Rumors and/or Gossip

If you’re female and your heartthrob is actor Kirk Cameron, you better check your hormones at the door because he won’t take one of those goofy “Here I am with a strange female I’ve never met before” photographs.

While at CPAC yesterday, Cameron was quite the standout star. But like many actors, he has demands. In his case, it’s more like a hard and fast rule. At one point the Washington Examiner‘s gossip scribe Nikki Schwab was interviewing him. TWT‘s Senior Opinion Editor Emily Miller approached to take a picture of Cameron and Schwab and his people physically pushed her and blocked the shot (above is the blurry shot she wound up getting). “I said, people he’s not that important,” Miller vented back in Blogger’s Row at the Wardman Park Hotel. And they told her, “He can’t be photographed alone with a woman.”

Later on, a woman came into Blogger’s Row and shouted that any reporter wishing to interview Cameron in the next 24 hours needs to set it up in advance. Miller remarked wryly, “There was less ado when Rick Perry walked in here.”

Though Cameron’s handlers wouldn’t offer specifics, here’s what we know. Cameron, a Christian evangelist, operates a ministry called The Way of the Master. He created The Firefly with his wife, Chelsea Noble, who is an obvious exception to the no photographs with random females rule. Once an atheist, midway through TV’s “Growing Pains” he became a born again Christian and refused story lines he considered too racy.

 

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The Guardian‘s Ana Marie Cox may be keeping herself relatively low-key in Texas, but her ex-husband Chris Lehman let some details slip about how he’s coping after the divorce. Lehman, who recently left Yahoo! News and is a longtime editor at Bookforum and contributor to In These Times, gave an interview to the literary culture blog Full Stop this week about his book, Rich People Things. In the interview, he opens up slightly to Michael Schapira about his recent breakup. Schapira refers to the book as an “act of public therapy.”

Take a look…

You’re in a band called The Charm Offensive. Is this another side of your work as a social critic? “I was very much influenced by punk rock and politically-minded bands like the Minutemen. My lead guitarist used to be in Ian MacKaye’s first band, Teen Idol. I like Fugazi, but I’m not of the D.C. hardcore scene, by any means. My stuff is more poppy. It is the only coherent ambition I ever formed in my young adulthood that has stayed with me. Though becoming a rock star never panned out, I keep going at it. But I write a lot of break-up songs, so it’s not economic.”

Read the full interview here.

The NYP’s Page Six is reporting news of a budding romance. It may not be so “budding” at this point. Rumors have been swirling for months over these two — it’s MSNBC’s Tamron Hall, 41, and Lawrence O’Donnell, 60. Even network insiders have been hearing heavy chatter about it.

NYP posted the news late last night. They say the pair have been “canoodling at downtown haunts.”

MSNBC declined to weigh in on the matter.

See here.

Ribbons or no ribbons? She wants ribbons. Casual or ivory on ivory? No ivory. Navy blue and yellow or sage green? Undecided but leaning towards navy and yellow.

On Tuesday morning NBC “MTP” Executive Producer Betsy Fischer had a sit-down with two wedding planners at Baked & Wired, a Georgetown cafe. Her fiance, Politico‘s Senior Political Reporter Jonathan Martin was not present. He’s leaving the invitation details to Fischer.

When discussing yellows, the women grew finicky, weighing between “buttery” yellows versus “bright sunshiney” yellows. The shape of the card is also important — square, horizontal, vertical. Horizontal appeared to be the hit of the day. Fischer, dressed head to toe in black, didn’t appear to care about the particular hue of yellow.

FischMart is not doing save the date notices. Instead, invitations will be dispatched early. Fischer agreed with the planners that she wants it “classy but not frou frou.” The raspy-voiced planner with dishwater blond hair remarked, “It’s a destination wedding as close to DC as possible.” A refrain that Fischer reiterated throughout the meeting: “I just don’t want it to be formal.”

To that end, FischMart’s wedding will include a barbecue. The couple will also be making “an appearance” at breakfast the following day. Above all, Fischer wants things easy for guests. “I don’t want people to freelance on accommodations,” she said. The raspy voiced, overly loquacious woman broke into her thought, “Tennis, bike, pool…it’s a fun weekend retreat, escape from the city.” Fischer concluded, “It’s a family friendly place but I don’t want to be like, bring your nine kids.”

 

Gingrich, Molinari and Paxon in happier times. The infant is Susan Ruby, the couple’s child.

Earlier today the Miami Herald reported on an anti-Gingrich conference call set to transpire today between GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, former Rep. Susan Molinari and former Sen. Jim Talent. They describe the relationship between GOP Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich and Romney backer Molinari as complex. The story by Marc Caputo reports that Molinari’s “hatred” for Gingrich dates back more than a decade. He brings up the longtime rumors of Molinari’s husband, former Rep. Bill Paxon, having an affair with FNC Brit Hume‘s son Sandy, who committed suicide in February 1998. At the time, he was a star reporter for The Hill. Hume had written that Paxon was believed to be a threat to Gingrich.

