Sitcom writer Mike Schiff on reality TV: "People tune in to reality shows by the millions...One reason I don't get depressed is that they can't go past naked people having sex. What else can they do?" Mike, Mike, Mike. You naïve little boy.
Are you hot? Not if you're a sitcom writer [NYT]

NYT architecture critic Herbert Muschamp's distate for the Libeskind plan doesn't seem to be affecting official opinion. Mayor Mike and Governor Pataki both favor Libeskind, albeit not strongly, and Port Authority officials appear to be leaning the same way. Maybe the Anti-Muschamp letter writing campaign worked.
Support builds for one plan for trade center site [NYT]

"As for all the nervous huffing about the power of the Times as an institution, you can't take it seriously after a while. I meet a lot of people who naively feel that the Times critics are higher beings of some sort, and a lot of people who think that because I write for the Times everything I write is basically invalid."
Interview wih Ben Ratliff [RockCritics via Rafat Ali]

It's not the recession that bothers; at least real estate prices may finally become more reasonable. What's unbearable: the constant reminders, today in a Times moan about the NYC economy, that the city is dependent on, um, investment bankers.
Economy Is Tough All Over, but in New York, It's Horrid [NYT]

The NYT's Clyde Haberman asks what it really means to "boycott France." No Jerry Lewis movies? And if the French, why not the Germans as well? Shouldn't we be smashing our Braun coffeemakers? Shouldn't Jerry Seinfeld be destroying his Porches?
Boycott this! (Pardon our French) [NYT]

From yesterday's NYT Job Market: "High Times seeks an editor w/5+ yrs consumer mag exp to help establish a fresh editorial direction. Knowl of the subject matter essential."
High Times [Nuggets]

According to the NYT's David Carr, Vogue Editor Anna Wintour is down with the people. His evidence? The breaks with the tradition on recent Vogue covers (the April issue will feature a very pregnant Brooke Shields) and the increase in ad pages sold. Both factors have worked well for Vogue, but I'm not sure they're particularly indicative of a more democratic magazine. When Vogue starts featuring The Gap instead of Galliano, we'll talk.
Anna Wintour steps toward fashion's new democracy [NYT]

The NYT recounts the 1908 women-only smoking ban, the blizzard of '69, and the long-gone professional hockey team, The Brooklyn Americans.
Come a Long Way [NYT]

The reporters on the media beat, before whom even magazine editors quake, get a taste of their own medicine. Us Weekly, with some blurby and occasionally snarky reviews of their characters and reporting. So a media weblog, linking to a review of journalists who themselves cover the media: an
object lesson in swallowing one's own tail.
· Jacob Bernstein of Women's Wear Daily is "excitable" and, yes, that's his dad
· Matthew Rose of the Journal: "the hottie of the bunch"
· David Carr of the New York Times is "a merry prankster"
· Keith Kelly of the Post is "sufficiently bitchy", and right 70% of the time
· Sridhar Pappu's nickname is "Binky"
The Big-8 Media Gossips Exposed! [Us Weekly via I Want Media]

Miramax, with Chicago and Gangs of New York among other movies in contention, drew 40 nominations yesterday. Last time a single studio cornered the market to the same extent was back in 1940. So the New York Times gives Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Miramax, his due. Everyone's making nice to Weinstein again, even Martin Scorsese, with whom he famously clashed during the making of Gangs. Well, not entirely.

A plea for help from New York's financially beleaguered arts establishment for help. As so often, the New York Times buries the story. The Met, they mention in an aside, employs 2,300 staff. Please let that be a typo.
City's Arts Budget Being Cut in Money Pinch [New York Times]

Blogging makes Vanity Fair's In & Out list. Blogger is In — but only as a new term for a failed journalist. Or, in Andrew Sullivan's case, a new term for a writer out of favor with Howell Raines at the New York Times.

[More from the NYT rap department, yo] Queens-born rapper "50 Cent" to NYT reporter Lola Ogunnaike: "I can't even identify with you when you tell me that you've got to get up and go to work in the morning. I hope I never have to."
Amid much anticipation, a rapper makes a debut [NYT]

The NYT's Herbert Muschamp needlessly dichotomizes the WTC constituencies into hawks and dovesthe Libeskind plan being the obvious work of warmongers, and THINK a pacifist creation. Muschamp, clearly pro-THINK, writes of Libeskind, "why, after all, should a large piece of Manhattan be permanently dedicated to an artistic representation of enemy assault? It is an astonishingly tasteless idea. It has produced a predictably kitsch result."
Balancing reason and emotion in Twin Towers void [NYT]

The NYT has a short list of restaurants with fireplaces, which should come in handy when the temperature drops to miserable levels again tonight.
Hearth throbs [NYT]

The NYT profiles Pierre Rougier, who is temporarily one of the most powerful men at Fashion Week. Mr. Rougier, a publicist whose clients include Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquiere and Proenza Schouler, determines who gets into several of the more exclusive limited seating events and consequently, who's in and who's over. One of the hottest tickets this year is Proenza Schouler's February 12 show at the National Arts Club, which is limited to 120 guests. (Side note: the article also mentions that Marc Jacobs is doing an ad campaign with Winona Ryder after noticing that she looked so cute in one of his little black-and-white dresses on Court TV.)
Insider's insider, for the best seats [NYT]

It pains me to have to say this, but Tupperware parties are back, and the NYT says they're fashionable. Yes, I know. I don't buy it, either. They did, however, find a few women who appear to be normal in every other respect to vouch for the existence of said Tupperware parties, and even managed to get appropriate quotes like, "The sandwich keepers have always been a big hit...Your sandwich actually looks the way it did in the morning: the peanut butter sandwich is not squished." [Ed. notePlease tell me this Tupperware thing is intentionally ironic so I can stop banging my head against the wall and screaming.]
Tupperware parties for the cosmo set [NYT]

The NYT reports that Tina Brown is working on a talk show program with CNBC. The series will consist of four one-hour programs with guests of her choosing. At least one episode will cover the Oscars and the state of the film industry. The first episode will air on March 20th.
Tina Brown, turning page, heads to TV [NYT]

If the Osbournes have taught us anything, it's that celebrities are just like you and me, and should ostensibly be treated as such. When conversing with Gwyneth Paltrow, one should never mention acting, the A-List, or the Academy Awards. Safe subjects: the weather (horrendously cold, but warmer than in Gstaad), New York anti-smoking laws (barbaric), and the price of eggs in Japan (Nikkei up, poultry futures up.) The NYT's Bob Morris explains how to make meaningful connections with the stars.
Celebrities are your friends [NYT]

Nary a week goes by without a NYT article on gangsta rap.
Inquiry into rap label asks if 'gangsta' is more than genre [NYT]