Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



(image via JH/NYSocialDiary)

"Last night at Lincoln Center, the School of American Ballet celebrated its 75th anniversary at their annual Winter Ball held on the Promenade of the David H. Koch (formerly New York State) Theater. This was a dressy affair – black tie, with the women in long dresses and really pulling out the stops for fashion. Cocktails were called for 7 followed by dinner at 8 .. Founding chairmen were Coco Kopelman and Liz Peek. Chairmen were Robert and Effie Friboiurg and Pamela Joyner. Corporate chair was Nicolas Luchsinger of Van Cleef and Arpels who sponsored the evening. Young patron chairs were Chelsea Clinton, Stacey Bendet Eisner, Kate Davidson Hudson. The Encore chairs were Sara Mearns, Katie Peek, Amar Ramasar and Alexis Tobin. The Encore was the after-party (compliments of Zang Toi)." (NYSocialDiary)



(image via Caroline Torem-Craig/Papermag)

"This year, the School of American Ballet celebrated its 75th anniversary at Lincoln Center with the Winter Ball. The always glamorous event began with a cocktail hour, where the most amazing selection of canapes and hors d'oeuvres were passed around -- think caramelized bacon served on silver platters. Next was the black tie dinner, sponsored by Van Cleef and Arpels, and then the after-party, sponsored by Zang Toi, who arrived with a bevy of beauties including Miss USA, Crystal Stewart, dressed in one of his spectacular gowns. Sarah Jessica Parker looked so slinky and different, so 'Cabaret,' and everyone was excited to be graced with the presence of brand new White House social secretary Desiree Rogers." (Papermag)

"McCain Twitters. Lately, he’s been doing almost daily top-ten lists of the omnibus bill’s 'porkiest projects.' McCain’s embrace of the micro-blogging social network—he’s posted updates 173 times since starting his account in late January—has little to do with the frenetic 'friending' model my fellow Beastian Mark McKinnon wrote about last month. Rather, McCain uses Twitter much as, well, I do: a personal mini-soapbox/stand-up gig/snark in 140 characters or less. Notoriously tech-unsavvy, the computerless McCain seems an unlikely early adopter. But, as McCain was fond of saying (and saying and saying) on the campaign trail, 'If you live long enough, anything can happen.' Actually, McCain’s Twittering career took off quickly once it started. Though his Twittering initiative—Twitnitiative?—began life under the direction of his communications staff, he quickly became enamored with the service and started texting the messages in himself. 'He LOVES it,' says Brooke Buchanan, his communications director. 'LOVES it.'" (Ana Marie Cox/TheDailyBeast)



"Jeremy Scott's front row was music music music (okay and some hipsters) with Beth Ditto of The Gossip, Roisin Murphy and Kanye West. There was a Mickey Mouse theme and we gagged over the polka dot pumps and Mickey Mouse sneakers Jeremy did for adidas originals!!!" (Paris Fall '09 Collections/Papermag)



"'I wanted this to be a celebration that many people were invited to,' explained Alber Elbaz after his uplifting Lanvin show .."He's modern! He's joyous! He's fantastic!" raved Patrick Demarchelier, while a few seats down Bianca and Jade Jagger had a memorable family night out. 'I came to Paris to see Jade's collection. We rarely get to go to shows together and we're both in Lanvin,' explained Bianca. 'I've been doing a lot of work in Brazil in rainforests trying to call attention that we're not just having a financial crisis but a climate one too. Otherwise, there will be no future for our children and our grandchildren.'" (Fashionweekdaily)

"Members of U2, the ultimate do-gooder rock band now busy promoting their first studio album in five years, are being blasted as hypocrites and sell-outs who have turned their back on their most faithful fans and moved key assets offshore to escape Irish taxes at a time when their country desperately needs the money. The band may be staging an impeccable roll-out for its new collection of songs, 'No Line on the Horizon' -- they spent a week in London dominating the BBC airwaves and then another week as band-in-residence on 'Late Night With David Letterman.' But in the country they call home they have been subjected to one furious attack after another -- particularly from the sort of charity groups that frontman Bono usually thinks of as allies in his campaigns against Third World poverty. The Irish Independent newspaper commissioned a poll showing that 84 per cent of U2’s fellow countrymen think the band’s business operations should be based -- and taxed -- in Ireland. An editorial in the same newspaper said Bono was in danger of ruining his and the band’s reputation. 'If they don’t act now,' the paper said, 'it could be the biggest PR disaster of their career.'" (TheWrap)

