Thursday, January 29, 2009

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Last night, Gilles Mendel and Ivanka Trump hosted a cocktail party at the J. Mendel boutique on Madison Avenue for Life in Color, a new book by wardrobe consultants Joe Lupo and Jesse Garza of Visual Therapy .. Mendel and Trump mingled with champagne-swillers like Vogue's Meredith Melling Burke, Dr. Lisa Airan, and Amy Fine Collins. 'To be profitable in this environment is no easy feat,' noted Trump, who was decked out in J. Mendel as well as one of her own diamond necklaces that was draped over her decolletage. 'We're there so we must be doing something right.'" (PatrickMcMullen via Fashionweekdaily)

"Rush Limbaugh must now be the new leader of the Republican Party, at least in the House of Representatives. The conservative radio comedian took aim at President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan -- and in lock step, every GOP lawmaker voted against it on Wednesday. When one Republican House member dared to say a cross word about Limbaugh, his constituents were so outraged that he felt the need to go on Rush's show and apologize in a truly pathetic display. U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia took back his earlier observation that rich media figures like Limbaugh earn their living by stirring up conservatives without having to struggle with the consequences .. That would appear to make Rush the new face of the Republican Party. Good luck with that." (Craig Crawford/CQPolitics)

"CAROLINE Kennedy is innocent - she did not have an affair with New York Times publisher Arthur 'Pinch' Sulzberger Jr. The rumor that their friendship was the 'marriage problem' referred to by aides to Gov. Paterson couldn't be true - because the divorced Sulzberger already has a girlfriend. Sulzberger has been seeing Helen Ward, a vivacious woman he met on a trek to Peru about a year ago. 'No comment,' Ward told Page Six yesterday, then added, 'There is only one woman in Pinch Sulzberger's life, and that is the Gray Lady.'" (PageSix)

"Fisher Stevens: 'Hollywood awards aren't given on merit or achievement. It's luck and the all-important spin.'" (Cindy Adams)

"For the most part, the 13-year-old CondéNet represented a farrago of elements and dictates. Roughly two years ago, Condé Nast stripped operations and maintenance of its individual mag sites from CondéNet, though the interactive unit still ran ad sales for mag sites like Wired. It also made a number of acquisitions, including news aggregator Reddit and tech news site Ars Technica. 'CondéNet was charged with running businesses online. We were trying to own specific categories, and make a play for some of the categories… Some of our ideas were more gloriously successful than others, such as Style.com, Epicurious and Wired. Those are the shining examples. Others like, [defunct social net app] Flip, were a good try and in hindsight, I can see why it didn’t work' ..The rationale for separating the ad sales was based on Condé Nast’s focus on using its websites to drive circulation, not ad sales, (Sarah) Chubb said. But as some sites began to grow into sizable destinations in their own right—Chubb points to Glamour.com and NewYorker.com—it began to make sense to tear down the wall separating the ad sales teams." (Paidcontent)

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