Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"In February, Steven P. Jobs had learned that, after years of fighting cancer, his time was becoming shorter. He quietly told a few acquaintances, and they, in turn, whispered to others. And so a pilgrimage began. The calls trickled in at first. Just a few, then dozens, and in recent weeks, a nearly endless stream of people who wanted a few moments to say goodbye, according to people close to Mr. Jobs. Most were intercepted by his wife, Laurene. She would apologetically explain that he was too tired to receive many visitors. In his final weeks, he became so weak that it was hard for him to walk up the stairs of his own home anymore, she confided to one caller. Some asked if they might try again tomorrow. Sorry, she replied. He had only so much energy for farewells." (NYTimes)

"The structure of Romney's national security brain trust doesn't match the NSC structure exactly. Romney has set up a team of 'senior advisors' at the top of the org. chart, which includes many of the advisors who were with him in his 2008 campaign, including Mitchell Reiss, Pierre Prosper, Cofer Black, and Dan Senor. Other members of the senior advisory team include former senators Norm Coleman and Jim Talent, former officials Michael Chertoff, John Lehman, Eric Edelman, Dov Zakheim, and Robert Joseph. Former Pawlenty foreign policy advisor Vin Weber is also on the list.Lehman and Roger Zakheim (Dov's son) head up Romney's defense working group. The Afghanistan working group is led by James Shinn, a former Pentagon Asia official, and Ashley Tellis, an India expert. Overall, the team is significantly larger and more organized than the national security policy team of any other GOP presidential campaign. His intention is to build a big tent to attract as many GOP foreign policy professionals as possible. The Democratic foreign policy community is taking Romney's Friday speech seriously. The Center for American Progress Action Fund and the National Security Network will hold a conference call to rebut Romney's speech Friday, with experts Neera Tanden, Heather Hurlburt, Ken Gude, and Lawrence Korb." (ForeignPolicy)

"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will criticize President Obama on military policy in a major foreign policy address Friday, while promoting his idea of an 'American century.' The former Massachusetts governor will give what his campaign has been billing as a major foreign policy speech in South Carolina, an early voting state. In his remarks, Romney will argue that as president, he will rebuild U.S. military strength around the world, drawing a comparison between his position and that of Obama's, who he will suggest has essentially surrendered America’s exceptionalism and sovereignty by 'assert[ing] America’s moment has passed.' 'I will not surrender America’s role in the world. This is very simple: If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President. You have that President today,' Romney will say, according to excerpts of the speech released by his campaign. He will use his remarks to argue for increased defense spending, which will appeal to conservatives, and reaffirm the country's relationship with Israel. Jewish voters have been unhappy with Obama since his May speech, where he outlined his position on Israel-Palestinian borders. Those points will be among the eight actions Romney will propose to implement within his first 100 days in office." (TheHill)

"Last night, the arty set who attended the Whitney Museum's annual gala (held at Hudson River Park) were treated to a lovely after-party, dubbed the 'Studio Party,' conveniently located just down the hall from the gala. As the party began, all eyes (and cameras) zoomed in on John Legend, as he entered the room with the stunning Chrissy Teigen. Although John wasn't willing to stop and speak, the singer did seem happy as a clam to have the supermodel by his side. It wasn't long after Legend's flashbulb-inducing entrance that some of our favorite downtown dignitaries began to join the packed party -- Brazilian babe Lorenzo Martone arrived alongside model Heide Lindgren, Charlotte Ronson posed for pics before heading into the crowd, Nate Lowman (looking very dapper in a suit!) happily hob-knobbed with friends and fans, and Andrew Andrew worked the room in perfect synchronization. As The Roots' ?uestlovebegan his Michael Jackson-heavy DJ set, we hoped everyone was as ready as us to get their groove on. What would it take to get Studio Party chair Amanda Hearston the dance floor? 'What's that song by 50 Cent?,' Hearst asked us. 'Go party like it's your birthday?'  You mean 'In Da Club'? 'Yes!' the heiress answered with a smile. 'Once I hear that, I'm done.'  We told Amanda we'd put in a good word with the DJ." (Paper)

"So the Top 5 order now for all time box office worldwide grosses (but not adjusted for inflation or higher ticket prices or 3D premium) is: 1. Avatar 2D (Fox – 2009) $2.7B 2. Titanic 2D (Fox/Paramount – 1997) $1.8B 3. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 3D (Warner Bros – 2011) $1.3B 4. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon 3D (Paramount – 2011) $1,119.1 5. The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (New Line/Warner Bros – 2003) $1.1B
" (Nikki Finke)

"Bar Refaeli was the belle of the ball at the Whitney Studio Party in a backless nude Marchesa gown. The supermodel was swarmed by meerkat-like male admirers at the JP Morgan-sponsored bash, but seemed engrossed in her phone, perhaps texting boyfriend David Fisher, who wasn’t present.
 Also there: Georgina Chapman, Keren Craig and Michelle Monaghan, all resplendent in Marchesa, Tamara Mellon, Yigal Azrouel and Lorenzo Martone." (PageSix)

"That’s Nicholas Guido Anthony to You, Bitch Felix Salmon showed up with a Reuters camera crew last night to record Nick Denton handing over the check to me. As Nick wrote it out on my back, I reminded Felix that he also thought I would lose, but now I am a Benjamin richer. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Nick was gracious in defeat, but he was a good sport. But as I see it, the new soft Nick is easy to exploit! So I casually mentioned I would make another bet. 'What terms?' he asked. I said 700MM pvs in a year. 'That’s 40% growth,' he grimaced. 'Yep,' I said. 'Take it or leave it.' He took the bait." (Rex Sorgatz)

