According to NY Mag, anyone attending a dinner party at ex-Talk editor Tina Brown's "must visit the 'loo'it�s covered in carefully preserved press clippings about [Tina and husband, Harry Evans]." Also: no seating arrangements. "'It was a little intimidating,' says one visitor of a party given for Stephen Daldry. 'You're wandering around, and the only empty seat is next to Harrison Ford.' 'She knows how to network but not entertain,' says another, equally intimidated guest. 'It's like survival of the fittest.'"
The dish on dinner [NY Mag]

The ouster of Primedia chief Tom Rodgers has led to speculation that the company will sell off choice assets under the direction of its majority owner, leveraged buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Condé Nast Chairman Si Newhouse reportedly told KKR months ago that he'd be willing to buy New York Magazine prior to auction. NY Mag'ers: say hello to the Condé cafeteria and the Ohio soccer mom demographic. Don't cry; it'll be alright. (Car service for the masses! Expense accounts the size of some third world GDPs!)
Primedia chief exec purged [NY Daily News]

The Nation recently reported that right-wing radio show host Rush Limbaugh unleashed his listeners on New York mag's media critic Michael Wolff for complaining that CentCom briefings were not useful. Wolff got 3,000 hate emails from Limbaugh listeners. I, in return, provided Mr. Limbaugh's email address, for anyone who felt like defending Mr. Wolff. Predictably, I got hate mail as well, and despite my usual masochistic impulse to publish what little hate mail we do receive, I declined because most of it consisted of compelling arguments like, "I tape all of Limbaugh's shows every day, and he never said that! You're a moron, you stupid prick!" (You tape all of Limbaugh's shows every day, and I'm the moron? I'm sorry; your logic eludes me.)

New York Magazine just turned 35, which means it's roughly five years away from running off with a leggy underage blonde and blaming it on an existential crisis and/or the price of GE when the trading floor last closed. As part of their "celebration," they've put together a list of "100 People Who Changed New York" that includes a few of our contemporary favorites and a few "classics":
· IVAN BOESKY, arrested Reagan-era arbitrageur. Had three phones in his car; still got caught. Quote: "Immoral is probably wrong...I prefer the word unethical." A cautionary tale.
· TINA BROWN, editor. Carp, carpTina's New Yorker doesn t look so bad these days.
· CALVIN KLEIN, designer, Latrell Sprewell interlocutor. Billboard pioneer made you look at the label. From Brooklyn.
· DONALD TRUMP, fortunate son, builder, tabloid headline. Trump this, Trump that. The name itself is onomatopoeia.
· HARVEY WEINSTEIN, neo-maverick film producer. No him, no power omelette at Bubby s
· ANNA WINTOUR, editor, Vogue. Bringing fashionable chill to the masses.
100 people who changed New York [NY Mag]

NY Mag media reporter Michael Wolff is an official "embed" and is reporting from CentCom. Jeff Jarvis reports: "Today, Gen. Renuart called on him as 'the gentleman with my kind of haircut.' Wolff asked the general whether the media was misrepresenting the progress of the war... or not. 'The media is reality,' the general replied. 'The media is a snapshot of what it sees at that point in time.... The challenge has been the immediacy.... I don't think the media has had an adverse effect... I think most of the commanders are comfortable.' [Ed. note"the media is reality"? There's a frightening thought.]
Embedded in the press corps [Buzzmachine]

New York celebrity party planner Ted Kruckel chronicles, in excruciating detail, his descent into insolvency in this week's NY Mag. His plan now? A reality show. "PR, just like ER but different...Each week, the clever and attractive team throws a fabulous party and grapples with a new, hair-raising crisis. This week, the bottles of perfume don t arrive in time for the fancy launch partywhat will they do? Next week: Anthrax Alert! An erroneous report causes hundreds of freshly tissued, ribboned, labeled, messengered gift bags to be rudely turned away at their destinations. Worse still, as the bags sludge back in, now all slightly but irreparably creased, the interns revolt and refuse to redo them."
When the party's over, (for the party planner) [NY Mag]

AIIIIIIEEEE!!! The war! The war! NY Mag's Michael Wolff argues that the American media has been whipped into a sat-phone-and-kevlar-crazed frenzy over the war and that everyone's so excited that they're all on their uncharacteristically "best-boy" behavior ("except that old bag, Helen Thomas.") The countdown to the inevitable Bush backlash has begun.
Behind the lines [NY Mag]

More layoff malaise: "Whenever I go down to the unemployment office," [unemployed music journalist Miranda] Jane says, "I notice that a lot of people seem to be in the media."
Generation hexed [NY Mag]
Media layoffs [IWantMedia]
Fucked company: media [FuckedCompany.com]

