Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

photo credit: Shutterstock

Sir Christopher Lee

"Last Wednesday, June 24, Pugs held a luncheon in honor of our first member to depart for the Elysian Fields, or that large CinemaScope screen up above, Sir Christopher Lee, age 93. Pugs club is now back to 19 members, the ceiling being 21. Our president for life, Nick Scott—I actually was the first chief but was overthrown in a bloodless as well as voteless coup by Nick—gave a wonderful address while breaking yet another custom, this one about having ladies present. Our guest of honor was Lady Lee, Christopher’s widow. Now, there’s nothing more that a poor little Greek boy can add to Sir Christopher’s obituaries, which were numerous, glowing, detailed, and well deserved. Except to say that he personified that smoldering restraint of a long-ago England, with his perfect manners and diction, and his ability to be interested in what other people had to say. The big ME was unknown to him. Christopher loved the members of Pugs, all 20 of us, and was equally loved in return. At last year’s annual lunch on an outdoor terrace of a Chelsea restaurant, he was recognized as he got up to leave and was given a standing ovation by the luncheon crowd. Here’s what fellow Pug and knight Sir Bob Geldof had to say about him: 'Christopher, what a bloke. What a Pug. Lives don’t come more lived than that.' What struck me was the fact that Christopher wore his Pugs club tie for his investiture by the Queen in 2009, and was outspoken about the increasing depravity of film. If ever there was a palimpsest of present and past, it was Sir Christopher." (Taki)





"This month, New York advertising man and chronicler of the wealthy set Richard Kirshenbaum (pictured) published a new book, 'Isn’t That Rich? Life Among the 1%.' We tried to interview him about it. It did not work out.

Kirshenbaum’s book first came to my attention in early June with the appearance of a goading New York Post story [headline: 'You should thank the one percent, you ingrate'] based on the book, which extolled the many benefits of trickle-down economics, concluding that 'NYC would still be a dump' without its ample and growing supply of zillionaires.

'This sounds like a provocative defender of the rich who would make for an interesting and contentious interview subject,' I thought to myself. On June 10, I emailed Kirshenbaum’s publisher about setting up a Q&A. I heard back immediately from his publicist, who was enthusiastic about the idea. I asked for a review copy of the book, and she agreed to send one over. On June 18, the publicist emailed me again asking about the interview. I told her I’d never gotten the book. She agreed to send another one. Still very enthusiastic! That same day, coincidentally, my copy of the book arrived. On June 24, the publicist emailed me again. 'Just checking in to see if you had a chance to crack open the book,' she wrote. 'I’d love to get your questions over to Richard ASAP. He is leaving for vacation soon and I want to make sure I get to him beforehand.' As it happened, I was just finishing up my speed-read of the book. We’d agreed on an email Q&A, so I sent her the following five questions to pass on to Kirshenbaum (bold added later, for reasons the astute reader will see in a moment!)" (Hamilton Nolan)

Both paperback and hardcover are now for sale on Amazon for $74. Click to order.

"I rarely read two books at once but I broke that habit briefly on Saturday when looking for a reference book, I happened upon a big paperback copy of “Chips; The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon,” published in 1996.  I’d read it when I bought it back then, not knowing anything about the man but having perused the names in the index, many of which were the leading characters in British society and politics and literature mid-20th century. Although I’d read most of it I found myself re-reading it with a different eye, as if it were new. What’s new?  The world we live in today, compared to only twenty years ago, is radically different from the world of the diarist sixty and seventy years ago. Channon, or Chips as everyone knew him, was an American, born in 1897, who grew up in Chicago, son of an heir to a Great Lakes shipping company. His parents started taking him to Europe when he was a child. By his late teens he was an expatriate, and would remain so. In London where he married Lady Honor Guinness, he became a member of House of Commons and led the life of a social gadfly extraordinaire, who had connections to many doors. His attitude is so British that there’s no reason to think he didn’t seem entirely British, including the accent – although I don’t know about that detail. He was a gregarious fellow who loved  society (better yet, royalty) and knowing all the right people. And in his case it was at the end time of the British Empire, and the 'right people' were the names that are now of history. He had a great eye for detail and an intelligence to write about it visually. " (NYSD)

DPC with Barbara Tober.

"The city seemed quieter – maybe because of the heat, where there were fewer people on the street because of the high temperatures. I went down to Michael’s to have lunch with my friend Barbara Tober. This was a lunch talking about the books we’re reading, the places and events we’ve been to lately, and theatre. Barbara and her husband Donald who really make an effort to get around the city, have been seeing a lot of Broadway shows. Actually, it seems like they’ve just about everything that’s playing right now. It is a phenomenon that there are so many great shows on right now. Most recently they saw 'It Shoulda Been You.' What was it like? Well, there were moments when they were sitting there thinking: “what is this, nothing’s happening. And then suddenly they’d find themselves laughing so hard tears were streaming down their faces. Needless to say, they loved it. Barbara and Donald Tober are two very active philanthropists in New York. When I say 'active' I mean they are involved in several major charities in which they are not only principals in terms of financial contributions but also players in terms of hands-on participation. Donald, for example, was in on the founding of CityMeals-on-Wheels with James Beard and Gael Greene. Donald was the guy who had the corporate connections that could contribute to this fantastic organization that delivers tens of thousands of meals annually to the elderly, to the ill and infirm and people in need. It’s a perfect charity to describe their personalities: helping  in the quality of life of their fellow citizens in the community." (NYSD)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

President Obama with Marc Maron.

Courtesy of the White House.