"Last night was the Park Avenue Armory Gala. This is Elihu Rose’s production. I know it’s the production of many but Mr. Rose who is known affectionately as Ellie to his many friends and acquaintances, is the man behind it ... Last year they held this benefit dinner in the Ward Thompson Drill Hall (which covers almost an entire Manhattan block). At the time, the room had been set up for the Carnival space that was being featured. Last night you walked into an enormous, cavernous four stories high in its center, and dark, with columns of small spots lighting the way ... The guests looked like people from the Upper East Side. Men in suits and ties, women dressed nicely but conservatively for a comfortable dinner in a nice home. The conventional, more than the artistic (in terms of the way the crowd looks). There were a lot of artists there too among the several hundred guests. David Byrne, as well as Philip Glass who was being honored and who performed." (NYSocialDiary)

"NPR’s Morning edition had self-publishing advocate turned Amazon publishing advocate Barry Eisler on for an interview today. He talked about his decision to walk away from a six-figure book deal with St. Martin’s Press earlier this year and to publish his book with Amazon’s thriller imprint Thomas & Mercer instead.  Mr. Eisler said that publishing was like most bureaucracies: 'they start out serving the wider good and end up serving their own interests' and that they care mostly about “preserving their own position, perks and profit.' (Apparently a realization Mr. Eisler arrived at somewhat belatedly, after putting everybody through the hassle of lining up a book deal for him. Also we should note here that the digital version of The Detachment is not available for the Nook or Kobo.)" (Observer)

Jon Stewart on Steve Jobs

Wix Blog Cafe 3.0 Party

Last night the Wix Lounge threw an amazing bash for up-and-coming New York bloggers. Kit Prescod was the mixologist-with-the-mostess, getting us all quite tight. The vibe was definitely downtown-y and urban and -- present company excluded -- young.

Spotted in the crowd: LadyBlogga, Cojo of ArtSucks, Genevieve Santos of Gorgeousonthego, Arie Rich of KMP Blog, Raquel at JadedNYer, Dasheel Jordan of Nunnie20, Joey Hodges, Terry McFly, Mauricio Jimenez , of Ego Pub Crawl, Elizabeth Bacelar and Joe Revitte.

I was a little sad to hear that the very awesome Victoria Monsul is no longer at Wix handling events and managing the lounge, but if this party is any evidence of the skills of their newly hire, Wix should be fine. Just fine.

Party on.

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, passed away today after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Apple released a statement hailing him as 'a visionary and creative genius' whose spirit will continue to guide the company, and remembrancespouredinfrom all corners of the Internet -- an example of the instant, global connectivity that Jobs himself did so much to create. Here at Foreign Policy, perhaps we're most indebted to Jobs for the way that he changed how we read and relate to the news. We placed him at #17 on our 2010 Global Thinkers list, along with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, 'for reinventing reading' -- and that's no exaggeration. His portable, personable devices helped spawn an industry of digitized books and magazines -- including an iPad version of Foreign Policy that we launched earlier this year. He also helped make easily available books that had been difficult to find, prohibitively expensive, or prohibitively heavy to carry around: Now, you can read Edward Gibbons's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire or Tarif Khalidi's Images of Muhammad on your e-reader.Jobs also changed how we read the news. It's hard to remember but, a generation ago, laptops regularly cost up to $6,000 and weighed around 7 pounds. And yet, even then, it was a little bit of magic -- no cords, no tower. Today, though, a Macbook Air starts at $1,000 and weighs less than 2.5 pounds. That evolution has both democratized technology, and made it possible to stay connected anywhere." (ForeignPolicy)

"George Clooney had plenty of opinions on the presidential race at Time magazine’s '10 Questions' interview with editor Rick Stengel yesterday, but said he had no interest in running for office himself. Clooney directed, co-wrote and plays the role of a presidential candidate in the new movie, 'The Ides of March.' But when asked if he would consider a political run himself, he said, 'No -- I’d run from [it].” By staying out of politics, “I don’t have to compromise. I get to say that ‘I think that what’s going on in the North-South is bad,’ and I don’t have to worry that the Chinese would be upset or the Russians will be upset. My job is much more fun.' The star told the audience that he asked President Obama at a recent fund-raiser what kept him up at night, to which Obama responded: 'Well, look, everything that gets to my desk is critical mass -- if it gets to me, nobody else can handle it but the president. And it’s a big deal.' But Clooney added that when he asked Obama to pinpoint just one thing, the president confided, “Pakistan. That worries me.' (PageSix)

"Taken by 26-year-old Will Counts, himself a Central graduate, the resulting photograph fast became one of the most indelible images of the civil-rights era. Where documentaries on the Nine usually end is where David Margolick’s forthcoming book, Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, begins. Starting with that photograph, the book’s scope grows larger and larger until it settles on the complicated relationship that grew between Elizabeth and Hazel. Though they are no longer speaking to each other, VF Daily catches up with Margolick to discuss the friendship that developed against all odds." (VanityFair)

"The Michael’s lunch. They were packing them in yesterday with a lot of the likely suspects and some newer faces too. Such as Chris March, the designer who was a finalist on Project Runway and now has a show of his own (Mad Fashion). At his table: Jennifer Geisser, senior veep of communications at Bravo TV, and publicist Alana McElroy. Around the room: Peter Brown with Judith Miller; Joe Armstrong with Paul Beirne. Today, he is hosting a private lunch (by invitation only) over at Alliance Capital for Laura Ingraham, who has a new book. Moving on: Tracey Jackson; Harold Ford with Robert Zimmerman and Susie Essman of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Zimmermand is a political analyst on TV and a public relations man; Ford is vice-chair of Merrill Lynch and Ms. Essman ... Is the former Congressman going to go the TV route? Elsewhere, John Sykes with Michael Bloom. Suzanne Johnson with Muffie Potter Aston. This was Mrs. Aston’s second day in a row at Michael’s. My lunch guest, producer Mark Freden, an old friend in from Los Angeles, recognized her from NYSD as if she were one of the TV celebrities. Barbara Walters was lunching with Marie Josee Kravis; Chris Meigher, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance; Joe Kernen of Squawkbox with Marc Lasry ..." (NYSocialDiary)

