Levi Johnson, Playgirl Ready



Sarah Palin's daughter's babydaddy Levi is about ready for his Playgirl pictorial. From PageSix:

"Levi Johnston is getting ready to let it all hang out. The father of Sarah Palin's grandson will go ahead with his much-hyped Playgirl shoot in mid-November 'in order to get the pictures out for the holidays,' a rep for the magazine told us. 'We're working out the actual details day-by-day, and have come to a very happy conclusion, which we feel readers will be enthralled by.'"

Considering that Playgirl appears to be a magazine that caters more to men-who-like-men than women who like men (just a guess on this blogger's part), there will probably be more happy endings than happy conclusions. Wonder what the possible 2012 GOP Presidential nominee thinks about that.

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"The U.S. may have less than a half- century left as the dominant global economic power before it will share top billing with China and India, former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in an interview. 'The first half of the 21st century, a large part of it, will still be the American,' Lee, 86, said in an interview with the Charlie Rose television show on the PBS network. 'But I believe the second half you’ll have to share top places with China and also with India. Make space for them, too.' Lee was the founder of modern Singapore and the country’s prime minister from 1959 until 1990. He now holds the title of minister mentor in Singapore’s government, whose current prime minister is his son Lee Hsien Loong ...'In 30 years they’ll have an economy, not per capita but in total terms, bigger than the U.S.A.,' and China is now building political and strategic influence to protect its economic growth, Lee said. 'People already treat her differently, because they know that this is going to be a big fellow around the block,' he said. China is handling its growing influence in a 'very pragmatic, almost cold-blooded and clinical fashion,' Lee said." (Bloomberg)



"Lawyers for Jennifer Lopez have sent a cease and desist letter to shut down production of a movie about her life with her first husband, waiter and model Ojani Noa. The film titled, 'How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J-lo and and Ojani Noa Story,' is meant to be a 'mockumentary,' according to Noa and his producer, Ed Meyer. The film chronicles Noa’s life story as a Cuban immigrant and his ongoing pursuit of Lopez, a la Borat’s pursuit of Pamela Anderson. The film is currently casting, and will start shooting in February. Citing a 2007 injunction against writing about Lopez’s personal life, the letter signed by attorney John Lavely states that the film “constitutes a blatant and malicious violation of my client’s legal rights and undeniably violates the clear command of the Court’s injunction.'" (TheWrap)



"When Angela Merkel was first elected German chancellor in November 2005, the country’s eastern neighbours looked on in anticipation. The pastor’s daughter raised in communist East Germany had pledged to end the cosy rapport forged with Moscow by Gerhard Schröder, her predecessor, and put the interests of central Europe at the heart of her government’s foreign policy. Yet, four years on, as Ms Merkel prepares to take office on Wednesday for a second term, Germany and Russia are engaged in business dealmaking on a scale unimaginable even under the Russophile from whom she took over .. This frenzy of politically sponsored dealmaking – unprecedented in the technology transfers involved and the opportunity for Russian companies to secure prized west European assets – has raised eyebrows in Paris, London and Washington, not to mention Warsaw, Kiev and Prague. So now, as the Atlanticist Free Democratic party swaps seats with the pro-Russian Social Democrats (SPD) to become Ms Merkel’s junior coalition partner, how likely is Germany to revert to the sceptical course the Merkel of 2005 had promised?" (FT)



(image via NYSD)

"...Yesterday in Palm Beach it was an extremely hot autumn day, and Jeffry Picower drowned in the swimming pool of his 17,700-square-foot palatial oceanfront mansion. Mr. Picower, who was sixty-seven last May 5th, was an associate of Bernard Madoff. There was a federal lawsuit filed against him and his wife Barbara (along with their Picower Foundation and other defendents) by the trustee liquidating the Madoff company. Mr. Picower, who is often described as a lawyer and accountant, had such an investment with Mr. Madoff, that over a twenty year period he was able to extract 5 to 7 billion bucks, (depending on your source) from the Madoff 'investment.' After TSHITF, as they say in computer talk, Mr. Picower’s investment seemed more than a little suspicious. Where I come from it sounds like a partnership or some kind of. He claimed he had no idea ... Barbara Picower is said to have been a close friend of Ruth Madoff. It was Barbara Picower who had the money, according to a friend, that put her husband on the map financially in the first place. Now, however, resumably Mrs. Picower herself is still facing the federal lawsuit. Notice how the women get left holding the bag. (And how the public buys that.) Watch." (NYSocialDiary)



"Actor Jude Law has not made any contact with his five-week old baby daughter since she was born, it emerged today. The Hollywood star's fourth child, Sophia, was conceived during a brief fling with aspiring American actress Samantha Burke ... 'It would be great if we can have a friendship and be cordial. Hopefully he'll be a big part of her life and she'll be proud to have him as her father.' Asked if she had received any presents from Jude, who demanded a DNA test a few months ago, the former model admitted: 'No, nothing' ..Burke met the Alfie star in a nightclub while trying to find work as a model in New York last Christmas. She said: 'I instantly knew who he was, but he seemed really funny, he was cracking jokes with people and he included me in that. The next thing I knew I was on the pavement outside, being twirled around — it was a lot of fun. He was funny and very down-to-earth.' After they parted she realised she was four weeks pregnant but did not tell Law straight away, while she got used to the idea. She refuted claims that she's a gold-digger, insisting: 'It really hurt. I have never dated a guy for money. All my ex-boyfriends were just normal guys.' Burke said she had 'not ruled out' moving from where she is now living in Pensacola, Florida, to London to be closer to Law." (Thisislondon)



