In your vacation-ready Wednesday media column: Jon Meacham's really nice, Cathie Black's tentative future, Howard Stringer's name gaffe, Glenn Greenwald vs. The Nation, and very fine hackery.

Mr. Heidi Klum (or Seal, if you prefer) turns 46 today. General Electric chief Jeff Immelt is 53. Jonathan Lethem is turning 45. Sony CEO Howard Stringer is turning 67. New York Times finance reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin is 32. New York art critic Jerry Saltz is 58. Carolyn Maloney is turning 61. Hearst's Ellen Levine…

Whoopi Goldberg served as emcee at the National Board of Review's annual awards ceremony at Cipriani 42nd Street on Wednesday night. Attendees at the Bulgari-sponsored event included Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber (left), Clint and Dina Eastwood, Ed Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Salma…

The Tribeca Film Institute hosted a benefit screening for the Quantum of Solace last night, which was followed by an afterparty at Tavern on the Green. Attendees included Daniel Craig, Becki Newton, Chris Diamantopoulos, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal, Julia Stiles, Kelly…

♦ It was the Metropolitan Opera's 125th opening night on Monday and so naturally a long list of recognizable faces trooped out for the occasion. In floor-length gowns and tuxes to walk the red carpet and watch Renée Fleming: Barbara Walters, Howard Stringer, Michael Bloomberg, Helen Mirren, Christie Brinkley, Faye…

It won't be quite as cheery as usual at Herb Allen's annual media mogul retreat, which kicks off today in Sun Valley. This time last year, the credit crisis was but a blip on the radar. Oh, how things have changed over the past twelve months. Without the billions on hand to close big deals, the economic downturn has…

Sir Howard Stringer is chairman and CEO of Sony, and the first non-Japanese executive to hold either position.

Sony's photo-sharing site, ImageStation, is quickly following in its sister music site Connect's footsteps, dancing itself out of business, and is closing in February 2008. Meant to boost use of its Cyber-shot digital camera line, ImageStation failed to compete with the likes of Yahoo's Flickr, and its users are…

OMG! Sony is challenging Apple to a video-download service duel! Howard Stringer, Sony's CEO, has a novel plan to use the PlayStation 3 as a trojan horse into the living rooms of America — supplanting the struggling Apple TV. Please. The only thing shocking about Sony's service is that it took the company this long…

Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corporation of America and Tommy Mottola's nemesis, has been called many things, by Mottola and others. But never this: "a big strapping Welsh dude who I bet has a nice huge..."
Howard Stringer [The Data Lounge]