Saturday, May 18, 2013
Media-Whore D'Oeuvres
"At an art shindig on Park Avenue, I spotted Baz Luhrmann, the director of the latest and very noisy version of The Great Gatsby. I found him a charming man before I was shocked—shocked à la Captain Renault—to hear the dwarfish mayor of the (NYC) suggest an honorary American citizenship for that Russian son-of-a-bitch Roman Abramovich. Too bad I didn’t have my American passport with me, because I would have thrown it at him and told him to keep it. I can understand why some broken-down English toffs need to kiss Abramovich’s behind because they mistakenly think it beats working, but the grotesque Bloomberg is a billionaire many times over and needs not genuflect in front of a former plastic-duck salesman who belongs behind bars. The ex-duck salesman parked his monstrous floating brothel downtown and came to Park Avenue with his floozy la Zhukova, both posing as art connoisseurs. If any of you reading this feel like puking, go ahead—I’m amazed that I didn’t, and I actually was close enough to touch them. Yuck! Then I thought of poor old Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote Gatsby, sold only 24,000 copies, died very much in debt, and now his masterpiece sells 500,000 paperbacks every year, the novel has been turned into a movie five times, and the latest version cost $105 million. How’s that for irony? I’d say worse than Bloomberg and the duck salesman posing as gentlemen. The actor playing Nick Carraway, Tobey Maguire—who’s as tall as Bloomberg at 5 foot 8 inches—was asked whether he had loved the book and answered, 'But I read the script, of course.' No Fitzgerald expert he. The movie is exactly what I had predicted a couple of months ago: Pearls, cloche hats, dropped waists, and lots of fireworks. It’s a tumultuous work that has about as much style as the fictional Gatsby parties." (Taki Theodoracopulos)
"If you were a veteran columnist for a well-known weekly paper, and increasingly the only reason people picked up a copy of that paper, and that paper laid you off after 25 years, you might be tempted to say some negative things about that paper. But Michael Musto refrained from doing so in his Facebook farewell to the Village Voice, which unceremoniously canned him this week. In fact, the only mention he makes of the publication by name is a glowing one ... If Musto has his next move lined up, he hasn't made it public, but he told Gawker on Friday that 'so many people have come out to offer their love (and opportunities).' Given the enduring affection
"The social calendar is still in high gear. This past Wednesday night was another busy one. Over at 583 Park Avenue GenerationON was honoring Chelsea Clinton with their Humanitarian Award. I did get to that one. There were almost 400 guests and they raised more than $720,000 for their very good cause inspiring children to give service to other children and their communities. A week ago Wednesday, New York lost one of the last of its great characters of the Beat Generation and Warhol Factory stars, Taylor Mead, who died in Denver at 88. Mead was a member of the Warhol Underground – which is the way it seemed in its earliest days. What seemed far out and even weird back then is so mainstream nowadays that it hardly seems relevant to mention. There was no SoHo, no East Village, no Tribeca, no Chelsea and the artists-then-sleek-downtown culture. However, at the time, this group, these people – the poets, the actors, the painters, the characters – were at the center of the bursting art and media scene in the early 1960s in New York. They were pre-hippie yet certainly reflected in the hippie movement. Mead turned out to be one of the very last of them. He lived his last days as an indigent downtown resident, a habitué of the local bars where they’d fill his glass(es) on the house and appreciate or at least respect his then ancient poet’s point of view. He was born into a well-do-family in Grosse Pointe, and came to New York as a very young man to pursue a career as an actor, and to pursue life as he felt like it as have so many millions of Americans who made the city what it is. Leaving Grosse Pointe, he shed himself of all touchstones of bourgeois respectability, and apparently enjoyed every minute of it. He was never famous in the American media sense but he was certainly famous to generations of students and fans of the Beats and the Warhol Factory, as well as the poets and artists of the city." (NYSocialDiary)
"The New York Times Book Review is modernizing under the editorship of Pamela Paul, who was appointed to the positon in early April. The section announced three changes in a new column in this Sunday’s issue (it was posted online today). Starting this weekend, the e-book bestseller list, which first joined the printed list in early 2011, will be online only. Additionally, book prices will no longer be included for any books. 'The e-book list has migrated online, the digital world being its natural habitat,' the Times announced. 'Given the fluid variety of pricing in today’s marketplace, we have also stopped including cover prices on the lists. The third change is the one you’re reading right now.' The third change is a more bloggy look." (NYTimes)
"Jo Wood, the second ex-wife of Rolling Stones’ rocker Ronnie Wood, claims in her new memoir that she and the musician once 'smuggled smack' into the Bahamas back in 1978. In an early excerpt from her tell-all, 'It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll: 30 Years Married To A Rolling Stone' published by RadarOnline, the former model claimed that an alleged 'sharp suited' dealer named Victor had them sneak cigarettes laced with heroin during their vacation to Nassau. She wrote that while Victor was on their flight to the island nation, he was 'acting like a mad man as he was smoking ‘dirty cigarettes’ or DCs – little roll-ups containing smack – which he was intending to take in to the Bahamas.' Jo claimed that Ronnie snuck into the plane’s bathroom, allegedly to indulge as well. 'I didn’t touch them, as they had the most revolting smell — if I think about it even now I gag — but Ronnie went into the bathroom for a sneaky puff.' She recalled, 'Shortly after he stumbled back to his seat, a flight attendant came over and crouched next to me [and said], ‘Excuse me, but I think your friend has left this in the toilet.’' 'Oh god, I’m sorry,' he said. 'Thank you ever so much. I’ll get rid of them.”
Jo wrote, “She smiled warmly. ‘Not to worry. Would you like another drink?’' As the flight descended, Jo wrote that Victor then 'dumped the bag of drugs' in her lap. 'As he was a drugs trafficker, I assumed that Victor would already have a plan in place to smuggle his stash through Customs, but as we started our descent he suddenly dumped the bag in my lap. It turned out that I was the plan.' Jo claimed that Ronnie then 'got a carton of duty-free cigarettes, removed all the cigarettes from the middle packet, stuffed Victor’s stash in there, then carefully packed it up again to look like new.' As they went through Customs, she recalled that agents 'immediately zeroed in on me; I must have been giving off guilty vibes.' She continued, 'as they went through my bag, I offered up a silent prayer of thanks that we hadn’t hidden the stash in there. Then the inspector held up the duty-free bag containing the carton of cigarettes. ‘Is this yours?’ he asked me. '’No,’ I said, pointing at Victor. ‘They’re his!’ I was damned if I was going to risk life in prison for him." (PageSix)
"'It’s ballet at speed,' Malcolm Borwick, captain of the Sentebale team, said Wednesday morning, referring to polo, the so-called sport of kings. Like many top athletes in the sport, Mr. Borwick follows a peripatetic international circuit, playing 110 games a year that take him from Florida to the Gulf States to Brazil. Most prominent among his three teammates on Wednesday, the man who had drawn the satellite trucks and the camera crews and 200 members of the international press and another couple of hundred paying guests to the Greenwich Polo Club on a cold and rainy Wednesday morning was, of course, Prince Harry, the ginger-haired rake who currently stands third in line of succession to the British throne. 'If you’re super optimistic, and very positive, as Harry is,” you’ll be effective on the field, suggested Mr. Borwick, a six-goal player. As it happened, the prince’s optimism, if that’s what it was, carried the Sentebale team, named for the charity he sponsors in the African nation of Lesotho, to success. As polo goes, it was a middling game, notable for some strategic defensive plays by Dawn Jones, the sole woman player; some spirited runs by Nacho Figueras, the Argentine heartthrob (and six-goal player) and Ralph Lauren model; and for the reality that nobody in the stands paid the slightest attention to the doings of anybody but the English prince.