"Obama's 'Kissinger' revealed itself first when his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton went to China and declared that bringing up the unpleasantness of Chinese human rights violations would serve no useful purpose and detract from the importance of finding common ground with Beijing on various international concerns ranging from trade to climate change to North Korean nuclear weaponry (this from a woman who once went to China to protest its discriminatory policies toward women). Our hearts may have wanted to protest the suppression of freedoms, say a word for Tibet, complain about the treatment of Uighurs, but the Administration decided it needed China for other things of more immediate concern to us. That has since been followed by a retreat from our previous confrontational approach toward Sudan where Obama now envisions a more positive policy of engagement with a government whose president has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for atrocities in Darfur. There is no bottom-line conclusion here: in a presidency that is so young, one cannot know whether the soft line taken toward China, Sudan, Russia, and other violators of human liberties will in the end dominate Mr. Obama's foreign policy decisions. But neither can the early signs be ignored. For the moment, it appears, Henry Kissinger is back." (TheAtlantic)



"Saturday night, the Sonnabend Gallery opened the new solo show by artist Clifford Ross. Ross is known for his enormous landscape photographs, as well as his Hurricane series. Calvin Klein, Lou Reed, Kevin Bacon and Patti LuPone were among those strolling through the gallery." (Guestofaguest)



"The Bush family’s fourth-generation standard-bearer, Jeb's son George P., talks exclusively with the Daily Beast about his new deployment overseas—and plots his political future in Texas. Even though we just trudged out of the last Bush era, everyone wants to know when George P. Bush, Jeb Bush’s eldest son and the family’s fourth-generation standard-bearer, is going to run for something. But P., as he’s known, has bigger things on his mind. He’s thinking about parachuting onto the frontlines of his uncle’s War on Terror. Lt. Junior Grade Bush, 33, joined the Navy Reserve in 2007 as an intelligence officer. The Navy recently told him, like thousands of others, that the two ongoing wars required him to go active-duty overseas, potentially in Iraq or Afghanistan. 'It’s been communicated to me that it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when,' Bush told The Daily Beast. 'It’s just a matter of time.'" (TheDailyBeast)



"Lars von Trier’s 'Antichrist' finally got a chance to disturb the American moviegoing audience this weekend, and while it managed consistent sell-outs in New York City, its overall six-market debut fell somewhat below expectations. According to estimates provided by Rentrak today, the IFC Films release - starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a disturbed couple (to put it mildly) working out some issues at a cabin in the woods - grossed $73,500 from its six screens, averaging $12,500. For a challenging and foreign-made film that’s certainly not for everyone, that’s not a bad number. However, ever since its Cannes debut this past May, the film has been the source of considerable debate and discussion, and one might have figured there would be more curiosity in its U.S. theatrical release." (IndieWIRE)



"Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election. Senior administration officials have expressed frustration with how Democrat R. Creigh Deeds has handled his campaign for governor, refusing early offers of strategic advice and failing to reach out to several key constituencies that helped Obama win Virginia in 2008, they say. Democratic strategists said that over the summer, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) offered Deeds advice on winning a statewide election. Among other things, Kaine, who is also chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told Deeds that he should lay out more of his own vision and stop attacking Republican Robert F. McDonnell so ferociously. But Deeds did not embrace the advice, according to a national Democratic strategist. A senior administration official said Deeds badly erred on several fronts, including not doing a better job of coordinating with the White House." (WashPo)



"It's rather comforting to know that Oren Peli, writer and director of the improbable cultural marvel Paranormal Activity (currently terrifying audiences across the country), gets scared from time to time. 'The movie that really got to me was The Exorcist,' said Mr. Peli on Thursday evening, sitting low in his chair in the Paramount Pictures' Times Square offices. The 39-year-old was clad in a leather jacket and was sitting alongside the film's producer, Jason Blum, 40. He looked a little weary—answering hundreds of questions from reporters all day can do that. The tall glass of soda on the table in front of him hadn't been touched. 'I like things that get under your skin,' he said. 'A movie that starts in a normal setting and then very slowly and deliberately gets to where it is going.' This also happens to describes Paranormal Activity, which uses billowing bed sheets, drifting shadows and slamming doors to create a slow-burning atmosphere of terror." (Observer)



"Not only did Netanyahu get Obama to back down on a settlement freeze as a precondition to talks, but he also got Abbas to agree to quash the Goldstone report that alleged war crimes against Israel for its attacks on Gaza. Why would Netanyahu care whether such a report moved forward in the U.N. system? Israel has never paid attention to the United Nations, and any meaningful condemnation of Israel in the international organization has consistently met a U.S. veto. Netanyahu knew that if Abbas's representative in Geneva didn't put forward the Goldstone report, this decision could be exploited to expand the gap between Hamas and Fatah at a critical juncture. He is well aware of each Palestinian party's distrust for the other and of their ongoing struggle to solidify their positions as rulers of their respective fiefdoms in the West Bank and Gaza. At the same time, in an unprecedented move, Netanyahu approved the release of 20 female Palestinian political prisoners in exchange for a videotape of one captured Israeli soldier. It may have seemed like a lousy deal, but not if you understand Netanyahu's intention: strengthening Hamas's hand against Fatah. Indeed, Netanyahu has successfully played Fatah against Hamas, and vice versa, over the past few months, all while knowing that his U.S. counterpart is far too consumed with domestic politics to get involved in the Palestinian question beyond a photo opportunity." (ForeignPolicy)

Bobbito's Pro-Keds Royal Flash Release



Bobbito's Pro-Keds Royal Flash Release party on Suffolk street Wednesday night was remarkable on several counts. It introduced an element of uptown to the downtown Manhattan media arena. "This isn't an industry party," Bobbito shouted on the mic in-between Old School sets by DJ Stretch Armstrong. And it most certainly wasn't.

There was a richly organic flavor to the whole evening. It was almost more a wonderful house party in Harlem than a media meet-and-greet, only in a larger venueand bigger budget. The lights were dimmed, another party plus, adding an ambiance not usually found at these events. The dance floor was robust (something that never happens at New York media parties, even Paper events). There was food, and not hors d'oevres. The contingent from Spanish Harlem was there in full force. And the party went the full four hours with the open bar running out only in the last half hour.

