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Rachel Sklar
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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]
videuhoh
Journalists Stuck On Airplane, Chaos Ensues
Our intrepid video fella Richard Blakeley was on a plane full of journalists headed to a Thrillist press event in Las Vegas over the weekend when disaster struck. Due to the crazypants thunderstorms barreling through the region, the plane had to make an unscheduled stop in Rochester, NY. Naturally Blakeley whipped out his camera and filmed the madness, capturing a veritable who's who of journalist types, from the Post's Justin Rocket Silverman, to Julia Allison from Star magazine (hiding coyly from the camera), to The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar, as they coped with the ordeal. The most important thing we can learn from this video? I'mInLikeWithYou.com's Charles Forman pees sitting down. Clip is above. More »
The Emily Chronicles
The Last Word On That Emily Gould Story?
It's a long holiday weekend, so perhaps by Tuesday there'll be nothing left to say about former Gawker editor Emily Gould's extensive New York Times Magazine cover story about sleeping with people and blogging about it and having panic attacks on bathroom floors? No? Well, in any case, The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar, a Canadian, provides a tasty summary of the essay and the ensuing media cluster-fuck. "This was an extended blog post, an overlong 'Modern Love' essay, 7,937 words that did not venture beyond the author's own experience; for some perspective, the NYT's investigative expose on the Pentagon's purported ties to on-air military analysts had 7,486). And for what?" More »
sex and violence
Blood-Thirsty Pundits Demand Violent End to Primaries
MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann on how to deal with Hillary Clinton's never-ending campaign: "Right. Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out." Ok! As HuffPo's Rachel Sklar points out, that means he would like someone to beat her up. Metaphorically! Also, sexistly! Well, it's maybe debatable. Like that New Republic cover. Clearly stupid, but scale of 1-10, how vile? We won't wade in! We will say, though, that it's not even the worst of recent cable news comments. More »
patriotism
Pundit Lapels Shockingly Bare
Doesn't anyone wear flag pins anymore? HuffPo's Rachel Sklar, who carries an actual maple leaf pinned to a beaver pelt with her at all times, pitted the cable news network talking heads against each other in a brutal MS Paint collage battle, and discovered that while people get all up-in-arms about Barack Obama not wearing his little American flag pin, no one else does anymore either. Except Brit Hume, Neil Cavuto, Karl Rove, and Lou Dobbs. The last defenders of patriotism! Everyone else in America is too bitter.
mistakes
CNN Launches A Comedy News Show
You know the Colbert Report, and how it's really successful? And how other forms of news are less popular and some are dying? CNN noticed that too! So their Headline News channel will soon be airing Not Just Another Cable News Show, a weekly program with a light take on hard news using memorable gaffes from the past week. Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox, of Wonkette fame, and noted Canadian/Huffington Post contributor Rachel Sklar will be commenters. The show, whose concept is stolen from the first segment of the Daily Show and whose title is stolen from the Wayans brothers, begins April 5. [AP]
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 »
canadians
11 More Canadians Who Control The Media
Thanks to New York's secretive and shadowy Canadian Cabal for their fast and servicy response to our story on how they control the media! Canadian media critic Rachel Sklar jumped into action, quickly posting her exhaustive list of all the Canadians she could think of. More than 70! Some of them are dead (Peter Jennings?), others of them not quite bigwigs (Rachel Marsden?), but we did forget some important ones. Like Dahlia Lithwick and Laurie Hibberd! Canadians are better even then Jews at knowing each and every member of their relentlessly polite tribe, but even Ms. Sklar leaves some unmentioned. Much thanks, then, to tipsters who supplied the following names: More »
broken borders
The Canadian Media Mafia
A story in Canada's National Post about how Canadian journo Clive Thompson is secretly jealous of more famous Canadian author Malcom Gladwell made brief mention of "a Canadian mafia of print journos that exists in the Manhattan magazine world." There are more Canucks in the New York media world than you might imagine, and nearly all of them hold positions of terrifying power. Do you know your Canadian Mafia members? Join us on a trip through Manhattan's dirty underbelly with the Molson-guzzling old time hockey aficionados who secretly run the media.More »
brian williams
But I Gave You A Moniker
NBC News anchor Brian Williams "loves his nickname," says Rachel Sklar over at HuffPo. The perenially upbeat media blogger dubbed him 'BriWi' at some point, we couldn't even begin to tell you why. Makes him sound like some newfangled networking device from Apple. Oooh, maybe he is! Thing is, when she mentions it to him in a video interview, he looks like he just wants to bolt. Or smack her, whatever ends the whole thing fastest. More »
vamp attack! chick scolds lazy hacks!