"Trophy wives are now a cliché, proof that men are insecure and prefer taut skin. I take a backseat to no one where beautiful young girls are concerned, but veterans are known to sparkle in bed. And I don’t believe a word about the Duchess of Windsor and all the oriental tricks she supposedly used on the poor Duke, who is rumored to be hung like a nine-month-old baby. Although an expert on going down, all she needed to capture him was to talk down to him. I haven’t enough space to list the great courtesans—because that’s what they really are—who nowadays pose as ladies of society, and there’s also the monster that goes by the name of libel that seems to lurk over my shoulder when I write about such touchy subjects. But in my long life among the rich and infamous, the ratio of rich men landing glorified hookers is about fifty-fifty; in the ex-Soviet Union’s case, it’s 99 to 1 in favor of the hookers." (Taki Theodoracopoulos)

"Here at GalleristNY we initially resisted the idea of creating a Power List (anyone who reads The Observer will know that they are treasured here), until we realized we could use one to make a point.
There has been a lot of press about women in the art world recently, but for some reason this talk has been for the most part limited to women who work in galleries. Vogue profiled Gagosian’s female employees (the “Gagosiennes), New York magazine’s fashion blog, The Cut, recently looked at the sartorial choices of gallery assistants and a piece in the The New Yorker questioned their very existence. And of course there is the upcoming Bravo reality series Paint The Town, which, according to advance promotion, will follow the trials, tribulations and, presumably, the night life of a bunch of young gallery assistants. What gets left out in the current discussion is the fact that women hold positions of real power in the art world. Many may have started out as the women who work the front desk, but now they are the ones who decide whether or not you get to buy that painting, or have that museum show. They raise money for museums, source pictures and write reviews. Attesting to the power of women in the art world, this was an excruciatingly difficult list to narrow down." (Gallerist)

"The hottest biopic in Hollywood right now has to be based on former Time magazine top editor Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs being published by Simon & Schuster on November 21st. Given the TV and movie industry’s past and present penchant for making entertainment out of people’s lives, it won’t be long before the book is made into a film. The 448-page profile is based on over 40 interviews with the Apple co-founder and over 100 conversations with friends, family members, colleagues and competitors. And it’s a compelling story: the building of the world’s most valuable technology company by creating the devices that changed how people use electronics and revolutionized the computer, music, and mobile phone industries. Jobs gave his full cooperation but had not read it as of mid-August, the date of the Barnes and Noble overview. At first titled iSteve: the Book Of Jobs, Isaacson had second thoughts about what was appropriate for the first biography to get Jobs’ blessing and cooperation. Even when it wasn’t even finished, it made it (briefly) into the top 50 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Isaacson eventually persuaded his publisher Simon & Schuster to go with the simple title of Steve Jobs. First planned for 2012, the book’s release date was moved up. Jobs reportedly fought off a long list of would-be biographers over the years then chose Isaacson who’s written about Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein." (Deadline)

"Over at ThinkProgress, critic Alyssa Rosenberg (whom you should be reading if you aren't already), has a thought-provoking post on all the new fall shows with female stars, and whether or not those shows are actually speaking to a female audience. "This was supposed to be a great fall for women on television, but several weeks in, it feels like it may be better at the cause of getting women acting jobs than at providing entertainment aimed at women viewers," she writes. And she wonders whether a show like Up All Night--with a female and male lead splitting child-care--may say more to women than 2 Broke Girls, featuring, well, two broke girls. Well, what makes a TV show 'aimed at women' depends on what you mean by 'aimed at women."'Maybe you mean 'aimed at right-thinking women' or 'aimed at reflecting women's lives and concerns' or 'aimed at presenting well-drawn, realistic female characters.' For the purposes of this post, however, I'm going to assume that it means 'aimed at attracting, and made in the assumption that it will get, a majority female audience.' (And vice versa for men.) If that's our definition, here's the number one clue that a new TV show is aimed at women: It is on primetime broadcast network television. Women watch TV: they have been the majority of the big mainstream-network audience for a long time now and that is only becoming truer as men—especially young men—are peeled off from the audience by things that are not TV." (James Poniewozik/Time)

"Here at the Washington Ideas Forum, the heads of ABC, NBC, and CBS took to the stage for a panel moderated by our James Fallows. Alongside the discussions of international reportage and the politicization of news, ABC president Ben Sherwood provided an interesting rationale for his outfits expanded partnership with Yahoo. Here's the thing. As explained by Sherwood, the deal was not an effort to reach (large) Yahoo's audience per se. Yahoo, he said, was the largest provider of news items that were shared on Twitter and Facebook. Ergo, 'If we are the primary news provider to Yahoo, we'll be the primary news provider on Facebook and Twitter,' Sherwood said. When the deal was announced, I tweeted that I didn't have anything interesting to say about it. But if you look at what Sherwood is saying, they didn't buy an audience, but a distribution platform that was formerly called the audience. That's a fascinating idea. You don't buy passive eyeballs, you buy active sharers." (TheAtlantic)

"'It’s ridiculous,' Mayor Bloomberg was overheard saying to a fellow guest at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment and the Powers That Be cocktail party Tuesday night when Hizzoner was asked about the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Bloomberg recently told radio host John Gambling the marchers are blaming “the wrong people.” Across the room at Graydon Carter’s Monkey Bar, former Facebook president Sean Parker -- who’s just joined Twitter after vowing he’d never sign up -- was chatting with its founder Jack Dorsey. The party was also dedicated to “New York’s Booming Technology Industry,” according to its invite, and Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts praised tech entrepreneurs Cyrus Massoumi of ZocDoc and Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler. Harvey Weinstein and wife Georgina Chapman hobnobbed with J.Crew chief Mickey Drexler. Also on the scene were HBO’s Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo, Ronald Perelman, Gilt Groupe’s Kevin Ryan and Lorne Michaels." (PageSix)

