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Arianna Huffington

books

Arianna Huffington's Blurb Production Line

Writers who blurb a ton of their friends' (or acquaintances') books are known as "blurb whores." That's not necessarily a bad thing! But every time you blurb a book ("Outstanding! Brilliant! A tour-de-force.") you should definitely change the wording around—or change the actual words! This makes it look like you've read the book. Arianna Huffington of the HuffPo forgot to do this, as Portfolio's Mixed Media points out. The phrase that was so nice she used it twice? "Fierce, funny, disturbing.... ultimately uplifting."

shouting heads

Bill O'Reilly, Arianna Huffington Brought Together By Death

Nonpartisan journalist Bill O'Reilly is a man who calls em how he sees em, and that means that he's not afraid to give credit to the liberal lie-mongering site HuffPo when credit is due. When former Bush flack Tony Snow died last weekend, the AP ran an obit that was not 100% positive. Even worse, "The LA Times website allowed loons to post vile things about Tony Snow." O'Reilly condemns these examples of factual reporting and free speech, respectively; but he actually praises foreign-born socialist Arianna Huffington for scrubbing her site of all Snow smears. Truly a bipartisan lovefest! Watch the clip of what happens when you look up "Fairness" in the dictionary, below: More »

feuds

Arianna Insists Her Dislike of Tim Russert Was Nothing Personal

Portfolio media reporter Jeff Bercovici cornered blogstress Arianna Huffington at a party and interviewed her. He asked, awkwardly, about Tim Russert. As you may recall, Arianna did not like the deceased newsman. She devoted a great deal of time and energy to criticizing his interview style, guests, questions, and status. To be fair, her points were often cogent and correct! But the other thing is that Tim's wife Maureen Orth wrote a terribly nasty story about Arianna back in the '90s and also called her then-husband gay (he was, and is). Then Arianna was accused of hiring a private investigator to tail Maureen and Tim. Which she denies. Still, she says, Russert Watch was nothing personal. More »

stalky

Arianna Huffington's Secret Control Room

Wow, media baroness Arianna Huffington really knows how to lay on the cloak and dagger stuff. You'll recall how the recent death of NBC newsman Tim Russert, followed by the Huffington Post publisher saying very little about him, reminded everyone that Russert and Huffington had a big, 15-year feud involving a scandalous takedown of Huffington written for Vanity Fair by Russert's wife. Everyone was also reminded of allegations by Republican strategist Ed Rollins (denied by Huffington) that she once hired a private investigator to tail Russert's wife and also once launched a surveillance team of close to 12 "security operatives" to find the illegal nanny of her husband's opponent in his senate campaign. Well, now Huffington's given a wide-ranging interview to the Chicago Tribune titled "Snoop Patrol" that only makes her sound like even more of a shadow lurker. More »

political wives

Arianna Huffington's Great Illegal Nanny Search

On Tuesday, we explained Arianna Huffington's decade-spanning feud with Tim Russert. On Wednesday, we explored the orginal article that sparked it. Today, for the hell of it, another passage from the book that reported the blog mistress's alleged hiring of a private investigator to tail Tim Russert's wife. The book is Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms by Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who ran the Senate campaign of then-Huffington husband Michael. Click through to read the thrilling tale of Dianne Feinstein's Magical Illegal Nanny!
More »

political wives

The Story That Made Arianna Huffington Hate Tim Russert

It's a tangled web. Liberal-ish MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews hates liberal convert blog-runner Arianna Huffington because of a feud between Huffington and center-liberal deceased NBC journalist Tim Russert, whom Matthews idolized (and who never cared for Matthews). Why? Where did this all begin? It all started with a terribly nasty Vanity Fair piece written back in 1994 by Maureen Orth, Tim Russert's wife. The piece is about Michael Huffington, who almost bought himself a seat in the US Senate back when he was married to Arianna. This story helped end his political dreams, won Orth an award or two, and caused bad blood that lasted up until the day Tim died. And we have awesome clips from it! More »