"Say President Obama was making his way in a motorcade over to your house for an hour-long interview in your garage. How would you prepare? For Marc Maron, the comedian and host of the popular interview podcast WTF with Marc Maron, getting ready for Obama involved cereal and a guitar. On Friday morning, hours before the unprecedented POTUS podcast, crowds had already begun lining the streets surrounding Maron’s Highland Park, California, home with handmade posters. Secret Service had essentially annexed Maron’s property to ensure Obama’s safety, positioning snipers on a nearby roof, and a tent over his driveway. (The bomb-sniffing dogs had already swept the house in the days prior.) As the clock ticked closer to conversation time, Maron did his best to tune out the exterior chaos. 'I kind of hunkered down in my house with notes and coffee and my bowl of cereal and tried to find my own space,' Maron told us by phone on Friday afternoon. '[I was] kind of making sure I had as focused of a one-on-one experience with him as possible. . . . And I stayed kind of detached. I wasnÆt answering e-mails or texts or anything. I just wanted to stay focused to sort of be present with the president.' As WTF listeners know, the comedian also enjoys 'noodling' on his guitars, occasionally playing snippets of his jam sessions during podcasts. And in the moments before Maron’s presidential summit, jamming was also integral to finding his zen. 'I was playing my Gibson 335, not plugged in, but was playing it intensely and furiously.'" (VanityFair)

"She awoke feeling woozy and blamed it on the scary nightmare. She often had nightmares, everywhere she lived, and she had lived most everywhere. People called her impulsive. She thought of herself as a wanderer. She sat up and shook out her long hair. She wrapped her body in an orange sarong and brewed coffee. Suddenly she couldn't remember anything. Where was she, she wondered? She hoped it was somewhere exotic. Unseen he watched her. He’d been waiting for her. Hers was a life of impetuous traveling which meant relentless packing and unpacking. How many times had she done this she couldn't even count. Coffee mug in one hand, box cutter in the other she sliced straight lines down the binding tape. Debussy filled the background. He was a patient man, if he was a man at all. She didn’t feel it when she cut herself, but she saw the smudges on the cardboard; ochre orange fingerprints, ‘Pretty!’ she thought, and then she noticed the scrawled address on the side of the box. Jaipur. It wasn't a dream, she almost laughed out loud from relief. All day she retrieved belongings, slipping clothing onto hangers and into closets. Closets that smelled of disuse. Her fingertips hurt from the many tiny cuts." (Christina Oxenberg)

Yanna on stage at 54 Below.

"Last Thursday night I went over to 54 Below on West 54th between 7th and 8th, where Yanna Avis was performing her program of cabaret. Yanna, who is French, was married for a long time to Warren Avis, the rent-a-car tycoon. I can’t remember if we first met in Los Angeles or here in New York, but we have a lot of mutual good friends and have known each other a long time.Yanna had been an actress before she married Warren, but she put that away to have time to spend with her husband. Warren died at the ripe old age of 92 eight years ago this last April. It was about that time that Yanna began to focus once again on her love of performing. I call her The Chantouze. I’d never been to 54 Below before. Because of that, and because I’d never been in the cellar of Studio 54 in the old days (where all the wild druggy stuff allegedly happened), so I had only an idea of what it looked like. A cellar below a nightclub? Dark, grubby, damp, dank? I doubt it looked like it looks now: it’s a beautiful room for cabaret. I don’t know what you’d call the interior design style but it’s perfect for a first class cabaret. And there’s not a bad seat in the house, plus there’s enough space that you’re not packed in, and with a stage adequate enough to hold four or five musicians, a piano and the performer. The service is excellent, quick and attentive." (NYSD)

Review: The Residuals, Season 2

If The Residuals didn't exist, someone would have to invent the show. The comedic web series about actors who do commercials -- the auditions, the callbacks, the competition -- has been around for a year but this season they really hit their mark. Even the outtakes are pretty friction' hilarious. Created and Produced by Gillian Pensavalle and Michael Paul Smith, this season Horatio Sanz, Jenna Leigh Green and Michael Torpey.

Season 2 premiered this week. I have known Gillian since way back in the days of the Jake and Jackie radio program where she worked and I used to call in on the regular. Although I have never auditioned for a commercial I know a lot of actors and their talk about the whole process -- and the dreams of scoring a "national" -- are fascinating. That is why I am surprised that this is the first time someone did a comedy show on the subject. BroadwayWorld is clever for scooping them up.

This season all the regulars return as well as the guest stars. How does one begin tho describe this show? The episodes are digestible nuggets -- less than 15 minutes a pop -- and perfect for viewing on a mobile device. I've told Gillian at the premiere that they would be perfect for IFC TV, where I used to work, because they are trying to do edgy comedy. Comedy Central also would be a perfect fit for this madcap group of actors who audition and compete for the role of corporate pitchman, essentially.  My guess is that anyone who has ever pursued commercial acting has a million stories -- agents, alone --so let's hope this continues for a while because I, for one, am quite enjoying the ride.

The show is brilliant. Check it out here.

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

Debi Mazar making her commentary on the evening and the fashion industry in New York. "Last night I went down to Cipriani 42nd Street where the Fashion Institute of Technology and FIT Foundation were hosting their annual awards gala. It was a very crowded room, and a bright and well-dressed one, as it was the fashion industry and its supporters and contributors. I was introduced to FIT several years ago by Liz Peek who is (or up until recently was) the chair of the committee that raises funds for the FIT museum. Every early autumn, their Fashion Luncheon where they honor a major designer now opens the New York Fall Fashion Week. This is an organization and force that I’ve seen start with some volunteers (including Mrs. Peek and Yaz Hernandez) and become a visible force on the New York philanthropic and social scene. Their works have also shone a bright light on the college itself which is a great New York success story. FIT began, was created, 70 years ago this year with a couple of borrowed classrooms and a course in fashion design. They had a total of 100 students. Today the enrollment is 10,000! And they are a university plant covering four blocks on the west side of Manhattan in the 20s. Last night Dr. Joyce Brown, President of FIT announced the construction of a new building of ten stories which will add to their enrollment as well as their curriculum which is now varied – although all encompassing creative pursuits. Many famous designers and fashion personalities in this country today started at FIT. Eighty-five percent of their students are working at their chosen field within a year of graduating. I was seated between Susan Baker – who is a major philanthropist in arts and culture in New York – and Amsale Aberra who is on the Board of Trustees of the college. Amsale as you may or may not know is a major designer and manufacturer of Bridal clothes here in New York. A girl from Ethiopia, she is a graduate of FIT and another example of the success of its alumni." (NYSD)

