Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(Naomi Campbell and Vladislav Doronin via bestweekever)

"THEY are larger-than-life figures at home and abroad, men who saw themselves as the Carnegies or Rockefellers of Russia. They are known as oligarchs, and they may soon be thrown into the dustbin of history by the economic crisis. Brash, young and wealthy, those insiders of post-Soviet business who escaped nationalization — to say nothing of exile or prison — under Vladimir V. Putin went on to make ever greater fortunes in the commodity boom of recent years. But few businessmen anywhere have fallen as hard or as fast in recent months. Many of Russia’s richest men were highly leveraged going into the financial crisis and were unable to roll over loans from Western banks. The Kremlin bailed them out with short-term credits last year, not wanting the assets to fall into foreign hands. Those state loans will be coming due by the end of the year, on top of additional foreign loans. The mountain of debt is so huge — the Central Bank calculates that corporations and banks in Russia must repay $128 billion this year alone — that many oligarchs will be unable to repay the loans, bankers say." (NYTimes)

"At eleven-thirty yesterday (Sunday) morning I was in the kitchen and had the terrace door off my living room open wide. It was that warm out, and what seemed like a luxury, 'fresh' air was wafting in. Suddenly there were a lot of sirens in the area and they were all coming to a stop right in front of my building. Three ambulances, four squad cars, two fire trucks almost filling up the block. There were a lot of people standing around in front of the building and in the blocks across the street – unusual for this time on this day. People looking. From my terrace I could see firemen, policemen and medical attendants entering the building .. And it turned out, I learned within the hour, that the man they were there for was someone I knew, not well but for many years, and with whom I shared mutual friends and acquaintances. His name was Dan Hirsch. He was a man in his late sixties or so, glasses, graying brownish hair, probably no more than 70 .. He jumped yesterday morning from his eleventh story apartment window onto the second or third story annex to the back of our apartment building. A neighbor in 7 Gracie Square around the corner had heard a scream and then a thud. He looked out and saw the body. He called 911. He told me later that there were 20 people present at the scene within minutes. Dan Hirsch had departed this world. I didn’t know him well enough to know what would motivate this. There may be no one who knew him well enough to know; such is the riddle of the psyche. I was told that he had suffered great financial reversals in these markets and lost a good portion if not all of his assets. Was that enough of a motivation?" (NYSocialDiary)

"The Franco-American crowd at La Paiva last night marked the best of both designer worlds, with Vanessa Seward and Bruno Frisoni cocktailing alongside Elise Øverland and Victoria Bartlett. The Daily and Jason Wu hosted a dinner at the new Champs-Élysées hotspot to celebrate Fashion Week and the general notion that despite the malaise, Chic Must Go On! 'I have his music on my iPod!' said Roopal Patel after meeting Bertrand Burgalat, Seward's husband and a prominent musician who draws legions of fashion fans at every Azzaro presentation. The civilized crowd of early Wu adopters Linda Fargo, Patel and Ken Downing admired the laser-cut LYCRA bodysuit worn by Andre J., in town for his first Paris Fashion Week. Patel asked if he had a favorite fairy tale. 'Oh, honey, I feel like the Wizard of Oz at this party,' he said. 'Except I don't want to tap my shoes and return to Kansas anytime soon!'" (Fashionweekdaily)



(image via maryferell)

"The very notion of another Great Depression is quite scary, though few remember the first one, which lasted through the 1930s. But as the economy sinks further, more and more are drawing comparisons, including top government officials. What should President Barack Obama do, we ask. Then, what did Roosevelt do? Never mind that the times are so different. That's leading to a lot of reading and rereading of history, and one of the books seeing a bump in sales is the classic 'The Great Crash, 1929' by John Kenneth Galbraith, written more than a half century ago, in 1954. Indeed copies are flying off the shelves In the U.S., 10 times as many copies were sold in 2008 than the year before, and in the UK the book briefly hit the top 20 list on Amazon for a period recently. 'While John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash, 1929 has been a steady seller for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for years, sales began to increase as the economy took a downturn,' says Ken Carpenter, vice president, director of trade paperbacks at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in New York." (Medialifemagazine)



(Peaches Geldof and Cory Kennedy via papermag)

"Designers Chrissie Miller and Madeleine von Froomer, of the fabulous line Sophomore, came to Paris to show off their adorable duds, and while there decided to throw a shindig at le Baron. Naturally all the hipsters rushed on over. Alexander Wang, Cory Kennedy, Peaches Geldof, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, the kids from Opening Ceremony, Pam Anderson and the Lady Bunny. Okay so those last two aren't hipsters. Pam was in town walking the runway at Vivienne Westwood and Bunny is in town to DJ the Barbie/Visionaire party at Colette. Fun fun fun!!! And how cute is the photographer that all the ladies went crazy for (not to mention a few of the men and one sexy, blonde, drag queen!!)" (Papermag)

"PSFK will host PSFK Conference New York in Battery Park. The event celebrates the most creative ideas and inspirational organizations emerging from the city - people who we write about on our daily news site at PSFK.com. Tailored for creative professionals, strategists and the media, we will host 12 lectures and panels in topics that include arts & culture, design, digital & mobile technology, marketing & advertising, sustainability, social media and publishing .. Past speakers and panelists include creative visionaries and innovators from companies like Apple, BBC, Microsoft, MTV, NASA, Panasonic, Starbucks, Wieden + Kennedy, and the Guardian, and globally-recognized and inspiring creative minds including Shepard Fairey, Kate Moross and Jeff Staple." (psfkconferencenyc09)



(de kooning via smcvt)

"If you want to spend $30 million on a de Kooning, you can check what is in the catalogs of the coming Sotheby's and Christie's sales.But if you do not find what you want, you will probably call (Larry) Gagosian. One of his talents is simply ingratiating himself with the richest collectors in the world, which gives him access to their homes, which allows him to take note of what great works are where. By all accounts he has an excellent memory, but his secret weapon, if it can be called that, is the lowly camera, which he has been known to use surreptitiously. 'I was in Larry's office once and I saw Polaroids of pieces that were in my home,' says Douglas Cramer, a former television executive and longtime collector. Cramer was startled, then amused, and surmises that Gagosian took the photos while Cramer was answering the phone or in the bathroom: 'What do you say to someone who at that point is a good friend, who is getting you all this great art?'" (IHT)

"Mixed leadership for the night with CBS drawing the most overall viewers and ABC winning both the 18-49 and 18-34 age demographics. Daylight saving time was back, and The Amazing Race just edged out Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the 8pm hour. At 9pm a waning Desperate Housewives still easily won the hour, though Family Guy from 9p-9:30 scored the highest 18-34 numbers for the period. ABC’s Brothers & Sisters easily won the 10pm hour. The Celebrity Apprentice was down from its premiere, but two hours worth averaged over a 3.0 rating in adults 18-49, so I’m sure NBC will take it. Update: those curious about Breaking Bad’s season two premiere at 10pm, it averaged 1.7 million according to AMC." (TVBytheNumbers/Nielsens)

"DL Hughley: Why do we call him Michael Steele? He folded so fast when Rush barked we should call him aluminum. [Or Michael Plastic.]" (ToureX/Twitter)

"Howard said he went to the Knicks game on Saturday night and sat next to a very vocal Tracy Morgan: 'The Knicks City Dancers came out and he said to his kid, There's your future mother!' Howard declared that Tracy was cutting it up the entire game: 'He said, You know Octomom? I'm the father of three of those babies!" (HowardStern/Rundown)