awkward

Arianna Huffington's 15-Year Feud With Tim Russert

So. As we noted this morning, blog mistress Arianna Huffington didn't weigh in on the unexpected death of departed Meet the Press host Tim Russert until well after everyone else, and once she did, she didn't have much to say. Because of the old axiom about how much one should say when one doesn't have anything nice to say. (HuffPo's regular feature "Russert Watch" has gone blank—technical glitch or archive-scrubbing?) As anyone who's read Arianna's media writing over the last couple years knows, she never liked Tim. And we only just recently wandered into the fray, when we learned that Russert's unappreciated lapdog Chris Matthews hated Huffington for her years spent bashing his idol. And why did she hate Tim? This book excerpt might explain it all! More »

gossip roundup

Mean Huffington Won't Even Praise Russert's Ties Or Whatever

  • Observers note that Arianna Huffington waited several days to personally blog anything about the death of Tim Russert of Meet The Press, who she often criticized. Then when she did say something, she didn't really praise the man. Not even faint praise! Dammit, Arianna, the public DEMANDS DISINGENUOUS EULOGIES! [R&M]
  • Condé Nast is accused of stiffing the widow of advertising rainmaker Steve Florio by not handing over her husband's full severance, insurance and benefits. [P6]
  • "Oh, hey, you know what would be romantic, clingy Jennifer Aniston?" "What, manorexic John Mayer?" "A stay at the Mexico vacation home of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, who served jail time for filming naked underaged girls! He just asks that we not disturb any evidence!" "Yaaay!" (Sorry, it's a lot better with the puppets.)
  • This picture of movie Harry Potter is seriously the most frightening thing I've seen all night. Oh, also, he's buying a butt exerciser for some kind of Broadway role (picture does not involve his butt). [R&M]
  • Britney Spears took a topless swim at a tops-optional Las Vegas pool lounge. None of the paparazzi got any shots, except of Spears in a skimpy outfit, and now Spears is said to be hawking her own topless photos from the swim. Or, well, technically her father runs her business affairs now by court order so... Ew.
  • Lindsay Lohan has been "amazing" on the set of her movie, which means she's not getting drunk or high or passing out or committing felonies during working hours. Well, sure, but it's summertime. There aren't any nice coats lying around to steal. [People]
  • Denise Richards admits to having 10 dogs. Sure they're on a ranch, but... why? "I am not sure why there is so much drama about how many animals I have," she said. Also: after she split with Charlie Sheen, Richards totally stole Heather Locklear's man, while they were friends. But on her reality show, she says they totally weren't friends any more, for three months. [P6]

Arianna, Tucker, and Chris: Updated! So yesterday we told you the story of a photo shoot with MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson. Chris allegedly stormed out because Arianna Huffington was involved, and he hates her. He reportedly hates her because she once hired a private eye to follow Tim Russert (a claim she denies). It's complicated. ANYWAY! We've updated the post with emailed clarification from Tucker! AND SO MUCH MORE. Go read it again!

shouting heads

Arianna Huffington and Her Mysterious Private Eye Enrage Chris Matthews

MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews apparently takes blog mogul Arianna Huffington's criticisms a little too seriously! "I will not be in the same fucking picture as Arianna Huffington!! Not a chance of that!" he allegedly screamed during a photoshoot for Portfolio at MSNBC's DC studio Tuesday. Then he stormed out. Oh, and Tucker Carlson was there. More odd and totally unsubstantiated stories from the shoot (Chris is angry because Arianna hired to PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR to spy on... someone!), below. [Updated! We found the target of her mysterious investigation!] More »

party report

Limo Liberals Worship Before Their Nemesis

Arianna Huffington's new book — Right Is Wrong — is as partisan a piece of political writing as any during this political season. The subtitle says it all: "How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe." At Friday night's book party at the Chambers hotel in Midtown however, the divide between the guests was anything but political. The Greek-born polemicist has herself made a mockery of political convictions by switching so effortlessly from conservative wife-of-convenience to liberal power woman. To be sure, the tycoons she had assembled — Mort Zuckerman of Boston Properties and the New York Daily News; Les Moonves of CBS; former Viacom boss Tom Freston; and Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone and US Weekly — were quintessential rich liberals. But any Marxist observer at the party would note that the guests true loyalty was less to a political ideology than to their class. More »