"Governor Scott Walker, of Wisconsin, who is running for president, says he is personally opposed to gay marriage but takes the position that this is a matter for each of the 50 states to decide for itself. Nice try, Governor, but that train has pulled out of the station. The country has already accepted gay marriage, and it’s too late for half-measures. “Leave it to the states” is a hoary evasion for national politicians who want to duck a troublesome issue, but it’s not available to Walker, because governors of states can’t duck an issue by saying it should be decided by the states. Well, they can try, but they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. You are the governor, Governor. Man up (as Sarah Palin used to say) and tell us where you stand. It’s remarkable that a Republican running for the Republican nomination for president should need to be evasive about marriage equality, as opposed to using it as a cudgel. There were days, not long ago, when Republicans used to fabricate issues like this in order to embarrass the Democrats. Elderly readers may recall 1988, when George H. W. Bush beat Michael Dukakis in a vicious campaign almost entirely about artificial issues concocted in the G.O.P. laboratory, like the urgent need for an amendment to the Bill of Rights against burning the American flag. Twenty-seven years later the Bill of Rights remains pristine, there has been no serious effort to pollute it with an anti-flag-burning amendment, and yet there has been little if any flag burning going on. It will not be an issue in the 2016 campaign. There may be some vestigial sentence in the Republican Party platform, but no podium time will be wasted on it. Regarding abortion—a genuine social issue—something similar has happened. Few people have actually changed their minds about the morality or legality of abortion, but Republicans don’t look forward to arguing about it on the campaign trail. They wish it would just go away. They may honestly believe that human life begins at the moment of conception, or they may have adopted that position cynically, but in most places the candidates would just as soon not dwell on it. Abortion, marriage equality, gun control, drugs, prayer in the schools, affirmative action, the 'War on Christmas': these are all classified as 'social issues' (as opposed to economic and foreign-policy issues) and have generally been regarded as 'wedge issues' too—issues that the Republicans can use like a wedge to pry voters away from the Democrats. But the wedge isn’t what it used to be. In 2004, a writer named Thomas Frank wrote a terrific book called What’s the Matter with Kansas?, which immediately became a classic. It was an attempt to solve a puzzle. Why, when people are upset about the economy, concerned about their jobs, resentful of growing income inequality, tired of watching industries move overseas, and generally sullen about money—why, with all this, do they nevertheless keep voting Republican? Frank’s answer was, in short, that the Republicans use social issues in a bait-and-switch routine: people are enticed into voting Republican over social issues like abortion or gay marriage, and then Republican pols, once elected, ignore all that and govern like the pro-business, rich-people’s party that they are at heart." (Michael Kinsley) DPC and Vincent Minuto of Hampton Domestics at Michael's. " I had lunch at Michael’s with Vincent Minuto. Vincent has a business called Hampton Domestics which supplies staffs for private residences as well as other commercial areas for the same clientele. Vincent is very much an under-the-radar kind of guy although he knows all the right people from Vanderbilts and Whitneys to hedge fund moguls. He is also an advertiser on NYSD and has been since JH and I created it fifteen years ago this September. I first met Vincent when he used to “cater” dinners and parties for the late Judy Green. Judy, who died of pancreatic cancer at age 66, three days after 9/11, was probably the last of the great party-givers here in New York ... After getting the beginning of his culinary education at the Culinary Institute, Vincent started out in the food and service business at “21” ordering the caviar. The Sicilian kid from Brooklyn learned a lot about it. He quickly acquired a lifelong taste for it. From '21' he was hired by Donald Bruce White. When Mrs. Green gave Mr. White the heave-ho, Vincent succeeded. And produced. He’s had a long career in the food business ever since. He’s owned restaurants in the Village, as well as a once famous gay bar out in the Hamptons (now defunct), he’s worked as a private chef (for among others, the late Leona Helmsley – whom he liked very much 'she was a very lonely woman'). He continues to this day to 'cater' for his longtime clientele which include Vanderbilts and Whitneys (remember them?). But mainly his business today is the Hampton Domestics." (NYSD) "Toward the end of the presidency of George H.W. Bush, America stood alone at the top of the world—the sole superpower. After five weeks of 'shock and awe' and 100 hours of combat, Saddam’s army had fled Kuwait back up the road to Basra and Bagdad. Our Cold War adversary was breaking apart into 15 countries. The Berlin Wall had fallen. Germany was reunited. The captive nations of Central and Eastern Europe were breaking free. Bush I had mended fences with Beijing after the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square. Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin were friends.The president declared the coming of a 'new world order.' And neocons were chattering about a new 'unipolar world' and the 'benevolent global hegemony' of the United States. Consider now the world our next president will inherit. North Korea, now a nuclear power ruled by a 30-something megalomaniac, is fitting ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. China has emerged as the great power in Asia, entered claims to all seas around her, and is building naval and air forces to bring an end to a U.S. dominance of the western Pacific dating to 1945. Vladimir Putin is modernizing Russian missiles, sending ships and planes into NATO waters and air space, and supporting secessionists in Eastern Ukraine. The great work of Nixon and Reagan—to split China from Russia in the 'Heartland' of Halford Mackinder’s 'World Island,' then to make partners of both—has been undone. China and Russia are closer to each other and more antagonistic toward us than at any time since the Cold War. Terrorists from al-Qaida and its offspring and the Islamic Front run wild in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria and Somalia. Egypt is ruled by a dictatorship that came to power in a military coup.Japan is moving to rearm to meet the menace of North Korea and China, while NATO is but a shadow of its former self. Only four of 28 member nations now invest 2 percent of their GDP in defines. With the exception of the Soviet Union, some geostrategists contend, no nation, not defeated in war, has ever suffered so rapid a decline in relative power as the United States. What are the causes of American decline? Hubris, ideology, bellicosity and stupidity all played parts." (Pat Buchanan) "CNN threw a ’70s party at Marquee in New York last night to celebrate Thursday’s premiere of its newest original series. CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker started the night off by addressing the crowd and reminding everyone that The Seventies kicks off at 9 p.m. ET. After Zucker’s brief reminder, it was time for music. 1970s acts such as Peaches and Herb, Heatwave, Maxine Nightingale, The Manhattans and Evelyn 'Champagne' King hit the stage and played until the party ended. Guests were treated to passed hors d’oeuvres from the era, including mini portions of Hamburger Helper, TV dinners and tuna casserole along with fondue, Swedish meatballs and eventually, Jell-O. Ashleigh Banfield, Don Lemon, Brian Stelter, John Berman, Michael Smerconish, Kate Bolduan and Brooke Baldwin were among the CNN personalities spotted at the event." (TVNewser) Another rendering of 2 World Trade Center. Courtesy of World Trade Center. "The news that Rupert Murdoch’s media companies, 21st Century Fox and News Corp., have agreed to move to the World Trade Center downtown if Norman Foster’s design for the tower they would occupy, 2 World Trade Center, were abandoned in favor of a very different one by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels seems, at first, like a case of a distinguished older architect being pushed aside by a young upstart. Foster, after all, just marked his 80th birthday. Ingels turned 40 last October. But this change signifies more than Oedipal rumblings in the architectural world. It may say even more about the world of media, and not just Murdoch’s media. The announcement wasn’t made in a newspaper, or in the architectural press, or in some real estate journal. It was announced via an online posting in Wired, the technology magazine, that included a slickly produced video in which the telegenic Ingels, the founder of the firm BIG, presented his design for the building while walking around Tribeca and Ground Zero as a virtual image of his new tower rose behind him, populated by a racially diverse group of smiling workers, all to the music of Tchaikovsky. Once, Norman Foster’s firm was able to knock competitors out of the picture with its famously dazzling models and well-crafted, hardcover presentation books. Now, new media, captained by an architect who can be found on Instagram and Twitter as much as anywhere, appears to have squeezed Foster out. As anyone who plays computer games knows, you can now create moving images that look as real as any photographs. Who could fail to be seduced by a tour through a magical glass tower that features women lounging amid lavishly planted roof decks, happy workers playing in a basketball court in the sky, and a window cleaner who smiles and bows before a roomful of delighted occupants of the tower? This building is presented less as a design than as the star of a short little movie, populated by cheerful supporting characters: it hasn’t yet been built, but it already has a narrative. Here is where the employees of Fox News and Dow Jones, the Murdoch divisions that will be the primary occupants of the tower, will live happily ever after as they move media into the new age. The Murdoch enterprises are certainly going to the right place. Condé Nast (which owns Vanity Fair) has been in 1 World Trade Center since last fall, and Time Inc. is moving to Brookfield Place, just across West Street, later this year. As financial firms have migrated uptown, media companies have been seduced by the lower costs of relocating downtown, and the two industries have, for all intents and purposes, changed places." (VanityFair)