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Prince Andrew’s press secretary has called ahead to say that he, the private secretary and the British consul-general for New York will accompany the duke. Given the unexpected crowd, Buckingham Palace is offering to pay .. Cipriani, on the south-east corner of Central Park, is made for Manhattan royalty. The compact but open room seems designed for a court of publishers, dealmakers and admen who are there to be seen. I have been briefed that the duke doesn’t go for flashy restaurants, and I assume a discreet private room has been booked. Instead, we have been given the VIP table, slap bang in the middle of the crowded room. Shows of power are everywhere, as one man gives another a painful-looking back slap, Botoxed cheeks are kissed and the maître d’ makes small talk with his regulars. There is not much room, so I step outside in time to see the tinted windows of a consular Chevy Escalade pull up on Fifth Avenue. The duke emerges, marching briskly into the restaurant as members of his small security detail disappear into the crowd. He sits down at the table, but quickly decides it is too big. The consul-general has stayed behind, so we will be four. The duke suggests a cramped table on one side, where we squeeze in, knees almost touching, as confused waiters try to keep up. The duke is in town on a rapid-fire tour of financial firms and regulators in his role as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment. The position – part ambassador, part travelling salesman – has no obvious parallels elsewhere in business or government so I begin by asking how he defines it. 'It is the application of royal patronage to the business community,' he says. Just as other members of the House of Windsor might lend their support to a ballet company or a homeless shelter, so 'the business community needed somebody to take an interest in it.'" (FT)



"Pamela Anderson has spoken for the first time about her huge debts after building her dream home left her millions of dollars in the red. The actress has been forced to move into a trailer park during construction of her beach home in Malibu, California. But the 42-year-old now fears she may have to sell it after going over budget. She said: 'I am $3m over budget and I should have moved in over a year ago. I'm tiling the whole pool in platinum — that's expensive!' The Playboy and Baywatch star sobs whenever she visits the house, which she bought for £850,000. She said: 'I'm going to sell it. I hate it. People commit suicide over constructions. Relationships break down over constructions and I can see why. It rips your heart out.' Anderson was speaking to former EastEnders star Joe Swash for a documentary called Pamela Anderson: At Home With Joe for Living TV. She showed Swash, 27, and his film crew round the house and told him the financial situation was so bad that she lives in a trailer with her electrician boyfriend Jamie Padgett, 42, and her two sons Brandon, 13, and Dylan, 11. She reportedly has just $4,000 in the bank and needs to spend at least $800,000 more to make the house habitable." (Thisislondon)



"Tracy Morgan, the king of quotable quotes and titilating tweets, recently sat down for twenty questions with Playboy magazine. The results are extraordinary. Not only does Morgan break down in tears over his relationship with SNL honcho Lorne Michaels and declare Tina Fey his 'sister from another mother of a different color,' he also enthusiastically proclaims his love for anal sex, calling it, among other things, 'a delicacy.'" (AirAmerica)



"Jay McInerney and and Euan Rellie threw a party at the Bespoke Lounge, in celebration of Assoline’s new book, 'Vintage Cocktails,' which explores 'the lost art of mixing the perfect drink'. Except, it isn’t really a lost art at all, because as countless magazines, newspapers, and blogs have pointed out, Vintage Cocktails are totally en vogue again, and being served up all over the city. But anyway. Candace Bushnell, Helen Schifter, and a host of other ever-on-trend New Yorkers showed up to celebrate and try out some of the Don Draper-esque drinks." (Guestofaguest)



"NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin says the network's messy decision to dump the critically admired drama 'Southland' should not be taken as a sign the Peacock is getting out of the quality drama business. In an interview with TheWrap, a candid Gaspin took full responsibility for the controversial cancellation and tried to set the record straight about why -- and how -- NBC decided to reverse course on the series. And in a significant directional shift, Gaspin also signaled the network was moving away from NBC U's previously expressed philosophy of 'managing for margin.' He cited recent blockbuster deals with J.J. Abrams and Jerry Bruckheimer as proof that NBC was interested in more than just the bottom line for programming costs. 'I have been going around town and talking to agencies and talking to producers and trying to make myself visible to say that, while we think we need to produce economically, the goal is not to manage for margins,' Gaspin told TheWrap. 'It is to put the best possible programs we can on the air.' And while NBC's overall programming budget may have shrunk, 'Our development dollars have not changed one bit from five years ago, even though we have many less hours to develop for,' Gaspin said. 'Our goal is to produce good shows that get whatever's considered good ratings today.' Gaspin's statement is a direct repudiation of former NBC Entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman, who frequently cited the "managing for margin" mantra and used it to justify many of the Peacock's programming decisions, including NBC's replacing 10 p.m. dramas with 'The Jay Leno Show.'" (TheWrap)



"Although Simon Doonan’s writing career has blossomed, with several books under his belt — one was even picked up for serialization on BBC2 — he never gave up his job as Barneys creative director. And now that the media industry is on life support, the longtime Observer columnist is the only journalist in town who is not worried. 'For years, all my writer friends would say to me, what the fuck are you doing working in a store every day? And now they’re saying to me, how can I get a job in a store?' Doonan told us last night at the FGI Night of Stars dinner. 'I seem like the most prescient person on earth, because I’ve always had, like, a day job along with my writing projects.' Doonan says his fellow writers always thought his working in a department store was déclassé and strange. Until now." (NYMag)



"In what was no doubt the biggest assembly of Fashion A Listers since Fashion Week, The Fashion Group International’s 'Night Of Stars' proved to be just that. Michael Kors, Fern Mallis, Dita von Teese, Iman, Mary J.Blige, James Franco, Tommy Hilfiger, Jon Bon Jovi, Oscar De La Renta, Grace Coddington, Aerin Lauder, Emmy Rossum, Hamish Bowles, Vera Wang and Andre Leon Talley all gathered Cipriani Wall Street to honor oustanding individuals in the world of Fashion. Also in attendance was a very demure Gwen Stefani, whose face is so drastically changed with softer makeup we weren’t sure it was even her." (Guestofaguest)