mavericks

John McCain: Bullshit Artist

Yesterday, Arianna Huffington revealed that John McCain told her in 2000 that he didn't vote for George W. Bush. Which we believe. We believe that he told her this, anyway. Who knows if it was true then, or now. But McCain denied it, right away. Which leads Arianna to list all the documented times he's blatantly lied about saying something so far this campaign season. A fun little list! Of course it shows why McCain felt comfortable telling Arianna Huffington that he didn't vote for Bush in 2000. And also why he's the most popular guest in Daily Show history! More »

mavericks

Breaking News From a Dinner Party 8 Years Ago

Arianna Huffington used to be a Republican. She was BFF with Newt Gingrich and everything! Then she switched sides and now she runs a super-liberal website where she occasionally breaks news like this: John McCain didn't vote for George Bush in 2000. But now he's a total Republican sell-out! This disappoints Arianna greatly, because she used to respect him, back when he was a maverick. We're pretty sure he's always been a mean, corrupt old bastard, but whatevs. He's probably disappointed in her, too! [HuffPo]

huffpo

Arianna Huffington Is the Most Popular Lady on the Internet

The May W features an Arianna Huffington interview in which she reveals how influential and important she is. She lunched with David Geffen and Ari Emanuel calls her every day! Also she's all over the TV pimping her new book, which is about how much she dislikes Tim Russert. And she's single! This might be a good time to hook up with her, if you can make it stick: she's got about a six-month window to unload HuffPo for a very large amount of money. Traffic is huge at the moment, but will the new lifestyle content make up for the post-election downturn? Probably not! And as our good friend Nick Denton once blaaaahhgged, advertisers are terrified of political content. Even when it's by Alec Baldwin and Nora Ephron! [W via LAObserved]

banned in dc

Arianna Huffington Banned From Third-Place Cable News Network

Arianna Huffington has reportedly been BANISHED by NBC news—including MSNBC!—because her new book savagely criticizes NBC political honcho Tim Russert. Keith Kelly reports: "Sources said that Huffington was at a dinner in the home of Barbara Walters on Tuesday night when she heard that word had come down from on high that she no longer appear on NBC or MSNBC, where talk show hosts Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough and Dan Abrams were all interested in booking her." NBC's Phil Griffin claims to not know anything about it. We'd argue Arianna was just playing up a rumor she heard to publicize her book, but Griffin adds: "I know some people have issues with her as a guest, but it has nothing to do with the book." Say what you will about Arianna, but she's generally a great guest. So we'll take that as a confirmation. Arianna used to appear on Olbermann's and Dan Abrhams' shows fairly regularly, but her media schedule shows no forthcoming appearances. [NYP]

dead trees

Arianna To Maybe Sell Huffington Post After Stabbing Your Local Newspaper

Arianna Huffington doesn't quite deny the possibility she'll sell the Huffington Post in a story for tomorrow's Times, saying only that she hasn't discussed a sale. One source told the Times that HuffPo executives investigated possible sale prices and figured the site is worth around $200 million, or $50 for each visitor. In the meantime, HuffPo is going to help put your local newspaper out of business — and probably undermine in its own value — by metroblogging: More »

arianna huffington

Tracey Ullman Takes on Easiest Mimicry Challenge Yet

Tracey Ullman, that talented comedienne who is also kind of annoying, has a new Showtime sketch show. On it, she imitates Arianna Huffington, that brilliant blog-promoter who is also kind of ridiculous. A brief clip is attached—the impression is impeccable (and looks quite friendly, jokes about celebrity hairstylists "blogging brilliantly" aside). It's no "Breakaway," but it's nice to see Ullman's keeping busy.

struggling writers

Huffington Post Bloggers Asleep On The Job

Unlike many bloggers, Huffington Post editors Rachel Sklar and Katherine Thompson don't work from home, in their pajamas, while drinking, at least not in the following office video, which shows the bloggers collapsed on a conference room desk and apparently snoozing on the job. So site co-founder Arianna Huffington and the rest of management must be working them to exhaustion. At Christmastime, no less! Those who still think writing for the internet is somehow glamorous should watch the brief clip, in which bloggers resemble nothing so much as cable repair dudes: More »