Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Steve Kroft will be Howard Kurtz's guest on the Reliable Sources portion of CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday morning. Kroft is interviewing Pres. Obama at this hour in the Oval Office. The interview airs Sunday night on '60 Minutes.' Reliable Sources airs Sunday at 10amET on CNN." (TVNewser)

"Obama will call for increased oversight of 'executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies' as part of sweeping plan to 'overhaul financial regulation', NY TIMES reporting Sunday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE" (Drudgereport)

"The federal government will announce as soon as Monday a three-pronged plan to rid the financial system of toxic assets, betting that investors will be attracted to the combination of discount prices and government assistance. But the framework, designed to expand existing programs and create new ones, relies heavily on participation from private-sector investors. They've been the target of a virulent anti-Wall Street backlash from Washington in the wake of the American International Group Inc. bonus furor. As a result, many investors have expressed concern about doing business with the government in this climate -- potentially casting a cloud over the program's prospects. The administration plans to contribute between $75 billion and $100 billion in new capital to the effort, although that amount could expand down the road .. Whether these programs will work as anticipated depends in part on how Wall Street investors react to the AIG furor this week. Congress is moving to clamp down on anyone receiving financial aid by severely taxing bonus payments. More broadly, investors have become leery about signing on to government programs for fear Congress will abruptly change the rules. Hedge funds, for example, which stand to make sizable profits from participating, worry they won't be able to keep their gains if the mood swing further against Wall Street." (WSJ)



"The first time I watched Poison's episode of Behind the Music — the first, I might add, of what would prove to be many, many viewings — I was struck by something. No, it wasn't C.C. DeVille's aureole of peroxide-white hair, which made him resemble a snow monkey from the mountains of Honshu. Actually, I was surprised by Poison's affable, articulate frontman, Bret Michaels. He came off like a friendly Pennsylvania boy, chatting candidly about everything from his sex tape with Pamela Anderson to his battle with the disease he charmingly pronounced 'diabeetus.'" (Diablo Cody/EW)



"Ms. Cody won an Oscar for her screenplay for 'Juno.' Ms. Scafaria is the screenwriter for 'Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.' If any of the 100 members of the Writers Guild of America who heard them speak on this recent evening wondered how the women act when they are not in front of an audience, the answer would have been, pretty much the same. Except for one thing: Ms. Scafaria and Ms. Cody are usually not a duo, but half of a quartet. With their pals Dana Fox, who wrote 'What Happens in Vegas,' and Liz Meriwether, a playwright-turned-screenwriter, they make up a Hollywood powerhouse writing posse who call themselves 'The Fempire.'You can find them at work in their Laurel Canyon homes in their pajamas, or sitting next to one another at laptop-friendly restaurants. To see them gathered amid the dinosaur topiary around Ms. Fox’s swimming pool with their dogs (they all have dogs) is to see four distinct styles of glamour that bear little resemblance to traditional images of behind-the-scenes talent. Whenever one of them has a movie opening, they all rent a white limousine and go from theater to theater to watch the first audiences react." (NYT/Style)



"You know that we are deeply set in a recession when our own favorite top tier gay socialites have to start stealing to make ends meet. It seems that Paul Johnson-Calderon (Paper Magazine writer and Peter Davis’ ex-beau) had a little case of the Recession Blues on Wednesday night at The Eldridge when he decided to leave with a young lady’s purse (not his own). Our tip line has been bursting at the seams all day, but we were going to give PJC the benefit of the doubt and wait to get the facts straight. Then we got some hard core proof (see security camera shot at left) and decided to post (alas, we do have a job to do) ." (Guestofaguest)

"(The) Top 100 Rated TV Shows Of All Time. The list is ordered by rating, not viewership as is typical with the other lists presented on our site. These are not the top 100 with the greatest viewership, but the top 100 ratings. That is, those with the highest percentage of the US TV households at the time that watched them." (TVBythenumbers)

"The government is trying to head off the country’s severe population decline by luring back Russians who live abroad as well as their descendants. Mr. Reutov and several dozen other members of his religious community from Uruguay have become among the most striking examples of this policy. Moscow has spent $300 million in the past two years to get the repatriation program started, and officials estimated that more than 25 million people were eligible, many of them ethnic Russians who found themselves living in former Soviet republics after the Soviet collapse in 1991. But the government is not limiting itself to Russia’s neighbors, sending emissaries around the world to sell the program. One even went to Brazil last month to meet with residents of several countries who, like Mr. Reutov, are Old Believers, whose followers have some similarities in lifestyle to the Amish. Diaspora Old Believer communities exist worldwide, including in Alaska and Oregon." (NYT)



"Despite the molten sexuality oozing from the giant images on the walls of the pristine space on Mulberry Street, the party Byrdie Bell and Julia Restoin-Roitfeld hosted for shoe designer Brian Atwood on Thursday night was a straight-up family affair." (Style)

"Howard (Stern) said that he is blown out by this story about Natasha Richardson. He said that she took a fall while skiing and now she's dead. Howard said there were Paparazzi outside of Liam Neeson's apartment building yesterday just waiting for the guy to come out. He said that it's like cockroaches. He said he knows they have to make a living but the guy's wife just died in a horrible way. Howard said that Liam didn't do anything to hurt anyone. He said that they're harassing the guy and they should be swept off the street so the guy can have some peace." (Marksfriggin)

"It’s past midway in March and the slopes still don’t have that used-up look which comes by the end of February. No gritty slush, just beautiful pure powder tracked only by furry things such as foxes and deer. While out cross-country skiing, I feel elated by animal tracks next to my own, a great silence enveloping the bowl where I’m skiing, without a human in sight. It could be Russia, with giant pines lining my path, the river slapping on the ice along the edges. Yet it’s only Lauenen, seven klicks from the glitz of Gstaad .. On alternate days I ski downhill the impeccably groomed slopes of Les Diablerets ..Glacier skiing is easy in Les Diablerets, a tongue of ice and snow about two miles across and ten miles long, give or take a mile or two. Fifteen years ago, skiing alone, I ran into a wall of snow at full speed, tearing my rotator cuff on my right shoulder and briefly knocking myself out. I think it was the aftermath that turned me into a girlie-man. It was getting dark, I was still on the top ridge, my arm was useless and I was in pain. Worse, I was not familiar with the bloody mountain, having skied it only on very sunny days. Still, I made it down just as pitch darkness set in. The Swiss doc told me to act like a man and ignore the pain. The X-ray revealed a tear the size of Gordon Brown’s ego." (Taki/The Speccie)

"HARRISON Ford and Al Pacino doing lines from each other's movies at Andrew Stein's dinner at Le Cirque .." (PageSix)