Vanity Fair's much-anticipated "New Establishment 2009" list is out and on it are Kathy Freston for her "cruelty-free fashion" and Kelly Ripa for her "effortless dressing that's chic and modern."
Oh wait, that's from the magazine's "2009 International Best-Dressed" list, which is in the same issue. Easy mistake to make.
Seriously though, not a whole lot of surprises in this year's list. As usual, it's been out just a few days and it's already out of date. Disney CEO Bob Iger is at No. 32, which is four slots behind director Judd Apatow. We're pretty sure that in the annals of history, the deal to buy Marvel will have more lasting effect than "Funny People," but anyway. Even higher is CAA's Bryan Lourd, who clocked in at 24. Really? At a time when agencies are consolidating and the consensus is that their days of dominance are on the wane, Lourd is more powerful than just about every big media mogul out there other than Rupert Murdoch?
Among the newcomers to the list are pay-TV kings Richard Plepler of HBO (no mention of his perpetual tan) and Showtime President Matt Blank, who the magazine incorrectly says has reported to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves for "more than a decade," when it's really been about five years (darn those fact checkers!). Rounding out the top 100 is Lauren Zalaznick, who runs NBC Universal's Bravo and Oxygen cable networks. Zalaznick is credited with championing the VH1 show "Pop-Up Video" when she was at that cable network, which Vanity Fair says "helped pioneer a meta-commentary perspective that today's media consumers take for granted." Hmmm, not sure I'd want to brag about that.
The list is pretty puffy too. Oprah Winfrey is ranked 38, up five slots from a year ago. Not mentioned anywhere is all the turmoil at her cable network, which is going through executives the way George Steinbrenner used to go through managers. OWN, which is a partnership with Discovery Communications, has already pushed its launch date twice and industry insiders are betting it will be pushed again.
All these lists should be taken with a gigantic grain of salt. The idea of having creative types and executive types ranked together in the first place is a little bit of apples and oranges. Furthermore, the people putting these lists together get harassed nonstop. Often it's a case of he (or she) who has the whiniest publicist wins. When I was at Entertainment Weekly and we were doing the "Power" list, we would be barraged by people not only lobbying for their executive but also lobbying against rivals. It makes for two months of torture and aggravation and the occasional box of chocolates.Â
But the pictures usually look nice.
-- Joe FlintPhotos:Â Upper left: Disney CEO Bob Iger. Credit: Hector Mata /Â AFP/Getty Images. Lower right: Oprah Winfrey. Credit: Chris Pizzello / Associated Press
Royal HBO role filled by 'Terminator: Sarah Connor' actress
All the major roles for HBO's "Game of Thones" pilot have been filled in recent weeks -- except one.
I can exclusively reveal that Lena Headey, most recently seen as Sarah Connor in Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," will play Cersei Lannister, a woman of royal blood who is every bit as smart, cunning and devious as the powerful men around her.
Other cast members include the perfectly cast Peter Dinklage as Cersei's brother Tyrion, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Cersei's twin, Jaime, Sean Bean as aristocrat Ned Stark, Jennifer Ehle as his wife Catelyn Stark and Mark Addy as King Robert.
The "Game of Thrones" pilot, an adaptation of a fantasy novel by George R.R. Martin, starts shooting in late October in Northern Ireland.
Interest in the "Thrones" pilot is already at fever pitch: The blogs Winter Is Coming and Westeros have been following the casting avidly, and I can see why.
As Time's James Poniewozik has written, "Thrones" is the kind of complicated, richly appointed, adult drama that HBO tends to do well. "Thrones" is the first book in a Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, and the extraordinarily detailed world created is nuanced, complex and full of loyalty, bravery, nobility and betrayal. It's a world in which honor and fealty don't mean what they used to and those in power have to contend with an array of threats, sometimes from those closest to them.
In short, if this "Thrones" adaptation is at least as good as HBO's "Rome," I'll be glued to it. Here's where I inject the note of caution: At this point, "Thrones" is just a pilot and it has not yet been picked up to series. Fingers crossed that its every bit as good as Martin's many fans hope it will be.
Star Report: Whitney Houston is back -- and looking terrific
Whitney Houston promotes her comeback CD by performing on "Good Morning America." Plus: Audrina Partridge pitches in, and scenes from Sandra Bullock's new comedy.
Snappy Family Comedy Mixes Patter, Pathos
In Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You, witty, hapless, cuckolded Judd Foxman returns home to sit shiva for his dad and assess his wrecked marriage. In a rare balancing act, the novel is as sensitive as it is funny.
TRADE: 2010 Soccer World Cup May See More Snorting than Kicking
CE TOWN, Sep 1 (IPS)It is the middle of the day but 25-year-old Lyle Arendse of Athlone on the Cape Flats, Cape Town’s sprawling hinterland, is at home. He left school nearly 10 years ago and has since been unemployed. "It is because of drugs -- tik (methamphetamine or "crystal meth") and heroin -- that I left school," he acknowledges.
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