<![CDATA[Gawker: Wendi Murdoch]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: Wendi Murdoch]]> http://gawker.com/tag/wendi murdoch http://gawker.com/tag/wendi murdoch <![CDATA[ Spit Parties: The Trend Piece That Will Destroy The World ]]> Guess what you're doing about six-to-10 weeks from now? Going to a "spit party!" Thanks to some dynamite PR and one very fancy guest list, plucky young tech firm 23andMe has made DNA testing parties the hottest new trend around. And they're bringing it to the masses—via media moguls at Fashion Week parties, that is. Don't worry, it will eventually trickle down to the rest of us. We say plucky, of course, because the firm was co-founded by the wife of Google oligarch Sergey Brin, and has received "token funding" from Harvey Weinstein and Wendi Murdoch, wife of Rupert, and is having its coming out party this week in the New Yorker and the Times. It's the Little Startup That Could!

But why would those folks want to convince yuppies with disposable income to spit into a tube and mail the spit to a research lab, where their complete genetic profile will be uploaded to the web to be shared with friends, loved ones, and curious sex partners? Isn't it obvious...?

Google exists for one purpose: to catalog all the information in the known universe, because information is power. Rupert Murdoch exists for one purpose: to disseminate all that information and make a fortune off it. But Rupert Murdoch can't live forever ... unless! Hear us out: 23andMe compiles a record of the most ideal chromosomes from the world's most remarkable genetic freaks (Usian Bolt's speed, Gary Kasparov's logical reasoning, Michael Phelps' giant flippers), melds them with Murdoch's base double-helix blueprint, and then installs the self-aware Rupert virus on a Google server farm. You know how this story ends:

Or maybe Harvey Weinstein just wants his pee to smell like asparagus. It could go either way.


When in Doubt, Spit It Out [NYT]
Ptooey! [NewYorker]
Related: Lots more on 23andMe @ Valleywag

]]> Gawker-5049488 Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:45:00 EDT Dashiell Bennett http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5049488&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ Anna Wintour's "Curious" Dress At The Big Ball ]]> Picture 2-31All of the important pretty people got dressed up for the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Gala, which was themed "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy." Vogue editor Anna Wintour wore the Karl Lagerfeld Chanel dress on the left. Of this creation, Australia's Age said Wintour "got it horribly wrong;" one blogger said it was "one of a kind... which is good because we don't need two of those;" and the diplomatic Times said it "had curiously curling crescents attached at the hips and the shoulders, giving Ms. Wintour... the fuller-bodied appearance of Botticelli’s Venus on her clamshell." Ah, "curious," not the highest of compliments. Anna could use a break, what with the LeBron James King Kong cover, the Rodarte weight thing, getting dissed by European fashionistas, etc. etc. Sad, pitiable Anna. Laugh (at a few more media celebrities' outfits, starting with Katie Holmes, pictured right) through tears (for sad monster Wintour) after the jump.

The Times said Holmes was "looking perfect," but Fabsugar, even while catching the Superman reference in the outfit, wrote, "hot mess... just too reminiscent of '80s prom."

Here's comedian Sarah Silverman, "wearing a polka-dot teacup skirt from Dolce & Gabbana, paired with filthy black-and-white fingerless knit gloves, which she described as 'flair from my backpack that I bought at one of those mall stores for $9... The woman from Dolce & Gabbana said, "Please don’t wear those." I did.'"

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News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch (background, left) with wife Wendi. Australia's The Age: "Love the colours and the fabric... it's the shape that worries me. It's a bit ''tip me over, pour me out."

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Designer Marc Jacobs leaving with Sofia Coppola, because if he'd taken a boy it would have just ended in a big pissy fight over three-ways. No one dared to say anything mean about their outfits.

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USA Today (ever the fashion source): "Dolce & Gabbana decked out Scarlett Johansson, who made news on Monday when she announced that she and actor Ryan Reynolds were engaged. Although she wasn't flaunting her engagement ring as she walked the carpet holding hands with her designer hosts, it was probably one of the most-talked-about accessories of the evening."

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]]> Gawker-5007939 Tue, 06 May 2008 06:29:18 EDT Ryan Tate http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5007939&view=rss&microfeed=true