Dating Columnist Takes Brave Stand Against Tabloid Era!
Julia Allison, the editor at large for a magazine called Star, has issued a bold treatise in support of the work of Rachel Sklar, the Huffington Post media critic. "Rachel calls out the media on their hypocrisy in a FAIR way, which, it might be noted, is a quality many journalists today sadly lack," Allison writes. "They seem to think that in order to be critical, they have to be bitchy/snarky/cruel or—on the other extreme—they don't analyze critically at all, instead choosing to come down predictably (lazily!) with a hackneyed throw-away blurb and maybe an ad-hom attack, just to spice things up. It's nice to see a writer really THINKING about the issues about which she writes. You can tell she's a lawyer by training."
Due to this infernal strike, last night the cast of 30 Rock performed its show in the same moldy basement at the Upright Citizen's Brigade in which Saturday Night Live performed their show on Saturday. This time, however, Rachel Sklar only wrote 2,844 words on it! [HuffPo]
Due to the strike that has gripped the nation by its creative balls, the cast of Saturday Night Live performed this week's show, with musical guest Yo La Tengo and host Michael Cera, in the moldy basement theater of Upright Citizen's Brigade. Not many people knew about it and fewer people actually got in. Maybe you read about it in the Times and felt bad about you weren't there. Don't worry. HuffPo's Rachel Sklar penned a 4511 word recap of the evening. (4511 fucking words. Recap.) Included in her accounting of every single sketch: "Man, did the crowd go nuts;" "Darrell Hammond, master impressionist: He really is." and " One hell of a show." Repeat this like 225 times. [HuffPo]
Hot reporting from the American Magazine Conference down in Boca from the Huffington Post: "The evening was mostly off the record." Oh boy. But! HuffPo's Rachel Sklar had dinner next to Dan Rather. "Here's what we can tell you: He stands every time a lady leaves and/or returns to the table (courtly!) and he did not discuss his pending legal case (er, other kind of courtly). We did discuss Howie Kurtz's book ('You're in it!' I said brightly, and helpfully) which he said he had not read (he also said other stuff!)." Mmm, other stuff. [HuffPo]
book parties
AJ Jacobs Now Ready To Break Some Commandments
Last night Esquire scribe and gimmick book writer AJ Jacobs celebrated the publication of his latest, The Year of Biblical Living, a memoir about the healing process after his husband died. Oh wait. That's the other Year of Adjective Present Participle book. This one traces Jacobs' efforts to live his life according to the strictures of the Old Testament. Sounds hard, right? According to Jacobs, it was! The book party was heavily attended by Esquire editors and was at an Upper East Side bar called Genesis. Get it? And we didn't have to blow anyone to get tickets. More »
the other emmys
Mike Wallace And Dan Rather Think T.V. News Is Really Important!
"I'm going braless," Huffpo's Rachel Sklar said in the cab on the way to the Sheraton. She was tucking herself into a sleek black dress. "Women sweat there!" When she had first invited me to the 28th News and Documentary Emmy Awards, this wasn't what I had in mind: learning the finer points of a lady's thermoregulation sitting in UN-caused traffic jam in Midtown. I was dreaming of Russert, Blitzer, Koppel, Wallace, Stewart, Soledad—Brian Williams! Christmas for the newscasters! Get behind me, Santa! More »
yom kippur