"Former CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric still doesn’t get why former Gov. Sarah Palin answered the infamous 'What do you read?' question in a deer in headlights manner. This morning at The Atlantic/Aspen Institute Ideas Forum her interviewer, The Week’s Washington Editor Margaret Carlson, asked Couric to reflect on that interview with Palin. 'It does kind of bug me when people only remember that question,' she said. (Carlson chimed in, saying she didn’t mean to 'bug' her.) Couric went on, 'I spent 45 minutes talking to Palin about foreign policy issues. We talked about nation building, Iran, a surge and how it might be effective. It was at the height of the fiscal crisis. It’s funny to me that that one question got so much attention. She was so annoyed with me at that point and just wanted me to be gone. What can I say?' Couric reasoned at that point Palin hadn’t done much press. 'Charles Gibson got to go to Wasilla,' she said. 'I was terribly jealous.' FNC’s Sean Hannity snagged the second interview and Couric the third. “When I asked the question about what do you read, I was curious. It was just kind of a spontaneous question. I thought, gee I’m interested. She has such strong political views. Her ideology is so [dramatic pregnant pause] specific. I wanted to know what she read on a regular basis that helped shape her world view.'" (TVNewser)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"When I think about Occupy Wall Street, I picture a bunch of pissed off people who feel left out of a critical conversation, one that will have impact on the rest of their lives. Decisions are being made and policy debated by the same people who got us into this mess with no clue on how to get us out. When you feel like your chosen leaders have lost the script, it's hard to just sit there and do nothing. It only takes a small group of people to light the fire that taps into the deep discontent that's been simmering below the surface. Of course, none of this would be happening if the economy were bubbling along, but it isn't. What Occupy Wall Street is protesting is the general fucked-up-ness of the world we live in where governments and corporations appear to conspire against the interests of the general population. Unlike the anti-war and civil rights movements of the '60s, there is no unifying cry to End the War in Vietnam, for example. It's much broader than that, part of a general malaise and disgust with government that spans the right and the left, from the Tea Party to the Occupy Wall Street party people. For many, it's protest for its own sake, a chance to express one's anger against the politics-as-usual approach taken by leaders who can't get themselves to take meaningful action. Rather than watching unemployment continue to climb while the rich get richer, Occupy Wall Street is making noise in the media with the 'we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore' message." (David Hershkovits/Paper)

"Daniel Yergin's latest book, The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, would have been essential reading for energy industry insiders simply as a consequence of Yergin's status as one of the field's foremost commentators and analysts ... Daniel Yergin: 'We have gone through periods of great optimism about how quickly a transition to a different kind of energy system can come about. But our $65 trillion global economy rests on a very big and complex energy foundation. And it's governed by two laws. One is the law of long lead-times. Because of the scale and nature of energy, it doesn't change overnight. And the second is the law of scale. To be significant, it has to be large. And the renewable sector, the alternative sector, is still developing within those constraints. It's certainly a lot farther ahead than it was a decade ago, and indeed it has become a big business and a global business in its own right. But, when you look out 15 or 20 years based on what we know, our energy mix won't change too dramatically. It's really around 2030 that we could see the really significant changes.'" (Foreign Policy)

"'I don’t know why I’m telling you this story,' Fred Wilson told The Observer in a recent interview, interrupting his own yarn with a laugh. 'I’m not an investor in GroupMe and I wasn’t at South by Southwest.' Mr. Wilson, principal at Union Square Ventures was second-guessing an anecdote about a party at the annual Austin festival. (Brew Media Relations) decided to rent out a burger stand across the street from the convention center and call it the 'GroupMe Grill.' It was a bid to win what tech bloggers were calling “the group messaging wars” waging between five startups at the convention all pursuing a similar concept. Over three days Brew gave away 2,500 free grilled cheese sandwiches encrisped with the company logo and 13 kegs of Shiner Bock—in exchange for downloading GroupMe’s new mobile app, of course. GroupMe left Austin with the SXSW Breakout award. The TechCrunch headline? “How GroupMe Won SXSW: Grilled Cheese.” Five months later, Skype acquired GroupMe for $85 million." (BeatBeat)

"'Mad? Ya think?! If he came back right now I’d have to kill him, for what he did to us. I’d fucking kill him. I’d fuck him, and then I’d kill him,' 47-year-old Courtney Love shouted at Vanity Fair contributing editor Nancy Jo Sales, asked if she was angry with her husband, Kurt Cobain, for killing himself. 'He tried to kill himself three times!' And then there were the drugs. 'He OD’d at least five times. I was the fucking E.M.S. I was always sticking pins in his balls. I carried around Narcan!'—a drug used to jolt OD-ing heroin users back to life. At the singer’s rented West Village town house, Love shows Sales a book from her estranged daughter Frances Bean’s 'hope chest.' 'This is her diary,' Love explains. 'I just want you to look at this one page,' which contains a list titled, 'Things That Make Me Smile.' Love, distraught, asks Sales, 'Why am I not on it? Why doesn’t she put ‘watching old movies with my mom’?' Frances Bean emancipated herself from her mother two years ago, a decision that is clearly still bewildering and hurtful to Love. 'All I can feel is how much I love her,' Love tells Sales. 'I’d give anything to hear the sound of her heels walking down the hall past my bedroom.' The relationship between Love and her daughter has been rough from the start, as Frances was placed in protective custody when she was born. 'There were no drugs in my urine, no drugs in her urine when she was born,' Love says. She laments a number of her parenting failures, such as Frances’s inability to read until she was seven: 'It was my fault! I never read to her! ... Why didn’t I ever take her to a Broadway show? She fucking loved those Broadway musicals!'" (VanityFair)

"My sister wrote me from Cape Cod to tell me that the leaves were falling a lot, helped by the storms. Here in Manhattan, the leaves have yet to even show signs of turning. It takes much longer, I guess because the city is warm, still self-heating. The apartment buildings usually don’t turn on the heat until it hits 55 degrees. I think. It’s somewhere along there. When I lived in Los Angeles, I didn’t miss the foliage back here the way a lot of people claim to. But when I am here in New York, I look forward to it. I see hope even when it’s hard to see, when the leaves turn color. It’s too beautiful to deny.The social scene – at least the one you’re going to hear most about on New York Social Diary, is beginning to heat up. Three, four, five events a day. Yesterday I missed the Silver Hill Hospital Gala kick-off at the home of Shafi Roepers. Disappointed; because I had wanted to see the house of the lady I’ve heard so much about. Ms. Roepers is not new on the scene but she is On The Scene Now. There’s a slight difference. The emergence of a personality in New York is always interesting to observe." (NYSocialDiary)