"At an art shindig on Park Avenue, I spotted Baz Luhrmann, the director of the latest and very noisy version of The Great Gatsby. I found him a charming man before I was shocked—shocked à la Captain Renault—to hear the dwarfish mayor of the (NYC) suggest an honorary American citizenship for that Russian son-of-a-bitch Roman Abramovich. Too bad I didn’t have my American passport with me, because I would have thrown it at him and told him to keep it. I can understand why some broken-down English toffs need to kiss Abramovich’s behind because they mistakenly think it beats working, but the grotesque Bloomberg is a billionaire many times over and needs not genuflect in front of a former plastic-duck salesman who belongs behind bars. The ex-duck salesman parked his monstrous floating brothel downtown and came to Park Avenue with his floozy la Zhukova, both posing as art connoisseurs. If any of you reading this feel like puking, go ahead—I’m amazed that I didn’t, and I actually was close enough to touch them. Yuck! Then I thought of poor old Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote Gatsby, sold only 24,000 copies, died very much in debt, and now his masterpiece sells 500,000 paperbacks every year, the novel has been turned into a movie five times, and the latest version cost $105 million. How’s that for irony? I’d say worse than Bloomberg and the duck salesman posing as gentlemen. The actor playing Nick Carraway, Tobey Maguire—who’s as tall as Bloomberg at 5 foot 8 inches—was asked whether he had loved the book and answered, 'But I read the script, of course.' No Fitzgerald expert he. The movie is exactly what I had predicted a couple of months ago: Pearls, cloche hats, dropped waists, and lots of fireworks. It’s a tumultuous work that has about as much style as the fictional Gatsby parties." (Taki Theodoracopulos)
"If you were a veteran columnist for a well-known weekly paper, and increasingly the only reason people picked up a copy of that paper, and that paper laid you off after 25 years, you might be tempted to say some negative things about that paper. But Michael Musto refrained from doing so in his Facebook farewell to the Village Voice, which unceremoniously canned him this week. In fact, the only mention he makes of the publication by name is a glowing one ... If Musto has his next move lined up, he hasn't made it public, but he told Gawker on Friday that 'so many people have come out to offer their love (and opportunities).' Given the enduring affection
"The social calendar is still in high gear. This past Wednesday night was another busy one. Over at 583 Park Avenue GenerationON was honoring Chelsea Clinton with their Humanitarian Award. I did get to that one. There were almost 400 guests and they raised more than $720,000 for their very good cause inspiring children to give service to other children and their communities. A week ago Wednesday, New York lost one of the last of its great characters of the Beat Generation and Warhol Factory stars, Taylor Mead, who died in Denver at 88. Mead was a member of the Warhol Underground – which is the way it seemed in its earliest days. What seemed far out and even weird back then is so mainstream nowadays that it hardly seems relevant to mention. There was no SoHo, no East Village, no Tribeca, no Chelsea and the artists-then-sleek-downtown culture. However, at the time, this group, these people – the poets, the actors, the painters, the characters – were at the center of the bursting art and media scene in the early 1960s in New York. They were pre-hippie yet certainly reflected in the hippie movement. Mead turned out to be one of the very last of them. He lived his last days as an indigent downtown resident, a habitué of the local bars where they’d fill his glass(es) on the house and appreciate or at least respect his then ancient poet’s point of view. He was born into a well-do-family in Grosse Pointe, and came to New York as a very young man to pursue a career as an actor, and to pursue life as he felt like it as have so many millions of Americans who made the city what it is. Leaving Grosse Pointe, he shed himself of all touchstones of bourgeois respectability, and apparently enjoyed every minute of it. He was never famous in the American media sense but he was certainly famous to generations of students and fans of the Beats and the Warhol Factory, as well as the poets and artists of the city." (NYSocialDiary)
 |
"The New York Times Book Review is modernizing under the editorship of Pamela Paul, who was appointed to the positon in early April. The section announced three changes in a new column in this Sunday’s issue (it was posted online today). Starting this weekend, the e-book bestseller list, which first joined the printed list in early 2011, will be online only. Additionally, book prices will no longer be included for any books. 'The e-book list has migrated online, the digital world being its natural habitat,' the Times announced. 'Given the fluid variety of pricing in today’s marketplace, we have also stopped including cover prices on the lists. The third change is the one you’re reading right now.' The third change is a more bloggy look." (NYTimes)
"Jo Wood, the second ex-wife of Rolling Stones’ rocker Ronnie Wood, claims in her new memoir that she and the musician once 'smuggled smack' into the Bahamas back in 1978. In an early excerpt from her tell-all, 'It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll: 30 Years Married To A Rolling Stone' published by RadarOnline, the former model claimed that an alleged 'sharp suited' dealer named Victor had them sneak cigarettes laced with heroin during their vacation to Nassau. She wrote that while Victor was on their flight to the island nation, he was 'acting like a mad man as he was smoking ‘dirty cigarettes’ or DCs – little roll-ups containing smack – which he was intending to take in to the Bahamas.' Jo claimed that Ronnie snuck into the plane’s bathroom, allegedly to indulge as well. 'I didn’t touch them, as they had the most revolting smell — if I think about it even now I gag — but Ronnie went into the bathroom for a sneaky puff.' She recalled, 'Shortly after he stumbled back to his seat, a flight attendant came over and crouched next to me [and said], ‘Excuse me, but I think your friend has left this in the toilet.’' 'Oh god, I’m sorry,' he said. 'Thank you ever so much. I’ll get rid of them.”
Jo wrote, “She smiled warmly. ‘Not to worry. Would you like another drink?’' As the flight descended, Jo wrote that Victor then 'dumped the bag of drugs' in her lap. 'As he was a drugs trafficker, I assumed that Victor would already have a plan in place to smuggle his stash through Customs, but as we started our descent he suddenly dumped the bag in my lap. It turned out that I was the plan.' Jo claimed that Ronnie then 'got a carton of duty-free cigarettes, removed all the cigarettes from the middle packet, stuffed Victor’s stash in there, then carefully packed it up again to look like new.' As they went through Customs, she recalled that agents 'immediately zeroed in on me; I must have been giving off guilty vibes.' She continued, 'as they went through my bag, I offered up a silent prayer of thanks that we hadn’t hidden the stash in there. Then the inspector held up the duty-free bag containing the carton of cigarettes. ‘Is this yours?’ he asked me. '’No,’ I said, pointing at Victor. ‘They’re his!’ I was damned if I was going to risk life in prison for him." (PageSix)
"'It’s ballet at speed,' Malcolm Borwick, captain of the Sentebale team, said Wednesday morning, referring to polo, the so-called sport of kings. Like many top athletes in the sport, Mr. Borwick follows a peripatetic international circuit, playing 110 games a year that take him from Florida to the Gulf States to Brazil. Most prominent among his three teammates on Wednesday, the man who had drawn the satellite trucks and the camera crews and 200 members of the international press and another couple of hundred paying guests to the Greenwich Polo Club on a cold and rainy Wednesday morning was, of course, Prince Harry, the ginger-haired rake who currently stands third in line of succession to the British throne. 'If you’re super optimistic, and very positive, as Harry is,” you’ll be effective on the field, suggested Mr. Borwick, a six-goal player. As it happened, the prince’s optimism, if that’s what it was, carried the Sentebale team, named for the charity he sponsors in the African nation of Lesotho, to success. As polo goes, it was a middling game, notable for some strategic defensive plays by Dawn Jones, the sole woman player; some spirited runs by Nacho Figueras, the Argentine heartthrob (and six-goal player) and Ralph Lauren model; and for the reality that nobody in the stands paid the slightest attention to the doings of anybody but the English prince.
'It must be so hard, being Prince Harry all the time,' said the Canadian model Jessica Stam, who despite the suburban setting and soggy weather, was dressed in a severe structured black dress by Thom Browne and a pair of that designer’s stiletto wing tips." (NYTimes)
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Media-Whore D'oeuvres
"The White House took a series of steps Wednesday to make up with the Washington press corps.
The wooing took several shapes and followed a disastrous press briefing on Tuesday at which White House press secretary Jay Carney was torn apart over the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press phone records. To bolster President Obama’s free-press credentials, the White House announced Wednesday it had asked Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to reintroduce a press shield law that would allow media organizations to challenge subpoenas of phone records and offer legal protections for protecting confidential sources. The White House also took the step of handing out records of emails related to the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which is designed to push back at suggestions it has not been transparent and bolster its case it has been truthful about the attack. Finally, Carney started his daily briefing on Wednesday with a bit of self-mockery, standing before a screen showing a montage of facial grimaces and contortions he made during Tuesday’s contentious briefing. He called it 'The many faces of Jay.' Obama has had a relatively good relationship with the press, which conservatives often complain is a potent part of Obama’s political base." (TheHill)
"Peter Baker reports that President Obama occasionally fantasizes, as many presidents do, of imitating a 1998 Warren Beatty movie about a politician who suddenly started saying exactly what he thought ... You can see Obama’s Bulworth fantasies popping out from time to time, especially when reporters ask him why he can’t force Republicans to pass sensible compromises ...