"Mark Udall of Colorado spent a decade in the House slowly inching up the House leadership ladder. Now, just nine weeks into his Senate career, he’s working from a post where he can influence his party’s agenda on Capitol Hill. As a newly minted deputy whip, Udall is charged with building close ties between Democratic leaders and a gaggle of senators just like him — the freshmen who will be crucial to so much of President Obama’s legislative success. In the session’s first two months, Udall has helped align every one of the 11 new Democrats behind two of the first big-ticket items on Obama’s agenda: the $787 billion economic stimulus package and the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. But bigger challenges loom that might divide the newcomers from many members of their caucus, ranging from the president’s request for a $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal 2010 to his ideas for overhauling health care and energy policy. The Senate Democratic Class of 2008 already ranks as one of the biggest groups of majority party newcomers in modern times. This year, the seven Democrats who were elected for the first time last fall have been joined by four people appointed to succeed senators who left for the Obama administration (the president among them) — and the group may yet grow to a dozen if Al Franken ends up prevailing in Minnesota. (By contrast, there are just two GOP freshmen: Idaho’s Jim Risch and Nebraska’s Mike Johanns.)" (CQPolitics)

"By virtually all accounts, we are now in the midst of a global recession that shows no sign of improving anytime soon. During an unprecedented economic downturn like this, you might expect governments to be cutting back on unnecessary spending and pouring all their scarce resources into shoring up their economies and salvaging their imploding banking sectors. And you might think that, with the World Bank now warning that developing countries face a financing shortfall of up to $700 billion, wealthier nations would be husbanding their cash in case their help is needed. But you’d be wrong. In fact, governments around the world are throwing billions into the one sector of their economies that will probably do the least good for the world: their military-industrial complexes .. China announced it would increase its defense budget by 15 percent over last year’s level. India said its increase would be a staggering 34 percent. And while Russia plans to submit a defense budget that is approximately 15 percent less than last year’s, it still intends to spend $111 billion over the next three years to purchase new weapons and modernize its armed forces. Meanwhile, the United States remains far and away the global leader in overall defense spending. Consider that in 2007, the most recent year for which accurate data is available from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United States spent more on defense than the next 14 highest spending countries combined; accounted for 43 percent of the world’s total defense spending; and spent five times more on defense than China, eight times more than Russia, 85 times more than Iran, and 100 times more than North Korea. (These calculations were made using the highest possible budget estimates for these countries, whose precise spending levels are unknown.)" (ForeignPolicy)

"With newspapers so anxious to find new revenue streams to offset declines in print advertising, this would seem a no-brainer: becoming an online matchmaker, introducing eligibles to one another through their web sites, in direct competition with established dating sites like eHarmony.com. For sure, it's a money-maker. In Britain most all the major national papers have them, and they've become important sources of revenue. The respected Guardian launched its site, Soulmates, in 2004, and it now has 110,000 members who pay roughly $30 a month. Says Kate Morgan Locke, head of ventures at Guardian News and Media: 'It is a significant revenue stream for us because of the subscription.'" (Medalifemagazine)

"It used to be that to become a billionaire, rather than a mere millionaire, you had to inherit money, or build an empire that would last for a long, long time. But in the era that has just ended, you could become a billionaire just by managing other people’s money. You didn’t have to do so for very long—and, maybe, you didn’t even have to do so very well. On February 9, 2007, a company called Fortress Investment Group began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Fortress, which both runs hedge funds and makes private-equity investments, was part of the seemingly miraculous wave of money begetting more money, in which people who managed others’ fortunes made even greater fortunes for themselves. Those who thought they’d found a way to get in on the miracle snapped up Fortress’s shares. The stock had been priced at $18.50 the day before and promptly shot up to $35 when trading began in the morning. By the end of the day the five principals of Fortress—all youngish men who were present on that winter morning to ring the bell at the N.Y.S.E.—were worth a combined $10.7 billion .. Truth be told, in the hedge-fund universe, about the only thing that makes Fortress unusual is its publicly traded stock. The entire industry is reeling as investors pull billions from funds that have lost billions. (While private equity has its own severe problems—maybe more severe—investors don’t expect to get their money back for years, thereby delaying the day of reckoning.)" (VanityFair)

"I just did a fitting with the fabulous and hysterical Kristen Wiig. Catch her on SNL every week!" (Robert Verdi/Twitter)