Michael Wolff examines two other culprits behind the reality TV craze: NBC entertainment head Jeff Zucker and ABC entertainment exec Susan Lyne. Wolff, explaining the reality TV craze, writes "It was almost as though network television were being maintained on a sophisticated combination of mood-stabilizing drugs, but suddenly, everybody went on some scary street shit." He also asks what we've all been thinking: how far can the reality TV go? "At what point, after what humiliations, do reasonable and thoughtful men and women just walk off the set?"
Oh! Get Real! [NY Mag]

NY Mag has discovered the root cause of the mayor's recent slide in the polls: he went to college at Johns Hopkins. "Hopkins has a knack for producing a singular sort of characterone in which the DNA of the computer jock has been gene-spliced with that of the arrogant med studentand it's an ugly hybrid. The classic Hopkins grad isn't just a dork; he's a dork with a superiority complex." He's not kidding. When I was in school, "Hopkins" was quite literally a synonym for assholish cutthroat behavior. The occasional jerk would steal all the practice tests for a midterm in an attempt to sabotage everyone else, (and by extension, lower the grading curve,) and someone would invariably exclaim, "What the fuck?! This isn't Hopkins!"
Hizzonerd [NY Mag]

NY Mag columnist Amy Sohn says that sex-toy salons are the new "Tupperware parties." We said the same thing a month ago, but we were secretly thinking it was just a cheesy rumor. Guess not. (It's still infinitely less disturbing than the return of actual Tupperware.)
Toy story [NY Mag]

NY Mag covers the "Top-Down Recession"a phenomenon that consists almost entirely of massive job cuts in the finance sector at the top levels. The "deal guys" on Wall Street who pushed the idiotic mergers and ludicrous IPOs during boomtimes were always the people who made the most money. Now they're the only people who make money. The new universal bonus plan is "eat what you kill," meaning that if you're not bringing in new deals, you're not taking home a paycheck. The number of people capable of doing that dwindles every day as more investment bankers get pink-slipped, and increasingly, handcuffed.
Down and out on Wall Street [NY Mag]

NY Mag plays both sides of the fence in the debate about whether the real estate bubble is going to burst. The bankers are still spending money, but then maybe they're just in denial or too coked up to realize what they're doing. The brokers think things are looking up, but they're salesmen; they get paid to lie. Everyone's worried about security, especially with the impending war, but then oil at $15 a barrel post-Iraq could be the adrenaline shot the economy needs. (Ouch, my liberal conscience!) Oh, let's just flip a coin and get it over with.
Is this the year the bubble burst? [NY Magazine]

NY Mag's Kyle York Spencer interviews participants in the Germanistic Society of America's annual Quadrille Ball. If it weren't the Germanistic Society, I'd assume this was just another example of New York Anglophilia run amok. The ball requires "debs" to practice dancing for ten weeks prior to the event and to learn the rules and regulations traditionally associated with "gentlemanly" and "ladylike" behavior. If that isn't frightening enough, potential debs are recruited by being told the ball is like a "hot date with a very hot person."
Modern Dance [NY Magazine]

Lockhart Steele on NY Mag's "50 Best Bars" edition: "which makes us cringe more, their picks or their prose? (Sample line: 'If New York is a martini, then alcohol is the olive.')"
50 best bars [Lockhart Steele]
50 best bars [NY Magazine]

NY Mag's Vanessa Grigoriadis covers a "take-out" party at Idlewild where single women and couples pay for what party promoter Palagia calls "sensual liberation." A scene from one such party: "...guys had their polo shirts hanging open, and women had nothing on top except for the itsy-bitsy flowers painted on their nipples by a man in a white feathered hat. With one hand, he applied sparkly aquamarine to the areola of a blonde in a striped skirt. The other he put up her skirt."
Let It All Hang Out [NY Magazine]
Take-out parties

NY Mag lists a few work-arounds for Mayor Mike's new anti-smoking laws, which are scheduled to go into effect on March 30. Any creative ideas? We're taking suggestions. Join the revolution!
Smoke signals [NY Magazine]

Online dating: everybody's doing it. And thanks to online dating, everybody's, um, doing it. NY Mag's Vanessa Grigoriadis examines perceptions toward casual sex in the age of cyber romance.
The new position on casual sex [NY Magazine]

NY Mag has just released its "Where to Eat" issue, and it looks like red meat and home cooking are the themes for 2003. The Cult of Atkins is probably responsible for most of it, but it may also be a function of the Southern culture that seems to be quietly infiltrating New York.

The Clintons, Bob Rubin and George Stephanopoulos are all in New York, and Al Gore looked surprisingly at ease when in town for Saturday Night Live. With so many Clinton administration veterans, says New York Magazine, it's as if Manhattan were "a glamorous Elba, an outpost of forsaken ideals." Only difference: Napoleon came back from Elba.
Memo to Al (er, Mr. President): Make a brand-new start of it in old New York [New York Magazine]