Corsair Classic



Gore Vidal on The Joy Behar Show

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Carla Bruni-Sarkozy doesn’t like to open herself up while she’s lying down—at least not when she’s in therapy. That’s one of the things that France’s first lady reveals in the television documentary La Première Séance (The First Session). In a country where therapy retains a stigma in some circles, an array of writers, filmmakers, celebrities, and normal people share their feelings about their first visits to the therapist’s office. The film is sure to garner plenty of attention—especially for Bruni ...41-year-old Bruni, who resisted analysis until she was 28, has spent a total of eight years in therapy. What suddenly drove Bruni into therapy 13 years ago, back when she was still a huntress of men, inspired by the writings of sexual revolutionaries like Simone de Beauvoir and Françoise Sagan? She has said she started therapy to prepare her for the next stages of her life and to overcome her 'narcissism.' It turns out that she dived into therapy after she learned the family secret. While her very wealthy parents were often too busy to be very present in her life—she was sent to boarding school in Switzerland, and then she began modeling to become independent as soon as possible—their complex relationship planted a profound unease in her, even if, for most of her life, she didn’t understand why. But when Alberto Bruni Tedeschi was dying in the mid-1990s, he finally revealed the truth: He wasn’t her real father. Maurizio Remmert, the very young scion of another prominent rich Milanese family, was a classical guitarist who played with Carla’s pianist mother, it turned out, in more ways than one." (TheDailyBeast)



"The Kremlin doesn't rig elections; it engineers them. This is something everyone in Russia, no matter what their rhetoric or political persuasion, knows and accepts. So when recent local elections returned some unusual results, the only surprise was the intensity of the backlash. On Sunday, Oct. 11, 76 of Russia's 83 regions went to the polls in some 7,000 regional and municipal elections. In the weeks leading up to the event, the government pushed and pushed Russians to register to vote. But because these were local elections in a country where everything is centered on the so-called Kremlin 'power vertical,' and because Russians, long shut out of the process, don't much believe in participatory democracy anymore, only about 30 million (out of 140 million) registered. And when the day came, even fewer showed up to vote. On Election Day in Moscow, which was holding elections for the Moscow Duma, turnout was a meager 29 percent. If government employees and their families hadn't been forced to vote, the figure would have been much, much lower. All of which is to say: No one cares. Russian elections are a known and tightly choreographed quantity." (ForeignPolicy)



"Howard (Stern) got Mike Walker from The National Enquirer on the line, as he does every Thursday, to play 'The Gossip Game,' in which Mike reads four gossip items – three (allegedly) true, one false – and the crew has to pick the fake. This week's stories: 1. Woody Harrelson paid a homeless guy $100 to promote 'Zombieland' on a piece of cardboard. 2. Cameron Diaz personally scrubbed her on-set trailer's bathroom. 3. Madonna shocked SNL staffers by leaving her dressing room door wide open as she flexed in front of the mirror in her underwear, yelling: 'Aren't I f’ing awesome?!' 4. 'Hills' star Lauren Conrad wrecked her new Audi two days in a row. Robin, Artie and Fred all went the Cameron Diaz item and Howard went with the Madonna story. Mike then announced that no one was right – the Lauren Conrad story was false." (HowardStern)



"Oliver Stone didn't want starving actors trying to pass themselves off as wealthy Upper East Siders in 'Wall Street 2,' so he hired some of his uptown friends as extras. Stone's been filming all over town with Shia LaBeouf and Josh Brolin. On Wednesday, Stone shot a scene in the East 65th Street townhouse of socialite 'Baby Jane' Holzer, where the daughter of Brolin's rapacious character is playing a piano recital for charity. Guests included Julia (Mrs. David) Koch, Vogue's Hamish Bowles, Vanity Fair's Amy Fine Collins, former Paine Webber Chairman Donald Marron, and publicist Peggy Siegal, as the wife of square-jawed war hero Chuck Pfeifer, who was in the original 'Wall Street.'" (PageSix)



"At Michael’s I was meeting Sarah Simms Rosenthal, Julianne Marie, Annette Tapert and Joan Jakobson. My lunch dates, I realize, were all in the process of publishing a book ...Michael’s, just two blocks from Broadway. Then the talk was about Streisand. How that came up I don’t know. Although different people at the table either had personal experiences with her or had close friends who did. A portrait was formed, although it should be acknowledged, none of us knows her personally.The final analysis: Humorless, rude, selfish, rude, inconsiderate, egomaniacal, rude, insensitive, and an all around lotta fun ... Then, just in time to rescue Bah-Bra from the trash heap of history, Liz Smith came by the table with Jordan Roth, the new head of the Jujamcyn Theaters, which is a theatrical real estate/production organization similar to the Shuberts. Theater owners are businessmen with (they hope) a special nose for a hit show. Rather like the show business version of a perfumier. Mr. Roth, who already has some serious stage production under his belt, and is the son of producer Daryl Roth, is just this side of being too old to be called a wunderkind, but looks-wise could almost be a teen-ager (He’s 33). Last night, early evening, I went down to the PaceWildenstein at 32 East 57th Street where they were holding a private preview reception for David Hockney and his first exhibition of new paintings in New York since the late 1990s." (NYSocialDiary)

Bernadette Peters, Still Gorgeous At 61



My friend David Patrick Columbia at NYSocialDiary ran this amazing photo of Bernadette Peters who was the special guest at At New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center’s 2009 Cabaret. The woman is, quite frankly, stunning at age 61. This brings to mind Helen Mirren's infamous bikini shots at age 63. Both Helen and Bernadette have been crushes of mine for years. Perhaps the success of ABC's "Cougar Town" means that there is a groundswell in American popular culture for older, sexy, successful women. That would be nice, considering how Hollywood oftentimes forgets women over 40, even as leading men like Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman -- two of dozens of examples -- are lionized and still being cast as sexy romantic leads well into their 70s. Women over 40 tend see their film work evaporate even as basic cable dramas beckon.

