Anna Wintour's 60 Minutes Profile
Vogue's Anna Wintour was profiled on 60 Minutes tonight, a piece in which she expressed reluctance to glam down during tough times, defended her bitchiness, and basically said she's in it for the free clothes. While Morley Safer's profile was, in its totality, quite interesting, as its vexing and somewhat mystery-shrouded subject tends to be, what may be even more interesting is what the profile made didn't mention: Wintour's contract with Vogue is set to expire soon and that she and Conde Nast have a long history of using the media to gain advantages during tough contract negotiations. Longstanding rumors of S.I. Newhouse's desire to replace Wintour with French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. The overall decline in financial health over at Conde Nast, which recently reported a 26% drop in ad pages in its first quarter and shuttered Portfolio, its perpetually struggling $100 million business magazine. But to her credit, Wintour did look like 200,000 bucks. Anna Wintour on 60 Minutes [CBS News] MORE >>
Will Ferrell-Hosted, Cameo-Laden SNL Season Finale Will Come To Traumatize Lorne Michaels
Last night's Will Ferrell-hosted SNL season closer was a perfect freak-storm of cameos (Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, Norm McDonald, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler) and nostalgia. The play-by-play, post-jump. Will Ferrell couldn't host SNL without getting around to Celebrity Jeopardy, though they pulled out two serious stops for this one: Tom Hanks as Tom Hanks, Norm McDonald as Burt Reynolds, and Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery, which is why we're here. Certainly not as great as of the CJ's of the past. Then again, I'm not sure who thought of it, but whoever did, genius: there was nothing more fun on TV this week (sorry, Lost) than watching Tom Hanks try to maneuver through plastic dry cleaning wrap. Ferrell's opening monologue was essentially one giant "fuck you" to the Tony voting committee and Broadway, who - if they have any brains about them at all - will give themselves national exposure by handing Ferrell a Tony for his solo show on Broadway (and subsequent HBO special). He's competing against Liza Minnelli. Somewhere, Brian Friel is not laughing. The joke about theater people's pompous self-seriousness is (especially in New York) ridiculously funny. And sadly: resonant. Unfortunately, outside of New York, it might not take. Speaking of the Bush show, the cold open was Ferrell doing Dubya, of course - when's that going to get old for him? Will it? - and Hammond as Cheney. Again, Ferrell trying to push home the Tony win. Some of the late night ladies at Jezebel didn't like it; personally, I enjoyed. Anything with the words "face shooting" in it gets a chortle, here, but I'm a cheap date. You? Clearly the favorite amongst the cast who came close to breaking character a bunch of times. Watch Jason Sudeikis try to handle this without laughing, especially around the five-minute mark. Jokes about speed, Bill Hader getting some strangeness in - something about a green Swatch - Maya Rudolph coming in and making complete, absolute, arbitrary nonsense. It was wonderful. Finally: the cameo-laden finale. Spoiler: it's Ferrell doing "Goodnight Saigon." Kinda fitting. That band has Anne Hathaway, Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss, Amy Poehler, musical guests Green Day, and Paul Rudd in it. Again, this one sits squarely on the shoulders of its stars, not the writing. Oh yeah: Green Day was the musical guest and played some stuff off their new album, but when's a band gonna come on SNL and not do that? Remember when SNL musical performances used to be mildly interesting? Green Day should've come out dressed as 14 year-olds, played "Basketcase," broke some shit, and left. Memo to Lorne Michael: think dynamic. Also, question for Lorne Michaels: Did you burn through your entire Rolodex to pull this one off? Probably. Did it help that you had one of your best and brightest alumni hosted? Naturally. But you can't pull a glued audience simply based on the potential promise of cameos and only half-decent writing that your ace(s)-in-the-hole can walk circles around. You're gonna... MORE >>
Meet Jon Huntsman Jr., Our New Ambassador To China
President Obama has an awesome new strategy for dealing with Republican leadership: send 'em to China. Meet Republican former Utah Governor, and now, Obama appointee Jon Huntsman Jr. Jon Huntsman, a seventh-generation resident of Utah, has been the Beehive State's governor for the last five years. His old man, Jon Huntsman Sr., is like him, a very prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but unlike him, was a staffer under the Nixon administration. Roman Grant Huntsman Sr. has eight kids and 70 - count 'em, 70 - grandkids. Jon Huntsman Jr. has seven kids, one of whom (Gracie Mei, which, in all honesty, is actually a pretty cute name for a kid) was adopted from China. Diplomacy! Huntsman's political resume runs deep: staffer for Reagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Ambassador to Singapore under George H.W. Bush, and was a deputy trade representative under Dubya for two years, which must've been kinda excruciating, even as a high-ranking Republican. His experience in Asia also has its roots starting early on: the LDS mission he took as a young (Hunts)man was to (what Top of the Ticket called "the other China") Taiwan. He's one of those guys who took the advice to be "fluent in Mandarin" very early on. Jon Boy's record for scandal is - like many an LDS politician - unsurprisingly clean. His voting record, however, has pissed off a bunch of people. Mainly, other Republicans. Even though he supports Senate resolutions against same-sex marriages [insert Hunts-man joke here], he's supported civil unions, which, where he's from: ain't cool. Like many Utah politicians, he's pretty pro-environment. One time, he publicly bitched out his own state party for not confirming a state appeals court nominee. He is, for all intents and purposes, a moderate Republican, especially coming from the land of (perpetually elected LDS shadeball) Orrin Hatch. Considered the state Republicans are in, he's relatively well liked in the party, though he did once co-chair an unsuccessful campaign for the presidency: John McCain's. You might've heard of it? Which brings us to the political upshot to this thing, which there's a shitload of, and this is the talking point everyone's going to be rolling over the next few days. First, Utah's pretty much stunned: check out Mormon-mouthpiece paper Deseret News' jaw-to-floor filing on the appointment if you want to get a sense of what the climate there's like right now. Mainly: Huntsman was viewed by many as a potential candidate for the 2012 Republican ticket against Obama, especially since he'd already announced his intent to not run for Utah's governorship in 2012. Notes Politico: "Viewed purely through the lens of 2012 politics, the move looks like political genius by the White House: It's like John Edwards or John Kerry joining the Bush administration in 2001." And it is a pretty brilliant move on Obama's part. If Huntsman has a shot at the presidency, he's gonna have it until he takes it... MORE >>
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