Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(The Noels via NyMag)

The problem with the Noels is that when they were riding high they were not discreet about it. They’d probably deny it but considering how much attention they drew to themselves, what else would you call it? And there were complaints by those who felt ignored or 'snubbed' by the daughters who were always smiling but often directing it beyond whomever they were in the presence of. There were complaints among the overlooked, but very sotto voce -- because people wanted to be 'invited.' That is the key here. 'Invited.' The world that the Noels were prospecting and then mining and then dominating is full of this kind of folderol.(NYSocialDiary)

"December 11, 2008, began much like any other day for Walter Noel: the tall, silver-haired, 78-year-old businessman strolled into the headquarters of his Fairfield Greenwich Group, on Manhattan’s East 52nd Street. Then employing around 140 people, the company was a (supposedly) diversified alternative investment fund with $14.1 billion under management. Despite the recent turmoil of markets and the massive global demand for redemptions by investors terrified by the credit crisis, Noel was calm and collected, as usual. He had semi-retired two and a half years previously, worked on his golf game, and handed over day-to-day operations to the younger people at his firm, but he still went in to the office most days. That morning F.G.G. salesman Andrew Douglass was on the phone with a potential investor, pitching a new fund that would invest with top Wall Street broker Bernie Madoff. The fund was named Emerald, and Douglass told the investor that F.G.G. had already raised at least $50 million to put into it. Suddenly a news bulletin came over the Bloomberg wire: Madoff had reportedly confessed to his sons the night before that he’d been running a giant, $50 billion Ponzi scheme for years. 'It [his investment strategy] was all a big lie,' he’d apparently told them." (VanityFair)



(image via style)

"Milan is full of historic palaces waiting to be transformed into spectacular contemporary venues. Tonight, it was the turn of the Palazzo della Ragione, a frescoed masterpiece of thirteenth-century architecture that had been made over into the launching pad for the exhibition Extreme Beauty in Vogue. A selection of images drawn from 75 years of the magazine's American edition highlighted conceptual—often arrestingly so—approaches to the female physiognomy. With co-hosts Anna Wintour, Domenico Dolce, and Stefano Gabbana, as well as Franca Sozzani and the mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, listed on the invitation, the evening was guaranteed a major turnout, a Milanese equivalent of Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum blowout. ... But, this being Italy, there was also a family feel. All of the Missonis, for instance, were out in force. And Morley Safer, there with a 60 Minutes crew, was an avuncular presence. 'It's all alien,' he mused as he gazed at the oncoming throng of invitees, among them Karl Lagerfeld, a man who has done as much to define extreme beauty as any designer on the face of the planet." (Style)



(Alek Wek via nachofoto)

"And then, downtown, oh honey, The TriBeCa Ball, the fundraising gala for the New York Academy of Art, now in its 26th year, was held at the NYAA on 111 Franklin, drawing its longtime patrons, artists, benefactors, gallerists and glitterati for the revels. All types beat a path to its doors including Alek Wek, Andre Balazs, Heather Mnuchin, Jason Wu, Justin Timberlake, Kate Spade, Liv Schreiber, Monet Mazur, Nicole Miller, Poppy de Villeneuve and .. even Bill Clinton showed up! Was that major or what? Honorary chairs were April Gornik and Eric Fischl, Naomi Watts and Mr. Schreiber, Mr. Balazs, the ubiquitous Padma Lakshmi and Jenny Saville. Co-founded in 1982 by Andy Warhol and Tom Wolfe, it’s still hot .." (NYSocialDiary)

"The first step must be to establish a cease-fire that builds on the common interests of both Israel and Hamas to avoid fighting in the short term. The last such cease-fire, negotiated in June 2008, was badly designed -- as the recent war in Gaza made clear. The agreement was unwritten, and the two sides had different interpretations of what it contained. A new cease-fire should be clear and perhaps even written. Mediators must be willing to make an agreement more attractive to both sides to maintain (Hamas can be enticed by some opening of the border with Egypt; Israel will demand serious efforts to halt the supply of arms to Hamas). Such a cease-fire would admittedly be more difficult to conclude than the last one. There's an important general lesson here: Everywhere it turns, the United States is struggling merely to recover what it could have had for a much lower cost, and much less effort, earlier. The Bush administration squandered the quiet provided by the last cease-fire on futile diplomacy among weak and lame-duck leaders. The Obama administration should avoid making the same mistake. Rather than chasing an elusive peace, George Mitchell, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, should focus on stretching a short-term cease-fire into a medium-term armistice -- a modus vivendi in which Israelis and Palestinians live without hurting each other for five to 10 years." (ForeignPolicy)

"Watchmen doesn’t open until Friday, but Fandango is already seeing the film snap up 61% of the online ticket site’s sales. Dozens of Thursday midnight showtimes for the film are already sold out from New York City to Dallas to San Diego. ver the weekend, Fandango surveyed moviegoers planning to screen Watchmen ..60% have read the Watchmen graphic novel .. -- 73% are male ..65% are aged 18 to 34." (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)