"George Clooney will bring his upcoming Oscar hopeful, 'The Ides of March,' to New York again tonight for a Ziegfeld Theatre premiere. Sony has methodically been pumping the political drama at the Venice and Toronto film festivals and for tastemakers at MoMA. This time, Sir Howard Stringer hosts, and expected guests include George Stephanopoulos, Jon Corzine, Michael Moore, Christopher Cuomo, Tom Brokaw and Lesley Stahl." (PageSix)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"An important disconnect over the discussion of the future of the European Union exists, one that divides into three parts. First, there is the question of whether the various plans put forward in Europe plausibly could result in success given the premises they are based on. Second, there is the question of whether the premises are realistic. And third, assuming they are realistic and the plans are in fact implemented, there is the question of whether they can save the European Union as it currently exists  ... Part of that tale is about two dubious assumptions at the foundation of the crisis. The first is the assumption that interested parties are genuinely aware of the size of the financial problems, and to the extent they are aware of it, that they are being honest about it. Ever since 2008, the singular truth of the financial community globally has been that they were either unaware of the extent of the financial problems on the whole or unaware of the realities of their own institutions. An alternative explanation is, of course, willful ignorance. This translates as the leaders being fully aware of the magnitude of the problem but understating it to buy time or to position themselves personally for better outcomes. It could also simply be a case of their being engaged in helpless hopefulness — that is, they knew there was nothing they could do but remained hopeful that someone else would find a solution. In sum, it combined incompetence, willful deception and willful delusion. Consider the charge that the Greeks falsified financial data. While undoubtedly true, it misses the point. The job of bankers is to analyze data from loan applicants and to uncover falsehoods. The charge against the Greeks can thus be extended to bankers. How could they not have discovered the Greek deception? There are two answers. The first is that they didn’t want to." (STRATFOR)

"President Obama’s relations with Senate Democratic leaders are deteriorating along with his poll numbers. With Obama’s approval ratings at record lows and the 2012 electoral map favoring Senate Republicans, the president and Senate Democrats are, in many ways, on divergent paths. Vulnerable Democrats from red states see Obama as impeding their chances of winning reelection, while the president often seems aloof to their concerns.  Obama, focused on winning a second term, has distanced himself from Congress altogether, at times not making the distinction between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. There have been recent flare-ups between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his deputies, 13 months before the 2012 elections, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The proximate causes of friction can seem slight, such as a recent breach of protocol, which left Senate Democratic leaders grumbling. Obama left his party’s top senators, who had assembled for a conference call, hanging on the phone for nearly 20 minutes before National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling came on the line with a seemingly vague notion of what the call was supposed to be about, Democratic sources said. The White House and Reid’s office did not comment for this article." (Alexander Bolton/TheHill)

"Today Grantland began selling Grantland Quarterly, a print anthology of the best reads from the sports and culture site so far. It is edited by Bill Simmons and Dan Fierman. ESPN and Grantland have contracted McSweeney’s to handle the production and distribution (which, in retrospect, explains why Dave Eggers is a Grantland contributing editor). As such, the basketball leather-bound books will harbor twee custom moving parts, like posters, a pull-out section, 'old-school baseball cards' and mini-booklets. The first volume is available through the McSweeney’s store; individual issues cost $19.95 and a year-long subscription (four issues) is $48. In addition to some of the more memorable Grantland features (Malcolm Gladwell on the NBA lockout and Colson Whitehead on the World Series of Poker, for example), the first volume includes an original column by Mr. Simmons and new fiction from Jess Walter, author of The Financial Lives of Poets. Grantland Quarterly has always been a part of the ESPN-sponsored website’s business plan, according to Mr. Fierman." (Observer)

"Roger Webster died yesterday morning at 6. He had been ill with cancer for several months although he’d kept it from most of us and just lived his life, did his work, saw his friends. His illness which for quite awhile seemed to be in remission, got to the point where he had to be hospitalized. That was several weeks ago. At first we thought he would be home soon. Then the news changed ... Somewhere midlife, he met Couri Hay and got involved in the public relations business and New York. It fit him well. You’ve seen his picture on these pages many times. In the past few years, after he left Couri, he went out on his own. With the assistance of his friend Jason Grant, he handled a lot of active accounts including Doubles, The Central Park Conservancy, the American Cancer Society and many others. But all of that seems incidental whenever I think of Roger. I first met him about eighteen years ago when he was working for Couri Hay. He was a cut-above most because he was always gentleman in his behavior toward everybody, and it wasn’t a businesslike act; that’s who he was." (NYSocialDiary)

"It looks like The Simpsons—20th Century Fox Television’s multibillion-dollar cash cow, the anchor of the Fox network’s Sunday prime-time schedule, and the longest-running sitcom in the history of broadcasting—might stop production after the current 23rd season ends next spring.The reason is a negotiating impasse between the studio and the six principal actors who voice the beloved characters on the animated series that hilariously satirizes middle-class Midwestern angst. Difficult bargaining is nothing new for the show, which was created by James L. Brooks and Matt Groening. Fox studio execs have occasionally threatened to replace uncooperative cast members with sound-alike actors. But for the first time in nearly a quarter century of haggling, the executives have insisted that if the cast doesn’t accept a draconian 45 percent pay cut, The Simpsons will die an abrupt death as a first-run series. A Fox Television spokesman had no comment by late Monday night." (Lloyd Grove)