The trouble is that these answers, while true, don’t actually help Obama. Any political scientist will tell you that the scope for possible legislation in this term is very narrow: The median House member is a very conservative Republican who represents a district that voted for Mitt Romney, and whose biggest political risk is losing a primary to an even more conservative Republican. But most political reporters and analysts don’t pay attention to the political science. They like narratives that revolve around the president as a protagonist. When you confront them with structural analysis that confounds their narratives, they just get upset with you. It serves no purpose. That’s why I advised Obama to use 'less real talk and more bullshit.'A post-presidency Obama who actually spoke his mind, rather than fashion himself a post-partisan eminence, as post-presidents do — now that would be awesome. But the reason politicians don’t go Bulworth is that it doesn’t work. The truth about legislative dynamics is complicated and depressing. People don’t want to hear it." (Jonathan Chait)
"While Daniel Webster died an American in 1852, his political legacy does not belong to just one state, but two: New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire, Webster represented the Granite State in the House of Representatives from 1813 to 1817. But he then moved to Massachusetts seeking to improve his legal career, only to wind up returning to the House as a Bay State congressman in 1823. (Republican ex-Sen. Scott Brown is currently pondering the reverse move.) Webster went on to have a lengthy stay in the Senate, becoming part of the upper chamber’s revered 'Great Triumvirate' with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. As a transplanted New Hampshirite representing Massachusetts, Webster’s individual case demonstrates how politics can be affected by the movement of Americans from state to state. In the aftermath of the 2012 election, the'demographics as destiny' discussion has dominated political analysis, with the latest data being provided by last week’s U.S. Census report on the 2012 electorate. But one demographic statistic hasn’t received much attention in the conversation: state nativity rates — that is, the percentage of people residing in a state who were born there. Does that statistic tell us anything about the politics of a state? If we order the states by nativity percentage (Chart 1) while also considering which party each state supported in 2012, we find that there are more Blue states than Red states with lower levels of nativity. Yet it’s obvious that high nativity rates in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin did not keep Barack Obama from winning those states in 2012." (Sabato)
"Donald Trump and wife Melania were among mourners at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on the Upper East Side last night expressing condolences to prominent real estate developer Richard LeFrak and sister Francine after the death of their mother, Ethel, who died on Tuesday at age 93. Also in the room filled with white roses were Richard’s wife, Karen, Ethel’s grandsons Jamie and Harry, and close friends Somers Farkas, Dennis Basso and his husband, Michael Cominotto. The funeral for well-known philanthropist Ethel is today at 1 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. Ethel’s husband, famed housing developer Samuel J. LeFrak, died in 2003." (PageSix)
"Last week certainly was the apex of this season’s contemporary art events here in New York. This time it had a decidedly New York/London spirit. There was the inspiring source of the Met’s Punk: Chaos to Couture, which was London in the 1970s. There was the fantastic Frieze Art Fair (now in its second year) at Randall’s Island, the satellite creation of the London magazine and art fair that bears the same name. And then, there were the masses of artists, museum professionals and collectors that pack the triennial fundraising dinner thrown for the Tate Americas Foundation, which supports the acquisition of art from the 'new world' for one of the UK’s most important and dynamic institutions — The Tate. I just returned from a month in England so perhaps I felt the British vibe more this year. And Tracey Emin, one of Britain’s best known contemporary artist installed a sculpture, entitled Roman Standard on view all summer at Petrosino Square at Spring and Lafayette Street in Soho as an adjunct to her two-gallery show at the Lehmann Maupin galleries on 26th in Chelsea and on Christie Street in the Bowery. While I don’t know if he has any interest whatever in contemporary art, we also have Prince Harry in town this week." (NYSocialDiary)
"The cowardly move by the Justice Department to subpoena two months of the A.P.’s phone records, both of its office lines and of the home phones of individual reporters, is potentially a breach of the Justice Department’s own guidelines. Even more important, it prevented the A.P. from seeking a judicial review of the action. Some months ago, apparently, the government sent a subpoena (or subpoenas) for the records to the phone companies that serve those offices and individuals, and the companies provided the records without any notice to the A.P. If subpoenas had been served directly on the A.P. or its individual reporters, they would have had an opportunity to go to court to file a motion to quash the subpoenas. What would have happened in court is anybody’s guess—there is no federal shield law that would protect reporters from having to testify before a criminal grand jury—but the Justice Department avoided the issue altogether by not notifying the A.P. that it even wanted this information. Even beyond the outrageous and overreaching action against the journalists, this is a blatant attempt to avoid the oversight function of the courts. It is not, again, as if the government didn’t have options. The D.C. Circuit (in a 2005 opinion upholding a finding of contempt against the Times’s Judith Miller and Time’s Matt Cooper for refusing to testify about who had disclosed Valerie Plame’s identity as a C.I.A. operative) has held that there isn’t a First Amendment privilege for journalists to refuse to testify before a criminal grand jury, as has the Second Circuit (in a 2006 case in which the government was trying to find out who told the Times about a planned raid on two foundations suspected of providing aid to terrorists). In the wake of the decisions, there was a renewed effort to pass a federal shield law—though the proposed law would not have provided absolute protection in cases of national security—but, with the rise of WikiLeaks, that discussion died." (NewYorker)
"We've all heard the stories. The friend of a friend who wrote a $50,000 check from the maternity ward to secure Junior's spot in the high school graduating class of 2030. The couple that built a library/parking structure/music room as a well-meaning gesture after they toured the school and 'saw a need." Then there's the one about the admissions director who pointed to two stacks of paperwork on her desk and said, "This is the pile of candidates we're considering. Yours is in the other one.' Over the past 18 months these tales have tagged along with me as I toured 12 private schools, attended open houses, and simulated playdates with my five-year-old twins, who on one occasion cavorted in a schoolyard with numbers pinned to their shirts like livestock at a state fair, all in the name of kindergarten admission. We live in Los Angeles, a city where the private school process is just as cutthroat as in New York, as it is in Chicago, San Francisco, and Atlanta. The incessant babble about where little Wolfie or Juniper or Harlow (remember, I live in L.A.) will learn to hold a pencil correctly, to the tune of $25,000 per year, often includes the terms fundraising, development, advancement, and capital campaigns. In a word: money. Money is not my native language, which explains why I'm a writer, not a hedge fund manager. So I needed a crash course in private school economics. What are the real financial expectations of the families applying to private schools these days?" (TownandCountry)
"The White House took a series of steps Wednesday to make up with the Washington press corps.
The wooing took several shapes and followed a disastrous press briefing on Tuesday at which White House press secretary Jay Carney was torn apart over the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press phone records. To bolster President Obama’s free-press credentials, the White House announced Wednesday it had asked Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to reintroduce a press shield law that would allow media organizations to challenge subpoenas of phone records and offer legal protections for protecting confidential sources. The White House also took the step of handing out records of emails related to the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which is designed to push back at suggestions it has not been transparent and bolster its case it has been truthful about the attack. Finally, Carney started his daily briefing on Wednesday with a bit of self-mockery, standing before a screen showing a montage of facial grimaces and contortions he made during Tuesday’s contentious briefing. He called it 'The many faces of Jay.' Obama has had a relatively good relationship with the press, which conservatives often complain is a potent part of Obama’s political base." (TheHill)
"Peter Baker reports that President Obama occasionally fantasizes, as many presidents do, of imitating a 1998 Warren Beatty movie about a politician who suddenly started saying exactly what he thought ... You can see Obama’s Bulworth fantasies popping out from time to time, especially when reporters ask him why he can’t force Republicans to pass sensible compromises ...
The trouble is that these answers, while true, don’t actually help Obama. Any political scientist will tell you that the scope for possible legislation in this term is very narrow: The median House member is a very conservative Republican who represents a district that voted for Mitt Romney, and whose biggest political risk is losing a primary to an even more conservative Republican. But most political reporters and analysts don’t pay attention to the political science. They like narratives that revolve around the president as a protagonist. When you confront them with structural analysis that confounds their narratives, they just get upset with you. It serves no purpose. That’s why I advised Obama to use 'less real talk and more bullshit.'A post-presidency Obama who actually spoke his mind, rather than fashion himself a post-partisan eminence, as post-presidents do — now that would be awesome. But the reason politicians don’t go Bulworth is that it doesn’t work. The truth about legislative dynamics is complicated and depressing. People don’t want to hear it." (Jonathan Chait)
"While Daniel Webster died an American in 1852, his political legacy does not belong to just one state, but two: New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire, Webster represented the Granite State in the House of Representatives from 1813 to 1817. But he then moved to Massachusetts seeking to improve his legal career, only to wind up returning to the House as a Bay State congressman in 1823. (Republican ex-Sen. Scott Brown is currently pondering the reverse move.) Webster went on to have a lengthy stay in the Senate, becoming part of the upper chamber’s revered 'Great Triumvirate' with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. As a transplanted New Hampshirite representing Massachusetts, Webster’s individual case demonstrates how politics can be affected by the movement of Americans from state to state. In the aftermath of the 2012 election, the'demographics as destiny' discussion has dominated political analysis, with the latest data being provided by last week’s U.S. Census report on the 2012 electorate. But one demographic statistic hasn’t received much attention in the conversation: state nativity rates — that is, the percentage of people residing in a state who were born there. Does that statistic tell us anything about the politics of a state? If we order the states by nativity percentage (Chart 1) while also considering which party each state supported in 2012, we find that there are more Blue states than Red states with lower levels of nativity. Yet it’s obvious that high nativity rates in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin did not keep Barack Obama from winning those states in 2012." (Sabato)
