Thursday, July 31, 2008

2008 Vanity Fair Best Dressed List

(sigh) I didn't make the list but here are some of the ones who did (mostly people who actually don't have to pay for their clothes and have stylists create their important (daily) looks)......

Top Ten Women:
• H.R.H. Crown Princess Mathilde of Belgium
• Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
• Julia Koch
• Evelyn Lauder
• Kate Middleton
• Michelle Obama
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• Tilda Swinton
• Diana Taylor
• Ivanka Trump

Top Ten Men:
• David Beckham
• Daniel Craig
• Lapo Elkann
• H.S.H. Prince Heinrich von und zu Fürstenberg
• Count Manfredi della Gherardesca
• Zac Goldsmith
• Matt Lauer
• Bryan Lourd
• Morley Safer
• Kanye West

Do you know all of those guys? I have only heard of 4 of them.

Sigh (again), now they've made the list, they will get more free clothes, shoes, alcohol, accessories, mobiles, ipods, travel, accommodation...... the way the world goes 'round.

 

 

 

 

Posted by Melissa Seymour at 08:45:13 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

5 Of Hollywood's Biggest PR Disasters



From the UK Times.... See the second incident involving Christian Bale - at 12 he was showing signs of explosive behaviour.

War of the Worlds

(Steven Spielberg, 2005)

Tom Cruise's couch acrobatics on The Oprah Winfrey Show took the shine off the release. Cruise's decision to sack his long-term publicist and employ his Scientologist sister was blamed by many.

Empire of the Sun

(Steven Spielberg, 1987)

A 12-year-old Christian Bale decided that he had had enough and stormed out of a press conference in Paris.

The Lost Weekend

(Billy Wilder, 1945)

Warner Bros publicist Jim Moran decided to promote Wilder's serious drama about alcoholism by trying to get a hoot owl drunk, to test the American idiom “as drunk as a hoot owl”.

Nine Months

(Chris Columbus, 1995)

On the eve of the release of his rom-com, Hugh Grant was arrested in Hollywood for soliciting the services of prostitute Divine Brown. The story got Grant acres of coverage - and Nine Months flopped.

Fahrenheit 9/11

(Michael Moore, 2004)

Moore arrived in Cannes to promote the film that went on to win the Palme d'Or. Unfortunately, he behaved like such a prima donna that his PR team resigned.

Posted by Melissa Seymour at 09:07:10 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Ah, Recession????


This is  what I found myself wondering when I heard about Damien Hirst's two day auction - 'Beautiful Inside My Head Forever' (nice name). He is auctioning off 223 works and get this, expected income generated from the sale of the works including 'The Golden Calf' - previously blogged about here is said to be in the vicinity of $135m. Yes, that's right, $135m. Sotheby's say this would make the record for any auction of works by a single artist. 

I'm off to ebay to find me some formaldehyde, a dead calf, some gold and a fish tank.


Posted by Melissa Seymour at 19:23:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, July 28, 2008

I Read A Couple Of Books Last Week...

 

Boned by Anonymous - the book apparently written by someone high profile in the TV industry. It's all about the career of one tv journalist and for those in the know (I'm not) it must be quite easy to pin point who it is. There would only be about half a dozen possibilities - Yana Vent, Liz Hayes, Tracey Grimshaw, Jessica Rowe..... The writer certainly has an intimate knowledge of the workings of a tv journalists career and interestingly gives a fairly insightful view about being an attractive woman who has to work so much harder to be taken on the merit of her brain and not her looks. Which makes me think that the writer would be Yana Vent. From what I've observed of her career, it's been very much about this theme. The book was savaged by one review I read and I couldn't disagree more. 

Air Kisses by Zoe Foster. Very cute and I love her wit and prose. It reminded me of what it was like being a single girl dating - lots of fun and sometimes a real head f---. I am so glad to have moved beyond that life stage! I will definitely buy Zoe's next book. I'm a fan.

Apart from sharing my thoughts on these books with you, I wanted to point out something that stood out in both books - in a huge way. Alcohol. Both protagonists are very successful career women who drink a lot. Alcohol could almost be another character in each book as the women use it for winding down, partying, work networking, drowning their sorrows, for dutch courage and for writing themselves off when life gets overbearing. What scared me the most about this is that it is absolutely spot on. It's everywhere and especially in a professional setting. Lunches, dinners, launches, events, drinks meetings - and in these types of settings, it's usually on tap, expensive stuff and free.  When you're in it, it doesn't seem so bad but after reading these books I've found it to be quite confronting. Scary. I'm going to review my own alcohol consumption - after I get through two events this week ;) 

*** Someone quite rightly pointed out (I accidently deleted the comment - sorry and thank you whoever you are) that it should be Yana Went not Vent as I incorrectly wrote. I really must lay off the early morning champagne ;) 




Posted by Melissa Seymour at 10:05:14 | Permanent Link | Comments (4) |

Thursday, July 24, 2008

An Update from Melbourne

So I didn't organise a driver in advance and had resigned myself to a possible anxiety ridden taxi ride when I was walking out to the rank and the gods shone on me. David. Between jobs and able to take me to my destination..... in his new 7 series BMW. Ahhhh, the universe delivered today. Thank you.

