Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Tuesday night Focus Features hosted a special New York screening of new film 'The Limits of Control' at LES spot Shang. Guests included the film’s actors and actresses, such as Tilda Swinton, Paz de La Huerta, Gael Garcia Bernal, the film’s director Jim Jarmusch, lead Isaach De Bankole and Bill Murray, sporting a red golf visor with frosted tips at various points during the evening (is an explanation even necessary?)." (Guestofaguest)



"The first thing that tipped me off that Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control premiere was going to be a hot one, was when a TV reporter asked me if I had seen the movie. When I said, 'not yet!' she said, 'Paz de la Huerta doesn't have a stitch of clothing on through most of it -- you have to give her credit for pulling that off!' When the magnificent Tilda Swinton swept by her in her ferociously different Giambattista Valli outfit, we all gasped a little..." (Caroline Torem-Craig/Papermag)



"One of politics’ unlikeliest figures has come to Hollywood, looking to change his stripes. Frank Luntz, the arch-conservative pollster known as the research hammer by which the Gingrich revolution came down hard on President Bill Clinton, wants to take over research for the entertainment industry. And you thought Arianna Huffington did a quick-switch job? 'I want to replace Joe Farrell,' said Luntz, wandering the halls of the Milken Institute conference on Monday in Beverly Hills, where he was a featured speaker. Luntz clearly has a lot to learn in Hollywood -- including the fact that Farrell of National Research Group retired a number of years ago. But the pollster and Fox News analyst is serious about making his play. He's bought a home in Santa Monica and is already doing survey work for Universal’s marketing chief Adam Fogelson and speaking to producers about other projects." (TheWrap)



"In one of his last acts as CEO of Bear Stearns, James Cayne made a payment of around $2 million to a woman who was poised to file sexual harassment charges against its legendary chairman, Alan 'Ace' Greenberg, The Daily Beast has learned. The allegations, which centered around 'inappropriate touching,' according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, didn't result in a lawsuit. Instead, reeling from the bad press of the firm's role in the burgeoning financial crisis, Cayne settled the matter with the woman, a much younger employee who worked in sales capacity, and who had initially demanded a much higher payment." (Charlie Gasparino/TheDailyBeast)



(image via socialitelife)

"I went down to Michael’s to have a birthday lunch with my old friend Beth DeWoody who is just back from her tenth trip to Cuba. Talking about our mutual acquaintances, the de Lesseps of Housewives fame, Beth reminded me that Alex, the now estranged husband of Countess LuAnn has an interest in a resort hotel in Havana where the beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world. Michael’s was its crowded self and the star in the room was Evander Holyfield, who looks more like a movie star than the world heavyweight champion that he is: handsome, very tall and impeccably turned out in what was a bespoke leisure suit. At the table next to ours was the irrepressible and (always leave em laughing) Joan Rivers, also looking like a movie star, in from the Coast for a few days before she returns to edit her new TV show. Also hosting tables were Kathy Lee Gifford, Edgar Bronfman Jr., Jonathan Tisch, Neil Sedaka." (NYSocialDiary)



(image via guestofaguest)

"Marisa Noel Brown, the daughter of disgraced Fairfield Greenwich Group founder Walter Noel, and her husband Matt, are officially putting their townhouse at 12 East 78th Street on the market. The Indiana limestone–faced manse, which the couple bought for $13.5 million in 2008 and then spent millions renovating, will be listed with Stribling's Patricia Farman-Farmaian for a mere $11.5 million. " (Cityfile)



"First Independent Pictures has acquired the U.S. rights to 2009 Sundance entry 'Big Fan,' the directing debut of 'The Wrestler' screenwriter Robert Siegel. First Independent will release the film in 'late summer to early fall.' The film stars Patton Oswalt in his first dramatic-lead performance, playing Paul Aufiero, an obsessive New York Giants fan whose chance encounter with his hero unexpectedly ends in violence. 'Fan' also stars Kevin Corrigan and Michael Rapaport, and was lensed by 'Goodbye Solo' cinematographer Michael Simmonds. Eric Kohn reviewed the film for indieWIRE during Sundance, calling it 'an engaging portrait of obsession.'" (IndieWIRE)

"I learned today via Felix Salmon, and FT Alphaville's Paul Murphy of the sudden and very sad passing of Greg Newton, the former Metal Bulletin and MAR-guru, and prescient satirist of Naked Shorts. As Felix highlighted, Greg was not only one of the earliest must-read on-line commentators but he was probably the originator of the genre of on-line Financial Satire, a platform he employed to great effect in the lampooning of contrapreneurs, scamsters, hubris and simple outright financial stupidity - more often than not BEFORE its discovery by authorities, investors and mainstream financial journalists." (NihonCassandra)