"Donald Trump and wife Melania were among mourners at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on the Upper East Side last night expressing condolences to prominent real estate developer Richard LeFrak and sister Francine after the death of their mother, Ethel, who died on Tuesday at age 93. Also in the room filled with white roses were Richard’s wife, Karen, Ethel’s grandsons Jamie and Harry, and close friends Somers Farkas, Dennis Basso and his husband, Michael Cominotto. The funeral for well-known philanthropist Ethel is today at 1 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. Ethel’s husband, famed housing developer Samuel J. LeFrak, died in 2003." (PageSix)
"Last week certainly was the apex of this season’s contemporary art events here in New York. This time it had a decidedly New York/London spirit. There was the inspiring source of the Met’s Punk: Chaos to Couture, which was London in the 1970s. There was the fantastic Frieze Art Fair (now in its second year) at Randall’s Island, the satellite creation of the London magazine and art fair that bears the same name. And then, there were the masses of artists, museum professionals and collectors that pack the triennial fundraising dinner thrown for the Tate Americas Foundation, which supports the acquisition of art from the 'new world' for one of the UK’s most important and dynamic institutions — The Tate. I just returned from a month in England so perhaps I felt the British vibe more this year. And Tracey Emin, one of Britain’s best known contemporary artist installed a sculpture, entitled Roman Standard on view all summer at Petrosino Square at Spring and Lafayette Street in Soho as an adjunct to her two-gallery show at the Lehmann Maupin galleries on 26th in Chelsea and on Christie Street in the Bowery. While I don’t know if he has any interest whatever in contemporary art, we also have Prince Harry in town this week." (NYSocialDiary)
"The cowardly move by the Justice Department to subpoena two months of the A.P.’s phone records, both of its office lines and of the home phones of individual reporters, is potentially a breach of the Justice Department’s own guidelines. Even more important, it prevented the A.P. from seeking a judicial review of the action. Some months ago, apparently, the government sent a subpoena (or subpoenas) for the records to the phone companies that serve those offices and individuals, and the companies provided the records without any notice to the A.P. If subpoenas had been served directly on the A.P. or its individual reporters, they would have had an opportunity to go to court to file a motion to quash the subpoenas. What would have happened in court is anybody’s guess—there is no federal shield law that would protect reporters from having to testify before a criminal grand jury—but the Justice Department avoided the issue altogether by not notifying the A.P. that it even wanted this information. Even beyond the outrageous and overreaching action against the journalists, this is a blatant attempt to avoid the oversight function of the courts. It is not, again, as if the government didn’t have options. The D.C. Circuit (in a 2005 opinion upholding a finding of contempt against the Times’s Judith Miller and Time’s Matt Cooper for refusing to testify about who had disclosed Valerie Plame’s identity as a C.I.A. operative) has held that there isn’t a First Amendment privilege for journalists to refuse to testify before a criminal grand jury, as has the Second Circuit (in a 2006 case in which the government was trying to find out who told the Times about a planned raid on two foundations suspected of providing aid to terrorists). In the wake of the decisions, there was a renewed effort to pass a federal shield law—though the proposed law would not have provided absolute protection in cases of national security—but, with the rise of WikiLeaks, that discussion died." (NewYorker)
"We've all heard the stories. The friend of a friend who wrote a $50,000 check from the maternity ward to secure Junior's spot in the high school graduating class of 2030. The couple that built a library/parking structure/music room as a well-meaning gesture after they toured the school and 'saw a need." Then there's the one about the admissions director who pointed to two stacks of paperwork on her desk and said, "This is the pile of candidates we're considering. Yours is in the other one.' Over the past 18 months these tales have tagged along with me as I toured 12 private schools, attended open houses, and simulated playdates with my five-year-old twins, who on one occasion cavorted in a schoolyard with numbers pinned to their shirts like livestock at a state fair, all in the name of kindergarten admission. We live in Los Angeles, a city where the private school process is just as cutthroat as in New York, as it is in Chicago, San Francisco, and Atlanta. The incessant babble about where little Wolfie or Juniper or Harlow (remember, I live in L.A.) will learn to hold a pencil correctly, to the tune of $25,000 per year, often includes the terms fundraising, development, advancement, and capital campaigns. In a word: money. Money is not my native language, which explains why I'm a writer, not a hedge fund manager. So I needed a crash course in private school economics. What are the real financial expectations of the families applying to private schools these days?" (TownandCountry)
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Media-Whore D'Oeuvres
"The sudden barometric change in Washington has arrived so rapidly that it is hard to comprehend. 'The town is turning on President Obama,' announced Politico honchos and custodians of the conventional wisdom Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, and they’re right. Republicans are gleefully unleashing a vast investigative apparatus; erstwhile supporters like Jon Stewart are mortified. The black clouds may dissipate within a few days or weeks, or they may hover over the White House for the rest of Obama’s term. In the meantime, it is dizzying enough that, even in such a short period of time, we ought to step back and ask, what the hell just happened here? Scandal is a powerful, yet weirdly amorphous term of art in politics. Conceptually, the division between a scandal and a mere controversy or flub or policy dispute is hard to define. It required a peculiar sequencing of events to transform what would on their own have been normal political controversies into the nebulous, all-encompassing Obama Scandals. The episode began at dawn last Friday, when ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl broke explosive news about Benghazi. Until that point, the Benghazi story had been confined almost entirely to the right-wing fever swamps, where it lingered as a symbol of Obama’s desire to appease radical Islamists. Karl changed that by reporting that he had obtained the administration’s e-mails, and they showed, in contrast to its claims, a one-sided intervention on behalf of the State Department. Karl’s report produced among mainstream and liberal reporters a sense of embarrassment at having dismissed the story as a weird partisan obsession. 'For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession,' wrote Alex Koppelman in a scathing and widely circulated online commentary for The New Yorker, 'But now there is something to it.'" (Jonathan Chait)
"Gawker media overlord Nick Denton is engaged, reports Confidenti@al, The Daily News gossip page. Mr. Denton proposed to his actor boyfriend, Derrence Washington, over the weekend and they are planning on a wedding next May in upstate New York. The Gawker owner also updated his Facebook page this morning to reflect his new relationship status. 'This is the one event even I wouldn’t gossip about,' Mr. Denton told the gossip page Confident@l. 'Nobody else compares. You know how guys wrestle with marriage, with all the possibilities they’re giving up. I’m not giving up anything.'" (Observer)
"The Wintour of Our Disconnect. There was a funny piece in yesterday’s Daily Mail Online about how Anna Wintour allegedly wouldn’t allow the Kardashians’ mother, Kris Jenner, to attend the Met Costume Ball. Because – as reported in the Mail – Wintour is alleged to have said: 'One Kardashian is enough!' (And one more than was allowed entry in 2012.) ...Last night I went over to Roosevelt House to hear a lecture by David Stockman who wrote the current bestseller 'The Great Deformation; The Corruption of Capitalism in America' ... I am familiar with the Stockman book, and you may be too. Although I haven’t read it yet, I will because its subject is, in my opinion, as pertinent to the health of our society as ecology is to our planet. The book and Mr. Stockman have had a lot of media exposure including many of the financial blogs including the non-mainstream financial media. So I was curious to see what he would talk about. He’s a very good speech-giver. I hadn’t known that he had been a Congressman (from Michigan) before he joined the Reagan Administration at its beginning. He learned well. He began his adult life in Divinity School. His path that led to politics and finances seems entirely coincidental in the telling. Although in retrospect he must have had a proactive attitude about what interested him. His story on how he became involved with Ronald Reagan and Reagan’s first Director of the OMB is a fascinating political anecdote, and an accidentally rewarding story (and a story of political reward) ... It was an engaging and enlightening talk. He communicates on a learned but nevertheless understandable level. He would have been a very good teacher. Because that is basically what his book is. When pressed for a thought on what he thinks this is all leading to, like a consummate politician, he avoided a direct answer but provided other substantive thoughts to consider. You can tell I was impressed? As I said, it’s a tome, 'The Great Deformation.' But I’m not so afraid of tomes anymore, if I think I’m going to learn something. I have a strong feeling this is one of those books. I also came away from the evening with a much altered personal opinion of this man whose public image and political/economic history was familiar to me. He’s very reliable in telling us about ourselves, which is ultimately what politics and finance are: us and how we respond to the mechanism of corruption in the human condition." (NYSocialDiary)
"Ashton Kutcher’s contentious divorce with Demi Moore has now spiraled into a $10 million battle over his venture capital fund with Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary and billionaire Ron Burkle, Page Six can exclusively reveal. Kutcher and Oseary earlier this month announced their fund A-Grade investments, set up to invest in tech start-ups, was valued at $100 million and they were raising money from outside investors. But a source familiar with the proceedings between Kutcher and Moore, who split in November 2011, told us, 'Ashton and Demi are still not divorced, and no settlement has been agreed, even though they have been in negotiations for over a year. Ashton made a lot of money after they married, but he doesn’t believe he owes her as much as she is asking for.'
Our source continued, “Ashton set up A-Grade with Oseary and Burkle in 2010, when he and Demi were still together, but he recently told her lawyers the fund had not made substantial money. In fact, he claimed he had only put about $1 million into it. 'Now it seems Ashton and Oseary were working towards a private offering based on a valuation of $100 million. Ashton owns 20 percent of the fund, under California law, Demi should be entitled to half of his share — $10 million.'" (PageSix)
"Angelina Jolie has received more support after publicizing her preventative double mastectomy in a New York Times editorial that was published this morning. Following her son Brad Pitt’s statement earlier today, Jane Pitt has issued her well wishes about the surgery, which was performed over the course of three months this spring. 'We’re so very proud of Angie,' she said in a statement. '[T]his means so much to our family especially our grandchildren. We love her dearly.' The sentiment was echoed by Jolie’s brother, James Haven, who adds in a separate statement, 'My sister like our mother always put her children first. . . I am so grateful to be her brother.' Jolie opted to have the surgery after her doctors determined that she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and carries a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, which spikes her chances of developing the disease. Jolie’s doctors also determined that the actress has a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, which her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of in 2007. In his statement to The Evening Standard this morning, Brad Pitt said, 'All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.'" (VanityFair)
