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foreigners
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Week in Review
The Week We Went to San Francisco
- Hot dog! We have a wiener! And it's Hillary Clinton, who may or may not have been offered and may or may not accept the job of Secretary of State. Whee!
- A famous blogger is in trouble with the law!
- Happy TV Christmas and Thanksgiving everyone!
- Ashley Dupre is back! She's on TV and everything! We have advice for her.
- Al-Qaeda called our new president names and a douchebag sued over getting called a douchebag.
- Another week, another opportunity to just write PUPPIES!
- Next week, Bill O'Reilly will take on beatniks. Did you know they listen to jazz?
- Katie Couric tried some more GOTCHA JOURNALISM with Dave.
- Soon Anna Wintour may be out of job! But, like, maybe voluntarily. Unlike you and everyone else in the nation. There's always Dubai.
Illustration: Shamoononon -
deathwatch
Sharks Circling, the Weinstein Co. Starts to Shrink
Whenever he's had a glaring problem in his business, Harvey Weinstein — legendary manipulator of the press — has always been a master at deflecting attention away: No Oscars recently? Just look at how much money the lowbrow genre films his brother Bob have been raking in! No big genre successes? Well, look at our home video business! The home video business is struggling? Well, we've got an Oscar film coming up! The cycle can be repeated over and over, but financial facts always trump spin. And today, the Weinstein Co. laid off 24 of its employees, 11% of its total staff, according to the New York Post, in what will only provide more chum in the water for those not-so-quietly rooting for the final downfall of the Weinsteins. More » -
Births, deaths, and marriages
Births, Deaths, and Marriages
Births, Deaths, and Marriages is a column about what's happening to persons of interest in Gawker society. Send us your tips about breakups, hookups, knock-ups, and everything else that completes the circle of media-life. Today: one oddly-named celeb infant, one knockup, one breakup, and rabid right-wingers in luv: More » -
online advertising
The death of conversational marketing
FROM VALLEYWAG.COM: An unproar in the world of tech blogs is uncovering a broader fault line between writers and advertisers. Om Malik's GigaOm and his other blogs have dropped their outside ad-sales firm, Federated Media, a startup run by John Battelle. More » -
kreepie kats
Kreepie Kats in "We've All Been Named Special Assistants to the Undersecretary of the Department of Fucking Your Mom"
[Jim Behrle's Kartoon Kats have been reading The Economist lately, and it has made them sad. Luckily: there are pirates!! Everyone loves pirates!! Klick thru for high seas adventure!] More » -
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Media
Reports: HuffPo Maybe, Coulda Raised $15 Million
According to some reports, the Huffington Post has raised $15 million in a new round of investment. But nobody really knows for sure whether that's true, yet! Let us say right up front that if it is true—and the Times UK says it is—this will be the coup of the media meltdown. Raising cash like that in this economic environment is impressive, and we would have to tip our hats to HuffPo, and acknowledge that we have wildly underestimated them. Here are all of the details from various reports on Arianna's maybe-triumph: More » -
Hooray
Obama Selects Money-Fixer
Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary pick made the stocks jump! We're all saved! Drudge calls New York Fed President Tim Geithner "The Man Who Can Save Economy?" (Family Love Geithner!) Geithner worked, obviously, at the Treasury Department that helped create this mess, in the Bob Rubin and Larry Summers days. His background is solid "didn't foresee this in retrospect obvious problem" economist, what with his IMF and Group of Thirty stints, just like everyone else considered for the job. Woman-hater Larry Summers will still probably do something in an Obama administration. Meanwhile comical New Mexico governor Bill Richardson will be our Commerce Secretary, because he's clearly bored in New Mexico. Hillary Clinton is still dithering about her job offer, and Obama will apparently finally announce that whole thing after Thanksgiving. -
The Commies
CodePink's Iron Curtain Call