And at the risk of sounding overly guyish, those breasts (Madre de Dios!)-- whether the work of good genes or the surgeon's hand -- are remarkable.

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"You know, I'm so tired of everryone acting like Mackenzie Phillips is the only headline-making onetime user who's currently on TV Land. To remind us of her travails with coke, crystal, ecstasy, and booze, Jodie Sweetin has written a memoir called Unsweetined, which deals with her own premature dalliances with the devil. At a party at costar John Stamos's house, Sweetin writes, 'Mary Kate left, but Ashley and I got really, really drunk. She eventually got sick and John stepped up and took care of her. At some point we all passed out in John's bed. It was totally platonic--nothing weird happened. We were just three drunk friends passed out in a bed overlooking the Pacific Ocean.'" (Musto)



"Washington has been abuzz with stories speculating about the role of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, the gregarious U.S. diplomat who has been somewhat absent from public appearances recently. Salacious headlines such as 'Holbrooke missing from Afghan talks' and 'Where's Dick?' have led off articles citing unnamed sources to speculate that the White House had sought to diminish Holbrooke's usually public persona, especially since the last-minute diplomacy to convince Afghan President Hamid Karzai to allow an election runoff was led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry. But in an exclusive interview with The Cable, Holbrooke refuted the reports of his marginalization with a mix of indignation and bewilderment. He's been intimately involved in all the goings-on related to the situation in Afghanistan and his lack of media appearances is due to his hectic and relentless work as part of the administration's ongoing review of the Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, he said. 'I didn't know I was missing in action because I was kind of busy all day,' said Holbrooke, denying that the White House had given him any instructions to lay low or stay out of the public eye, as has been alleged ... 'The truth is that I go Afghanistan every two months and I was there less than two months ago. When I came back, I knew we were plunging into the biggest imaginable policy debate,' Holbrooke said. 'So [Secretary of State] Hillary [Clinton] and I mutually felt that my place at this time was to stay here.'" (ForeignPolicy)



"(Gore) Vidal has much more affection for Tennessee Williams – who, he notes, thought that JFK had a nice ass – and especially Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward (who wouldn't?), who are pictured frequently. They apparently shared Roman holidays, country weekends and weddings. The money shot in this book is the image of Gore and Paul with their hands on the globe-like testicles of a phallic ancient Greek statue. In reproduced letters, Newman comes across as a randy, playful sort – 'It's been a long time since I have seen you face down in the urinal,' he writes his friend 'Gorvie' in recollection of alcohol-laden confabs. Those would be held, among other places, in Vidal's fabulous Italian villas, his Hollywood Hills manse, or earlier, in a Guatemalan church and a Hudson River estate. There are snaps documenting the tasteful decor of each – befitting his interest in history, there are an eclectic range of antiques from various periods – and visits from Andy Warhol, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Lauren Hutton, Susan Sarandon (and her brood), and Leonard Bernstein." (BayAreaReporter)



"As Doug Marshall alerts us on Twitter, 'the Walgreens at 14th Street had a prominently displayed sign that they are completely out of Plan B.' Wow, New York; wow. So what could be the cause of this sudden demand for back-up birth control? While the elegant Princess Grace Awards Gala might at first seem too elegant an event to be the cause, remember that Prince Albert of Monaco has had TWO KIDS out of illicit trysts, something he probably doesn’t want to repeat. Also, all those CMJ afterparties are bound to lead to some ill-advised (un?)romantic entanglements." (Guestofaguest)



"Long before she began making headlines of her own, Beth Ditto had a little brush with fame as a kid growing up in Arkansas. The Gossip frontwoman had an odd and unexpected run-in with President Bill Clinton, back when he was still just governor of that state. Ditto explains that she was in the backseat of her family's pick-up truck, headed to a fish fry. 'My hair is blowing out, all matted and nasty, there's food all over my face, my dad throws a cigarette out the window and it knocks me right in the head because I'm sticking my head out like that, of course,' Ditto tells Spinner. 'So I have this huge burn mark on my face and my hair looks like it hasn't been brushed in my life.' Around that time, the Dittos pulled up to the fish fry. Shortly thereafter, a limousine drove up and Governor Clinton steps out. Caught up in the frenzy of everyone around her clamoring for his autograph, little miss Ditto presented the future President of the United States a dollar bill that her grandpa had just given her and asked him to sign it. According to Ditto, Governor Clinton looked down, patted her on the head and said, 'I think that's illegal darlin'.'" (Spinner)



"PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON signed autographs, stood for photos and showed off his gift of gab while making his way out of the Marriott Hotel ballroom, but he stopped for two questions from The Trentonian. Clinton may know the gross national product of Nigeria, but he also knows sports. Clinton, a former Arkansas governor, went Hog wild when asked about the Razorbacks 23-20 loss to No. 1 Florida on Saturday. 'Did you see that the SEC apologized for the one penalty that helped Florida in that one drive?' Clinton said. 'And that was only a 10-yarder. There were three other 15-yard penalties that helped (Florida) during that last drive.' Clinton called himself a 'big fan' of Arkansas and a supporter of coach Bobby Petrino. 'They’re getting better. They’re going to be a really good program.' The SEC notified Arkansas officials that they blew a call against Razorbacks defensive tackle Malcolm Sheppard on a first down play with Florida on the Arkansas 21. Half the distance to the goal line later, Gator Jeff Demp scored to tie the game at 20-20. CLINTON SAID HE'S still playing golf. 'Still love playing but it’s taken me a little longer to come back since my heart surgery,' Clinton admitted." (TheTrentonian)