Gawker picked up where the Florida publication left off, questioning whether Gingrich had spilled the beans on the supposed affair — hence Paxon’s sudden disappearance from Congress and Hume’s death. An excerpt:

“The rumor, in brief, is as follows: In the summer of 1997, the Hill’s Sandy Hume—the then-28-year-old son of Fox News’ Brit Hume—broke a blockbuster story about four GOP congressman who plotted, and failed, to overthrow Newt Gingrich as Speaker. One of those men was Bill Paxon, a New York Republican who was married to fellow Congresswoman Susan Molinari. Another of the plotters, Majority Leader Dick Armey, scuttled the coup when he learned that Paxon, and not he, would replace Gingrich. Armey later disavowed the whole attempt and claimed not to have been involved.”

It’s the Washington mystery few dare to discuss in public.

WSJ‘s Alan Murray is bursting with news these days. As of late, we’re told he’s been running around town saying that running Fox Business is in his immediate future. Murray is presently the deputy managing editor and executive online editor. He first joined WSJ in 1983. He was named Washington deputy bureau chief in January 1992 and became bureau chief in September 1993. During his time as bureau chief, the Washington bureau won three Pulitzers. Not surprisingly, he’s a member of the Gridiron Club.

As many know, WSJ‘s deal with CNBC is in it’s final year. When that’s over, WSJ may link up with Fox Business. But it’s not a done deal.

FishbowlDC sources confirm that players (ie. top execs) at both CNBC and Fox Business say Murray is bragging that he’s going to take over Fox Business as soon as the deal is done.

We’ve written Murray for comment.

UPDATE: Murray phoned FBDC and denied ever saying he wants to run Fox Business: “The report is fictitious. I have never expressed to anyone any interest in going to Fox Business. I have a great job at the Wall Street Journal. We just launched a German language website. We are expanding rapidly around the world and there’s much much more to come.”

UPDATE #2: Industry insiders beg to differ with Murray’s account. “What else is he gonna say when he gets pantz-ed for running his mouth about things that aren’t his?” one asked, adding, “Wow!  ‘German language website…’ yes, that’s the pinnacle. That’s like a soap opera actress saying that they wouldn’t do a film w Spielberg because the work is regular and dependable in daytime.”

The Washington Examiner gives such a detailed account of what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ate at Charlie Palmer’s the other night that you’d think they sifted through their stool with a microscope. But the information missing from their post is about the only part of a possible story that could’ve been interesting.

They knew everything they ordered down to the wine and potato puree, but there wasn’t one word about with whom they were eating, just “a group”. Who in DC, Hollywood for the ugly, rated high enough to dine with the king and queen of Washington for the beautiful?

In the words of Twitter – #FAIL.

On Sunday’s edition of “This Week,” a clip of Stephen Colbert mocking conservative columnist George Will‘s bow tie was played with Will looking on from the roundtable.

“If anybody knows fun, it’s George Will,” Colbert said on his show last Thursday. He was discussing a recent op-ed in which Will called Rick Santorum a “fun” Republican presidential candidate. “After all, a bow tie is just a necktie that’s doing this,” Colbert continued, crossing his arms near his neck in a type of 1990s gangster rapper pose.

Will, ever the funster, didn’t comment on the clip. But, as Roll Call’s Ryan Beckwith noted in a tweet, Will was noticeably not wearing a bow tie. Could it be that he’d seen Colbert’s joke and decided it would be best to go with a standard necktie from now on?

We checked around previous appearances of Will on “This Week” to find out if he typically opts for the necktie. He does (see here, here and here). In fact, it appears he’s also wearing a regular necktie in the mugshot for his column in WaPo. We asked the paper’s PR department if they could confirm it was a necktie. “Your guess is as good as mine, but it looks like a necktie,” WaPo‘s communication’s director Kris Coratti told us. “I do not know how Mr. Will felt about Colbert’s segment.”

Our conclusion: Colbert mis-mocked Will and is decidedly out of touch with Washington fashion.

We contacted Will on the matter. No response thus far.

Watch the clip from “This Week” here.

Politico Media Coordinator Liv Petersen has outed publicist and former ABC “This Week” production coordinator Courtney Cohen for her long ago “friendship” with Kim Kardashian.

Last night Petersen posed a simple, provocative question on Twitter: “What DC girl has been hiding her Kardashian friendship? Our girl @CourtneyCohen at prom w Kim back in the day?”

Peterson and Cohen were apparently reminiscing about the 90s and Petersen happened upon the photograph. Cohen went to high school with Kardashian’s high school boyfriend Tito Jackson, Jr. nephew of the late Michael Jackson. “I guess it’s pretty wild that someone at my high school prom became so famous,” Cohen tells FishbowlDC. “I remember she was a really beautiful girl and kind of shy. As you can tell she was sexy too!”

Cohen is pictured to the right of Kardashian below. See a disturbing picture of Michael and T.J. after the jump…T.J. was just 17. On another weird note: Sam Farrar is the guy on the far left. He’s the bassist for the band Phantom Planet. They sing the theme song for The OC.

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Usually a publication’s gossip page is the go-to page for readers. It’s usually fun, lively. Occasionally daring. Just ask NYP‘s Page Six.

But in Washington, not even WaPo’s gossip column, The UnReliable Source as we’ve dubbed it, can hold readers’ interest. Not only do they report on Hollywood stars like Justin Bieber (who doesn’t, by the way, live in Washington), even more egregious is the fact that don’t even place at all on the publication’s list of most visited areas on their website. The star of their findings is liberal blogger and Democratic strategist Ezra Klein.

Hmm…maybe Klein should write gossip?

A memo from Managing Editor Raju Narisetti details extensive findings about the newspaper’s internals. The top 5 blogs are as follows…

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