"Sounds of summer. At 8 o’clock in the evening, with my terrace door open, I could hear the motor of the ice cream truck in the street below, still parked and idling since mid-afternoon, catching the neighbors who had hit the Park after dinner and now returning home with a treat. Today is the 93rd anniversary of the birth of Judy Garland born on this day in 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Born in a trunk or something as legendary, as Frances Ethel Gumm, the youngest of the singing sisters who was put to work performing by the time she was four. Six or eight years later she was in Hollywood and on the brink of what would become a legendary talent. There have been many who are well apprised of such matters who claim Judy Garland was the greatest talent  in the history of the movies. She could sing, she could dance, she could act and could play comedy, all very well. However, as anyone who is familiar with her talent, it’s the singing. She was forty-seven when that talent died just twenty days after her birthday, on June 22, 1969. Washed up and drug- and booze-ridden, a sad sad tale of Dame Fortune." (NYSD)

Why Did it Take NBC So Long To Figure Out The Fate of Lester Holt?

If the reports are true, Lester Holt is poised to take over the duties of anchor for the NBC Evening News. My question is: why did it take this long? Why did the suits at NBC News drag their feet so long in an age that moves at digital speed?

Game-theorywise there seem to me to be only three viable options for Comcast: 1) Make Lester permanent; 2) get out of the TV network news business altogether (and don't looks back); or, 3) cue up another replacement anchor to usurp Lester in the Grand Pecking Order, and take his place (which, one cannot fail to note, did not work swellegantly with Anne Curry and Savannah Guthrie)

Options one and two seemed best and of the two, option one, at least for now, seemed the smartest. David Zurawik, on CNN's Reliable Sources, figured this out weeks ago. On May 31st he told Brian Stelter on Reliable Sources, "As a journalist, Brian, I don't think he can return to that anchor desk. He certainly can't return as managing editor and anchor." Bryan Burrough of Vanity Fair, another guest earlier pretty much said the same thing. Further, Zurawik -- a media critic and not a high paid NBC executive -- noted that letting Brian host hugely profitable "specials," like Dateline or even a 48 Hours type show would keep him useful to the network, vaguely in the news division and on-contract, making the network money.

Well put, and I think almost anyone who covers the media media -- Michael Wolff notwithstanding -- thought the chances of Williams returning to the anchor chair were slim. So, again: why did it take NBC so long? Why did they leave Lester Holt -- a well-respected loyalist, a hard worker, in the lurch?

Lester Holt has held onto most of the ratings of Brian Williams with almost none of the promotion. It could be argued that given time and promotion, Lester could probably dominate the evening news ratings and run a ship without scandal, as he is so respected at the network.

So why did it take "the suits" at NBC so long to figure this out? In taking so long to figure out what most media analysts figured out within a week of the whole imbroglio makes me wonder if sometimes TV executives are chosen for reasons other than an understanding of the present media landscape.

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Power; or Having It Your Way. The conversation du jour has been about Caitlyn Jenner and about Park Avenue Primates author Wednesday Martin. One has been stripped of gender and the other stripped of all privacy. Or is it primacy. The Jenner story had been on the shelf awaiting attention for quite sometime. Blair Sabol told me a couple of years ago that he was going to do this. That initially came as a shock. I met him a couple of times out there, just in passing, at the house of mutual friends. My only impression of him was that he was such a guy's guy, that All-American surfer macho. Arnold was a good chum. So the switch from him to her, was hard to imagine. How Blair knew back then, I don’t know but her “asides” are often right on the money. When asked what she thought about it, she said forthrightly that it was his way of taking back the fame and fortune that the Kardashians gained while he had been firstly the famous stepfather, now leaving him in the shadows. That sounded a little extreme, a far-out idea, to me. Radical at least. Although I lived in Hollywood where the only real (and imagined) heaven is Stardom.Now that it’s “over and done,” so to speak, it’s beginning to look like Blair was right. She’d also mentioned how he was going to draw this one out publicity-wise and get headlines and major interviews and god-know-what-else deals. And so it would seem. However, how would I know what motivates another? Bruce Jenner was always very talented at maintaining the strong public image that he acquired in his youth. It’s been his bread and butter all his life. There have been many other shiny Gold Medalists who did not extend their celebrity for decades via Hollywood. Jenner’s success in marketing himself is not just another pretty face with necklace of Olympic gold; it is pure show business shrewdness. And now she can be, and no doubt will be, just as shrewd, if not shrewder. Her fame in the world will now be on another level of interest, besides the transgender issue. She maybe up there with the American sailor George Jorgensen who was the first, who came back from Denmark in 1951 as Christine Jorgensen."  (NYSD)

Sylvia Chase at Michael's.

