary-industrial complex that wants us all to bow down to King Franzen? It’s probably none of that. Awards, notoriously, mean almost nothing — particularly in literature, where the architecture of competitive sports is just flat-out silly. Literary prize-choosing is always a fickle, unsatisfying process: It’s often just a way to settle scores, or send political messages, or strategically boost careers." (NyMag)

"Down at Michael’s, the Wednesday lunch was packed. At table one in the window they were having a lunch to celebrate Debra Shriver’s publication of Stealing Magnolias, which is about her love of her adopted city New Orleans. Debra is also a New Yorker and Vice President and Chief Communications Officer of the Hearst Corporation. More on her book in tomorrow’s NYSD. In yesterday’s Shriver lunch party: Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Pamela Keogh, Jesse Kornbluth, Susan Sully, Amy Wicks, Melissa Coan, Marcia Sherrill, Lesley Jane Seymour and last but never least, Debra’s partner in adopting cities, her husband Jerry Shriver. Meanwhile, just as the main course was about to be served the Shriver party, in comes jazz man, saxophonist Craig Handy for a surprise solo performance for the celebrants (and everyone else in the place)." (NYSocialDiary)

"CBS has done something no network has done since 2001, and that’s win the first three weeks of a new season in adults 18-49. But this should hardly come as a surprise to media buyers. In a just-completed Media Life poll, buyers give the new season to CBS, and by a wide margin. Asked to name the network with the most impressive start, 66 percent of readers chose CBS. ABC and NBC tied for a distant second at just 11 percent, while Fox got 7 percent of the vote and the CW 3 percent. Asked to rate the networks individually, 53 percent of Media Life readers gave CBS the top rating, terrific, while 33 percent rated it decent, 9 percent rated it so-so and 4 percent rated it poor. ABC came in as the No. 2 network in the ratings, with 43 percent rating its first weeks decent. Just 9 percent rated it terrific, while 34 percent gave it a so-so and 13 percent gave it a poor. As for Fox, 9 percent gave it a terrific, 28 percent gave it a decent, 49 percent gave it a so-so, and 14 percent a poor." (Medialifemagazine)

"That odor you smell is the odor of desperation. Whether it is on the TV show 'Mad Men' in the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, which has lost a majority of its billings and must sign up new businesses to survive, or from politicians and campaigns who find themselves on the wrong side of public opinion as Election Day approaches, desperation yields unfortunate results. Campaigns, candidates and even elected officials who should know better say and do bad things. In Pennsylvania’s 13th district, the campaign of Republican Dee Adcock, who is challenging three-term Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D), recently e-mailed a news release with the subject line 'Poll shows tight race in PA 13.' The memo, which included only a generic ballot, Schwartz’s 're-elect' and an 'informed ballot,' repeatedly conveys the impression that the race between the Congresswoman and Adcock, the president of his family’s 50-year-old swimming pools, accessories and supplies distributorship, is very competitive. I know that when I see a news release in October that states that, 'When voters hear where Adcock and Schwartz stand on the issues Adcock wins,' I have stumbled across a campaign that probably has no chance of winning." (CQPolitics)