"In the latter days of The Public Interest, there were too many articles on how public policy could help promote marriage and stem the decline of the traditional family. Following the disciplinary tendencies of most sociologists, who simply project an ongoing change into the future, I thought neither traditional religion nor the family could resist the onslaught of commercial society. Irving found the limitation of The Public Interest to domestic affairs confining and founded The National Interest, recruiting the wonderful Owen Harries from Australia to edit it and hoping it would provide a platform for a more realistic (I think that is the term he favored) approach to foreign policy. Oddly enough, such an approach was in contradiction with what came be known as 'neoconservative' foreign policy: Irving (Kristol) was skeptical early on about imposing or promoting democracy in South Korea or Vietnam (he was wrong about South Korea), and, undoubtedly, he would have been equally skeptical about its prospects in Iraq and Afghanistan. The term 'neoconservatism' was hijacked." (Nathan Glazer/TNR)



"Rupert Murdoch promised his shareholders when News Corp. acquired Dow Jones that the company’s content was ripe for premium products—and execs have been signaling for months that something was on the way from the Wall Street Journal. Turns out the first entry—and the only coming in 2009—is a blend of WSJ and Factiva called The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition, a new site billed as a premium business news service. (That description isn’t odd but I would venture to guess a large chunk of the WSJ’s existing subs get it because they think it’s already aimed at professionals. ) WSJ Pro will be available for enterprise users in November, going wider in January. Reuters reports a subscription will run $49 a month, just under $600 a year. For some context within the confusion of WSJ pricing, that’s a little less than the newsstand price of about $610, considerably more than the discounted print subscription of $391, and considerably less than the WSJ.com rate of about $100. It’s also just under a third of the cost of a real-time Bloomberg Terminal, not an exact comparison but the statement by Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones, suggests strongly they want WSJ Pro to be viewed not as a substitute for their own basic service but as an alternative to Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters terminals: 'We are not imprisoned by a terminal and are thus able to produce a more contemporary web-based news feed tailored to a sector, a company or an asset class.'" (Staci D. Kramer/Paidcontent)



"Howard Stern may have finally given fans a clue about his plans to continue The Howard Stern Show when his Sirius XM contract expires in January 2011. Tuesday night, Howard Stern told reporter Lisa Glasberg of Howard 100 News that he'd be sticking around the business for 'a while.' Howard Stern was attending the annual Angel Ball fundraiser for cancer research with his wife Beth Ostrosky Stern on Tuesday night when he was uncharacteristically candid about his future plans for The Howard Stern Show. The King of All Media told Howard 100 News reporter Lisa Glasberg that there was still a substantial fan base for the Howard Stern Show and that his wife Beth Ostrosky still 'likes getting me out of the house,' and then added: 'I'll probably be doing it for a while...I'm sticking around.' Howard Stern tried to back track on Wednesday morning's Howard Stern Show broadcast, claiming that 'a while' could be referring to the next 14 months until his Sirius XM contract expires. Howard Stern admitted that he had imbibed two glasses of wine before his red carpet confession .." (Examiner)



"Rome Hartman, current 'BBC World News America' EP and former EP of 'CBS Evening News," said earlier this year that he'd been branded the "Howard Beale of Twitter' for his criticisms of it. Well today, he was moderating a panel discussion about social media and its impact on news at UGCX, mediabistro's user-generated content summit in New York. Hartman was joined by Scott Karp of Publish2, Michael Meyers from Now Public, and Rachel Sterne from Ground Report as the group talked about trends in news gathering, producing, and publishing in an increasingly interactive news environment. But the democratization of news coverage may not always be a good thing, Right Rome? 'Crowds typically like crap,' Hartman says, asking his panelists, 'How do you moderate that instinct towards junk?'" (TVNewser)

Bronson Pinchot: "(Tom Cruise) Made Constant, Unrelated Homophobic Comments" On Set Of Risky Business



Bronson Pinchot -- aka the naive but vaguely mischievous "Balki Bartokomous" of that significant 80s artifact Perfect Strangers -- made his film debut in the 1983 cult classic Risky Business. He talked with Nathan Rabin of The Onion AVClub about the making of that vehicle which propelled Tom Cruise into the stratosphere. It's not good, people. From TheOnionAVClub (via TheAwl):

"We didn’t know it was going to be a big hit. We thought Tom [Cruise] was the biggest bore on the face of the Earth. He had spent some formative time with Sean Penn—we were all very young at the time, Tom was 20, I was 23. Tom had picked up this knack of calling everyone by their character names, because that would probably make your performance better, and I don’t agree with that. I think that acting is acting, and the rest of the time, you should be you, but he called us all by our character names. He was tense and made constant, constant unrelated homophobic comments, like, 'You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?' I mean, his lingo was larded with the most… There was no basis for it. It was like, 'It’s a nice day, I’m glad there are no gay people standing here.' Very, very strange."

Or profoundly meaningful. "Obviously, this is so far removed from who Tom Cruise is as a person, this must have been said in jest,” Cruise's rep told EW. Oh, sure *cough* obviously.

Howard Stern, King Of All Media, On The Gradations Of Media Status



I've often wondered about the gradations of media status. Everyone knows, for example, that Vanity Fair has greater print magazine cachet than, say, Playgirl. That goes without saying (Averted Gaze). But print aint what it used to be, even as recently as a half a decade ago. And what about the various media verticals? Technically speaking, Perez Hilton, though a social newbie, pulls more eyeballs than, say, any show on the CW (And that, we cannot lie, is kind of scary). But TV trumps the web, right? Or, as Gore Vidal said, "I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television."

Television, after the movies, seems to be at the top, statuswise-mediawise. That's why I imagine so many media A-list types appear eagerly without getting paid.

