Parties

As we head in to the long weekend, we have BBQs, fireworks and parties on the brain. So, we interrupt your holiday party planning to let you know: we're throwing a party a everyone's invited! Well, almost everyone.

On July 13 we'll be hosting a Flacks 'n Hacks party with the WebNewser editors Joe Ciarallo and Jason Chupick and mediabistro.com's editorial director of content Chris Ariens. Publicists and journalists will mingle at Artica Bar, take advantage of drink specials and battle each other in the ultimate Guitar Hero throwdown. And, you get to meet and hang out with us.

You can RSVP here. Will we see you there?

Just as we were about to leave ASSME's Swag-a-Thon -- a charity event/blowout hosted by the organization representing the "sh*tcanned media elite" -- we heard the unmistakable voice of New York Times media columnist David Carr. There had been some confusion over whether Carr would come -- something about being lost in a taxi -- but clearly he had made it to Fontana's safely. So, what did he think of the party?

"I would say the people are sort of spicy and interesting," Carr told FishbowlNY. "I don't know if you noticed any jerks or a**holes in there? I just got here so maybe they're lurking."

Jerks? Of course not! But we did see, as attendee Rex Sorgatz of Fimoculous.com put it, "70 percent of all the people I see at all the other media parties," including Jeff Bercovici, Foster Kamer, Rachel Sklar, Brian Stelter, Megan Keane of TechSoup, and ASSME-ers (ASSME-ites?) Sheila McClear, Drew Grant and president Aaron Gell.

Photo: (from left to right) Gell, Carr and Grant party on. Photo by Amy Mitten

continued...

Next week, mediabistro.com is throwing a party for media types featuring Mediabistro instructor Tom Zoellner, author of "Uranium." Using the topic of his book as a jumping off point, the party will feature Uranium Drop cocktails (we wonder what's in those) and yellow cake (har har) provided by Zoellner himself.

Zoellner, who also wrote "The Heartless Stone", which explores the diamond trade, will be on hand to sign copies of "Uranium" and chat. There will also be drink specials and complimentary appetizers.

Here the details:

When: Tuesday, June 23 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Where: Katra
217 Bowery
(@Rivington Street)
New York, NY 100002

RSVP here

And check out Zoellner on "The Daily Show" earlier this year.

Nothing gets New Yorkers to jump on a bus faster than a party, especially a party where the guest of honor is the Barack Obama. For the second time this year, journalists and celebrities flocked to the Beltway to party it up with the prez--this time for the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday.

Our colleagues over at FishbowlDC have extensive coverage of the weekend in the capitol. They hit all the fashionable pre-parties including ones hosted by The National Journal and The Atlantic and CBS. They hung out with celebs like Connie Britton, Ellen Burstyn, Tim Daly, Dana Delany, Kerry Washington and Rachael Leigh Cook at the Creative Coalition's Thursday night fete and spied Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Rashida Jones, Jon Bon Jovi, Owen Wilson, Jason Bateman, Natalie Portman, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Brad Hall, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Dennis Leary, Glenn Close and BJ Novak at the Vanity Fair/Bloomberg after-party.

Of course, FBDC correspondents were also at the main event. If you missed it, you can watch Obama's full (and pretty funny) speech here. Our favorite part of the President's speech was when he teased Rahm Emanuel with a Mother's Day jab: "He's not used to saying the word day after 'mother.'"

Thrillist, the high-flying, daily newsletter for men will be spreading its empire to Dallas in the next few weeks "because Texas needs our nurturing embrace."

Back in New York City, Thrillist celebrated its third annual pool party with a dip in midtown at the Grace Hotel (for those of you wondering, there hasn't been a proliferation of pools in midtown, the QT Hotel has apparently just changed its name). Missed it? You can see all the pics here.

Nick McGlynn made the rounds last night at the Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home packed book party held at the Slipper Room on the Lower East Side. More than one attendee showed up with mom in tow to enjoy green mommatinis and frosted cupcakes. Nick has all the photos at his site Random Night Out, but we managed to snag a few for your enjoyment.

continued...

Have you read the bible? This was perhaps the most frequent question bandied about at last night's book party for David Plotz's Good Book held at the Tribeca home of Jacob Weisberg and Deborah Needleman.

Plotz, you may recall, blogged his way through the Old Testament of the bible for Slate, and subsequently turned the series into a book. We caught up with Plotz and asked him what book of the bible was most suited to blogging. Plotz says that while the Book of Ruth was his favorite to read, Judges was by far the best to blog...something to do with all that violence.

The party pulled a good crowd despite the terrible weather. We managed to spot A.J. Jacobs, Double X's Jess Grose (who just saw her own book hit shelves), Big Money's Elinor Shields, Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici, WWD's Irin Carmon, Michael Crowley, and Rachel Sklar (who provide the pics for this post). Rumor has it Victoria Floethe was also present. Rumor also has is that on top of the Slate napkins there were also umbrellas, though we didn't spot any ourselves and(!) that Eliot Spitzer had made an appearance earlier in the night. More pics after the jump (though sadly none of Spitzer).

continued...

So! Last night Barack Obama broke the hearts of D.C. doyennes everywhere by choosing to attend his first Washington dinner party at the home of George Will! Talk about taking team of rivals to the extreme. Also in attendance were Weekly Standard's William Kristol, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post. So maybe keep your enemies closer is the theme here — as everyone knows Bill Kristol responds well to being wined and dined!

Also of interest? As a piece in Politico over the weekend pointed out, unlike President-elects of the past (including George W.), Obama has yet to hold a presser with the New York Times White House team (conservative op-eders notwithstanding!). Michael Calerdone caught up with Times political editor Dick Stevenson to ask him about Obama's lack of presser love.

continued...

Ex-Radar editor-in-chief Maer Roshan and Village Voice nightlife columnist Michael Musto

Last night, New York's media mavens had a chance to mourn Radar at a farewell party at Chelsea lounge Citrine. Originally, the event was billed as a Halloween bash, but when the magazine suddenly folded, it turned into an impromptu funeral. Upon arriving, we spotted RadarOnline executive editor Alex Balk who's no longer working with the site since its purchase and subsequent gutting by American Media Inc. Par for the course, Balk wouldn't permit a picture, but he tried to appease us with a promise of a "big celebrity guest" supposedly stopping by the party later on. Radar's last-ever cover girl Shannen Doherty did indeed make a cameo, but showed up late and left after less than five minutes, making her the only person who spent less time at the party than Balk.

More sightings and photos from the evening's festivities, post-jump...

continued...

FBNY has been covering the release of Esquire's 75th anniversary issue (the one with the special electronic cover) all week, and last night we attended a big party to mark the occasion and celebrate the 75 people Esquire thinks will be the most influential of the 21st Century. Sound a bit familiar? Well we did ask if this was Esquire's way of honing in on Time's yearly 100, but were assured that last night was a one shot deal.

The party was held at Gotham Hall, the inside of which sort of looks like a set piece from Triumph of the Will meets Lost Boys — great for a party but a bit of a strange atmosphere to watch, say, a former President give a speech. Which is exactly what happened when, shortly after we arrived, David Granger introduced Bill Clinton as the night's surprise guest speaker (Clinton says every time he comes to Gotham Hall he expects Batman to appear). Actually Clinton wasn't a surprise to everyone, Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales later told us that he'd heard about Clinton's arrival beforehand from Julia Allison, at which point Charlie Rose leaned over to us and asked: "Who is Julia Allison?" More pictures and video of Clinton's Peron-like speech (but, sadly without the music) after the jump.

continued...