Since leaving office on January 1, New York Governor David Paterson has been keeping busy. But not as you might think. The former governor has quietly been forging a new career, which incorporates his previous one.

He has become a radio go-to guy, and surprisingly, not as a guest to discuss politics, but as host of his own show. He brings a knowledge and passion to the subject. Paterson can focus on politics and current events while filling in for John Gambling mornings on WOR. At WABC, there is the Religion on the Line show, which to date he’s done once.  

Arguably, Paterson’s most relaxed at WFAN. Just prior to leaving Albany, Paterson spent the entire afternoon with Mike Francesa. If that was an audition for future on-air work at the sports station—he passed. Recently, Paterson hosted his own ‘FAN show. It was there that FishbowlNY was granted exclusive access to the governor to talk about his new love—radio. Paterson says it may seem new to listeners, but he and radio actually have a long history together.

“When I was a child, I used the radio in place of the fact that I couldn’t read the newspapers,” Paterson says. “That’s how I heard the news.”

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— DIANE CLEHANE

They were lined up into the street to get into Michael’s today for that last gasp of revelry before heading out of town for the holidays. (We were impressed by how patient Eliot Spitzer seemed on the coat check line.) The red wine was flowing as VIPs cooled their heels in the lounge waiting for their dates to arrive. “Can’t anyone get anywhere on time in this city?” groused one well-heeled gent as he sipped his pinot noir while compulsively checking his iPhone. Apparently not. By the time Jonathan Wald, Becca Thrash and Harold Ford, Jr. strolled in, the place was going at full tilt — just the way the regulars like it.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Dan Rather, Eliot Spitzer, Tom Tuggle and another ‘suit’ we didn’t recognize. For the record, it looked like ‘The Steamroller’ did most of the talking …

2. Today show’s Marc Victor, frequent morning show guest security expert Bill Stanton and Men’s Health honcho David Zinczenko. Did you happen to catch the cover story in the Style section of this Sunday’s New York Times chronicling Dave’s relationship with BFF Mediaite founder Dan Abrams? All we can say is: Gentlemen, give your publicists a raise.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and money man George Farias.

4.  Departing NBC Uni honcho Jeff Zucker, who we spied listening intently to the whisperings of  CNBC Squawk Box anchor Joe Kernen. Stock tips, perhaps?

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After making his bones by blowing the lid off a planned mob hit on Rudy Giuliani and exposing Eliot Spitzer‘s sexual exploits,  investigative reporter Murray Weiss has said goodbye to the New York Post.  Brandweek’s Robert Kiara reported that Weiss has joined Manhattan-focused digital news site DNAinfo.com and already published his first story for his new employer.

DNAinfo’s managing editor Leela de Kretser did not understate the value of adding Weiss’s experience to the team:

“[We are] thrilled to have one of the city’s best crime writers doing what he does best. Murray deepens our bench of professional journalists and our reporting on neighborhood news that matters to New Yorkers.”

Weiss will leave some big shoes to fill at the Post, a newspaper that is known for their bold crime stories and NYPD Daily Blotter.

Image via HuffPo

“Innovators, mavericks, visionaries, and leaders” convened in downtown New York Thursday night as The Huffington Post celebrated its 100 Game Changers of 2010. Neon centerpieces including a flaming orange shopping cart and lime green globe adorned the darkly lit Skylight Studios space, and we thought for a minute we mistakenly showed up for Arianna Huffington‘s big, fat Greek Bat Mitzvah. Not to worry: A bacon cheeseburger passed hors d’oeuvre cleared up the confusion. Giant screens projected winners in each “Game Changer” category, from food to activism to education — though we didn’t spot a Divorce vertical (maybe next year!).

Amid the swarm of celebs, we spotted Sean Penn, Anderson Cooper, Gayle King, Paulina Porizkova, Tom Colicchio (adorably holding hands with his wife), Marcus Samuelsson, Gail Simmons, and Fern Mallis, but we just had to stop and talk to former governor Eliot Spitzer. Even though we were tempted to ask to see his socks, we took the high road and asked him about his new show on CNN, Parker Spitzer. We asked Spitzer what the hardest part has been so far, and he responded, “Only having eight to 12 minute segments to work with” for each guest. What has he learned since the first taping? “Talk quickly because you only have eight minutes.” He told us he wishes he had an hour instead (we have a feeling that’s never gonna happen), and when we asked who he’d most like to have on the show, Spitzer named Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, remarking that the latter ex-prez “always has a lot to say” and adding, “The fun part is interviewing people I don’t necessarily agree with.” We couldn’t agree more, Mr. Spitzer.

