Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"It was Wednesday and it was the Michael’s lunch. A mob scene. At table one, the Bonnie Fuller and Gerry Byrne gang. This week: Michelle Fine-Smith, advertising director of Penske Media; PR guru Norah Lawlor, hairstylist to the stars Louis Licari; Lisa Lockwood of WWD, Albie Hecht of  Headline News, Katie O’Reilly of Macy’s; Faye Stein and Stephanie Wener of VH1; Valerie Bruce of BBC America, Jenny Fleiss of Rent The Runway. Right next door to them, Jesse Kornbluth with Paige Peterson. And next to them that Texas boy, the Mayah of Michael’s Joe Armstrong with another Texas boy Don Carleton, executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at U Texas. And next to them: mega entertainment lawyer Alan Grubman with mega-hedge fund owner Daniel Loeb. And next to them, Jack Kliger with Glenn Horowitz; and across the aisle from them Rosanna Scotto of Fox 5 News with Maury Rogoff.Moving around the room: PR consultant Judy Agisim with Fern Mallis and Bisilia Bokoko, Spanish Global Brand Ambassador based here in New York for the Liceu Barcelona Opera House; Barbaralee Diamondstein-Spielvogel with Hildy Kuryk, Director of Communications for Vogue; Jay Sures of United Talent with Elizabeth Vargas; Cliff Sobel, US Ambassador to Brazil; Joan Jakobson with Loraine Boyle; more Texas, Becca Thrash and friends; Harold Ford Jr; Barry Frey; producer Beverly Camhe, Andrew Stein, and next door to him, DPC with Rikki Klieman; Diane Clehane with Liz Kaplow, marketing communications exec; Scott Singerwith Maureen Reidy; Alice Mayhew with Kati Marton; Wednesday Martin and Suri Kasirer with Lisa Linden of Linden, Alschuler  Kaplan PR; Henry Schleiff, President of the Discovery Channel with Ed Bleier; Mickey Ateyeh with Carlos Falchi. And there you have a good picture, although I’ve missed dozens more." (NYSD)













"Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd: 1. Hollywoodlife.com’s Bonnie Fuller and Penske Media Vice Chair Gerry Byrne, presiding over an overflowing crowd: celebrity hairstylist Louis Licari; HLN’s EVP Albie Hecht; Equinox’s CEO Harvey Spevak; PR maven Norah Lawlor; VH1′s Faye Stein and Stephanie Werner; WWD‘s Lisa Lockwood; Rent The Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss; Katie O’Reilly of Macy’s, who gets the award for the day’s most interesting job title — VP of Millennial Marketing; BBC America’s Valerie Bruce; and Penske Media Corporation’s managing director of consumer advertising, Michelle Fine-Smith. 2.HeadButler.com’s Jesse Kornbluth with Paige Peterson 3. 'Mayor' Joe Armstrong with yet another fabulous visitor from the University of Texas at Austin — I’m still reeling from all that fascinating lunch I had a few weeks ago with the gang from the Ransom Center. This time, Joe bought along Don Carleton, executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, which houses the papers of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Andy Rooney, among many other journalists and photojournalists as well as one of the country’s largest newspaper collections. 4. Attorney Alan Grubman and a fellow I didn’t recognize. The early birds were the first to arrive in the dining room today and were out the door before things shifted into high gear. 5. TV Guide‘s Jack Kliger and book seller Glenn Horowitz 6. PR maven Maury Rogoff and Fox 5 News’ Rosanna Scotto 7. Liz Kaplow and yours truly 8. New York Social Diary‘s David Patrick Columbia and Rikki Klieman. I stopped by their table for a chat and the conversation turned to — what else? — the endless winter. 'I wouldn’t normally go, but I’m ready to go to Florida,' Rikki told me. Can we come?" (DianeClehane)





"The onset of a new foreign policy crisis offers yet another opportunity to attempt to categorize President Obama’s foreign policy orientation. Fred Kaplan, writing for Politico, offers up one answer: Obama is a Realist. Kaplan intends the description as a compliment. I think Kaplan’s exercise in ideological pigeonholing is far too narrow, which I also mean as a compliment.For those who don’t follow foreign policy jargon, Realism is a term for a school of thought that’s distinct from realism, though its adherents tend to consider the two things more or less the same. Big-R Realists dismiss the role of values in foreign policymaking, believing that states ought to (and almost always do) follow their interests, even if they delude themselves or others that they have some grander moral purpose, like human rights or democracy. The ultimate modern expression of Realism would be Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who tolerated a bloodbath by Cold War ally Pakistan, and who once took the Realist philosophy to its reduction ne plus ultra by commenting privately, 'And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern.' The ultimate expression of the opposite of Realism, idealism, might be post-9/11 George W. Bush, declaring war on evil everywhere, pledging 'the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.'The Democratic version of idealism emerged during and after the Clinton administration, when a small cadre of liberal foreign policy activists came to view the successful intervention to protect Bosnia and Kosovo as the model for a new kind of humanitarianism. Some of the advocates for this school of thought, like Hillary Clinton and Samantha Power, joined Obama’s foreign policy team." (Nymag)





"Vladimir Putin isn't invading Crimea or trying to secure the land around which his warm-water fleet is based, no, no. He is protecting Russian speakers from brazen fascist aggression on the part of the Ukrainians. Truth is, protecting, uh, Russian speakers in Crimea has been a passion of Putin's for a long time. How long? Publicly, since at least 2008. That year, at the April Russia-NATO summit in Bucharest, Putin made his desire to protect the Russian language known. Putin and his brass have long felt that NATO, especially an expanding one, to be one of the main threats to Russia. I can't blame him, frankly, but at that summit, he reportedly made clear that if NATO dared to take Ukraine into its fold, Putin will take...Crimea. You know, to protect the Russian speakers. It caused quite a hubbub at the time, with Ukrainian then-president Viktor Yushchenko saying that NATO would be a great way to guarantee Ukraine's independence. Which, given Putin's reported remarks to then-President George W. Bush, seemed to be up for discussion. 'You have to understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a country,' he is widely reported to have said. 'Part of its territory is in Eastern Europe and the greater part was given to them by us.' (By the way, note all the then-presidents I've mentioned. Putin has survived them all.) Anyway, back to those Russian speakers in Crimea, remember them?" (TNR)











"As those of you who follow me on twitter, facebook or tumblr may know – I just got back from attending the Afghan Ski Challenge in Afghanistan. And by just got back, I mean I literally still smell like the plane, despite two showers. [Ed Note: WTF is up with me and skiing this year? you'd think I'd actually know how to strap on a pair of skis by myself now and get down a green slope without biting it like 15 times... which I don't... or, you know, be super sporty... which, for a woman who's life motto has always been the Lemonheads song, 'I Lied About Being the Outdoor Type,' is mildly hilarious]. But despite the altitude, the three foot snow drifts and the mandated physical activity, I managed to find the bright side. After the jump, I present to you the YUMMs (Young Urban Mountain Men) who thank fully congregated in Bamiyan for your viewing pleasure:" (Paula Froelich)