"Last Thursday Paige Peterson invited me to a lunch at Michael’s that she was giving for her friend Sylvia Chase who is a neighbor of Paige’s in Belvedere. I knew none of this until I looked it up. Belvedere means beautiful view. Wikipedia tells me that it is a small, very affluent city on two islands in Marin County, located a mile and a half from Sausalito. Judging from the photos on Google and knowing California as I do, I would agree, it is belvedere. I mention that little detail, aside from just having acquired it, because at this lunch I was seated on the right of the guest of honor, a serene, yet immediate woman with a youthful energy that always reminds me of California life. Sunny and smart. It is so prominent an image that it could almost obfuscate the woman’s professional career which was noteworthy as one of the original, and longtime, anchors, correspondents and producers on network television and most notably on the ABC News show 20/20. Sylvia, who is retired and now living in her home town of Belvedere – although she lived here in New York for years – was in New York to attend a reunion of 20/20-the-first-ten-years, a celebration at Columbia University.  The first presentation of this 37 year old ABC News program occurred in the summer of 1978. During those years, Sylvia said, 'we were all tummeling and churning and just trying to get an hour of news on the air on time every week.' Around that time, the late Roone Arledge, had been named president of not only Sports, but also News and he was intent on making ABC, ranked third back then in news programs, the winner that it became. Sylvia said that 'Roone's fearless, competitive and controversial emphasis in news gave ABC a hipper, raw edge and 20/20 in those first years was a little like a bomber fleet softening up the competition;' that it made for round-the-clock writing and editing, a crazy kind of work atmosphere and a band of co-conspirators who couldn't wait to see each other last Saturday at the 20/20 reunion at Columbia. That’s the background I got from Paige before the lunch since I did not know Sylvia, nor had I heard of her. As it turned out, besides myself, I knew only four of the 12 guests – Liz Smith, Nancy Collins, Cynthia McFadden and our hostess. The other five whom I didn’t know were all very important, longtime contributors to the ABC News show 20/20." (NYSD)

""Collecting her possessions she hustled downstairs and into a cab. A short ride and she was out of the cab and bustling up a fresh flight of stairs. She barely looked at the new home. Besides, daylight was fading, so she tucked into bed. She'd unpack tomorrow. She awoke to see it was still twilight. She had an urge to go out. She exited her her front door and she was in a courtyard, next to a tall gate. She did not remember the gate. After locking the door she started across the courtyard. But she heard a noise behind her and spun around. A man in a military uniform was holding a machine gun. The last bolts of sun made her invisible, it appeared, because he looked right through her. Following a path she passed statues, she entered follies. The park was of gigantic trees of varying blues and greens. 'Ouch!' Something had bit her ankle, leaving teeth marks and a rivulet of blood. Up an incline she found a circular room of stone with wide spaces from which to see views of forested hills. On a table stood a single champagne flute. She sat and sipped the sweet bubbles and slowly her eyes focused on a huge building of columns and arches and a tiled roof, all of it ending faraway in a chapel, topped by a gold cross. All around were white roses. Dusk had encroached. Then a thrashing sound splintered her tranquility. It was the man with the gun. 'Who are you?' he demanded, pointing the barrel of the gun at her. 'I live here,' she replied, uneasily. She saw him sliding his index finger around the trigger. She immediately replaced the champagne flute. Except, it was too late. She saw the trigger pressed. She felt the shattering bullet. 'Why?' she whispered, slumping, grasping for her chest, inching fingers into oozing warm blood. She sagged further. With sheer will she forced her body upright." (Christina Oxenberg)

Vanity Fair is Finally Thinking Like a Startup

Graydon Carter has a giant mission statement on his office wall saying that the 100-year old magazine should "Think Like A Startup." This is a good idea as print continues to languish, and everyone in legacy media -- including Time Inc. -- is pivoting, increasingly, towards digital. But it hasn't always been that way for the Conde Nast flagship.

Vanity Fair has a strong brand reputation as being the chronicle of record of Old Hollywood glamour. And that brand reputation has served them well over the years, especially when it comes to their ultra-exclusive Oscar party and the photographs that accompany that annual soiree. Jennifer Senior wrote in New York of Carter and his influence at Vanity Fair in 2000:

It occurs to me at this point that it's been easier to chat up Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck than Graydon Carter. The power he wields here is palpable. In Hollywood, says Bryan Lourd, a partner at CAA, "everyone is always courting Carter to some degree." Back in March, when the Internet was still blooming with cash and possibilities, Brian Grazer, co-founder of Imagine Entertainment, tried to lure him out to run pop.com, his Internet venture with DreamWorks and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. "You're the king of New York!" he gushed at the time. "You're like the pretty girl in high school that everyone wants!"


The pendulum swings. Fifteen years later, how much "buzz" can Old Hollywood have in this age of Buzzed and Vox? Photographs of Liz and Dick and Marilyn and Audrey can only get a publication -- print or digital -- just so far in an age of low attention spans and 24/7 media and cultural coverage. In the past few years Vanity Fair's print and digital presence comes off as curated by the old times set.

Vanity Fair is very well perched, however, to leverage its brand reputation. And it did, magnificently, with the Caitlyn Jenner cover. Aside from Old Hollywood glamour, Vanity Fair represents a sort of left-libertarianism suffused with "access" to the A-List that perfectly dovetails in their sympathetic advocacy for Caitlyn Jenner, who stands, proudly, at the axis of both Hollywood and libertarianism.

Let us hope that Vanity Fair will be pivoting further in this direction. People Magazine, another venerable media brand in the throes of its own digital pivot, might look to this smart editorial decision as perhaps a pathway to greater digital relevance.

Caitlyn Jenner Cover for Vanity Fair

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Somewhere in Scotland, and I was eight years old, I remember there were children running about, and we were near a lake. The late Princess Margaret, sister to the Queen of England, was one of the guests. Perhaps it was Easter. My cousins were there along with one of my three sisters. None of us sisters have much in common, they're ladylike while I was always a tomboy. My favorite cousin Dimitri and I are a few years apart in age but when we were together we were ...always looking to stir up fun. Some of us kids got into a small boat and rowed to the center of the lake. When we were far from land Dimitri and I started to rock the rowboat as violently as we could so that water splashed in over the sides. Soon my sister was screaming, 'I am too young to die'. This made us laugh and we rocked the boat all the harder. We forced her to beg for her life. When we tired with our game we rowed back to shore and released her. Because we were wet and my sister was crying grownups came over and told us we needed to change into dry clothes. For some reason Princess Margaret offered Dimitri her knee length brown leather coat. This was the late 60s, it was probably the height of chic. I remember her saying to him to please not ruin the coat." (Christina Oxenberg)