"Mitt Romney has finally found a groove on the right. But he could find himself stuck there if he wins the GOP nomination. With Romney’s recent move to wield the immigration issue as a club against Rick Perry — painting him as 'soft' on a topic that resonates with the Republican primary electorate — the former Massachusetts governor is taking advantage of a rare opportunity to outflank Perry on the right among conservatives. After the Texas governor wounded himself with his remarks in the last debate, Romney seized on the issue of illegal immigration, trying to paint Perry as an open-border softy who is giving out freebies to people who enter the country illegally. But the tactic is not without risk, and some strategists — and even some Romney supporters — are beginning to worry that he could damage himself as a general election candidate with the fastest-growing population of voters who are up for grabs: Hispanics. 'Mitt Romney has definitely adopted [a hostile] tone, and needlessly,' said Ana Navarro, the national Hispanic chairperson of Jon Huntsman’s campaign who served the same role on John McCain’s 2008 campaign." (Politico)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Named one of the world's most intriguing billionaire heiresses by Forbes magazine, singer and thesp Josie Ho Chiu-yee recently demonstrated her acting chops in Steven Soderbergh's 'Contagion.'  Her father, Stanley Ho Hung-sung, is one of the world's richest men, with a multibillion-dollar fortune from casinos in Macau. (He helped transform the former Portuguese colony into a gaming enclave that now does more business than Las Vegas.) Josie Ho has done more than 30 movies and has four pics opening in the next few months, including Johnnie To's latest, 'Motorway.' Next year, she'll star in Hany Abu Assad's 'The Courier' opposite Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mickey Rourke and Til Schwieger. She has made seven albums, and in July released 'Third Eye' in China, where her band, Josie Ho & the Uni Boys, tours frequently. All of this came despite serious opposition to her going on stage  --  traditional Chinese families frown on performers. 'My family is really strict coming from the finance world, really traditional. It's not like they don't respect art, but old Chinese people look at actors and performers, and think they are from a lower class,' she says" (Variety)

"In November 2002, the Doubletree hotel in Somerset, New Jersey, hosted a daylong gala: lunch, speeches, dinner, more speeches, and finally dancing. There were more than 400 guests, and they were all there to mark the 25th anniversary of the Ilankai Tamil Sangam, ostensibly a cultural and social organization. Many of its members supported the demand by Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority for an independent state, and although the Sangam was not avowedly militant, the flags and videos of the movement’s military wing, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E.), were on display throughout the hall. The Tamil Tigers, as the group is known, were then in the 19th year of a civil war against the Sri Lankan government. Designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 1997, the Tamil Tigers invented the suicide-bombing belt, a technology it exported to Hamas and al-Qaeda. The Tigers were responsible for hundreds of suicide attacks on buses, temples, and shopping malls, and for village massacres in which children were killed in front of their parents. In May 1991, the Tigers assassinated the former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Two years later, they assassinated the Sri Lankan president, Ranasinghe Premadasa.One of the distinguishing features of the Tamil Tigers is that the group was mostly financed from abroad by the large Tamil diaspora. Many of its donors were eminently respectable, and worked in America, Canada, Australia, and Europe in professions such as medicine and the law. And so at about seven p.m., it fell to a hospital anesthesiologist to introduce the Doubletree event’s star speaker, Raj Rajaratnam, a corpulent Tamil whose Galleon Group hedge fund had already made him the world’s richest Sri Lankan. His net worth would eventually reach a reported $1.8 billion." (VanityFair)

"Yesterday was also the 35th birthday of my esteemed business partner and friend, Jeff Hirsch a/k/a JH to NYSD readers. He and I have been working together for 13 years. He was a kid when started in the business as my assistant at Avenue in the late 90s. He’s one of those people who is just solid, gets things done, has his feet on the ground and is sensible. Over the years he’s become a shrewd editor as well. He’s also good at handling people. Really good. A diplomat. We started the NYSD together. We didn’t know what we were doing so the first thing we did was build a desk. My desk. Jeff got the wood. The next thing that happened was the kid we’d hired to put us online daily didn’t really know how to do it and suddenly quit in our second week. Jeff, who had been sitting with him as he went through the process, called to tell me the news.  I said to him: 'Now what’re we gonna do?!' (Remember this was the year 2000, ancient times in cyberland). Jeff said: 'Well, there’s a Book for Dummies on How to Go Up On The Internet. I’ll get it and see.' That was on a Friday. On the following Monday morning, We were up." (NYSocialDiary)

"That said, the newest numbers have changed the Top 10 order yet again. (It was another confused weekend like the last one!) This crop of four freshmen failed to make much of an impression with moviegoers because holdovers still ruled the North American box office. But overall the weekend is up +10% from last year: 1 Dolphin Tale (Alcon, Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,515 Theaters] riday $3.4M, Saturday $6.5M, Weekend $14.2M (-26%), Estimated Cume $37.5M Terrific hold as Alcon uncorks another feel good favorite. Dolphin Tale was up 88% from Friday night thanks to the saturday matinee bump. Now it’s placing above both films it trailed last week. But the cume is still lagging. And DreamWorks Animation/Paramount just pushed up the release of Puss ‘N’ Boots to October 28th — which will deprive Dolphin Tale of an extra week of alone time with families. 2. Moneyball (Sony) Week 2 [2,993 Theaters] Friday $3.8M, Saturday $5.5M, Weekend $12.5M (-36%), Estimated Cume $38.4M Excellent hold especially for a 2-quadrant pic. But Moneyball‘s cume needs more beer and peanuts to fatten. 3. Lion King 3D (Disney) Week 3 [2,340 Theaters] Friday $3.3M, Saturday $4.4M, Weekend $11M, Estimated Cume $79.6M Very impressive, still, for this juiced up toon as all releases pass Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo to become the 4th highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide." (Nikki Finke)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"With the campaign season under way, President Obama has begun the battle of raising the millions he needs to be re-elected. For those with deep pockets whose hearts bleed blue, it is fund-raiser time.  Time to strap on the Christian Louboutins and stand for hours in Secret Service security sweeps. Time to listen as vaguely familiar-looking White House officials expound about how the president has this election in the bag. If, that is, donors would please just open up their checkbooks.  But donors, beware. There are the $35,800-a-ticket fund-raisers, and then there are the $35,800-a-ticket fund-raisers. The distance between a Presidio Heights villa overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at sunset and a packed hall at a Masonic Temple with bad air-conditioning is a long one.  Consider the dinner party for the president given by Harvey Weinstein, the film producer, at his Greenwich Village town house in August. It was a fine summer evening, if you did not count the police marksmen on the rooftops and the cordoned-off streets nearby.  A manageable 50 guests were assembled inside. Gwyneth Paltrow and her Coldplay husband, Chris Martin, sat at the same table as the UBS executive Aryeh Bourkoff. Jimmy Fallon and the real-estate tycoon Aby Rosen were there. Vera Wang sat next to Anna Wintour, who sat next to Alicia Keys." (NYTimes)