"kmaverickWHYYYY would I need an invite to A Small World?" (Kristen Maverick/Twitter)



"Standing in the sculpture court in the south wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a recent Friday morning, Alexandra Kotur, the style director of Vogue, was craning her neck up this way and then that way toward the soaring glass ceiling, studying the natural light. On Monday, May 4, the museum will swell with celebrities, socialites and fashion flotsam for its feverishly anticipated Costume Institute Gala, this year with the purist theme 'the Model as Muse.' Ms. Kotur is leading the advance team, making sure that no floral arrangement blocks that perfect shot of this sweeping couture gown flowing up the main staircase along with the starlet of the moment, or that felicitous collision of Diane von Furstenberg with Justin Timberlake. She is also in charge of a fashion shoot for the magazine right before the ball, during which the photographer Arthur Elgort will snap models graciously leaping through the museum like gazelles, expensive fabric billowing behind them." (Observer)

"Williamburg became a hot nabe largely because most struggling artists couldn't afford to live in Manhattan anymore, so all the boho types in funny vests and thrift store glasses moved over the bridge to create a relaxed community of creativity and free verse. But now Manhattan rents are falling faster than Donatella Versace's rack, which means all those bedraggled artists might be able to come back here and live like human beings again! I'm guessing this will spell an end to Billyburg's specialness, and I'm actually thrilled about it. As someone who spent his entire early life trying to get out of Brooklyn, I am completely fed up with people screeching, 'You have to go to Brooklyn! It's amazing!'" (Musto)





"The stars came out last night to celebrate British designer Mathew Williamson’s new collection with H&M .. And last night celebrity guests boarded a yacht down by the South Street Seaport to celebrate his new collection. Guests included Adrien Brody, Mary Kate Olsen, Selita Ebanks, Oliva Palermo, Helena Christensen, Erin Featherston, And Lucy Liu! To top it off there was a special performance by the legendary and eccentric Grace Jones. The event featured the coveted full open bar, and guests were given gift bags with a belt. Noticeably was Selita Ebanks dancing up a storm on the dance floor, while Adrien Brody kept it low key sporting a t-shirt and Hawaiian beach shorts." (SociallySuperlative)



(image via guestofaguest)

"In a career that's spanned over 30 years, Grace Jones has played everywhere from Studio 54 to Wembley Arena, and at just about all of her gigs, her audience has sat wondering if the queen was even going to show up. Why should her Tuesday night show at a party hosted to celebrate Matthew Williamson's new clothing with H&M be any different? On a boat on the South Street Seaport, a crowd — that included Susanne Bartsch, Patricia Field, Ellen von Unwerth, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, and Gilles Bensimon — showed up to see the diva perform. 'She's one of the world's finest,' said Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, who was one of a handful of celebs mingling in the VIP area, along with David Schwimmer and Lucy Liu. 'They don't make them with style like that anymore.'" (WWD)

"What will the world look like when the present emergency has passed? The safest prediction is that the post-crisis financial sector will be downsized and more heavily regulated, nationally and internationally. The financial sector as a whole, which peaked at 40 percent of corporate profits in the United States in 2006, may shrink as much as 50 percent in the aftermath of the emergency. We can also comfortably wager that government subsidies will rule the day. State capitalism, in one form or another, has always existed in Europe and the industrial nations of East Asia. Now, state capitalism with American characteristics may emerge from the de facto nationalization of the U.S. automobile industry and perhaps other sectors that need to be rescued as the wave of deleveraging works its way through the economy. A generation hence, global industry is likely to be as heavily subsidized as global agriculture. In the 20th century, the agricultural subsidies of the United States and European Union inspired by memories of the Great Depression produced lakes of milk and mountains of butter. In our day, the industrial subsidies of the industrial great powers of North America, Europe, and Asia inspired by memories of the Great Recession will produce cascades of cars and avalanches of aircraft. The glut of subsidized manufactured goods will grow worse over time, as 21st-century manufacturing, like 20th-century agriculture, becomes ever more productive and capital-intensive. Next up: the unexpected triumph of the classic modern welfare state. Before last September, it was widely assumed in developed countries that public pensions, universal healthcare, and other forms of social insurance were doomed by their costs in a world of graying populations or by their inefficiency compared with privatized alternatives. What a difference the collapse of the world economy can make." (ForeignPolicy)