Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"The decision to ask Mr. Clinton to the White House, and then to have him make a public statement, was the culmination of a campaign by the administration to put pressure on Congressional Democrats by highlighting support for the tax deal from Democrats around the country, from the mayor of Kokomo, Ind., to governors. On Friday, they announced support from the mayors of Akron, Ohio, and Orlando, Fla. But Mr. Clinton is clearly the biggest gun in that arsenal." (NYTimes)

"But it can’t have thrilled the president that he needed the former president to help get wavering Democrats in line on the compromise tax package he hammered out with the GOP. The master triangulator would show the kid how it was done. It was like the rookie basketball player, sidelined by a split lip, calling the wily veteran off the bench to sink a couple of crucial three-pointers. Twitter was abuzz with ’90s talk, as folks wondered when the next Mike McCurry briefing would be, or whether the Republican House would have to impeach Clinton all over again. You could practically hear Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow in the background. About the only thing that stopped me from humming it is that Clinton looked gaunter than in the intern-chasing days. The contrast wasn’t as great as I might have expected, because we got the wonky Clinton, who somehow wound up talking about wind turbines in Nevada, rather than the feel-your-pain Clinton. But the body language was instructive. Obama tends to stand straight, as if addressing a law school class; Clinton kept putting his hand over his heart, as if to signal he’s speaking with sincerity.(Howie Kurtz)

"It's been rumored, in certain New York social circles, that Steve Schwarzman knows how to party. So when I heard that Schwarzman’s private-equity juggernaut, the Blackstone Group, was having its 25th annual holiday bash at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Thursday night, I knew something momentous was about to go down. I texted a friend who works at Blackstone: Can I crash it? He shot back: The whole firm will be there. You’ll blend in. (Which translates to: You’re not nearly as good-looking as us, but don’t worry: The IT guys with buzz cuts and square-toe shoes will cover you.) So I donned my good suit, looped my one and only Vineyard Vines tie, and headed uptown to pull off some Jason Bourne–style black ops. Getting in was surprisingly easy. Head down, a quick wave to the women with the clipboards, stick out my jaw, and use the old pretend-to-be-on-the-phone trick: I was past the guards and back into 2007. Big-name Wall Street banks may be cutting back on their holiday parties to save face, but private-equity firms, who never really cared what Main Street thinks, are still going all out." (NYMag)

"The audience fragmentation that has shattered many middle-of-the-road media properties seems only to have worked to the advantage of the few brands that stand out from the crowd. Oprah’s brand has spread seamlessly in the past decade from television to a magazine selling 2.4 million copies a month (more than Martha), a satellite radio channel, a film company, a well-trafficked website, video-filled iPad apps and a 4.6 million-strong following on Twitter. Last year’s revenues at Harpo, her production company, were estimated by Fortune at about $315m and she has become a prominent figure in philanthropy through ­Oprah’s Angel Network and The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a school in South Africa. 'There’s no question she’s the most successful voice in broadcast television, probably in history,' says David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications. In the process, the 'Oprah effect' has entered the lexicon as shorthand for the boost she can bestow by introducing her audience to a book, a television presenter or a holiday gift. Her regular pre-Christmas episodes, Oprah’s favourite things, have propelled sales of products from body butter to cars. Supplicant manufacturers beg for inclusion on the list, and some investors base their stock picks on the show’s selections." (FT)

"Washington's withdrawal of Danegeld to Israel in exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze marks yet another downward turn in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. That process cannot be said to have been derailed, however; it has not really been on the rails since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power with his former chief of staff, Avigdor Lieberman, as his deputy as well as foreign minister. While Prime Minister Netanyahu may well be sincere in finally coming to terms with the need for a two-state solution, as long as his policies are held hostage by his foreign minister, all the sincerity in the world will count for very little. Avigdor Lieberman makes no bones about his position. Intensely nationalistic, he lives in a settlement town himself, and has no sympathy for any agreements that would in any way infringe on what he considers to be settlers' rights. As long as Netanyahu is unable to face down his foreign minister, the peace process will go nowhere. Lieberman is doing Israel a tremendous deal of harm and not just regarding peace with the Palestinians. His blunt style, bordering on rudeness, has alienated many of his ministerial counterparts, with whom, after all, he is supposed to work for the betterment of his country's international interests." (Dov Zakheim/ForeignPolicy)