"Leonardo DiCaprio pulled off a record-breaking art auction for charity with Christie’s on Monday that raked in $38.8 million. 'The Great Gatsby' star had personally asked 33 artists — including Banksy, Julian Schnabel, Urs Fischer and Peter Beard — to donate or create new works for the auction, dubbed The 11th Hour. DiCaprio also donated a painting by Andreas Gursky from his own collection, and spent time at Christie’s phoning bidders to entice them in advance of the auction, sources said. Spotted at the sale (to benefit wildlife conservation through DiCaprio’s foundation) were Bradley Cooper, Mark Ruffalo, Tobey Maguire, Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault, whose family owns the auction house. The night’s biggest sale came after gallerist Larry Gagosian was locked in a bidding war with billionaire Vladimir Doronin, and spent $6.5 million for an abstract work by Mark Grotjahn, whom Gagosian represents. Pharmaceutical mogul Stewart Rahr — who we exclusively reported yesterday reached a $250 million divorce deal with his wife of 43 years — splashed out on works including a Robert Longo tiger drawing for $1.6 million and a portrait of his pal DiCaprio by Elizabeth Peyton for more than $1 million. The auction — which had been expected to bring in about $18 million — wound up setting record highs for 13 of the artists, and a source said it was “the biggest auction to benefit the environment ever.” DiCaprio bought a Takashi Murakami work for himself for $735,000. His 'Gatsby' co-star Maguire shelled out $262,500 for a Sergej Jensen work. Anonymous donors kicked in $5.5 million to the overall tally. DiCaprio’s foundation has set its sights on saving tigers, sharks and rainforests, and many of the works for sale were animal or nature-themed." (PageSix)
"The sudden barometric change in Washington has arrived so rapidly that it is hard to comprehend. 'The town is turning on President Obama,' announced Politico honchos and custodians of the conventional wisdom Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, and they’re right. Republicans are gleefully unleashing a vast investigative apparatus; erstwhile supporters like Jon Stewart are mortified. The black clouds may dissipate within a few days or weeks, or they may hover over the White House for the rest of Obama’s term. In the meantime, it is dizzying enough that, even in such a short period of time, we ought to step back and ask, what the hell just happened here? Scandal is a powerful, yet weirdly amorphous term of art in politics. Conceptually, the division between a scandal and a mere controversy or flub or policy dispute is hard to define. It required a peculiar sequencing of events to transform what would on their own have been normal political controversies into the nebulous, all-encompassing Obama Scandals. The episode began at dawn last Friday, when ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl broke explosive news about Benghazi. Until that point, the Benghazi story had been confined almost entirely to the right-wing fever swamps, where it lingered as a symbol of Obama’s desire to appease radical Islamists. Karl changed that by reporting that he had obtained the administration’s e-mails, and they showed, in contrast to its claims, a one-sided intervention on behalf of the State Department. Karl’s report produced among mainstream and liberal reporters a sense of embarrassment at having dismissed the story as a weird partisan obsession. 'For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession,' wrote Alex Koppelman in a scathing and widely circulated online commentary for The New Yorker, 'But now there is something to it.'" (Jonathan Chait)
"Gawker media overlord Nick Denton is engaged, reports Confidenti@al, The Daily News gossip page. Mr. Denton proposed to his actor boyfriend, Derrence Washington, over the weekend and they are planning on a wedding next May in upstate New York. The Gawker owner also updated his Facebook page this morning to reflect his new relationship status. 'This is the one event even I wouldn’t gossip about,' Mr. Denton told the gossip page Confident@l. 'Nobody else compares. You know how guys wrestle with marriage, with all the possibilities they’re giving up. I’m not giving up anything.'" (Observer)
"The Wintour of Our Disconnect. There was a funny piece in yesterday’s Daily Mail Online about how Anna Wintour allegedly wouldn’t allow the Kardashians’ mother, Kris Jenner, to attend the Met Costume Ball. Because – as reported in the Mail – Wintour is alleged to have said: 'One Kardashian is enough!' (And one more than was allowed entry in 2012.) ...Last night I went over to Roosevelt House to hear a lecture by David Stockman who wrote the current bestseller 'The Great Deformation; The Corruption of Capitalism in America' ... I am familiar with the Stockman book, and you may be too. Although I haven’t read it yet, I will because its subject is, in my opinion, as pertinent to the health of our society as ecology is to our planet. The book and Mr. Stockman have had a lot of media exposure including many of the financial blogs including the non-mainstream financial media. So I was curious to see what he would talk about. He’s a very good speech-giver. I hadn’t known that he had been a Congressman (from Michigan) before he joined the Reagan Administration at its beginning. He learned well. He began his adult life in Divinity School. His path that led to politics and finances seems entirely coincidental in the telling. Although in retrospect he must have had a proactive attitude about what interested him. His story on how he became involved with Ronald Reagan and Reagan’s first Director of the OMB is a fascinating political anecdote, and an accidentally rewarding story (and a story of political reward) ... It was an engaging and enlightening talk. He communicates on a learned but nevertheless understandable level. He would have been a very good teacher. Because that is basically what his book is. When pressed for a thought on what he thinks this is all leading to, like a consummate politician, he avoided a direct answer but provided other substantive thoughts to consider. You can tell I was impressed? As I said, it’s a tome, 'The Great Deformation.' But I’m not so afraid of tomes anymore, if I think I’m going to learn something. I have a strong feeling this is one of those books. I also came away from the evening with a much altered personal opinion of this man whose public image and political/economic history was familiar to me. He’s very reliable in telling us about ourselves, which is ultimately what politics and finance are: us and how we respond to the mechanism of corruption in the human condition." (NYSocialDiary)
"Ashton Kutcher’s contentious divorce with Demi Moore has now spiraled into a $10 million battle over his venture capital fund with Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary and billionaire Ron Burkle, Page Six can exclusively reveal. Kutcher and Oseary earlier this month announced their fund A-Grade investments, set up to invest in tech start-ups, was valued at $100 million and they were raising money from outside investors. But a source familiar with the proceedings between Kutcher and Moore, who split in November 2011, told us, 'Ashton and Demi are still not divorced, and no settlement has been agreed, even though they have been in negotiations for over a year. Ashton made a lot of money after they married, but he doesn’t believe he owes her as much as she is asking for.'
"Angelina Jolie has received more support after publicizing her preventative double mastectomy in a New York Times editorial that was published this morning. Following her son Brad Pitt’s statement earlier today, Jane Pitt has issued her well wishes about the surgery, which was performed over the course of three months this spring. 'We’re so very proud of Angie,' she said in a statement. '[T]his means so much to our family especially our grandchildren. We love her dearly.' The sentiment was echoed by Jolie’s brother, James Haven, who adds in a separate statement, 'My sister like our mother always put her children first. . . I am so grateful to be her brother.' Jolie opted to have the surgery after her doctors determined that she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and carries a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, which spikes her chances of developing the disease. Jolie’s doctors also determined that the actress has a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, which her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of in 2007. In his statement to The Evening Standard this morning, Brad Pitt said, 'All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.'" (VanityFair)
"Leonardo DiCaprio pulled off a record-breaking art auction for charity with Christie’s on Monday that raked in $38.8 million. 'The Great Gatsby' star had personally asked 33 artists — including Banksy, Julian Schnabel, Urs Fischer and Peter Beard — to donate or create new works for the auction, dubbed The 11th Hour. DiCaprio also donated a painting by Andreas Gursky from his own collection, and spent time at Christie’s phoning bidders to entice them in advance of the auction, sources said. Spotted at the sale (to benefit wildlife conservation through DiCaprio’s foundation) were Bradley Cooper, Mark Ruffalo, Tobey Maguire, Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault, whose family owns the auction house. The night’s biggest sale came after gallerist Larry Gagosian was locked in a bidding war with billionaire Vladimir Doronin, and spent $6.5 million for an abstract work by Mark Grotjahn, whom Gagosian represents. Pharmaceutical mogul Stewart Rahr — who we exclusively reported yesterday reached a $250 million divorce deal with his wife of 43 years — splashed out on works including a Robert Longo tiger drawing for $1.6 million and a portrait of his pal DiCaprio by Elizabeth Peyton for more than $1 million. The auction — which had been expected to bring in about $18 million — wound up setting record highs for 13 of the artists, and a source said it was “the biggest auction to benefit the environment ever.” DiCaprio bought a Takashi Murakami work for himself for $735,000. His 'Gatsby' co-star Maguire shelled out $262,500 for a Sergej Jensen work. Anonymous donors kicked in $5.5 million to the overall tally. DiCaprio’s foundation has set its sights on saving tigers, sharks and rainforests, and many of the works for sale were animal or nature-themed." (PageSix)
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Media-Whore D'Oeuvres
"When Steve Jobs died in October 2011, crowds of mourners gathered outside of Apple stores, leaving impromptu memorials to the fallen businessman. Many in Occupy Wall Street, then in full bloom, stopped to mourn the .001 percenter worth $7 billion, who didn’t believe in charity and whose company had more cash in hand than the U.S. Treasury while doing everything in its power to avoid paying taxes.A new, and potentially dominant, ruling class is rising. Today’s tech moguls don’t employ many Americans, they don’t pay very much in taxes or tend to share much of their wealth, and they live in a separate world that few of us could ever hope to enter. But while spending millions bending the political process to pad their bottom lines, they’ve remained far more popular than past plutocrats, with 72 percent of Americans expressing positive feelings for the industry, compared to 30 percent for banking and 20 percent for oil and gas." (TheDailyBeast)
"President Barack Obama returned to the city this afternoon for a trio of star-studded fund-raising events. Mr. Obama’s first stop was the West Village home of movie producer Harvey Weinstein and his wife, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, where about 65 people paying between $16,200 and $20,000 gathered around tables draped in white linen to hear the president speak. Among those spotted in the crowd: Justin Timberlake, decked out in trendy, black-rimmed glasses and slicked-back hair, his wife, actress Jessica Biel, and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, according to pool reports. In remarks to the group, the president talked about the Boston Marathon bombing and the West, Texas explosion, and how they had brought the nation together ... The president then headed to a second home, this time in TriBeCa, for a dinner hosted by Alexandra Stanton, a former advisory to ex-Gov. David Paterson, and her husband, Sam Natapoff. Approximately 60 guests paid between $16,200 and $20,000 to attend the event, a Democratic National Committee official said. The president once again spoke about the recent events, but also spoke about the immigration bill, the escalating situation in Syria, the Middle East peace process, and his goal of 'reinvigorating a sense of hope and possibility' for both Israel and the Palestinians. 'Deep down there is still this incredible appetite for peace,' he reportedly told the group, while warning that the 'window of opportunity is growing smaller by the day.' After dinner, Mr. Obama was set too head to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for a final event with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, attended by approximately 140 guests paying between $7,500 and $32,400." (Observer)
