Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"The 50-year-old single malt will go on sale in batches of just 50 bottles a year over the next decade and is expected to be bought by specialist collectors and shrewd investors. Experts at the distillery, owned by William Grant & Sons, laid down two casks of whisky 50 years ago for future generations to enjoy. It has since been monitored by David Stewart, who is believed to be the longest serving malt master in Scotland who was tasked with deciding when it was ready. A select few connoisseurs were flown in from around the world to taste the whisky as a special session at the distillery in Dufftown, Scotland." (Telegraph) yumm



"Forty-eight hours ago, from India came the news that Gayatri Devi, the Rajmata of Jaipur had died at age 90. Born Princess Gayatri, she was ever known as Ayesha. As you will read in her obituary of her in today’s Telegraph of London, she was the granddaughter of the Maharajah of Cooch-Behar and the Maharajah of Jodhpur, as well as the wife of the Maharajah of Jaipur. Prominent in the last days of the Raj, she was famous in her own country as well as a fixture in international society. Later in life when she became active in Indian politics she gained a new fame. I met her in Beverly Hills in 1980, at a small dinner given for her by our mutual friend Lady Sarah Churchill. Sarah and Ayesha had known each other from the time they were young women in London just before the War. I had heard of her but had never seen a photograph of her before that meeting. I didn’t know, for example that she was a famous beauty also. At sixty-one, she still possessed that beauty. There were grey strands running through her thick and wavy black hair. It added a touch of worldliness and perhaps wisdom to these eyes." (NYSocialDiary)

"Virginia Cherrill, the most beautiful girl of her time, an American beauty who married Cary Grant and the Earl of Jersey, but who finally loved only one man, a poor Polish fighter pilot ... The Maharajah of Jaipur, Jai, was among the best-looking men of his generation, a terrific polo player and sportsman whom I played against back in the Sixties. Virginia and Jai had a long affair, and even after Jersey and she got married the affair continued. Cherrill was up-front about it. She told his lordship (a real cheapskate, who left his mother, brother and sisters without a penny) she did not love him but he insisted on marrying her. Laddie Sanford, another friend of hers, was also a friend of mine. He once asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I was 19. Play a bit of tennis, travel, chase girls, said I. 'Bravo,' he said beaming, 'that’s the stuff; none of that nine-to-five crap.'" (Takimag)



"Comic-Con, the annual feast of geek, crashed into the California coast in San Diego this past weekend, bringing with it more than 100,000 dedicated connoisseurs of such pop-culture delights as videogames, comic books, cartoons, sci-fi and fantasy series, and the Hollywood adaptations of all of the above. It’s marketing mayhem: Major studios teasing fans with exclusive previews or clues about plot twists for shows like Lost, handing out freebies or hosting panels that feature all the major stars—making appearances this year were teen heartthrobs Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart of Twilight promoting the next installment of the series, New Moon; the cast of that other beloved vampire series, True Blood; Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man 2; the new Alice in Wonderland’s Johnny Depp and requisite babe for the Maxim set, Megan Fox of Transformers 2, just to name a few. But the real stars are the fans who come dressed as their favorite characters, making Comic-Con a runway show like no other. Call it costume couture." (TheDailyBeast)



"Forty years ago this summer, an army of ungroomed idealists invaded upstate New York for a three-day concert that changed the world. Ang Lee's latest film, Taking Woodstock, pays homage to that moment, and during last night's downtown screening the weather gods seemed to be in on it, providing an amplified bass line of thunder and the kind of heavy rain that makes for a rip-roaring good time in the mud. 'Just not inside the theater, I hope,' Lee cautioned. Speaking of: It turns out the film's re-enactments of Woodstock's famous free-for-alls weren't entirely authentic. 'It was mud mixed with cooking oil, so that we could slip faster,' lead Demetri Martin revealed ..Perhaps more than his co-stars, Liev Schreiber was in his element. 'My mom and dad were big hippies and I spent time on communes,' the actor recalled. 'I just remember the smell of soybeans everywhere. People were making all sorts of strange things out of soybeans: food, clothing, paper, everything. I suppose if I'd gone to military school, maybe I'd be pining for something like Woodstock. But I'm certainly pining for what it represents, and I think that's what Ang was really after with the film.' " (Style)


"The heretical truth is that rapid economic growth and unionization may sometimes require markets that are deliberately made less competitive by regulation. Monopolistic and oligopolistic corporations are more likely to invest in breakthrough innovation than firms struggling to break even in highly competitive markets. And cartelized industries are far friendlier to organized labor than ultra-competitive markets. If progressives really want to promote technology-driven growth and a union-based middle class, then they need to reconsider the lessons of the New Deal’s successful experiment in utility capitalism." (Michael Lind/DemocracyJournal)



"Sore thumbs abounded on the Lower East Side on Wednesday night at the launch of Sprint’s new phone, the BlackBerry Tour , at the Thompson Hotel. Among the eager-to-text crowd were the ever-pretty Chace Crawford, World Champion (I mean, he’s wearing both a t-shirt and a hat that say it, so it’s true) Judah Friedlander, Ugly Betty stars Ana Ortiz and Mark Indelicato, and New York’s ultimate downtown kid Chloe Sevigny, who wowed in a Kimberly Ovitz dress. Other guests included Brook Shields .. Olivia Palermo, Fern Mallis, Theodora Richards, Robert Verdi, Nicole Miller .. Genevieve Jones, Byrdie Bell, and Marjorie Gublemann Raein." (Guestofaguest)



"Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen stopped by (The Howard Stern Show) to promote 'Funny People' and Judd told the crew he based the movie on the time he spent as Adam Sandler's roommate. Judd said Adam was an honest roommate: 'He'd say, 'Yeah, let's go to the Red Lobster. But give me 10 minutes. I'm gonna go whack it.' Seth said he did the same thing with his old roommates: 'It was a little gay. We realized it was more time-effective if we all jacked off at the same time .. Howard asked Seth about the 'Entourage' episode in which the characters repeatedly call him ugly. Seth explained: 'Apparently the guy who writes the show doesn't care for me that much.' Judd laughed: 'It's funny because it's a bunch of incredibly ugly guys debating whether or not Seth is ugly.'" (Sternshow)



(image via msnbc)

"In his pool spray with Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President Obama previewed his sit-down with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and James Crowley this afternoon. NOW: Henry Louis Gates Jr. has arrived at the White House ahead of this evening's beer with Obama." (Politico)