photo credit: Shutterstock

F. Scott Fitzgerald

"An operation on my hand after a karate injury has me reading more than usual, and even attempting Don DeLillo’s Underworld, but I soon give it up. Truman Capote famously said that On The Road was typing, not writing, but old Jack Kerouac was Jane Austen compared to some of the novelists of today. Making it sound easy is the hardest thing in writing, and I grant you that today’s modernists sure make it look easier than easy. But they’re also sloppy, self-indulgent and at times incomprehensible. What I don’t get is how one can enjoy a novel when the plot is not clear. When the reader doesn’t know what’s real and what’s imagined it’s time to regress and look up Papa and Scott and Graham and Jane. (Austen’s preoccupation with real estate, income, and class still resonates in today’s world. The sainted editor of the Spectator had to write a letter so I could get into a building in (NYC), and by evoking all three of Jane’s preoccupations, I got in.) Avoiding dullness is what great writers do, and amusing sinners are always better than pious dullards. Brio is what keeps a novel going, at least for little old me, and long windedness has me reaching for the remote and a soap opera. Speaking of writers, Saul Bellow has been in the news lately because of a massive biography by Zachary Leader, brilliantly reviewed in the Spectator and by every newspaper and magazine over in these shores. I am not a Bellow fan, too much information, as they say nowadays. The astute Norman Mailer described Bellow as 'a hostess to intellectual canapés.' I know exactly what he meant by it. It was an accurate assessment of Saul, as well as a kick in the balls. Bellow was a very Jewish writer, but unlike Philip Roth, of whom I’m a fan, he is more of a revenge novelist, he’s out to settle scores. His close buddy was Jack Ludwig, a fellow professor at Bard, a hothouse of radicalism, and obviously a gentleman of the old school! Ludwig was once asked if he knew Bellow, and he answered, “Know him, I’m fucking his wife!” He was doing just that, and Saul gave it to him in his fiction. Mind you, Hemingway did the same to some of the characters he knew in Paris during the Twenties, Loeb was Cohn and Lady Duff was Lady Brett and so on, but Papa’s characters were more of an inspiration than copies of the real thing. Fitzgerald was famously obsessed with the mysteries of great wealth, but back then wealth was something new among Americans. Poor old Scott wrote more about the ruinous effects of wealth, which is a very large theme even today." (Taki)

Photo: PatrickMcMullan.com

"The son of late fashion designer Oscar de la Renta is paying dearly for having fallen out with his father. Moises de la Renta, adopted by Oscar from an orphanage in their native Dominican Republic, was left a relatively threadbare portion of his dad’s $26 million estate — and was warned that if he ever tried to contest the will, he would be cut out completely, court documents show. Moises, 30, had angered his dad by launching his own women’s fashion line in 2005. His father, who outfitted such luminaries as Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Amal Clooney, apparently never forgave him. Oscar, who died in October at age 82, left most of his estate to his wife of 25 years, Annette, in his six-page will, signed several weeks before his death. Her haul includes all of Oscar’s belongings, plus his real estate holdings, including a $13 million Park Avenue apartment, $2.8 million Connecticut home and a Dominican estate." (P6)






"The talk, if you want to call it that, was about a book. 'Primates of Park Avenue; a memoir' (Simon & Schuster) by Wednesday Martin. The talk I was hearing was because of all the publicity Martin is getting for this new book. And who’s her publicist? Sandi Mendelson of Hilsinger Mendelson. Yes, she delivers. Of course it also depends on the deliverability of the product. I first heard about it a little more than a month ago when I entered Michael’s restaurant for lunch at the same time that Wednesday Martin did. I didn’t know her (and I don’t know her) although I’d seen her at Michael’s a number of times and we had had the occasion to meet in table-passing. I knew (I think she told me) that she was a writer. I concluded when we were introduced several months or more ago that she was an “ambitious writer” or at least an 'ambitious' professional women. Michael’s is a magnet for that, and rightfully so. And she is a frequent guest on Wednesday’s – the day to be seen by media.  So that was my Wednesday Martin story until last week when Sandi Mendelson told me the book was coming out, and sent me a copy. We set up a date for me to lunch with Wednesday on this Wednesday the day after tomorrow, at Michael’s. I already knew from our brief conversations that she was easy to talk to and quite open about herself. And forthright (versus forth-wrong). " (NYSD)

Inside Out at the YouTube Space NY #InsideOutYouTubeSpace

How do memories work? This questions as old as Philosophy itself, but the time it is asked by a turn of the millennium animation studio.

Last night the YouTube Space NY in Chelsea opened its doors to an interesting crowd for a preview of the new Pixar/Disney film Inside Out. As with any Disney/Pixar collaboration, the film has as much to say to kids as it does to the adults who bring them to the film. This film, in particular, is about the mystery of emotions. John Lasseter, the Pixar genius, according to the director and the producer of the film who conducted the informal talk, demands a lot of research to go into making these works. There was also an exhibition after the talk of the artwork that made the film, which is on display at the YouTube offices.

The talk given by producer Jonas Rivera and director Pete Docter veered around emotions, memory, childhood, the history of animation, the magic of Disney World, Pixar's history, and how they got so many big names to do the voiceovers. There was also a brilliant 6-minute clip of the movie that made me very, very excited to take my nephews and niece when the film comes out on June 19th. Further: Amy Poehler, who plays the emotion "Joy" is utterly and completely amazing as a "voiceover." I have a feeling Poehler is finally, deservedly, going to become a bona fide movie star this summer. There is also -- as always -- a touch of sadness (this time an actual character in the film) that gives Pixar films a patina of a beautiful bittersweetness that I always slightly associate with Schoolhouse Rock of Saturday mornings in the 1970s.

It occurred to me during the talk that the evergreen quality of the films and their continued relevance to kids as they grow up and view Pixar movies as formative life experiences/influences is because of this ability to speak simultaneously to the child and adult in us all. Doctor and Rivera repeatedly talked about how Disney films were a transformative experience for both of them and how they hope that these new Pixar films speak to the child in all of us.

Also among the crowd: Brandon Santoro, Alex E. Kang, David Barish, Yuki Nakamura, Jess Rudder and Ash Reid.