"'You look so fashion!' exclaimed Carine Roitfeld, Paris’ reigning reine de la mode to a friend, at last night’s opening cocktail for Bvlgari: 125 Years of Italian Magnificence, held at the Grand Palais. Chicsters and fur-clad grandes dames from French society were out in force at the Nicola Bulgari and Francesco Trapani-hosted event. Julianne Moore looked stunning in a black, feathered Lanvin dress, worn with a pair of oversized Bvlgari blue sapphire and diamond drop-earrings, chatting merrily with fellow-actors Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen. Lenny Kravitz, in a black crocodile jacket, made the rounds with a large group of security, while Giambattista Valli and Bianca Brandolini trailed behind, oblivious to the crowds, gossiping arm-in-arm, though stopping every now and then to admire a piece worn by Elizabeth Taylor or Princess Grace. A delighted Bruno Frisoni talked about his current focus, his Rendez-Vous collection of limited edition, essentially couture shoes. 'I love the center space, how they managed to transform it, like being inside of a faceted stone,' he gushed about the jaw-dropping reconstruction of the Grand Palais. 'It's really genius.' Society tongues wagged as L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt quietly admired the jewels." (Fashionweekdaily)

"We got a taste of another Hollywood feud this week. Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and writer/director of The Social Network, took aim at Sarah Palin in a scathing article on The Huffington Post. In a recent episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, her TV show which doubles as a 2012 campaign ad, the former VP candidate hunted and killed a caribou, then told everyone to 'save their condemnation' unless they’ve 'never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat.' Sorkin called her a deranged 'phony pioneer girl' and says that was the first moose ever murdered for political gain." (Takimag)

"TWO wolves were eating at the Lion. Dan Abrams, NBC’s chief legal analyst and founder of the Mediaite Web site, was sharing a table at the boisterous Greenwich Village restaurant with Dave Zinczenko, editor of Men’s Health and author of the best-sellers 'The Abs Diet' and 'Eat This, Not That.' The men are active investors in the Lion, their first joint venture in a decade of friendship that tends to be characterized in the gossip pages as 'bachelors in a bromance,' as Mr. Zinczenko, 40, put it, laughing ... The two men’s romantic appetites have made them occasional targets of mockery, as retro wingmen on the loose. Mr. Zinczenko’s roughly three-year relationship with the actress Rose McGowan drove many of the city’s male magazine editors out of their minds. How did he — a schlump moving copy — get her, a girl who should be wearing a negligee in the pages of a magazine, not in its editor’s bed? (Perhaps they’d forgotten that Clay Felker, the New York magazine founder, married Pamela Tiffin, a cream-puff movie star.) Mr. Abrams, meanwhile, has reportedly dated Renée Zellweger and Elle Macpherson and, more recently, the actress Elisabeth Röhm. And now they’re doing another brazen New York guy thing, joining a line of flush men, from Toots Shor to Robert De Niro to Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter, who can’t resist owning a piece of a restaurant." (NYTimes)

"Sofia Coppola’s much-anticipated new film, Somewhere (featuring our current VMAN cover star Stephen Dorff in the role of leading man), premiered this week in New York City, but it was in Los Angeles where the stars naturally felt closest to home. Having filmed on location at the famed Chateau Marmont Hotel, cast mates Dorff, Elle Fanning, Steve Pontius, Michelle Monaghan, and cameo star Benicio Del Toro had a full circle return, when they capped the film’s L.A. premiere with a party at the Chateau in conjunction with Louis Vuitton. The partnership felt suitably familiar for director Coppola, who designs a capsule collection of handbags for the brand with artistic director and close friend Marc Jacobs. Among the revelers were Phoenix singer Thomas Mars, Andy Garcia, Chloë Sevigny, Mario Testino, unlikely cast members Erin Wasson and Angela Lindvall, and Chateau Marmont hotelier Andre Balazs." (VMagazine)