"In an interview with The Daily Beast, Erik Prince, the outgoing CEO of Blackwater Worldwide, said his decision to step down from the company today, along with longtime executive Gary Jackson, is part of the business' natural evolution .. Prince said that Blackwater's new president, Joe Yorio, would be better suited to cement its position as a large-scale international company rather than the smaller domestic operation he founded in 1997. He likened the process to 'sending the business off to college' .. In December, federal prosecutors charged five Blackwater employees with 14 counts of manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter, the result of an investigation into a 2007 shootout in Baghdad in which some 17 Iraqis were killed. According to prosecutors, at least 14 Iraqis—all civilians—were killed directly by Blackwater employees, who allegedly fired a grenade into a girls' school and shot at unarmed innocents fleeing the battle. A sixth employee has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the case. The remaining defendants' attorneys contend they were acting in self defense. The case cemented Blackwater’s reputation for trigger-happy recklessness that's led critics in Washington and the military to condemn the company for failing to professionally carry out its operations." (TheDailyBeast)

"The Principe bar got some Hollywood A-list action Saturday when Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto dropped by--she's in town for the opening of the Extreme Beauty in Vogue exhibition, the week's hottest ticket .. As waiters were summoned for champagne refills, Eva Mendes stood from her comfy club chair with an exaggerated yawn. 'Good night, baby,' she said, bise-ing Malcolm Carfrae, who's in town with Francisco Costa .. Carfrae was summarily pummeled with questions about the Vanity Fair Oscar bash, which he attended with Costa, but sadly, he offered up very little scoop. 'We were so honored to be included,' he said respectfully, passing up what could've been a perfectly entertaining Brangelina dish session." (Fashionweekdaily)

"On 1 February 2009, the conservative wing of Iran's 290-member parliament (known as the Fraktion-e Usulgarayan in Persian) witnessed the establishment of a smaller group identified as the Islamic Revolution Caucus with the stated objective of supporting the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. This 40-member group, out of the more than 200-member conservative wing in the parliament, constitutes the fourth sub-group among the conservatives since the last parliamentary election in March 2008.

"Iran's conservative parliamentary majority is divided over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies and personality .. Divisions are not unusual in Iran's highly contentious political environment. In the past session of the parliament, several groups expressed dissatisfaction at the conservative leadership's actions. But the Islamic Revolution Caucus is not a split; it is simply a new parliamentary sub-group that aimed to re-elect a sitting president. This is unusual in that it reflects a concern about the possible challenge Ahmadinejad may face among conservatives." (Janes)

"WHITNEY Houston's going simple. A quiet life in Atlanta with daughter Bobbi. Even closed her staffed office in Newark." (CindyAdams)

"One more warning sign of the crumbling field that is journalism: a once-sacrosanct wall is coming down – the one between reporters and the people they cover in politics. These days so many journalists are crossing over to join the pols -- some of them crossing back again whenever the opportunity presents itself -- that there are few signs the wall ever existed. Think Linda Douglass, who left her post as congressional correspondent for ABC News last year to work for then presidential candidate Barack Obama and now is in line to serve as an assistant secretary of Health and Human Services. Or Jay Carney, once Washington bureau chief at Time magazine, now press secretary to Vice President Biden .. Susan Molinari is a former congresswoman from New York who raised eyebrows when she left Congress to become a CBS news anchor before settling into her current role as political strategist at D.C.’s Bracewell & Giuliani. 'I’m not surprised,' she said of the recent spate of journalists entering politics. 'For generations, journalists and politicians had a symbiotic relationship.' Howard Rosenberg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former television critic for the Los Angeles Times, sees the situation as far less benign. A journalist who goes to work as a press secretary can understand journalists' needs, but 'when you become somebody's press secretary, I no longer regard you as a journalist,' he said." (TheWrap)

"Top Democrats looking for more details over how the Obama administration will shrink the growing deficit will get the chance to press the president's top budget aides on Tuesday .. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and other centrist Democrats have said they want more focus on reducing the budget in future years. Conrad said Thursday, after Obama's budget plan was unveiled, that reducing the deficit to 3 percent of GDP over the next five years would be 'a good accomplishment' .. Conrad, centrist Democrats such as Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), and Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, have called for a bipartisan task force that would come up with a plan to reduce the deficit and restore the country's fiscal health." (TheHill)

"Mark Ronson stepped out last night with yet another member of his seemingly endless clan. This time it was younger sister Charlotte, the 31-year-old New York fashion designer and twin sister of DJ Samantha. They were at the Evaristo club in Soho, where they partied until the early hours of this morning with Klaxons frontman Jamie Reynolds." (Thisislondon)

"Two U.S. officials are being sent to Damascus for talks with Syrian officials on improving ties, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced — a sign of the Obama administration’s interest in moving quickly on several fronts in the Middle East. The move also signals that the administration wants to explore whether it can move Syria away from its close relationship with Iran and enlist its help in a range of Middle East issues, including stabilizing Lebanon, reviving peace talks with Israel, and helping in Iraq." (Politico)