"Vanity Fair Daily: The book gives much more detail of the branding and look of certain expensive tween-marketed merchandise. I’m thinking about when you describe the connection between Victoria Secret’s Pink line and why Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr was a target for the Bling Ring. Nancy Jo Sales: 'It’s really alarming to find out, through doing the research for the book, about the explosion of teen and even child lingerie. That market has become a billion-dollar market. Like teddies for teenagers—it’s so disturbing. Their obsession with underwear had something to do with this whole 'pornification' thing. They wanted to look sexy. Looking sexy in a celebrity’s clothes, well that’s even sexier. Especially Miranda Kerr, who’s a Victoria’s Secret model. The fact that they stole the underwear just seems so weird, but it’s not weird when you think about it, because they’re growing up at a time when their culture is constantly telling them to be sexy. Everything from toys to video games to music to fashion is hypersexualized for girls. Stealing their underwear was part of a whole trend to emulate these celebrities. They don’t just want expensive underwear; they want Paris Hilton’s underwear. VFD: At one point in the book, you compared the Bling Ring’s robberies to storming the gates of Versailles. What did you mean by that? Nancy Jo Sales: I remember when I started talking about [the robberies] with people, they would laugh and think it was funny, and say, Oh, those celebrities deserve it. They have enough. Which is actually exactly what Rachel Lee used to say, according to Nick Prugo. It’s really about class resentment and income resentment. Celebrities are not necessarily the richest people of all, but on the face of it, they seem to be representative of the very richest people. The very richest people are people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, but Paris Hilton appears to represent this 'rich bitch' kind of flippant heiress. Every single one of the people they robbed was connected to some entertainment product that was about wealth and privilege. Paris, it was The Simple Life; Audrina Patridge, of course, The Hills, about rich girls in L.A.; it just went on and on. It’s really so much about America today, the inequality of wealth distribution and the way that affects people’s psyches, and kids’ psyches, and the way that it causes all of these unattainable desires. It trickles down in stuff like YouTube shopping vlogs—haul vlogs—or in extreme cases, the Bling Ring." (VFD)
"MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was. We often speak of 'Mommy’s mommy,' and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a 'faulty' gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman. Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65 percent risk of getting it, on average. Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex." (Angelina Jolie)
"Last night at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, the American Ballet Theatre held its Opening Night Spring Gala. This is one of those big beautiful social events on the Spring calendar. Black tie, and the ladies dress for it. Honorary Chairs were Michele Obama, Caroline Kennedy and Blaine Trump. President Obama happened to be in town but I don’t know if the First Lady made it up to Lincoln Center. I don’t know if any of honorary chairs were there; I didn’t see them (which means nothing). Co-chairs for the evening were Sloan Lindemann Barnett, Nina Rennert Davidson, Karin Luter, Kalliope Karella Rena, Christine Schwarzman, Tracy Snyder and Monica Wambold. These are the girls who sell the tickets (tables) and raise the money to pay for everything including the ballet. At least five of them have multi-billionaire husbands or fathers and the rest of them have access to big funds. This is how the opera and ballet survive in New York. " (NYSocialDiary)
"When Steve Jobs died in October 2011, crowds of mourners gathered outside of Apple stores, leaving impromptu memorials to the fallen businessman. Many in Occupy Wall Street, then in full bloom, stopped to mourn the .001 percenter worth $7 billion, who didn’t believe in charity and whose company had more cash in hand than the U.S. Treasury while doing everything in its power to avoid paying taxes.A new, and potentially dominant, ruling class is rising. Today’s tech moguls don’t employ many Americans, they don’t pay very much in taxes or tend to share much of their wealth, and they live in a separate world that few of us could ever hope to enter. But while spending millions bending the political process to pad their bottom lines, they’ve remained far more popular than past plutocrats, with 72 percent of Americans expressing positive feelings for the industry, compared to 30 percent for banking and 20 percent for oil and gas." (TheDailyBeast)
"President Barack Obama returned to the city this afternoon for a trio of star-studded fund-raising events. Mr. Obama’s first stop was the West Village home of movie producer Harvey Weinstein and his wife, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, where about 65 people paying between $16,200 and $20,000 gathered around tables draped in white linen to hear the president speak. Among those spotted in the crowd: Justin Timberlake, decked out in trendy, black-rimmed glasses and slicked-back hair, his wife, actress Jessica Biel, and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, according to pool reports. In remarks to the group, the president talked about the Boston Marathon bombing and the West, Texas explosion, and how they had brought the nation together ... The president then headed to a second home, this time in TriBeCa, for a dinner hosted by Alexandra Stanton, a former advisory to ex-Gov. David Paterson, and her husband, Sam Natapoff. Approximately 60 guests paid between $16,200 and $20,000 to attend the event, a Democratic National Committee official said. The president once again spoke about the recent events, but also spoke about the immigration bill, the escalating situation in Syria, the Middle East peace process, and his goal of 'reinvigorating a sense of hope and possibility' for both Israel and the Palestinians. 'Deep down there is still this incredible appetite for peace,' he reportedly told the group, while warning that the 'window of opportunity is growing smaller by the day.' After dinner, Mr. Obama was set too head to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for a final event with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, attended by approximately 140 guests paying between $7,500 and $32,400." (Observer)
"Vanity Fair Daily: The book gives much more detail of the branding and look of certain expensive tween-marketed merchandise. I’m thinking about when you describe the connection between Victoria Secret’s Pink line and why Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr was a target for the Bling Ring. Nancy Jo Sales: 'It’s really alarming to find out, through doing the research for the book, about the explosion of teen and even child lingerie. That market has become a billion-dollar market. Like teddies for teenagers—it’s so disturbing. Their obsession with underwear had something to do with this whole 'pornification' thing. They wanted to look sexy. Looking sexy in a celebrity’s clothes, well that’s even sexier. Especially Miranda Kerr, who’s a Victoria’s Secret model. The fact that they stole the underwear just seems so weird, but it’s not weird when you think about it, because they’re growing up at a time when their culture is constantly telling them to be sexy. Everything from toys to video games to music to fashion is hypersexualized for girls. Stealing their underwear was part of a whole trend to emulate these celebrities. They don’t just want expensive underwear; they want Paris Hilton’s underwear. VFD: At one point in the book, you compared the Bling Ring’s robberies to storming the gates of Versailles. What did you mean by that? Nancy Jo Sales: I remember when I started talking about [the robberies] with people, they would laugh and think it was funny, and say, Oh, those celebrities deserve it. They have enough. Which is actually exactly what Rachel Lee used to say, according to Nick Prugo. It’s really about class resentment and income resentment. Celebrities are not necessarily the richest people of all, but on the face of it, they seem to be representative of the very richest people. The very richest people are people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, but Paris Hilton appears to represent this 'rich bitch' kind of flippant heiress. Every single one of the people they robbed was connected to some entertainment product that was about wealth and privilege. Paris, it was The Simple Life; Audrina Patridge, of course, The Hills, about rich girls in L.A.; it just went on and on. It’s really so much about America today, the inequality of wealth distribution and the way that affects people’s psyches, and kids’ psyches, and the way that it causes all of these unattainable desires. It trickles down in stuff like YouTube shopping vlogs—haul vlogs—or in extreme cases, the Bling Ring." (VFD)
"MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was. We often speak of 'Mommy’s mommy,' and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a 'faulty' gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman. Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65 percent risk of getting it, on average. Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex." (Angelina Jolie)
"Last night at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, the American Ballet Theatre held its Opening Night Spring Gala. This is one of those big beautiful social events on the Spring calendar. Black tie, and the ladies dress for it. Honorary Chairs were Michele Obama, Caroline Kennedy and Blaine Trump. President Obama happened to be in town but I don’t know if the First Lady made it up to Lincoln Center. I don’t know if any of honorary chairs were there; I didn’t see them (which means nothing). Co-chairs for the evening were Sloan Lindemann Barnett, Nina Rennert Davidson, Karin Luter, Kalliope Karella Rena, Christine Schwarzman, Tracy Snyder and Monica Wambold. These are the girls who sell the tickets (tables) and raise the money to pay for everything including the ballet. At least five of them have multi-billionaire husbands or fathers and the rest of them have access to big funds. This is how the opera and ballet survive in New York. " (NYSocialDiary)
Monday, May 13, 2013
Media-Whore D'Oeuvres
"Karl Rove called conservative Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol 'inexplicable' on Monday for criticizing Rove’s super PAC Hillary Clinton Benghazi attack ad, adding that more people have seen the ad than subscribe to The Weekly Standard. On Fox’s 'Fox News Sunday,' Kristol said that Rove’s American Crossroads shouldn’t have released an ad last week that criticized former Secretary of State Clinton for her handling of the September 11, 2012, attack at the U.S. post in Benghazi, Libya, in which ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed. 'I do not like these conservative Republican groups putting ads out about Hillary Clinton. What is the point of that? That is just fundraising by American Crossroads and other groups. It’s ridiculous. There’s no campaign going on. Let’s pull the partisanship back,' Kristol said on “Fox News Sunday.' Monday, Rove responded to the criticism on Fox News saying that his conservative super PAC was completely justified in the released the ad. 'You know, look, I understand that criticism of the Obama administration is going to immediately have Democrats saying, ‘You’re politicizing, it is all politics.’ [But] I’m surprised Bill Kristol — whose magazine has been critical of the Obama administration — would join in the chorus. That chorus consists of [White House press secretary] Jay Carney and people in Democrat leadership and it is a little bit inexplicable. I just say this: This [ad] was appropriate. We need to help the American people grasp this,' Rove said on Fox News." (Politico)
