Posted on

President Obama Gets in On The Debate Expectations-Lowering Game

“Governor Romney is a good debater. I’m just okay,” Obama told a crowd of 11,200 in Las Vegas on Sunday night. “Folks in the media are already speculating on who is going to have the best zingers, who is going to put the most points on the board,” he added, saying that he’s more interested in giving “serious” answers to policy questions. Either he’s given up on his strategy of not boring the American people, or he wants us to be surprised when Wednesday night’s debate takes the tone of a Friars Club roast.

Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann

Filed Under:
master debaters
,barack obama
,mitt romney
,debates

via Daily Intel http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/obama-lowers-debate-expectations.html

Posted on

Moscow court to hear jailed punk band’s appeal

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012 file photo feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday Sept. 30, 2012, asked for clemency for three jailed members of the rock band Pussy Riot if they repent for their "punk prayer" for deliverance from President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's main cathedral, a statement that came a day before an appeal hearing and appeared to reflect a desire to put an end to the case that has caused an international outrage. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, file)A Russian court is set to hear an appeal filed by three jailed members of an all-female rock band, who have been sentenced to two years for performing a “punk prayer” against President Putin at Moscow’s main cathedral.

via Yahoo! News – Latest News & Headlines http://news.yahoo.com/moscow-court-hear-pussy-riot-appeal-040244470.html

Posted on

Connie Bruck: Billionaire Ron Burkle’s quest to conquer Hollywood.

Inside the towering iron gates of Green Acres, a Beverly Hills estate built in the nineteen-twenties by the silent-film actor Harold Lloyd, a narrow road climbs through eight acres of lawns and gardens to a mansion modelled on the Villa Palmieri, the Florentine palazzo where Boccaccio set the . . . (Subscription required.)

via The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/08/121008fa_fact_bruck

Posted on

Ken Auletta: Why India’s newspaper industry is thriving.

The square that borders the Dadar Railway Station is the largest of sixty-five newspaper-delivery depots in Mumbai. At 4 A.M., forty trucks and vans packed with newspapers and magazines have parked and slid open their back doors; the trash-strewn streets are otherwise deserted, and the loudest noise . . . (Subscription required.)

via The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/08/121008fa_fact_auletta

Posted on

Lizzie Widdicombe: Jake Gyllenhaal, on patrol.

There’s a certain way that actors behave when they put on police uniforms: their bearing stiffens, they furrow their brows. “It’s, like, cops,” Jake Gyllenhaal said the other day. “I see a lot of actors wear the uniform, like they feel different. To . . . (Subscription required.)

via The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2012/10/08/121008ta_talk_widdicombe

Posted on

Gavin Newsom on watch for photogs during Mexican eco-spa vacation

Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, was worried about being recognized while at Rancho Pescadero, a remote eco-spa in the Baja Peninsula of Mexico…

via NY Post: Page Six http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/newsom_gets_shy_y4p3hMc2ifb944HHErtdxH?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Page%20Six

Posted on

Hollywood heavyweight Brian Grazer lands giant book deal

Hollywood uber-producer Brian Grazer has landed a hefty book deal to write about curiosity. We’re told the Oscar winner got a six-figure deal with…

via NY Post: Page Six http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/curious_subject_2YEhNV00g4Vk8SjESRNMoI?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Page%20Six

Posted on

A secret tale from Brooke Astor’s $18.8 million estate

A hand-carved mouse auctioned off as part of Sotheby’s recent $18.8 million auction of Brooke Astor’s estate had a secret tale. “Whenever…

via NY Post: Page Six http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/valuable_vermin_with_secret_MRRATRLcAvytthv3koraNM?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=%20%20%20%20%20%20Page%20Six

Posted on

Last 10 Presidential Elections Show No Consistent Bias in Polls

Some Republicans complain of a tilt toward Obama in the polls. But in elections past, the forecasts have overestimated on both sides.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/us/last-10-presidential-elections-show-no-consistent-bias-in-polls.html

Posted on

Man’s arrest in alleged Lindsay Lohan dispute voided

FILE - In this April 28, 2012 file photo, Lindsay Lohan attends the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington. A law enforcement official says a 25-year-old man got into an argument with Lohan, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012, in her New York City hotel room over photos on a cellphone and she was physically grabbed or thrown. Authorities confirm that Christian LaBella of Valley Village, Calif., was taken into custody around 6 a.m. He faces a misdemeanor assault charge. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)A 25-year-old man initially arrested Sunday on an assault charge after Lindsay Lohan claimed he grabbed her in her New York hotel room in an argument over cellphone images was freed hours later and his arrest voided when the charge could not be substantiated, law enforcement officials said.

via Yahoo! News – Latest News & Headlines http://news.yahoo.com/official-mans-nyc-arrest-lohan-dispute-voided-225652983.html