Media-Whore D'oeuvres

"Don't think of corporations, the term has been bastardized to the point where it means anybody or anything that has risen above and solidified an audience. That's who and what rules in the internet age. And it's harder than ever to get there. That's the untold story of the past five internet years. How we went from a free-for-all to solidification, how barriers to entry have been established that you may not be able to codify or see, but that are there nonetheless. The audience is overwhelmed with choice/input. Just think of TV. You've got the five hundred channels on cable plus Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. You can't see everything, you can't even try. It's overwhelming. So we gravitate to that which everybody else does. He or she who rises above becomes ever more popular. So a curator can be a brand. That's what's wrong with the playlists on Beats and Spotify. We have no idea who created them, and until we do, it's hard to pay attention. A curator we believe in will take us places we didn't previously choose to go, because we have faith in them. You know, a friend whose taste you trust who tells you to listen to something, which you don't like at first, but you slog through, because they said so. When a newspaper tells you to do something, you don't. That's what papers have lost, their credibility when it comes to the arts. They're in bed with the purveyors and have blown our trust. But now we've got a plethora of people trying to gain our trust online. And most are doing it for the money. Which turns us off, because so many of us are broke or challenged. We want like-minded people, in bed with us, to tell us what to do. This is the essence of the problem with the Tidal press conference, it was them versus us, no matter what they were trying to say. Curation is a nascent field. It's still being sorted out. In article curation, we've got Jason Hirschhorn, Dave Pell and the Skimm women. But Pell is a one man band, can he compete against Hirschhorn and the Skimm without investment? Just watch 'Shark Tank,' there's a tsunami of orders after you appear on the show, can you fulfill them?" (Bob Lefsetz)

The view from JH's purview on the Upper West last night at 7:30 PM. The rain clouds threatened but the rain never came.

"This is the time of year when the social calendar begins to let up because a lot of the denizens have left town. They’re headed for palmier, briskier places such as the East End or Newport or the woods and the lakes or Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire. And that’s just for starters.  I like all of that although I’m less interested on weekends in being in the company of others. I mainly like to read, work around the house (I’m an amateur hoarder — cleaning up always), to think, to write, to go to Zabar's and have dinner with friends, or no dinner with friends. It’s like a vacation. This is clearly an age thing. Fifty years ago I was on every plane, train, car, boat, that came my way. Fifty years ago I had to be entertained meeting the world, or my world. Now I’m back to the childhood boy: I like to entertain myself.  I like New York in summertime for just that reason. When the town empties out, it’s easier to move around by foot, bike or motor vehicle, and it’s easier to see the city which is full of its mesmerizing, hodge-podge, architectural polyglot of history that has been talking to us every day since the Dutch landed.On Sunday, I decided it was that time of the year to get a little garden of flora and fauna for my terrace. This is left over from my California life when they were everywhere and beautiful. I go down to the flower district on 27th Street and Seventh Avenue. The prices are very good; it’s very basic, and they have everything, most of which I don’t have space for. Besides I’m not really a gardener. I like the miracle of watching them grow, and feeding them, but a real gardener gets into it. It’s meditative and has many other restorative qualities." (NYSD)

Harry FitzRoy, the 12th Duke of Grafton, photographed at Euston Hall, in Suffolk, site of his Red Rooster music festival.

"On April 7, 2011, a day after his 33rd birthday, Henry Oliver Charles FitzRoy became Britain’s youngest duke, upon the death of his grandfather Hugh, His Grace the 11th Duke of Grafton. The distinction lasted just 22 days. 'I was gazumped by [Prince] William!' he says with mock indignation over the heir to the throne’s wedding-day creation as Duke of Cambridge. Still, Grafton remains England’s youngest nonroyal duke. Known as Harry, he presides over Euston Hall, a stupendous Palladian house in Suffolk, stocked with paintings by Van Dyck, Reynolds, and Stubbs, and set on 10,500 acres. Now Harry has become host of one of England’s most buzzed-about summer music festivals. Red Rooster, which debuted last year at Euston Hall, is back June 5 through 7 with another beguiling slate of R&B, blues, bluegrass, and country acts. Grafton became enamored with American music during the two years he lived in Nashville (2002–2004), where he worked at a music-management firm and hosted a weekly radio show. An 18-month stint on the Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang world tour followed. 'It was work hard, play hard, all the way,' he says. Now settled down with his wife, Olivia, an art historian, and their two-year-old, Alfred (another child is due in July), the 12th Duke of Grafton is currently consumed with a massive two-year renovation of the estate. 'I had to step up and get on with it,' he says." (VanityFair)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"It’s as good as it gets; a light rain is falling on a soft May evening and I’m walking north on a silent Park Avenue hoping to get into trouble. 14,000 yellow taxis have turned Manhattan into a Bengal hellhole, blasting their horns non-stop, picking up or disgorging passengers in the middle of traffic clogged streets, speeding and failing to yield to pedestrians, as the Big Bagel law requires. But on the Upper East Side, on a balmy evening, the yellow devils are causing havoc downtown, so I almost find myself singing in the rain as I head north far from the madding crowd. (Both puns unintended.)
Nicola’s is an Italian restaurant that used to be very much in fashion back in the Seventies and Eighties. I hadn’t been there for many years, but Michael Mailer insisted we go down memory lane, so we did. Nothing had changed. Nicola was the headwaiter at Elaine’s, until he told the fat lady to shove it, got fired and opened up his own place two blocks south. Nicola was no fool, except for his terrible coke habit, and he continued Elaine’s custom of showering attention on writers and journalists, back in those halcyon days the Hiltons and Kardashians of the time. Hacks covered Elaine’s and Nicola’s like a rash, and even the late great Nigel Dempster would ring from London and chat to the proprietors when stuck for a story. Nigel posed in front of Elaine’s for a cover story whose title was 'The Scum Also Rises.' Elaine used to put pictures of her regulars up on her walls – yours truly was between Hunter Thompson and Jack Richardson – so Nicola did one better. He put up book covers inside glass bookcases and sat the authors underneath them. My first book, published in 1976, got placed in the same glass case as Norman Mailer, something that didn’t exactly displease me enough to sue. Norman’s reaction was typical. He thanked Nicola for including him next to the great Greek writer no one had heard of." (Taki)

