Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"There's one as yet unremarked constituency increasingly disturbed by some Republican senators' efforts to block the confirmation of former North Korea envoy Christopher Hill to be the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq: the U.S. military. Sources tell The Cable that Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus, top Iraq commander Gen. Raymond Odierno, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are frustrated by the delay in getting a U.S. ambassador confirmed and into place in Iraq, and support Hill's confirmation proceeding swiftly. Opposition to the Hill appointment has been led by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Brownback has called Hill's past dealings with Congress over North Korea 'evasive and unprofessional.' In a joint statement last week, McCain and Graham wrote that Hill had a 'controversial legacy' on North Korea, and added, 'The next ambassador should have experience in the Middle East and in working closely with the U.S. military in counterinsurgency or counterterrorism operations. Mr. Hill has neither.' Since the previous ambassador, Ryan Crocker, left the job Feb. 13, Odierno has complained of doing double duty: serving as the commanding general and the de facto ambassador." (ForeignPolicy)



(image via theage)

"This week, Prince Charles was in the land that time forgot, the Galapagos Islands, the archipelago that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. He was warning about species facing extinction, though curiously he failed to mention himself or the other rare breeds that roost under the eaves of the House of Windsor. Perhaps he knows something we don’t. He named a baby giant tortoise after his eldest son, Prince William, as speculation hared through the European media that he was intending to wed his longtime, on-off, on-again girlfriend Kate Middleton this summer. No less an authority than Point de Vue, a French magazine that once intimated that Princess Anne had been, shall we say, “overly familiar” with an entire soccer team, announced that European royals had been told to clear their diaries for the big event .. Meanwhile the House of Windsor plods on, its 1,000-year-old shell seemingly impervious to the shock of the new. Other European royal families have faced extinction because they have continued to paddle in the shallow end of the gene pool, insisting that royalty marries other royalty or high nobility. When the Windsors played the aristocrat card, their search for a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant virgin yielded Lady Diana Spencer, and look what a fine mess that got them into." (TheDailyBeast)



"Last night, W Hotels in New York hosted whistling sensations Peter Bjorn and John at their Lexington Avenue location as part of their W Wonderlust Live show series. Since May of 2008, W Hotels, Sony BMG and Mastercard have been offering their chi-chi guests semi-intimate concert experiences for the not-so-semi-expensive price tag of $549. To get folks prepared for another agitated-pop album from Peter Bjorn and John (Living Things is out on March 31st), a few lucky members of the media (yours truly included) were invited to enjoy a vamped and energy-laden performance from these sweet and humble Swedes. For 30 minutes, Peter sweated and jumped, Bjorn played his bass at every height level, John swayed in cadence to each beat of the drums and the crowd bobbed their heads along with Parker Posey, The Tings Tings and Julia Stiles. But people got downright giddy when Au Revoir Simone's Heather D'Angleo joined the boys to sing their party trick, 'Young Folks.'" (Papermag)

"Remember that big announcement about a new premium cable channel starting up by Viacom, Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate? Well, on Wednesday, Viacom prez/COO Philippe Dauman said at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit that 'Epix' was on track for an October launch." (DeadlineHollywoodDaily)



"Months after her district favored President Obama for president, Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack appears to have drawn an experienced Democratic challenger for her 2010 re-election bid: Democrat Steve Pougnet, mayor of Palm Springs. Pougnet recently filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission and established a campaign committee to run against the six-term incumbent. Bono Mack's southern California 45th District, which encompasses the cities of Palm Springs and Moreno Valley, has past exhibited a Republican lean, supporting Bono Mack for re-election and President Bush with 56 percent of the vote in 2004. But in 2008, while Bono Mack won re-election over Democratic educator Julie Bornstein with 58 percent, district voters favored Barack Obama 52 percent to 47 percent, according to a CQ vote analysis. Bono Mack is one of 34 'Obama Republicans' who won re-election in 2008 in districts carried by Obama." (CQPolitics)



(Anne Hathaway, Bruce Hoeksema, Blythe Danner, and Charlie Rose via JH/NYSocialDiary)

"Life for Valentino and Giancarlo is like the dream marriage for anyone who ever dreamed of marriage. Incredible cooperation, amazing ability to give and take, to give space and to remain in sync; focused and unfettered. No one one has to change for the other. Disagreements aired, stirred up, aired again, stirred up and finally, like the dress with the sequins and the ruffles and the ribbons, finished. And on to the next. Is it true or just a movie? Well, they’ve been together now for FIFTY years, and as Giancarlo says in the film about life with Valentino: In those fifty years he’s been in the man’s (each other’s) company every day except for a total of maybe two months out of 600 (a half century). This is a documentary about life as a business, and business as a life .." (NYSocialDiary)

"The dethroned New York governor, a full year into the role of mere citizen, has thrust himself into the strident debate over the spending habits of the government dependent A.I.G. He wrote about it in his column on Tuesday for the online magazine Slate, then augmented that with an unusual 18-minute appearance on Wednesday morning on Brian Lehrer’s radio program. His central point was that the millions of dollars in bonuses ought to be overshadowed by what he sees as the more flagrant offense by A.I.G., shepherding billions in bailout money to its trading partners." (NYTimes)

"SALMAN Rushdie and date dining at Da Silvano with Bernard Henri-Levi and Daphne Guinness, in her black-and-white-striped mane and 7-inch heels." (PageSix)



"The men’s NCAA basketball tournament tips off in earnest today at noon on CBS, after Tuesday’s inconsequential play-in game, with two top seeds in action and many traditional powers, including North Carolina and Duke, favored to do well. Whether the tourney will draw higher ratings this year, with money-strapped viewers looking for cheap entertainment, remains to be seen, though it’s generally the storylines that draw in more people. When popular teams like UNC and the Blue Devils do well, ratings tend to rise, despite the perception that Cinderella teams fuel strong ratings. (They don’t.) Last year 136.8 million people tuned in to at least one minute of the tourney, and 24.6 million households watched some portion of the first-round games. All told, 56 million households tuned into at least a few minutes of a March Madness game, according to Nielsen." (Medialifemagazine)

"Today is the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War, begun March 19, 2003. I can't find it on HuffPo's front page, or anywhere. Wow." (Rachel Sklar)

"A rally in European and UK stocks gathered pace on Thursday and predictions for the US market open improved in what many saw as a belated reaction to news overnight of the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy $300bn of US Treasuries. Oil jumped above $50 a barrel a barrel and copper prices hit a four-month high on the belief that the Federal Reserve’s intervention in the Treasury market would increase investors’ appetite for risk." (FT)



"Judi Krant’s 'Made in China' won the narrative jury prize, while Bill Ross’ '45365' won best documentary tonight at an informal awards presentation at the Austin Convention Center, closing out the main part of the South by Southwest Conference and Festival (SXSW). In the Audience Award categories, Scott Teems’s 'That Evening Sun' and Geralyn Pezanoski’s 'Mine' won best narrative and doc respectively, while the audience nod in the Emerging Visions category went to Jennifer Steinman’s 'Motherland.' Winners in SXSW’s 24 Beats Per Second and Lone Star States sections will be announced Friday." (Indiewire)