"It is a quiet evening in Place des Vosges, Paris, when, all at once from every direction, crowds of men and women, hundreds of them, descend upon the square. The people, dressed elegantly in all white—the men in clean, crisp trousers and jackets and the women in summer dresses or light pantsuits—quickly set small tables and chairs in perfect straight lines and lay out elaborate picnics, along with excellent bottles of French wine, of course. They take their seats and wave white napkins in the air, and begin to enjoy their lavish picnics, conversation and merriment. As day fades to dusk, the group lights sparklers and dances to live music. Then, when the clock strikes midnight, they pack up their things and leave the park as if they had never come. This magical event marks the opening scene of Diner en Blanc: The World’s Largest Dinner Party, a recent documentary film by director and producer Jennifer Ash Rudick, an Upper East Side author and journalist. Ms. Rudick’s film showcases an event that is simultaneously perfectly public—it is out of doors, after all—and very exclusive—'Diner en Blanc,' the elegant, impromptu picnic that has graced Paris’ most beautiful outdoor spaces annually for nearly 25 years, and has now expanded into 22 cities around the world, including New York. The film, which offers the first behind-the-scenes look into the making of the unusual yet surprisingly simple celebration, premiered at the Palm Beach International Film Festival in Florida last month to a warm reception, and will hit the Hamptons International Film Festival this summer. Diner en Blanc, perhaps Paris’ best-kept and most refined secret, is a sort of flash mob for the sophisticated set." (Observer)
"Karl Rove called conservative Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol 'inexplicable' on Monday for criticizing Rove’s super PAC Hillary Clinton Benghazi attack ad, adding that more people have seen the ad than subscribe to The Weekly Standard. On Fox’s 'Fox News Sunday,' Kristol said that Rove’s American Crossroads shouldn’t have released an ad last week that criticized former Secretary of State Clinton for her handling of the September 11, 2012, attack at the U.S. post in Benghazi, Libya, in which ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed. 'I do not like these conservative Republican groups putting ads out about Hillary Clinton. What is the point of that? That is just fundraising by American Crossroads and other groups. It’s ridiculous. There’s no campaign going on. Let’s pull the partisanship back,' Kristol said on “Fox News Sunday.' Monday, Rove responded to the criticism on Fox News saying that his conservative super PAC was completely justified in the released the ad. 'You know, look, I understand that criticism of the Obama administration is going to immediately have Democrats saying, ‘You’re politicizing, it is all politics.’ [But] I’m surprised Bill Kristol — whose magazine has been critical of the Obama administration — would join in the chorus. That chorus consists of [White House press secretary] Jay Carney and people in Democrat leadership and it is a little bit inexplicable. I just say this: This [ad] was appropriate. We need to help the American people grasp this,' Rove said on Fox News." (Politico)
"It is a quiet evening in Place des Vosges, Paris, when, all at once from every direction, crowds of men and women, hundreds of them, descend upon the square. The people, dressed elegantly in all white—the men in clean, crisp trousers and jackets and the women in summer dresses or light pantsuits—quickly set small tables and chairs in perfect straight lines and lay out elaborate picnics, along with excellent bottles of French wine, of course. They take their seats and wave white napkins in the air, and begin to enjoy their lavish picnics, conversation and merriment. As day fades to dusk, the group lights sparklers and dances to live music. Then, when the clock strikes midnight, they pack up their things and leave the park as if they had never come. This magical event marks the opening scene of Diner en Blanc: The World’s Largest Dinner Party, a recent documentary film by director and producer Jennifer Ash Rudick, an Upper East Side author and journalist. Ms. Rudick’s film showcases an event that is simultaneously perfectly public—it is out of doors, after all—and very exclusive—'Diner en Blanc,' the elegant, impromptu picnic that has graced Paris’ most beautiful outdoor spaces annually for nearly 25 years, and has now expanded into 22 cities around the world, including New York. The film, which offers the first behind-the-scenes look into the making of the unusual yet surprisingly simple celebration, premiered at the Palm Beach International Film Festival in Florida last month to a warm reception, and will hit the Hamptons International Film Festival this summer. Diner en Blanc, perhaps Paris’ best-kept and most refined secret, is a sort of flash mob for the sophisticated set." (Observer)
Media-Whore D'Oeuvres
"The only thing that worried Michael Douglas about playing Liberace, the flamboyant Las Vegas superstar, was the fourteen-inch penis. 'It may not have been fourteen inches,' Douglas explained to me on a cold spring afternoon, 'but it was huge.' He was sitting in a plush, forest-green velvet club chair in the study of his Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park West. Douglas’s gray hair was combed straight back from his face in a kind of lion’s mane, and he was dressed in head-to-toe black. The brightness of the day was streaming in from the windows, which had the effect of backlighting: Between the silver hair, the dark clothes, and the naturally cinematic setting, Douglas looked like someone accustomed to the spotlight. 'Liberace loved sex,' Douglas continued, 'and I didn’t have a problem with that. But, at one point, Steven Soderbergh [the director of Behind the Candelabra, which airs on HBO on May 26] wanted to show Lee [as Liberace was known] watching a gay porno. I said, ‘Steven—you can’t do this!’ He said, ‘It’s HBO—it’s all right!’ I said, ‘It’s not that: I’d like my kids to see this R-rated movie, but I don’t want to show them a fourteen-inch dick!’ It was the only thing I objected to, so we cut to different parts of the apartment during the porno.” Douglas paused. “You know, Lee also loved to decorate. He had his passions: his career, his homes, which were over the top, and his private life as a gay man.' Although it was only a few decades ago, Behind the Candelabra takes place in another world, a place where being openly gay and famous was viewed as an impossibility. For Liberace, who sued a London newspaper and won when it insinuated about his sexuality, revealing his lust for men would have been, in his mind, career suicide. The movie, which isn’t really a biography, is the story of Liberace’s life with Scott Thorson, a naïve 18-year-old (perfectly played by Matt Damon with wide-eyed innocence mixed with the entitlement of youth) who was Liberace’s live-in boyfriend for five years. Their relationship—Liberace was 57 when they met backstage at one of Lee’s sold-out Vegas extravaganzas—was intense, bizarre, and, despite the glitz and glamour, remarkably like that of any married couple." (NYMag)
" A European friend sent me an email correcting my reference to LuAnn de Lesseps as The Countess de Lesseps in my Thursday Diary. According to Debretts, that is not the proper way to address the divorced wife of a titled count. I knew that, but as an American, it makes no difference to me what’s proper in that department since it’s a national (and political) salutation that is distinctly foreign. The de Lesseps family title is French. It's 19th century fame harkens back to a forebear, Ferdinand de Lesseps who, in the late 19th century, built the Suez Canal, and got a Thank You Very Much from the Powers That Were, via a title, although Ferdinand's father was made a count by Napoleon when he was Emperor of dear old France. Its use in the 21st century is really anachronism with a Capital A but still happily employed whenever necessary. People rank and rag-on the business of titles but like the sound of them anyway, for it separates the riff from the raff, as well as other human endeavors in the making and getting. Honorary titles are all over the place in Europe, and many are now centuries old, along with the 'notable' and ancestral ones. It’s a brand of score-keeping for some observers and players. You can even buy one if you know the right people." (NYSocialDiary)
"For one of my oldest friends, Manuela, who lives in England here’s what happened at the book parties: The first party was held at my friend Vanessa Noel’s shoe store which happens to be the ground floor of her sandstone townhouse on the upper east side of Manhattan. Extremely nice. Vanessa is a talented artist in her own right and shoes are lucky to have her attention. I say this with certainty because I have seen her paintings and I know how good she is. Miserably, I forgot to have my photo taken with Vanessa! And the reason I forgot was the instant overwhelm of old and new friends ... ps: Particularly extraordinary was meeting longtime FB pal Ron (Mwangaguhunga). So that was the New York party! Forgive the blurry shots but I had to heist them (long story). Anyway, as perhaps is evident from the glee on my face in these shots I immediately forgot the plot. All my plans of whom exactly I wanted shots with, and whom I wished to introduce to whom, well, I remembered not one of these artful plans until days later. Such was the abundance of good cheer that my mind was erased and all I could do was savor the moment and revel in it." (Christina Oxenberg)
"Bill and Hillary Clinton will not support Anthony Weiner in his dream of becoming mayor even though they love his wife, Huma Abedin, sources say. 'The Clintons wish Weiner would just disappear. Every time he pops up, it’s a reminder of Bill’s scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and it isn’t helpful to Hillary’s hopes for 2016,' one Democrat told Page Six. Abedin has worked for the former US senator and secretary of state for many years, and traveled with her as her 'body woman,' her closest aide. It is believed that Abedin is still on the Clintons’ payroll although she isn’t working at the Clinton Foundation. Abedin will no doubt be one of Hillary’s first hires for her presidential campaign team. 'The Clintons love Huma. She has a job for life, no matter how much of an embarrassment her husband is,' said our source. 'Hillary considers her to be another daughter.' Bill flew to Los Angeles last month to campaign for Wendy Greuel, who is up against Eric Garcetti in the May 21 election for mayor. But he is not expected to endorse any of the New York mayoral candidates." (PageSix)
"As expected, ABC’s Barbara Walters announced her retirement on 'The View' today. The show kicked off with Walters introducing a brief career retrospective, followed by her formal announcement: 'I have been on television–continuously–for over 50 years,' Walters said. 'But in the Summer of 2014, a year from now, I plan to retire from appearing on television at all. It has been an absolutely joyful, rewarding, challenging, fascinating and occasionally bumpy ride, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I am perfectly healthy, this is my decision and I have been thinking about it for a long time. This is what I want to do.' The audience in 'The View' studio was filled with executives, including ABC News president Ben Sherwood ('Not only the best president of a news division but also the tallest,' Walters quipped), ABC executive VP Vicki Dummer, ABC entertainment president Paul Lee, Disney-ABC TV group president Anne Sweeney and Disney CEO Bob Iger, who shared the story of when he first met Walters back in 1976." (TVNewser)
"The Washington Post’s financials provide a good glance at the current status of legacy media struggling with the shift to digital. Unlike others large dailies, the components of the Post’s P&L clearly appear in its statements, they are not buried under layers of other activities. Product-wise, the Post remains a great news machine, collecting Pulitzer Prizes with clockwork regularity and fighting hard for scoops. The Post also epitomizes an old media under siege from specialized, more agile outlets such as Politico, ones that break down the once-unified coverage provided by traditional large media houses ... The iconic newspaper has been slow to adapt to the digital era. Its transformation really started around 2008. Since then, it has checked all the required boxes: integration of print and digital productions; editors are now involved on both sides of the news production and all relentlessly push the newsroom to write more for the digital version; many blogs covering a wide array of topics have been launched; and the Post now has a good mobile application. The 'quant' culture also set in, with editors now taking into account all the usual metrics and ratios associated with digital operations, including a live update of Google’s most relevant keywords prominently displayed in the newsroom. All this helped the Post collect 25.6 million unique visitors per month, vs. 4 to 5 million for Politico, and 35 million for the New York Times that historically enjoys a more global audience.