Every so often one commenter serves the public body in singularly superb fashion. These comrades deserve recognition individually—a chance to come forward and take a bow. Today we honor commenter CodePink, who in her weird, warm, wise, and always funny way makes the days tick by just a little faster. Enjoy five of her best comments this week after the jump. Nobody does it better. More » -
Artists
Poster Boy, Live In Action
Anonymous subway-based ad remix artist and minor obsession of ours Poster Boy has been caught on film! All we had before to identify him was this photo(shop). Animal NY's vandal-in-chief Bucky Turco spent a nice evening with PB in a Brooklyn subway station, just cold maxing and relaxing and shooting the breeze while carving up ads with an X-acto knife and attacking trains. We now have a definitive description of Poster Boy: a male wearing a hat, doing art. If you see anyone matching that description, call police immediately. (Not really, snitches!). Watch the full clip below: More » -
watchmen
Easter Eggs In Zack Snyder's Insanely OCD Watchmen Trailer
FROM io9.COM: The second Watchmen trailer arrived last week, and we're blown away by the crazy OCD detail that goes into every scene. There have been plenty of comics-to-screen comparisons, but the footage is also littered with Easter eggs and little clues as to the direction of the movie. More » -
Merchandise
Now You Can Smell Like Barack Obama
Yesterday we introduced you to the tiniest Obama keepsakes, and today we come across the smelliest Obama-related merchandise (but not the plateiest). Barack Obama perfume, spotted at 30th and 6th. Radosh points out, though, that this is not an original idea: 1. 2. 3. Click for larger picture. -
Jackpot
Is the great Facebook stock sale over?
FROM VALLEYWAG.COM: Through the golden heart of every world-changing startup pulses an avaricious get-rich-quick scheme. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the billionaire-boy cofounders of Google, established this doing-well-by-doing-good myth. More » -
Recessionomics
Your Predictions For The New York Times Co.
When the NYT Company slashed its dividend and announced ominous October revenues yesterday, we asked you, our kindly readers: Might this company go into bankruptcy? If so, when? And if not, what should they do? Many of you answered! And virtually every viable option for the company was suggested at least once. The Sulzberger family should just read the following list of your responses and pick one, depending on how optimistic they're feeling today: More » -
fameballs
Seriously, Why Even Bothering Profiling Julia Allison?
It's funny and meta to watch Julia Allison get profiled. Since she's already done all the work for us in real time—chronicling her thoughts and moods and outfits on her blog—a profile seems beside the point and out of date by the time it goes to print—we've already seen those outfits and photos, and we already know what events she's been to. Journalists are usually left baffled upon their first introduction to the JA force of nature—when we've been collectively getting her IMs for years! Australia is just now catching on to this Internet fameball/oversharing thing, putting Allison on the cover of a magazine—and including her close personal friend, and also our former editor, Emily Gould. (At this point, Em seems like she wants to erase the Internet and spend a month in a sensory-deprivation chamber.) The profile is very similar to Allison's Wired cover story, except for perhaps the journalist's outright dislike for her subjects. More » -
Internal memos
People Editor Calls Times Allegations 'Totally Bogus'
High profile press fight! People magazine editor Larry Hackett just sent out an internal memo blasting the page one New York Times story today about People's alleged shady dealings with Angelina Jolie. Specifically, the Times cited two anonymous sources "with knowledge of the bidding" for the photos of Jolie and Brad Pitt's most recent newborns—which cost People $14 million—who said that there was an formal agreement that "obliged" the magazine to offer only positive coverage. Of course, as Hackett acknowledges, their coverage was positive; but he strongly asserts that the magazine would never "purposely slant coverage as condition for acquiring pictures." And indeed, the Times may have oversold that angle in their story. There's certainly a difference between what Jolie asks for, and what a magazine would explicitly "promise" to do. Read his full memo below: More » -
Cat Fight!