Posted by Melissa Seymour at 16:14:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Have You Ever Caught A Taxi In Melbourne?



I have, way too many times to mention and it is one of the most feared things to do in my life. Seriously. I'm shooting down there tomorrow for the day and considering - do I get a driver or RISK it and take a taxi? Expensive versus risking a nervous breakdown..... What to do kids? Before you judge and think I'm a lunatic, consider the following harrowing experiences:

1. caught a taxi from Crown (most prominent hotel/landmark in melbourne maybe next to MCG) to the airport. About 3 minutes down the road, the driver turns around to me and says "can you tell me how to get to the airport?" I kid you not. He needed only take one right and he would have been on the freeway and out to the airport. Instead I had him turn around and drop me back at the hotel, whereupon he decided I should pay him for the privelledge of being inconvenienced and when I said "ah, I don't think so", he actually got out of the taxi and started yelling the most abusive tirade at me. I actually thought he might hit me. The hotel called the police and he sped off when security came - his picture didn't match the photo id and so couldn't be traced. That was just splendid.

2. hopped into a taxi in the city with a mag fashion editor after a dinner. We asked to be taken to Crown again (note comments about it being a landmark). Driver had no idea where it was and so dropped us off at a spot where he told us it was a short walk through a deadend. This was at 2.30am and we had had quite a few wines (as you could imagine being 2.30am). Turns out we were about 3km and one very large wall that needed to be jumped off away. Surprisingly fashion editor had very sensible shoes on. I didn't. That was... annoying and dangerous.

3. after a long Melbourne Cup Carnival campaign, we did actually have a fabulous driver (David is his name - if you're curious) who dropped us by Crown (I wonder if they have frequent stay points?) to pick up our bags on the way to the airport. We jumped out and returned to the car with our bags. A taxi diver waiting at the rank thought David had just picked us up on spec and so jumped out of his taxi and threw poor David up against his car, had him around the neck and was yelling all sorts of abuse - well, I think it was abuse, he wasn't speaking english - but he was very very angry. Bless Brad, he stepped in to help David and the taxi driver was chased away by Crown security. I must ask those security guys how often this stuff happens....

So anyway, you can see why I am anxious. I think I will call David to see if he's available.







Posted by Melissa Seymour at 19:07:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

You Know What They Say About Publicity....


That any publicity is good publicity. Before all the hype surrounding the new Batman, Christian Bale (allegedly assaulting his mother in London a couple of days ago) I didn't even know he was in the Batman movie. For real. Up until then it had all been about Heath Ledger. The trailers, the ads, all the publicity and Oscar talk. 

Now Bale is firmly in the spotlight, right at launch time......... Orchestrated or fortunate unfortunate timing? 



Posted by Melissa Seymour at 14:15:34 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Because I Like To Share....

Especially uplifting quotes that I think might put some pep in your step. Here goes..

From Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari & Chuck E. Cheese

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."

Quotes are great aren't they? I'll be sure to bring you more.


Posted by Melissa Seymour at 12:23:18 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Grazia


My gorgeous, thoughtful husband just returned from grabbing a coffee and picked up the first issue of Grazia for me. I've heard from friends who went to the launch yesterday mixed reviews but I've just finished a quick flick through and here is my verdict....

Kate Moss on the cover - she has re-growth which made me feel infinitely better about my own (I just haven't had the 5 hours to spare, ridiculous I know but what can you do?). I'm getting it fixed up on Saturday, but I have to schlep through the rest of the week (including a trip to Melbourne tomorrow) with this hair. Sheer horror. 


The advertising - the advertising execs have been very busy and have done a sensational job. The mag is packed which is probably expected but they deserve an applause non the less. I think the dotti ad is particularly good. I'm inspired to head into the store next time I'm in Paddington.

Content is interesting - exclusives with Jodhi Packer & Elle, features on Kate Moss & Madonna's brother.... interesting. Love the 'well travelled' piece on Collette Dinnigan - 'my french love affair'. I want to fly to France immediately and sample all of the delights she talks about. 

Fonts and layout all great. Verdict - I like it very much. I'll buy it, which makes it the only Australian magazine that I would*- because I have a self imposed ban on spending on magazines, not because I don't like any of them (ok, some I don't) and two fabulous friends brought me a subscription to Vanity Fair so the one magazine that I could not live without, I no longer have to buy.  I am breaking the ban to buy Grazia because it's new and interesting and I want to see where it goes.

*I have edited this post after receiving a comment that was quite bitchy but probably had an element of truth to it(removed, this site is not open for those tones) in the context of what I had written. I'm here for good, not evil kids so I've clarified my original statement to set the record straight. :) Love and light, love and light.








Posted by Melissa Seymour at 10:55:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Sad, Sad News


Estelle Getty, one of the most talented comedic actresses in the world died last night aged 84. You would know her from her iconic role as Sophia on The Golden Girls. I am a huge fan - Foxtel run the show on a fairly high rotation which makes me very happy. Sophia is my favorite character. Her quick wit and sarcasm often has me in absolute stitches - like no other sitcom has ever done.

Rest in peace Estelle and thank you for the laughs. 


Posted by Melissa Seymour at 07:45:43 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |
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