"Can Charlie Rose save CBS’s 'The Early Show?' The veteran newsman and PBS talk- show host’s name has been added to the short list of newscasters being considered to relaunch the poorly rated morning program. 'They want the show to be politically oriented as they head into the 2012 election cycle,' a source said. 'It will be a similar format to MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’'  TV insiders have been buzzing about an impending 'Early Show' shake-up since CBS hired 'Morning Joe' creator and executive producer Chris Licht from MSNBC to be vice president for programming. Many speculated after his departure in May that he would attempt to bring 'Joe' hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski with him to CBS, to relaunch 'Early Show' with a hard-news format and fewer lifestyle and cooking segments. But both Scarborough and Brzezinski are committed to their MSNBC contracts. Sources say Licht has tapped his vast Rolodex to court a number of TV personalities, including CNN’s Erin Burnett and Ali Velshi. 'They are casting their net wide,' an insider told us. Burnett declined an offer to host 'Early Show' to join CNN, where she’s launching a 7 p.m. show on Monday. Rose, 69, is the newest name to be brought into the debate." (PageSix)

"BUT I DON’T HAVE A SUIT: Per Access Hollywood, 'When staying at George Clooney’s Italian villa you might end up in the lake – without your clothes on! Access Hollywood caught up with the actor at the premiere of this latest movie, 'The Ides of March,' where he told us that his Lake Como palazzo has a long history of inspiring distinguished newscasters to take a dip in the pristine waters.'I got Charlie Rose to jump in the water too,' George told Access on Tuesday night. 'Once, I got Walter Cronkite jump in the lake a long time ago, so now once you get Walter Cronkite, you get all these classy journalists to jump in the lake now.' Earlier on Tuesday during an appearance on 'Conan,' George’s co-star, Marisa Tomei, revealed that Charlie wasn’t the only 'Ides' star jumping in the lake.
'Charlie Rose can be hot. We had some hijinks over there in Como. He’s a sport,' Marisa said of the PBS newsman, explaining that she, Evan Rachel Wood and Charlie (who also stars in 'Ides') recently stayed at Clooney’s home."  (WJLA)

 

"The Democratic primary in Massachusetts is still almost a year away, but the expected race between the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Republican Sen. Scott Brown is already a hot topic in the financial services universe. 'The potential Brown-Warren matchup is on everyone’s radar,' said Scott Talbot, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable. On the Washington cocktail circuit, banking lobbyists are chattering about how to take Warren on. They fear that a massive, public money assault might be more of a gift than a challenge for the Harvard Law School professor who built her reputation taking on big banks. The powerful lobby is in wait-and-see mode, weighing its options as it plots a strategy designed to hit hard, but smart. 'You don’t want to make her sympathetic by landing on her with both feet,' said a financial services industry insider and former GOP Senate aide. All of this could be welcome news for Brown. Even though he’s the fourth-largest recipient of banking, insurance and real estate industry donations in Congress, not everyone in the banking world is enamored with him, since he cast votes to reduce debit card swipe fees and approve financial reforms. 'Better a friend with whom you sometimes disagree but can always talk to, than an antagonist who is always coming at you, guns blazing,' said the former Hill aide. And the industry seems willing to forgive Brown." (Politico)

"First, let me knock down this untrue rumor: I know for certain there is no IMG World board meeting on a conference call or otherwise today to discuss ousting board member Michael Ovitz in response to allegations he’s maneuvering inside the board and with Forstmann, Little & Co investors to run and/or own the global management and production giant. Also, let me say definitively that Mike Dolan is and will remain for some time IMG’s President/COO because he was handpicked by chairman/owner Teddy Forstmann to run the company. The 71-year-old Forstmann is battling brain cancer in a very public and courageous struggle. Forstmann specifically told his board members that, no matter what happened to him, Dolan was to be given a minimum of 2 to 3 years to continue running IMG’s global sports, fashion, entertainment, and media business if not longer. IMG’s board is purely an advisory board since this is a private company (and not like a board of directors of a public corporation) and therefore does not have the power to remove any board member much less Ovitz. What the real story is, according to my months of reporting, is that IMG management has lawyers working on how to remove Ovitz from the board and prevent him from interfering with Dolan’s running of the company or with Forstmann, Little & Co investors. 'This prick was fucking around with management. Is he being put in his place? Yes,' an insider tells me. The allegations against Ovitz include that he is 'harassing' management by demanding IMG financial records; pressuring Dolan and senior IMG executives to report to him by trying to set up a so-called executive committee within the board to oversee IMG activities because of Forstmann’s illness and treatment; and approaching Forstmann, Little &Co partners and investors telling them he was interested in buying IMG with the backing of Greg O’Hara, the managing director of One Equity Partners LLC." (Nikki Finke)

"It is one of those days in New York. Even for a city used to heatwaves, today’s temperature is considered noteworthy. On TV, the weather reporters are cracking jokes. Never mind frying an egg on top of a car bonnet, says one, you can cook a whole breakfast on it. What promised to be a pleasant stroll in the Upper East Side sunshine turns into an endurance test. When I finally reach the elegant neoclassical facade of the Acquavella art gallery, I dive in, hungry for nothing but its air conditioning.William Acquavella is one of the world’s most successful and influential art dealers and his office upstairs, crammed with books and posters, is a welcome and civilising refuge. He gives me a short tour of the gallery. Inside one room are a sprinkling of Kandinskys on the floor, and two throne-like armchairs facing them. 'We call it the high-pressure suite,' says Acquavella. I don’t think he is joking. This is where the sales of some of the most valuable artworks ever created are clinched. Where high culture is introduced to the cheque-book. We step outside the gallery, into the furnace." (LunchwiththeFT)

"Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has dethroned Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as the richest member of Congress, according to The Hill’s annual list of the 50 wealthiest lawmakers. McCaul reported a net worth of at least $287 million, by far the most of any lawmaker. Analysis for The Hill’s Wealthiest shows that 2010 was a banner year for many well-heeled members of Congress. Lawmakers including Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) saw gains of millions of dollars in their fortunes. Together, the 50 wealthiest lawmakers reported a minimum net worth of $1.6 billion, about $200 million more than the lawmakers who appeared on 2010’s list. Last year’s wave election brought big changes to The Hill’s rankings. More than a dozen lawmakers appear on the list for the first time, including 10 Tea Party-backed GOP freshmen with backgrounds in business, medicine and auto sales, among other professions. The richest GOP freshman is Rep. Jim Renacci (Ohio), who reported a minimum net worth of $35.9 million, ranking him 11th on The Hill’s list." (TheHill)

"Only three years after 2008 ravaged many a media property, New York’s editorial operations haven’t just thawed, but many are now on a hiring hot streak. Media companies poaching from one another is—for better or worse—a longstanding tradition. Sometimes it’s routine—we’ll admit, the Observer has always been a farm team for larger publications to draft from—and other times it’s an aggressive, surprising move that can turn acquaintances into rivals, and frost over once warm friendships. These moves could be a routine change-up, or a bust; other times, they can turn the fortunes of downward-trending editorial operations around on their own. But since that thaw started, and media hiring returned—even as many publications continue to work in diminished ranks, and maybe because that’s the case—the field has been especially aggressive. Hugo Lindgren’s New York Times Magazine all but staged a raid on his former co-workers at New York after he was taken from the hands of Bloomberg Businessweek. The Atlantic lost Andrew Sullivan to The Daily Beast; same with the Washington Post and Howard Kurtz. Reuters took aim at half of the media world, landing (among others) Bethany McLean, Alix Freedman, Geraldine Fabrikant, and then nabbed Jack Shafer when he was barely fresh out of Slate." (Observer)

"Most Champagne is consumed soon after its release; until fairly recently, the belief that Champagne could improve and develop with age was a heresy restricted to the English upper classes and the denizens of Champagne. But in fact, the high acidity of Champagne acts as a natural preservative, and certain years are particularly conducive to making long-lived bubblies. Like the great reds of Bordeaux and Burgundy, Champagne can develop tremendous complexity as it ages. The rise of vintage Champagne as a collectible category is a recent phenomenon, and it really gained momentum with the 1996 vintage. The vintage was being hailed, even as the grapes were being picked, as one of the greatest ever, and its reputation has only grown in recent years. What was remarkable was that the almost unprecedented level of ripeness was accompanied by very high acidity. Ripeness without acidity is a recipe for flabby, short-lived Champagne; the 1996s, on the other hand, seemed destined for a long, happy life, although the high acidity meant that they would take a long time to really integrate and show their charms. I decided to revisit these Champagnes on the occasion of their 15th birthday to see how they were coming along ..." (Jay McInerney/WSJ)

"For Silda Wall Spitzer, who grew up in Concord, North Carolina, community service is the family way. Her grandparents baked and delivered wedding cakes to the less fortunate; her mother led 'Safety Town' to teach children street smarts and the safest way to cross them; her father ran the local United Way campaign. As a child, Ms. Wall Spitzer, a Girl Scout and church member, visited senior citizens in their homes and made gifts for people for the holidays ... What began as a kitchen-table conversation among friends turned into 'Children for Children,' a not-for-profit dedicated to getting youngsters involved in community service through volunteer work. It grew to have a presence in 23 states ... At the Tenth Annual Art of Giving Benefit last May, civic and social leaders lent their support in full force. generationOn honored four adults for their leadership and commitment to service: Brian Goldner, president and CEO of Hasbro, Inc; writer and producer Tonya Lewis Lee and her husband, filmmaker Spike Lee; and philanthropist Laurie M. Tisch, president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. Also spotted at the event were Lauren Bush, John Hays, James Hoge, Kathy Lacey and benefit co-chairs, Kevin Arquit and Jet Blue’s Dave Barger. Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light Institute and daughter of former Senator Sam Nunn, Democrat of Georgia; Newark Mayor Cory Booker; and actress Sigourney Weaver presented the awards." (NYSocialDiary)

"It was, by all accounts, a terrible plan. A channel devoted exclusively to showing a type of short film that hardly yet existed? A channel whose attraction to advertisers was limited by the youth of its audience and their associated lack of spending power? A channel whose programming would be cadged and cajoled from multinational corporations - for free? 'MTV,' an early ad read. 'It sounds like an asinine idea.' It was. It also revolutionised television, the music industry, and youth culture around the world, made a fleet of new stars, broke another fleet of old ones, and changed everything in its wake, from Hollywood filmmaking to presidential campaigns. MTV officially closed the door on music videos in the US last year, preferring the reality and lifestyle programming to which they have devoted themselves (hello, Jersey Shore!), but the channel's growth into the most imitated and beloved television channel of its time came on the back of its devotion to music videos. MTV was not just selling videos, though; it was also selling itself. MTV defined youth culture for approximately a decade and a half, its dazzling style, snarky attitude, and liberal social outlook indelibly stamping American culture of the era. Now, in the year of its 30th anniversary, veteran music journalists Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum have assembled a wonderfully entertaining and enlightening history of the channel's first decade, and the stars it made. I Want My MTV is explicitly modelled on pop-culture oral histories such as Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller's Live from New York and Legs McNeil's Please Kill Me, and hot on the heels of Shales and Miller's book on ESPN, Those Guys Have All the Fun." (TheNational)

Marisa Tomei on Skinny Dipping with Charlie Rose