Anna Wintour To New York Magazine: 'Just Go Away'
NY mag's fashion blog The Cut ran into the Vogue editrix Wintour at the National Book Awards this week. They politely (we assume!) asked her about the rumors that she might retire. They are (sort of) substantive rumors and it's a question about her job, not her personal life, so you'd think that she'd respond as courteously as she could. Except, no she didn't. She gave 'em the ol' heave-ho: More » -
Public relations
Populist GM Executives Will Muddle Through With Only Three Jets
General Motors caught a leeetle bit of flack this week for flying its executives to Washington on a private jet in order to beg for a taxpayer bailout. "Hey," said politicians, the media, and the general public, "you have less than zero money. Should you really have spent thousands on a private jet?" We would also add, "Shouldn't you have driven a car?" Later GM and its fellow broke automakers left Washington with no money, making this one of the colossal PR fuckups of 2008, and possibly of the preceding decade as well. But everything is different now, because GM is going to have somewhat fewer private jets. So please give them some multiple of billions of dollars okay? More » -
no depression
200,000 People Want Obama To Pay Them
Barack Obama was elected just a few weeks ago, and he does not take office until late January. But everyone is so excited! He got his transition website up and running right away, and everyone in America immediately clicked on the "jobs" tab, because everyone in America needs a job. Sorry, guys—they've already received 200,000 applications. Which is unprecedented for an incoming administration. We did the research! More » -
Peeling the apple
In Which I Try To Explain Twilight
I know that you will probably stab me in the heart with a wooden stake for doing this, but I'm going to write another post about Twilight. You there, under the rock? Twilight is: spectacularly shitty book series by Stephanie Meyer and now a movie (out today! it's bad!) about a dimensionless girl named Bella and the suave sex vampire that she loves, named Edward. It's swoony moony goony shit, and, again, is terribly, monstrously, embarrassing-for-the-whole-of-the-craftly bad. So why on earth is it so popular, and what is Twilight, I mean really what is it? I will attempt to answer those IMPORTANT questions after the jump. Then you can elucidate (please! please!) in the comments. More » -
Comedy
Saturday Night Live May Hire Jordan Carlos For Obama Gig!
Big news on the Saturday Night Live Obama comedy crisis front: the show is auditioning several comedians who may take the Obama impersonation role from the workmanlike but not-so-funny Fred Armisen. And these new comedians are black, like Obama himself, coincidentally! And even more importantly, one of the contenders is reportedly our close personal friend Jordan Carlos, who already made his case for the role directly to Gawker readers! Three others are also in the running. But we really hope Jordan Carlos gets it, because then we are totally going to demand some free tickets for ourselves! And, of course, for you as well. We totally called it. Maybe. [Daily Beast] -
Books
Mysterious Michiko Startles Readers with a Rhyme
Famously harsh New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani has clearly taken a liking to prolific New Yorker writer and "Deadline Poet" columnist for The Nation Calvin Trillin's latest political book: apparently moved to write a poem, she reviewed it in verse. You know, in the style of his book, also written in verse! "Trillin recounted this all with verve and élan/Charting the candidates’ every slogan and plan." Check out the excerpt—and then you can turn the table and judge her poetic efforts. More » -
ooma
How Ashton Kutcher killed a startup guy's Hollywood dream
FROM VALLEYWAG.COM: It was a fantasy left over from the last boom: Hire a movie star to pitch your startup, and the dusting of tinsel will turbocharge sales. Those William Shatner ads sold plane tickets for Priceline, right? More » -
Newspapers
Rupert Murdoch's Two-Way Assault On The NYT
The financial reports of the New York Times Co. yesterday were predictably awful. Print ad revenue was cratering even before the stock market collapsed, so it's hard to see any turnaround in the near future. And as if the economy itself isn't giving the Times enough problems, they're also dealing with Rupert Murdoch trying to crush them, advertising-wise, in a pincer grip; the Wall Street Journal is falling on their head, and the New York Post is coming right up their ass. More »