Where does satellite radio fit in all this? Howard Stern, as befitting a King, is cooly logical about the gradations of status in the various forms of media as he talks to XM-Sirius news reporter Lisa G. From HowardStern.com:

"Lisa G came in with the headlines and, in an aside, noted that she recently cried over her red carpet press line placement. Lisa said she got emotional after seeing her spot was behind 'more important' media outlets, like the television networks – and most embarrassingly, several dot coms. Howard was miffed at first but then resigned; saying the order of press line import should probably go TV, Internet, Radio and then Satellite Radio, as it's still an emerging technology. Howard joked: 'There was a college newspaper ahead of Lisa.'"

Howard Stern is the self-proclaimed "King of All media," still infinitely entertaining, but he is no longer nearly as influential as he was on terrestrial radio. Then again, terrestrial radio -- outside of maybe NPR and, possibly Air America radio -- is a vast media wasteland of cliched DJs and repetitious music that oftentimes sounds like the Jersey turnpike looks. When will terrestrial radio, so devastated by the collapse of the automotive industry and their ad dollars, just hire bloggers, their natural media allies?

EXCLUSIVE: Russell Simmons Buys CelebrityTweet



Russell Simmons just tweeted earlier today: "Here with 'new partner' Ian Corbin gg just bought celebritytweet. Oh sh.. I leaked it, anyhow we are stategizing today." It sounds credible offhand, but the hip-hop mogul might want to hire an editor before he goes TwitterBerrying under the affluence. Simmons misspelled Ian Corbin's name ("ian cornin") and the site's URL ("Spelled celebritytweet.com wrong. Get on it!!!") in his tweet. No specifics were mentioned and Ian Corbin hasn't yet responded to my emails asking for comment.

According to the Webby-nominated the site: "CelebrityTweet is a side project of Ian Corbin, created in November 2008. Since then, the site has grown tremendously and exceeded all expectations in traffic and popularity." CelebrityTweet hasn't tweeted any celebrity news since September 14th.

Simmons, who recently attended the Hip Hop Summit, is partnered with Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel Partners in funding GlobalGrind.com There appears to be some synergy there. Simmons is a well-known media influencer and "connector," socializing in full view of the cameras with other celebrities (most recently the infamous Ashley Dupre, who ended up publishing a much-viewed blog post for GlobalGrind). Adding CelebrityTweet to his and his social circles maneuverings should be interesting, particularly next summer in the Hamptons.

Daily posts on pop culture, media and politics at The Corsair here.

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"At the Cannes International Film Festival in May, in the loud, chaotic bar at the Martinez Hotel, Lee Daniels seemed, as he often does, both ecstatic and nervous. He jumped, he slumped, his mood changing from giddy to anxious. He was the only black man in the crowded bar, a fact that he mentioned and then brushed away. He was dressed unremarkably in a loose, untucked shirt and slouchy khaki pants, but his hair, an electric corona of six-inch fusilli-like spirals, demanded notice. Although Daniels will be 50 this year, he has the bouncy, mercurial energy of a child. The previous night, at the gala screening of his movie 'Precious,' which he directed and helped produce, he greeted the audience by saying, 'I’m a little homo, I’m a little Euro and I’m a little ghetto.' The crowd cheered. Daniels knows what he’s selling: his films combine street-smart bravado with an art-house sensibility. 'Precious,' the harrowing story of a 350-pound illiterate teenage girl who is pregnant for the second time by her father and horribly abused by her mother, is shot in an almost-documentary style interspersed with fantasy sequences. (It opens Nov. 6.)" (Lynn Hirschberg/NYTimes)



"Talib is a male student who is attending or who has graduated from a madrassa and can recite the Koran in Arabic by heart. To learn Arabic and use the language of the prophet to recite in rhythmic tones the entire Koran's 114 chapters and 6,236 verses takes about 10 years. And by the time a Talib graduates at 16, he knows little else, except that the Earth is flat as in a rug or a bed (mentioned many times in the holy book with one exception when it is described as egg-shaped). Most important in a Talib's one-dimensional education is the firm belief that America, India and Israel are mortal enemies of Islam. The original spark plug for Pakistan's 12,500 madrassas originated during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The idea, warmly endorsed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, was the erection of an ideological barrier against communist ideology." (Arnaud de Borchgrave)



"Last Thursday, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller delivered a speech to the paper's digital team at TheTimesCenter on West 41st Street, outlining several tasks and areas of focus for the next couple of months. Since Jon Landman became culture editor, and left behind his position as the liaison between the newsroom and the digital side, Mr. Keller and manging editor Jill Abramson have been getting a 'graduate education' on the digital side, sitting down with editors and developers both one-on-one and in teams, listening to suggestions, complaints and issues. He said their major decision is still whether or not the paper will charge online--which is certainly their most pressing one, as well." (Observer)



"A year ago, at the height of the financial panic, the world yearned for a profitable and confident financial sector. It now has what it wants, but hates it. As joblessness soars and the hopes of hundreds of millions of people are blighted, the financial sector’s survivors are thriving. Even bonuses are back. Policymakers have made a Faustian bargain. Success feels like failure. Yet success it has been. The stock market capitalisation of banks has recovered, to an enormous extent (see charts). This does more than indicate confidence in the future of the banks; it also facilitates the capital-raising the banks must do, particularly, argues the International Monetary Fund’s Global Financial Stability Report, in the eurozone. This recovery has been no accident. When central bank money is almost free, prices of risky assets are recovering and competitors have disappeared or are weakened, making money is a relatively simple matter for the strong survivors. With earnings recovering, can bonuses be far behind? Alas, no. According to a recent note from the London-based centre for economics and business research City bonuses will rise by 50 per cent this year, though will remain 40 cent below 2007 levels." (Martin Wolf/FT)



"Clarence Clemons stopped by (The Howard Stern Show) to promote his new book, 'Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales,' and explained the subtitle: "Some of it was made up, most of it is just bullshit.' Howard noted that Clarence met Bruce Springsteen in 1974, and Clarence nodded, explaining he felt an instant connection with his future E Street Band companion: 'When I first saw him, I knew it. I knew this was it' ... Howard read a quote from Clarence's book in which Redd Foxx told him to 'Watch Bruce Springsteen...just remember that he's white. I don't mean anything bad by that, but when he looks at the world, it's different.' Clarence laughed that he had paid the advice no mind: 'I was never shocked by anything Redd Foxx said. He was kinda pissed off at the world.'" (TheHowardSternShow)



