(L to R) New York Magazine editor-in-chief Adam Moss, contributing editors Steve Fishman, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Jennifer Senior

New York and Byliner celebrated the launch of their new eBook yesterday with a live reading from three of the featured writers. “New York Magazine’s Most Popular” is the very first eBook that New York has published, and features 26 of the magazine’s most popular stories from the past five years, one of which is a book excerpt from John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change. Web analytics were used to determine the most popular stories, and among them were Steve Fishman’s “The Madoff Tapes,” Vanessa Grigoriadis’ “Growing up Gaga” and Jennifer Senior’s “All Joy and No Fun.” These three writers read excerpts of their articles and talked about the writing process with New York editor-in-chief Adam Moss and Byliner.com editor Michael Solomon. Interestingly, Moss said that these pieces and their fellow most popular cohorts were not the ones that were most popular on a day-to-day basis. Rather, they had accumulated their popularity over time, and the content “was actually the more substantial, meatier stuff that we did.” Read more

Attention all you politicos out there: New York magazine’s John Heilemann is hosting a conversation with President Obama’s senior strategist David Axelrod at the 92nd Street Y. Heilemann knows his stuff: He covers politics for New York and is the author of the fantastic book Game Change, about the 2008 election. In other words, this will be fun event.

We’re not saying that Heilemann will ask Obama to save the Knicks, but you might want to be there just in case he does.

Tickets are on sale now.

[H/T: Daily Intel]

We’ve gotten so used to the celebrity circus that has dominated Michael’s lately that we did a double take when we found the dining room populated mostly by suits, well-heeled ladies and dandies who prefer to let their bank accounts (not publicists) do the talking. Aside from the usual boldface names (Star Jones) and fashionistas (Fern Mallis) in attendance, there were a lot of folks at lunch today who I’d never seen in the dining room before.

I just had to go over to Table One and introduce myself to the couple who was working furiously to glam up the table with flowers and pretty trinkets before their guests arrived. It turns out Kelly Langberg was celebrating her birthday with her husband Jeff Langberg and a few of her nearest and dearest BFFs. Jeff told me all these ladies are the better halves of some of Manhattan’s most powerful couples.  The impeccably dressed gals all toasted Kelly, who calls herself  ”The Makeover Queen,” with a lovely rose  in the lounge before moving to their table to celebrate. When I was chatting with Kelly about her makeover business (she refers clients to cosmetic dentists, plastic surgeons,  hair colorists and other professionals essential to living the good life in Gotham),  I couldn’t help but notice the dazzling bling that adorned her ears and wrists. When I complimented her on it, she told me the pieces were from her own line of fine jewelry. Where does she find the time?

I also got  to chat with politico Ed Rollins who specializes in a different kind of makeover. He was assistant to President Ronald Reagan and managed his reelection campaign. Earlier this year, Ed stepped down from his post as Michele Bachmann‘s campaign manager. I just had to ask what he thought of  the results of yesterday’s primary. “Santorum is for real,” he told me. “I expect Romney will get the nomination, but it’s going to be a slugfest right up until the end.” Having seen him on PBS’ recent documentary on President Bill Clinton (“I’d take either Clinton right now!”), we also chatted about the HBO political drama Game Change, based on the book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. “I liked the book better. The movie had a deliberate purpose. That’s not the John McCain I know,” he told me. ” (Ed Harris) was too soft and fuzzy.” He did characterize Julianne Moore‘s depiction of Sarah Palin as “very accurate,” though. Ed gave the film high marks in one respect: “It caught a lot of the pace and excitement of a political campaign.” Speaking of campaigns, what does he think of President Obama‘s chances come November? “Presidents often get too much credit and too much blame for what’s happening. Right now, he’s paying the price for promising a lot of things he couldn’t deliver.”

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

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Game Change, HBO’s much buzzed-about film based on the 2008 presidential election and the 2010 book of the same name, held its premiere party at Ziegfeld Theatre last night.

Just a few of the celebs FishbowlNY spotted in attendance and on the red carpet: Julianne Moore, who does a spot-on, yet subtle portrayal of Sarah Palin; Sarah Paulson, who plays senior McCain campaign adviser Nicolle Wallace; the film’s executive producer, Tom Hanks, and his wife Rita Wilson; Jeff Zucker; Arianna Huffington; Monster’s Ball producer Lee Daniels; and just about every political pundit in town.

Unlike the book, which focused on all the candidates in the election, the movie zeroes in on John McCain‘s choice (or should we say, his advisers’ decision) to pick Palin as his running mate. And, while many are praising Moore for the way she humanized the Alaskan governor, Ed Harris brought his A-game too. Everything from his mannerisms to his posture were so McCain-like, it was eerie.

Game Change premieres this Saturday, March 10 on HBO. If you don’t mind a spoiler, head over to our sister blog TVNewser for a full review and peep more photos from the event after the jump.

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In advance of the upcoming presidential election, New York magazine has launched a new online politics channel. Titled Early & Often, the site offers a constant stream of content from some of the magazine’s best, including Frank Rich, Dan Amira, Noreen Malone, Gabriel Sherman, Chris Smith, John Heilemann and Jonathan Chait.

The site is a welcome addition because it collects all of New York’s political news in one spot. Adam Moss, New York’s Editor-in-Chief, said Early & Often is a response to the magazine expanding its reporting.

“National politics has been a crucial part of New York magazine since its founding, which has steadily increased over the last five years, and the time has clearly come for us to give politics its own destination at nymag.com,” said Moss. “We have assembled a uniquely talented team to cover all aspects of our current political climate and the 2012 election cycle.”

UPDATE:
A tipster noted that this is Early & Often’s second iteration. Here’s a link to the old site, which stopped posting in 2006.

John Heilemann, Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin last night (Photo by Joseph Moran)

Last night, we went to the Time & Life Building to see best selling authors Mark Halperin of Time magazine and John Heilemann of New York chat with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough about their political book, Game Change.

In between lots of insider baseball talk about the Democratic and Republican party leaders and the 2008 election process, Heileman and Halperin revealed some interesting info about the reporting in their game-changing nonfiction tome (pun intended).

On the accuracy of quotes from off-the-record sources:

Heilemann said all the facts in the book are double and triple sourced, and the authors frequently went to those on the same side of the story to verify facts. For example, have a tip that Sarah Palin didn’t know why there are two Koreas? Ask a loyalist in her camp if it’s true. They were “extremely scrupulous,” Heilemann added.

“Important question,” Scarborough asked Halerpin. “Why are there two Koreas?”

“Variety?” Halperin said.

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There has been a lot of talk this week about Mark Halperin and John Heilemann‘s book Game Change this week, and what Sen. Harry Reid may or may not have said about Barack Obama.

In a video interview with the authors, Time magazine executive editor Rick Stengel gets to the bottom of the story and learns how and why Reid encouraged Obama to run for president.