JetBlue Shoots, Scores

cityfile · 03/20/09 12:10PM

Lots of companies have been trying to milk the financial crisis and/or stories of corporate fraud for maximum publicity gain. Few, though, have pulled it off as successfully as JetBlue has with its new ad campaign. After the jump, the commercial that debuted earlier this week featuring a sleazy CEO touting flights to "cities where you already own homes or hide money," and service to DC "so you'll never be late to a Congressional hearing."

The Friday Party Report

cityfile · 03/20/09 11:50AM

Saks CEO Steve Sadove was honored at a fundraising gala for the Fashion Institute of Technology last night at Cipriani 42nd Street. Sadove was presented with an award from Michael Bloomberg ("This is an evening I like to call Saks and the City!") and guests including FIT president Joyce Brown, Olivia Chantecaille, Jason Wu (left), Carolina Herrera, Tom Florio, Fern Mallis, Robbie Myers, Joe Zee, Amy Astley, Peter Som, Stacey Bendet Eisner, Susan Fales-Hill, Dan Peres, Bill Cunningham, Scott Harrison, Steven Kolb, Saks President Ronald Frasch and his wife Georgia, former State Comptroller Carl McCall, and actress Sarah Wynter. [PMc, Wireimage, NYO, FWD]

Whoopi Goldberg to Fashion Critic: 'Kiss My Ass'

Richard Lawson · 03/20/09 11:43AM

TV Guide magazine wrote some not-so-nice things about View cohost Whoopi Goldberg's fashion choices, and she got a little mad. She called one writer an "anonymous bitch" and instructed her to kiss her ass.

Barack Obama Doesn't Do Gaffes

John Cook · 03/20/09 11:28AM

You can't win, White House press corps. Your frantic and stupid attempts—motivated by a misplaced sense of fair play—to pin down Barack Obama as a gaffe-prone president won't work. Here's why.

CNN's Ratings Plunge, Obama on Leno

cityfile · 03/20/09 11:23AM

• Further evidence CNN's Jon Klein should start polishing his resume: The network continues to trail Fox News, MSNBC, and Headline News. [Portfolio]
• Obama's performance on The Tonight Show will keep people talking for awhile (and not in a good way, clearly), but the ratings were huge. [Time, THR]
• The April issue of Portfolio is the slimmest in Condé Nast's history. [NYP]
• Charla Lawhon is stepping down as managing editor of In Style. [WWD]
• Your prayers have been answered: VH1 is reviving Behind the Music. [NYP]
• Bob Pittman says the ad industry should get a bailout, too. [Fortune]
• Fox News's Greta Van Susteren is denying her husband is a paid adviser to Sarah Palin, but she admits that he gives her advice and "helps" her. [HP]
• SpiralFrog, the glitzy music site that launched in 2006, has gone bust. [PC]
• Broadway dimmed the lights last night in honor of Natasha Richardson. [THR]

A Product Placement to Be Proud Of

cityfile · 03/20/09 10:28AM

Proof that Tory Burch's eponymous clothing line has made its decent from Upper East Side chic to middle America bargain bin: It seems she's the designer of choice to Nadya "OctoMom" Suleman, who showed up to a taping of Dr. Phil recently dressed in a $228 TB top and a pair of $195 TB flats. Of course Burch did tell a reporter recently that she wanted to be a "go-to brand for affordable luxury" and a staple of "hugely successful" working moms everywhere. Looks like the mission is well on its way to being accomplished! [TMZ]

Dated Trend Goes Mobile

cityfile · 03/20/09 10:01AM

Remember when cigars were popular back in the '90s? Good times. It's been nearly a decade since the trend turned to ashes, but a company is now planning to roll out "Mobile Cigar Lounges" which allow 20 people to congregate in an Airstream trailer that resembles that cigar bar you visited in 1997 and never went back to. Supposedly they're designed for private parties, so your guests can step outside for a puff (and, in keeping with the era, perhaps discuss that really funny episode of Friends they saw last night.) But if the mobile cigar lounge concept doesn't catch on in the end, the trailers don't necessarily have to be dropped off at the junk yard. With every woman in town supposedly setting up consignment shops to unload their designer goods, these things may be up and down Fifth Avenue just yet! [MobileCigarLounge.com via Luxist]

The Heart Wants What It Wants

Richard Lawson · 03/20/09 09:51AM

A kiddie update gets a release date, lawsuits are filed, quirky indies are cast with cult fave actors, Michael from The Wire joins the war effort, and people are watching Gary Unmarried.

We Are Strangers to Ourselves, Says Study

cityfile · 03/20/09 09:15AM

That precious image you have of yourself as a unique, discerning, free-thinking individual who's guided by your own particular tastes and idiosyncrasies? Sorry to crush one of the few delusions that makes life worth living, but it's a total fantasy, at least according to Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, whose book Stumbling on Happiness insisted that people have no idea what will make them happy. He's now conducted research to prove that, even when it comes to romance, we're better off going by the experience and advice of others, rather than trusting our own minds. And just to lend further authority to the study, it involved speed dating!