Lily Vonnegut, Oliver Sacks, and Jill Krementz in 2006. Photos Jeff Hirsch

"I spent a good part of the weekend finishing a book I’d started a week ago: 'On the Move; A Life' (Knopf, publishers) by Oliver Sacks. I don’t know Oliver Sacks and I’d only read a couple pieces he’d written for the New York Review of Books. As well as a neurologist, scientist, he’s written several books about his interests and his work, one of which was made into a film starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams, 'Awakenings.' Another book of his, 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat,' was on the New York Times bestseller list for 43 weeks. I was well aware of it but I never read it. I do not have an abiding interest in matters of science, be it medical science or any other area. Do I appreciate their discoveries and progress? Yes. Am I amazed? Yes. But in terms of personal interest, I would rather read a history of the men and women who built New York in the 1920s, the Jazz Age, as I did in the book I just finished — 'Supreme City; How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America' by Donald Miller.  Or Balzac. When I got to the last 50 of Miller’s 580-page book, for example, I wished it would just go on for another 500; more to learn. It must have been “The Man Who Mistook ...” that made me aware of Dr. Sacks. It’s also a solid name in sound, and even visually on paper. More than ten years ago, JH and I saw him a couple of times, in passing, at parties that Jill Krementz and Kurt Vonnegut occasionally gave in Jill’s studio. There were always a lot of artists and especially authors present. Dr. Sacks stands out in a crowd with his solid bearing — white hair and beard and his thick barrel chested and muscled physique. Under those circumstances — a cocktail party — he appeared to stand alone, not really engaged in conversation. I wondered about his personality but wouldn’t approach him. He was a kind of genius in my book — with great knowledge in an area where I am almost knowledge-less — and a scientific one as well. Ironically, I learned from reading his memoir that he and I share a similar social diffidence — a not wanting to intrude, or to bore. It’s also often more interesting just to observe." (NYSD)

Gallery assistant Sandra Handley poses for photographs with a lock of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s hair, contained in a 19th-century gilt locket at the Sotheby’s auction house in London on

"Auctioneer Sotheby’s is selling a lock of hair from the head of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, resting in a gilt locket.Taking composers’ hair as keepsakes was common in the 18th and 19th centuries.
After Mozart died in 1791, aged 35, his widow gave the hair to the mother of German composer Karl Anschutz. It was acquired by the late British composer Arthur Sommervell and is being sold by his family. The hair is up for auction Thursday with an estimated price of 10,000 pounds to 12,000 pounds ($15,400 to $18,450). The sale also includes a lock of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair and an invitation to his 1827 funeral, together valued at 2,000 pounds to 3,000 pounds ($3,100 to $4,600)." (P6)





"Below is the email that was sent to basically everyone with a blog this weekend about Isaac Lee, the CEO of Fusion, by what seems to be a former employee. (It was sent from what looked to be a throwaway Gmail address.) The email is about a layer of men in upper management at Fusion called the “Friends of Isaac Lee.” This phrase was included in this weekend’s rather critical New York Times article about Fusion—but seems to then have been removed from the story. (I did see the phrase’s inclusion myself; I read the story immediately after it was posted and remember laughing about it.)
Every media reporter in New York (of the very few that remain!) will be assessing these claims, so why shouldn’t we all know what’s being said? So here’s the whole email—with one redaction.
Links in the email include this story about Lee’s magazine Loft, this bad review of This is Not a Ball, this Kickstarter page for Gabriel Leigh film, and this al-Jazeera story about Didziulis’ 'right-wing' 'war propaganda' documentary on Iran. Do you have something to add or clarify? Let us know!" (Choire Sicha/TheAwl)

"Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, marked two decades at the country’s oldest weekly magazine with a voluminous 150^th anniversary edition that paired watershed pieces from the archives with fresh features.  The 268-page magazine opened with a reflection on The Nation’s roots in the abolition movement and its evolution through political and journalistic movements. Vanden Heuvel said The Nation’s legacy remains pertinent, pointing to a 1966 article by James Baldwin that described the 'No Knock, Stop and Frisk laws' in Harlem, as well as a video on the policing technique that was presented to the judge who deemed stop and frisk racially discriminatory. Vanden Heuvel spoke with City & State reporter Sarina Trangle about the magazine’s history, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s national platform and whether she plans to run for office." (CityandState)

Francis Rivera     

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is penning a memoir, covering his experiences as a child growing up in Alabama and his expansive career in civil service. "It's hard for me to believe it's been four decades in politics," McConnell, 73, said in a Tuesday interview with The Associated Press, which first reported news of the memoir. The book's working title, The Long Game, alludes to the legislator's endurance in the Senate. Last year, McConnell, who was first elected to the Senate in 1984, faced a difficult primary challenge against Matt Bevin, a conservative businessman, followed by a much-buzzed-about general election bid from Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. McConnell told the AP the book would be a 'candid assessment of the people I've worked with and negotiated with and some of the challenges and opportunities we've had over some 30 years in the Senate.' That suggests McConnell will also write about some of his political rivals in recent years, such as President Obama and Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.), his Democratic counterpart who currently serves as minority leader." (TheHill)

Book Launch: The Knockoff with Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

Yesterday evening Doubleday celebrated the launch of The Knockoff with Lucy Sykes Rellie and Jo Piazza at the Mulberry. The book is about the media world we live in, particularly print media in this digital age. Also the themes of ambition and rivalry -- two major themes in the workplace in a competitive city -- are explored when a magazine editor returns from a vacation to find she is replaced by her tech-savvy assistant, a nightmarish scenario that almost any print editor experiences regularly. Lucy and Jo handle it with breezy humor and it should be the most talked about beach book of the summer as it already is getting a lot of chat on Twitter.

It is astonishing how many media players showed up to support the two, who, between them, must know everyone in the New York fashion, banking and media worlds. Among the crowd: Yahoo! Travel editor Paula Froelich, Peter Davis, Dany Levy, Brana Dane, Richard Johnson, Mandy Stadtmiller, Caroline Waxler, Stacy Horowitz, David Barish, Vijay Pandurangan and DJ Chelsea Leland spinning with excellence.

Afterwards there was a dinner at Da Silvano's to celebrate the book. In many ways this was the start of Summer, a week or so away from Memorial Day, which is always a little bittersweet as so many people in media-fashion-banking travel to their various getaways. It was significant to assemble such a crowd at Da Silvano's on a perfect late Spring evening before everyones schedule becomes complicated. Euan Rellie, always the perfect host, needled me about the things I once wrote many years ago about him and his wife on this very blog. Over ten years ago -- yes, this blog is that old -- the New York blogosphere was under the thrall of snarky writing about the powerful and I regret to say that I was one of those voices. I had never met Euan or Lucy and wrote snarky things about them. I was young(it) and foolish and it should serve as a cautionary tale to writers everywhere in this digital age. Don't throw digital spitballs if you live in a glass house, or, better yet, you don't know someone until you meet them face-to-face and talk to them. So -- get away from the computer screen and meet the people and the influencers in the space that you are covering.