Overall, the Washington Post Company still relies heavily on its education business..." (MondayNote)
"The affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson has been one of Hollywood’s favorite tales — in films from Oscar-winning 'The King’s Speech' to Madonna’s 'W.E.' — but a new book exposes the story of Edward’s affair with a Parisian prostitute before he met Wallis. In 1917, Prince Edward, 23, was holed up at the Hotel Meurice (where Kanye West just recorded an album) and became smitten with Marguerite Alibert, a high-class demimondaine. 'It was, of course, the lady’s performance in bed which was the most desirable and significant feature of the prince’s stay in Paris,' writes Andrew Rose in 'The Woman Before Wallis: Prince Edward, the Paris Courtesan and the Perfect Murder.' Edward broke things off, and Alibert years later married Egyptian playboy Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey. But in an argument at the Savoy in London, Alibert murdered her new husband with a handgun. 'Marguerite’s arrest posed some awkward questions for the prince’s people' about the couple’s involvement, says the book, out from Picador. The book further reveals that the prosecutor in the case approached the prince’s personal secretaries to 'help keep the prince’s name out of the media.' Since trials at the time rarely lasted longer than a week, the royals were tipped off as to when the court date would take place so that, 'the royal household could safely announce that the prince would visit his ranch in Alberta' for six weeks." (PageSix)
"The only thing that worried Michael Douglas about playing Liberace, the flamboyant Las Vegas superstar, was the fourteen-inch penis. 'It may not have been fourteen inches,' Douglas explained to me on a cold spring afternoon, 'but it was huge.' He was sitting in a plush, forest-green velvet club chair in the study of his Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park West. Douglas’s gray hair was combed straight back from his face in a kind of lion’s mane, and he was dressed in head-to-toe black. The brightness of the day was streaming in from the windows, which had the effect of backlighting: Between the silver hair, the dark clothes, and the naturally cinematic setting, Douglas looked like someone accustomed to the spotlight. 'Liberace loved sex,' Douglas continued, 'and I didn’t have a problem with that. But, at one point, Steven Soderbergh [the director of Behind the Candelabra, which airs on HBO on May 26] wanted to show Lee [as Liberace was known] watching a gay porno. I said, ‘Steven—you can’t do this!’ He said, ‘It’s HBO—it’s all right!’ I said, ‘It’s not that: I’d like my kids to see this R-rated movie, but I don’t want to show them a fourteen-inch dick!’ It was the only thing I objected to, so we cut to different parts of the apartment during the porno.” Douglas paused. “You know, Lee also loved to decorate. He had his passions: his career, his homes, which were over the top, and his private life as a gay man.' Although it was only a few decades ago, Behind the Candelabra takes place in another world, a place where being openly gay and famous was viewed as an impossibility. For Liberace, who sued a London newspaper and won when it insinuated about his sexuality, revealing his lust for men would have been, in his mind, career suicide. The movie, which isn’t really a biography, is the story of Liberace’s life with Scott Thorson, a naïve 18-year-old (perfectly played by Matt Damon with wide-eyed innocence mixed with the entitlement of youth) who was Liberace’s live-in boyfriend for five years. Their relationship—Liberace was 57 when they met backstage at one of Lee’s sold-out Vegas extravaganzas—was intense, bizarre, and, despite the glitz and glamour, remarkably like that of any married couple." (NYMag)
" A European friend sent me an email correcting my reference to LuAnn de Lesseps as The Countess de Lesseps in my Thursday Diary. According to Debretts, that is not the proper way to address the divorced wife of a titled count. I knew that, but as an American, it makes no difference to me what’s proper in that department since it’s a national (and political) salutation that is distinctly foreign. The de Lesseps family title is French. It's 19th century fame harkens back to a forebear, Ferdinand de Lesseps who, in the late 19th century, built the Suez Canal, and got a Thank You Very Much from the Powers That Were, via a title, although Ferdinand's father was made a count by Napoleon when he was Emperor of dear old France. Its use in the 21st century is really anachronism with a Capital A but still happily employed whenever necessary. People rank and rag-on the business of titles but like the sound of them anyway, for it separates the riff from the raff, as well as other human endeavors in the making and getting. Honorary titles are all over the place in Europe, and many are now centuries old, along with the 'notable' and ancestral ones. It’s a brand of score-keeping for some observers and players. You can even buy one if you know the right people." (NYSocialDiary)
"For one of my oldest friends, Manuela, who lives in England here’s what happened at the book parties: The first party was held at my friend Vanessa Noel’s shoe store which happens to be the ground floor of her sandstone townhouse on the upper east side of Manhattan. Extremely nice. Vanessa is a talented artist in her own right and shoes are lucky to have her attention. I say this with certainty because I have seen her paintings and I know how good she is. Miserably, I forgot to have my photo taken with Vanessa! And the reason I forgot was the instant overwhelm of old and new friends ... ps: Particularly extraordinary was meeting longtime FB pal Ron (Mwangaguhunga). So that was the New York party! Forgive the blurry shots but I had to heist them (long story). Anyway, as perhaps is evident from the glee on my face in these shots I immediately forgot the plot. All my plans of whom exactly I wanted shots with, and whom I wished to introduce to whom, well, I remembered not one of these artful plans until days later. Such was the abundance of good cheer that my mind was erased and all I could do was savor the moment and revel in it." (Christina Oxenberg)
"Bill and Hillary Clinton will not support Anthony Weiner in his dream of becoming mayor even though they love his wife, Huma Abedin, sources say. 'The Clintons wish Weiner would just disappear. Every time he pops up, it’s a reminder of Bill’s scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and it isn’t helpful to Hillary’s hopes for 2016,' one Democrat told Page Six. Abedin has worked for the former US senator and secretary of state for many years, and traveled with her as her 'body woman,' her closest aide. It is believed that Abedin is still on the Clintons’ payroll although she isn’t working at the Clinton Foundation. Abedin will no doubt be one of Hillary’s first hires for her presidential campaign team. 'The Clintons love Huma. She has a job for life, no matter how much of an embarrassment her husband is,' said our source. 'Hillary considers her to be another daughter.' Bill flew to Los Angeles last month to campaign for Wendy Greuel, who is up against Eric Garcetti in the May 21 election for mayor. But he is not expected to endorse any of the New York mayoral candidates." (PageSix)
"As expected, ABC’s Barbara Walters announced her retirement on 'The View' today. The show kicked off with Walters introducing a brief career retrospective, followed by her formal announcement: 'I have been on television–continuously–for over 50 years,' Walters said. 'But in the Summer of 2014, a year from now, I plan to retire from appearing on television at all. It has been an absolutely joyful, rewarding, challenging, fascinating and occasionally bumpy ride, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I am perfectly healthy, this is my decision and I have been thinking about it for a long time. This is what I want to do.' The audience in 'The View' studio was filled with executives, including ABC News president Ben Sherwood ('Not only the best president of a news division but also the tallest,' Walters quipped), ABC executive VP Vicki Dummer, ABC entertainment president Paul Lee, Disney-ABC TV group president Anne Sweeney and Disney CEO Bob Iger, who shared the story of when he first met Walters back in 1976." (TVNewser)
"The Washington Post’s financials provide a good glance at the current status of legacy media struggling with the shift to digital. Unlike others large dailies, the components of the Post’s P&L clearly appear in its statements, they are not buried under layers of other activities. Product-wise, the Post remains a great news machine, collecting Pulitzer Prizes with clockwork regularity and fighting hard for scoops. The Post also epitomizes an old media under siege from specialized, more agile outlets such as Politico, ones that break down the once-unified coverage provided by traditional large media houses ... The iconic newspaper has been slow to adapt to the digital era. Its transformation really started around 2008. Since then, it has checked all the required boxes: integration of print and digital productions; editors are now involved on both sides of the news production and all relentlessly push the newsroom to write more for the digital version; many blogs covering a wide array of topics have been launched; and the Post now has a good mobile application. The 'quant' culture also set in, with editors now taking into account all the usual metrics and ratios associated with digital operations, including a live update of Google’s most relevant keywords prominently displayed in the newsroom. All this helped the Post collect 25.6 million unique visitors per month, vs. 4 to 5 million for Politico, and 35 million for the New York Times that historically enjoys a more global audience.
Overall, the Washington Post Company still relies heavily on its education business..." (MondayNote)
"The affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson has been one of Hollywood’s favorite tales — in films from Oscar-winning 'The King’s Speech' to Madonna’s 'W.E.' — but a new book exposes the story of Edward’s affair with a Parisian prostitute before he met Wallis. In 1917, Prince Edward, 23, was holed up at the Hotel Meurice (where Kanye West just recorded an album) and became smitten with Marguerite Alibert, a high-class demimondaine. 'It was, of course, the lady’s performance in bed which was the most desirable and significant feature of the prince’s stay in Paris,' writes Andrew Rose in 'The Woman Before Wallis: Prince Edward, the Paris Courtesan and the Perfect Murder.' Edward broke things off, and Alibert years later married Egyptian playboy Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey. But in an argument at the Savoy in London, Alibert murdered her new husband with a handgun. 'Marguerite’s arrest posed some awkward questions for the prince’s people' about the couple’s involvement, says the book, out from Picador. The book further reveals that the prosecutor in the case approached the prince’s personal secretaries to 'help keep the prince’s name out of the media.' Since trials at the time rarely lasted longer than a week, the royals were tipped off as to when the court date would take place so that, 'the royal household could safely announce that the prince would visit his ranch in Alberta' for six weeks." (PageSix)
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