"Considering 'My Dinner With Andre' had a principal cast of two, it wasn’t exactly a feat of logistics to reunite the stars for a screening at the SoHo House in Manhattan last night, as part of the club’s IN-House film series. Both Wallace Shawn and André Gregory were there, dressed in sweaters, looking very much like the tweedy, uptown sophisticates they play in the film, only a bit older. Shawn, pulled away from a deep conversation with the writer Edward Jay Epstein, spoke about the movie during a cocktail reception in the club’s library. The normally verbose playwright and actor had difficulty explaining why 'André,' which centers entirely around a conversation between two theater-world colleagues in a Manhattan restaurant, continues to hold such lasting appeal with audiences (a new Criterion Collection DVD edition was issued this summer). 'I can’t answer it,' Shawn said, adding that his own affection for the movie is tempered by the difficulty of watching a younger, thinly-veiled version of himself on screen. Does the film’s popularity have something to do with the kind of East Coast intellectual life it depicts?" (WSJ)



"WHEN SI NEWHOUSE, who is now 81 years old, went to Condé Nast in the early 1960s, the company was just a small part of the Advance Publications business, which his father had built. The newspaper side of the company was thought to be the more desirable one (Newhouse pere installed his son Donald at the head of it). But Si persevered to build Condé Nast into the force that it became, and in the process changed the magazine world forever ... 'Si is arguably the most knowledgeable guy in the history of American magazine publishing and global magazine publishing,' said Tom Wallace, Condé Nast’s editorial director. 'He is irrefutably the most successful' ... So can the Condé Nast of the future continue to look like the Condé Nast of the past? The company would say yes, although the confidence in that belief seems better suited to boom times than bust. The printed word will endure. Advertising will return. Profits can be what they were a few years ago. Perhaps, thanks to the company’s radical scaling back, some of those things will come true. But that doesn’t mean that Condé Nast will return to being the Si-inspired institution that has been so revered." (Observer)



"Bernie Madoff, cocaine kingpin? New additions to a lawsuit against the jailed Ponzi schemer charge that he presided over an office so fueled by the drug that it was known as the 'North Pole.' The suit, filed Tuesday night in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges that Madoff, as far back as 1975, used two street toughs on his payroll to set up a cocaine pipeline into the offices of Madoff Securities. It portrays the firm's headquarters as an animal house with 'a culture of sexual deviance' that often hosted drug-fueled parties featuring topless waitresses who wore little more than G-strings. In addition to Madoff, the suit, which was originally filed in June, adds a host of new corporate defendants, including JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, the Bank of New York, Oppenheimer and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. It also reveals that Madoff shares a cell with a 21-year-old doing time for drug offenses and eats pizza prepared by a convicted child molester." (NYDN)



"Controversial Fox News host Glenn Beck is now travelling with an armed guard. Guests at the other day's preview of Broadway musical 'Memphis' noticed Beck was closely accompanied -- even to the men's room -- by a body guard with a gun partially con cealed under his jacket. Beck, who famously accused President Obama of being 'a racist,' tweeted after the show: 'Just got back from Memphis on Broadway. Amazing cast & music. 2 songs abt Hope & Change. rlly? Only 2?' A rep for Beck declined to comment." (PageSix)



"It’s a frigid October morning, and Donatella Versace has just slinked into the vast back room of a palatial suite at the Waldorf Astoria. She drops gracefully onto a gold settee and lights the latest of today’s cigarettes. Dressed all in black, the petite designer seems impossibly tiny in this enormous room—a grownup Eloise chain-smoking Marlboro Reds. She orders an orange juice with a straw and starts reminiscing about old friends, past trips to New York, the time she went horseback-riding and whitewater-rafting out West with Anna Wintour. She laughs a lot, youthfully. If you didn’t know she was a fashion legend and lifelong party girl just from looking at her, you would know from that laugh ... As for Sarah Palin: 'Honestly! What do I think of her? Nothing. Is that a good answer?'" (Rebecca Dana/TheDailyBeast)



"We're curious - is it George? Despite media reports to the contrary, George Stephanopoulos' coronation as new co-anchor of 'Good Morning America' is not a fait accompli, ABC insists. 'There is no frontrunner,' says network spokesman Jeffrey Schneider. 'It's not done, by any stretch of the imagination. We're taking our time to do it right.' What ignited another round of Stephanopoulos speculation was ABC's announcement that the moderator of 'This Week' would sit in for Diane Sawyer on 'GMA' today through Friday." (TVNewser)

"Last night the calendar in New York was overwhelming. For example: President Obama was in town speaking at a Democratic National Committee Healthcare Rally Event at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Over in the Alexey Brodovitch Gallery of the Hearst Tower Glenda Bailey, Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar, Stephen Gan, Creative Director of Bazaar, and Valerie Salembier, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Bazaar, hosted a preview of 'Andy Warhol; The Bazaar Years – 1951-1964' with a catalogue introduction by Charlie Sheips. Also ..." (NYSocialDiary)



"ON Tuesday night, New York's Saks Fifth Avenue celebrated the launch of Assouline's American Fashion Cookbook with a party at Café SFA that drew Charles Nolan, Richard Lambertson, Selima Salaun, Yeohlee Teng, Stan Herman and Diane von Furstenberg, all of whom came out to sample Elie Tahari's Lamb Chop with Mint Sauce, Victor Costa's Vidalia Onion Crustless Tart and Zac Posen's Butterscotch Wafers, among other designer delectables. 'Food and fashion both start with an 'f,' said von Furstenberg with a laugh. 'And all designers love to cook!'" (Vogue)