Thursday, February 12, 2009

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres



"Forget the Grammys and overrated red carpets. That is so last Sunday. Want to talk sex on fire, for real? Move over, Kings of Leon. Spice up your listening life with a healthy dose of Trouble; the crunk-rock authority's sizzling, addictive album Trouble Andrew (Virgin/EMI) hit shelves yesterday. Perhaps more readily recognized as Trevor Andrew, the World Cup winning and Olympic gold medalist engaged to Santigold (née Santogold), this twenty-something Canadian snowboarder-turned-singer-songwriter knows what it takes to set it off and seldom slows down. Last night Trevor and his Trouble Gang could be found wreaking havoc (AKA breaking it down) all over downtown Manhattan, from the Burton SoHo store to Santos Party House. And, slap dab in the middle of the evening, the foursome took time to open for Lily Allen's 'secret' MySpace show at Bowery Ballroom." (Nell Alk/Papermag)



"Lily Allen, backed by a full band, took the stage a little after 10:00. For the next hour she played a mix of old hits ('LDN', 'Smile') and new songs. Fans were cheering and singing along to both. Lily jokingly suggested people must have been doing some illegal downloading, but she quickly followed that with a more serious "I don't care, I don't make any money off recordings". The UK celebrity's set closed with a cover of Britney Spears's 'Womanizer.'" (BrooklynVegan)

"If the young Republican governor of Louisiana often seems like he is on his way to a better place than the people in his midst, it’s because he is. Or, at least, he has been so far. Bobby Jindal graduated from Brown University before he could legally drink beer, won a Rhodes scholarship and graduated from Oxford three years later. He ran the state health department in his mid-20s, served as an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in his early 30s and won a House seat when he was 33. He was elected president of his freshman class but ended up serving less than two terms before being elected governor in 2007. Less than a year later, he was mentioned as a possible Republican vice presidential pick. He will turn 40 in June 2011, the year in which he will be up for re-election — and just a year before the next election for president of the United States is in full swing. Though his Indian heritage is a bonus for a party that has struggled to win minority votes, it is his intelligence, ambition and credibility with conservatives that have marked Jindal as a GOP future star. But like a Major League ballclub forced to call up its top prospect from the farm team earlier than anticipated, the beleaguered Republican Party can no longer wait to thrust Jindal into the spotlight. The 37-year-old son of Indian immigrants will present the Republican Party’s rebuttal when President Obama delivers his first address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24." (CQPolitics)

"Basically entire NBC politics crew on Twitter now. Except for Chuck Todd who has a TWITTER IN HIS MIND. Welcome @davidgregory @morningmika" (Ana Marie Cox/Twitter)

"An early Spring day in the middle of February yesterday in New York. Last night there was stuff going on. 1% of the Planet celebrated a 1000 member milestone, with an evening hosted by Tom Brokaw down on 54 Thompson Street in the home of Steven and Judy Gluckstern. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and a stellar guest list for that sort of thing, including editor-in-chief/film producer/haute restaurateur Graydon Carter." (NYSocialDiary)

"MORT Zuckerman - right after announcing he would no longer match Daily News employee's 401(k) retirement contributions - lunching at the expensive Four Seasons restaurant." (PageSix)



"Despite the waning economy, there was no shortage of generosity and Hollywood glamour at Tuesday night's Entertainment Industry Foundation Women's Cancer Research Foundation benefit dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Altruistic attendees including Jay-Z, Rita Wilson, Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, Jennifer Meyer, Lisa Kudrow, Jessica Capshaw, Jamie Tisch, Pam Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor joined forces to raise awareness and funds for cancer research, while honoring Gwenyth Paltrow and Courteney Cox, recipients of this year's Courage Award and Nat King Cole Award, respectively .. 'I am so honored to be a part of this evening. I'm a housewife in England and married to a singer...and all of the sudden I'm here, and it's all just so surreal. Sadly, not all of my family could be here with me, but I've got Jay-Z in the house, so that makes up for it!' toasted Paltrow .. Ending the evening with a bang, Beyonce blew the crowd away with a show-stopping performance including a trio of hit songs including, 'At Last' and 'Single Ladies'; bringing the crowd to their feet, including a shimmying duo of Wilson and Kate Capshaw in the front." (Fashionweekdaily)

"Will anyone escape unscathed by responsibilty from the great finanical crisis? Not, it would appear, Warren Buffett, the revered Oracle of Omaha .. After Moody's Corp. went public in 2000, Warren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, invested just under $500 million, making it by far Moody's largest shareholder. At the time, Moody’s was a stodgy bond-rating company that, together with Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, enjoyed what amounted to a government-backed monopoly on issuing investment ratings. The most coveted grade is triple-A, which implies a very low risk of default and allows corporations to sell these bonds to insurance companies, pension funds, and other institutions that are restricted by law to the safest investments. The ratings firms play a double role, both evaluating the risk of a company’s debt and—for additional fees—offering consulting services to help a company raise its score to triple-A. But since there were no more than a dozen companies in the entire world eligible for a triple-A rating in 2001, the money Moody's could make from these two services was limited. The way around this barrier was the much more profitable business line of helping companies earn triple-A ratings for a new kind of financial instrument: 'structured debt.'" (TheDailBeast)

"YESTERDAY was Elaine Kaufman's 80th birthday, and anyone who ever wants a good table at Elaine's again better show this week to wish her 80 more." (Cindy Adams)

"Swampland seems to have disappeared, along with all of Time's other blogs. are the high sheriffs trying to tell us something?" (Karen Tumulty/Twitter)

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