Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"What’s a little drizzle when it comes to kicking off the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival? Guests at Vanity Fair’s opening night dinner hosted by Graydon Carter, Robert DeNiro and Ronald Perelman were seen fashionably flouting the weather by donning umbrellas on their way to the NY State Supreme Courthouse where the party was held." (Guestofaguest)



(image via contactmusic)

"LINDSAY Lohan is drowning her sorrows over her breakup with Samantha Ronson in a sea of men -- and some friends are terrified she'll go down the road Britney Spears traveled two years ago. Except that, unlike Spears, Lohan doesn't have a stable family member to lean on. The faux lesbian has been 'a complete and utter wreck' since Ronson broke it off with her two weeks ago, and has been spending time with 'a different man every night,' said one concerned friend. Some of the guys include '90210' star Kellan Lutz -- who 'has been out of town this week, but they are in constant contact,' the friend said -- as well as British paparazzo Chris Jepson. On April 15, Lohan and Jepson were inseparable at a Hollywood Hills house party. According to a spy, they even went into a bathroom together and didn't come out for quite some time" (PageSix)



(image via indieWIRE)

"A 'smile and a hug' is how Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal recently referred to her eight year old event, reiterating the role it has played—particulary in Lower Manhattan—since launching in the aftermath of the tragic 2001 terrorist attacks. The festival has been both envied and criticized by industry insiders since boldly arriving on the scene. Backed by the high-profile support of corporate sponsor American Express, and with actor Robert DeNiro as a figure-head, the festival drew immediate media attention and audiences alike, despite some skepticism. This year, organizers seem to be trying to reign in expectations while at the same time re-establishing the event’s roots. 'We’re just a film festival,' Jane Rosenthal has said a few times already this week, noting that the young event can play a role in lifting spirits now just as it did when it launched in New York City in the spring of 2002. The current economic crisis has been particularly hard on Lower Manhattan, Rosenthal noted, causing the loss of even more jobs than in the immediate wake of 9/11. 'We hope that, especially when you look back to what our original mission was and is, that in these trying economic times that we can help, through film, restore some hope and inspiration,' Jane Rosenthal told indieWIRE yesterday, sitting in her office at the Tribeca Film Center on Greenwich St." (IndieWIRE)



(Congresswoman Harman via daylife)

"Rep. Jane Harman is mounting a furious campaign to counter news reports that the National Security Agency or the FBI recorded her agreeing to a quid pro quo with a suspected Israeli agent. Harman, D-Calif., blitzed from one media appearance to the next on Tuesday, demanded the Department of Justice release transcripts of any recorded conversations, sought to rebut details of the reports and worked to shift attention to questions about the propriety of executive branch surveillance of lawmakers. The flurry of radio and television interviews came in response to an April 19 CQ report that a court-approved NSA wiretap had recorded a 2005 conversation between Harman and a 'suspected Israeli agent.' In its story, CQ said Harman had offered to intervene to reduce espionage-related charges against two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in return for assistance in lobbying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to appoint her chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were expected to win. The New York Times published a similar report on Tuesday, adding that Harman was told in the conversation that a wealthy Democratic donor would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Pelosi, also a California Democrat, unless Harman got the Intelligence post." (CQPolitics)



(image via JH/NYSocialDiary)

"Less than six degrees of separation. Jim Mitchell hosted a luncheon the other day at Primola, that fabulous and fabulously popular restaurant on Second Avenue (between 64th and 65th Street) for some daughters of 'Hollywood royalty' and sent along some pictures (which look like the camera had a hiccup) with an 'I wish you were here.' He knows I love Hollywood history and lore. Joan Benny, daughter of Jack Benny and Mary Livingston, Laura Montalban, daughter of Ricardo and Georgianna Montalban, (as well as niece of Loretta Young and Sally Blaine), Pia Lindstrom, daughter of Ingrid Bergman, Maria Cooper Janis, daughter of Gary Cooper; Michel Walkoff, daughter of Jack Entratter, a legendary hotel man and casino owner who pioneered Las Vegas and built the Sands. The gents in attendance were Jim, Tony Manning, and Lord Charles Spencer Churchill whose eldest sister Lady Sarah became a great friend of mine when I lived out there." (NYSocialDiary)

"Justice Department lawyers are 'incensed' at the White House for waging a frontal assault on their independence to prosecute. Scott Horton on how it can backfire on the West Wing. On Sunday, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, appearing on ABC’s This Week, underscored that President Obama had promised that CIA agents who acted in reliance on Bush era Justice Department memoranda approving torture techniques but since repudiated would not face criminal investigation or prosecution. Then he went one step further, stating 'those who devised the policy, he believes that they were—should not be prosecuted either.' A few hours later White House press secretary Robert Gibbs reiterated Emanuel’s remarks as official policy. But during the course of the day on Tuesday the White House appeared suddenly to shift gears. President Obama, responding to a reporter’s question, declared that he was not prejudging a possible criminal investigation or prosecution of 'those who formulated those legal decisions' behind the interrogation methods. What happened?" (TheDailyBeast)



(Chris-tuh-fuh and friends via papermag)

"The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's 'Downtown Dinner' on Monday night on the 45th floor of 7 World Trade Center was an electrifying affair accentuated by eye-level lightning and a strikingly eccentric crowd. For $1,000 bucks a head, guests could eat to your hearts content amidst a crowd of art world megastars such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Frank Stella, Vito Schnabel, acting chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Patrice Walker Powell, PS1 power duo Alana Heiss and Klaus Biesenbach and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The real treat, though, was a performance of a new piece by artist Rashaad Newsome entitled 'Shade Compositions,' which featured over 20 pissed-off-seeming African American women performing a choreographed vocal symphony of 'ghetto' phrases, all while wearing the stunning creations of Kai Kuhne." (Papermag)