Follow the jump for HuffPo’s red carpet video coverage.
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Tonight, The Huffington Post is holding a special ceremony to celebrate its list of “Game Changers,” the “innovators, mavericks and leaders who are changing their fields and inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.”

This year’s ceremony happens to include quite a few bold names in the media industry:

• Anderson Cooper will present to Sean Penn
• Nora Ephron will present to Mayor Mike Bloomberg
• Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough will present to Geoffrey Canada
• Jann Wenner will present to Michael Hastings and Matt Taibbi
• Julian Bond will present to Ted Olson
• Dylan Ratigan will present to Seth Reams
• Mayor Cory Booker will present to Biz Stone and Livia Stone
• Arianna Huffington will present to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

Other attendees slated to appear tonight include reality tv star and health expert Bethenny Frankel, TV and radio personality Gayle King, fashion designer Prabal Gurung, models Paulina Porizkova and Crystal Renn, former New York Governor and current TV host Eliot Spitzer and his co-host Kathleen Parker, PR whiz Kelly Cutrone, and many others.

What was the most iconic New York Post cover of the 00′s? Was it a photo of a smoking World Trade Tower, a practically naked Ashley Dupre or Martha Stewart in prison stripes?

And who can forget any of those punny headlines that the Post is so famous for, from “Stray-Rod” to Eliot Spitzer‘s “Ho No!” to the recent Tiger Woods scandal headline “I’m A Cheetah,” there are so many witty taglines to choose from.

And choose you can. The Post has launched a poll that let’s you vote for your favorite out of 50 chosen covers from the past 10 years. Will Bernie Madoff, Saddam Hussein, Paris Hilton or Michael Jackson rule supreme?

We like the simplest covers: a photo of New York City fireman erecting a flag at Ground Zero and former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey‘s cover that proclaims, with double entendre brilliance, “I’m Out,” are our favorites. What are yours?

Vote here: Vote For Your Favorite Front Page –New York Post

The New York Post didn’t need to look much further than its own front pages to find its latest advice columnist.

Just over a week after sounding off on the the Tiger Woods sex scandal — and telling all the mistresses coming out of the woodwork to keep their mouths shut — Ashley Dupre, the woman who rose to tabloid fame last year amidst former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer‘s sex scandal, debuted her first column in the Post yesterday. In her new weekly column, Ask Ashley, Dupre will answer readers’ questions about love, sex and relationships.

“Sure, she’s made some mistakes,” the introduction to her very first column explained. “But now Ashley Dupre…is sharing what she’s learned…”

Although the questions range from whether women like porn to how to know if your husband is unhappy, we think the most important thing that Dupre has “learned” since the Spitzer scandal broke is clear: staying in the spotlight requires coming up with something new and different every few months to keep you there. The Post is all too happy to help out.

After the jump, Dupre introduces her new column in an exclusive Post video

Ask Ashley –New York Post

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If you just so happen to have a funny story of political fiction knocking around your hard drive, we have just the contest for you.

Following their political fiction package in this week’s issue — published to coincide with Sarah Palin‘s questionably factual memoir — New York magazine is asking readers to submit their own short stories, movie treatments, one-act plays or whatever you like — 1,000 words or so about political figures.

The best submissions will be published on NYMag.com all week, and the top three winners will get prizes like a night at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., where Eliot Spitzer famously met Ashley Dupre; dinner for two at Obama date spot Blue Hill; and a copy of Going Rogue and a one-month membership to Playgirl.com.

The contest ends December 7, so you better get to writing.

The Political Fictions Project –New York

WebNewser: YouTube launched its Reporters Center today, featuring instructional videos, tips and advice from journalists like Katie Couric, Bob Woodward, The New York Times‘s Nicholas Kristof, and Arianna Huffington.

New York Times: More information about the lengths the Times went to to keep reporter David Rohde‘s kidnapping off the media’s radar: Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales joined in the effort to monitor Rohde’s Wikipedia page and delete any references to the kidnapping.

Folio: Hachette Filipacchi Media is reorganizing its automotive brands, Car and Driver and Road & Track, under the Jumpstart online network purchased in spring 2007. The structure of the new Jumpstart Automotive Group will be similar to the new structure implemented for Hachette’s women’s and shelter titles.

The Press of Atlantic City: Longtime editor Paul Merkoski wrote a good-bye letter to his readers ala David Letterman, listing the “Top 5 Things I’ll Miss Most Starting Next Monday” and “Top 5 Things I’ll Miss Least Starting Next Monday.”

Huffington Post: Disgraced New York governor Eliot Spitzer blogs for The Huffington Post for the first time since 2007. What motivated him to come back to the blogosphere? “The Plight of New York’s Small Business Owners” for the site’s new New York section.

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).

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