Like all baby Jesus-haters, we spent our Christmas Sunday reading the Times, which attempted its own version of Media Christmas — but with the equally depraved world of New York realtors. After sifting through the tales of closet fucking at Prudential Douglas Elliman's Four Seasons bash and the mandatory air kissing at Gumley Haft Kleier's party, the evil realtor Corcoran's plans are revealed:
• Those News Corp kids sure do know how to throw an incredibly odd Christmas party. Weirdness aside, things were moments of normalcy: after the picture at right was taken, she ended up in the broom closet with dude dressed like a giant beaver-like thing.
• It was inevitable, really, that LIRR tickets ended up on eBay. Go ahead and collect your little piece of hell! [eBay]
• In the meantime, the TWU and MTA mediators are kinda passing notes back and forth, but it might not last long if the authorities jail union folk. [Gothamist]
• Tomorrow at 12:30, you should probably go meet this freak on a corner and sumo wrestle him. [Craigslist]
• The world's best Christmas list always starts with a request for one-night stands who appear with perfect boners. [NYO]
• How to kill yourself like a man. [The Best Page in the World]
• Maybe we missed something, but how, why and when the hell did the New Yorker make Bill O'Reilly's blacklist? [BillOReilly.com]
• Why Jews secretly love Christmas. [Pdhyman]
• We always knew Oprah was to blame for America's reading crisis. Bitch. [n+1]
• Pac-Manhattan hits the University of Michigan, becomes just reality Pac-Man. So that means this stuff takes approximately two years to trickle towards the Great Lakes. [Boing Boing]
• If you win a prize involving financial support from evil realtor Barbara Corcoran, is it really winning at all? [GMA]
A horrible thought just occurred to us: What happens to today's Media Christmas parties?!
Our earlier report of Media Christmas at News Corp. prompted other Newsies to write in with their recollections of the evening:
The big News Corporation party was Friday night, including the staffs of the all the company's New York operations — folks from the Post and Fox News and Channel 5 and the sports nets and the movie company and everything else — and it took over the entire ballroom floor of the New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue. We went with a friend to the party last year and found it profoundly odd. According to some emailed reports we received today, last year was no exception.
• Mort Zuckerman pulls the plug on Radar; hearts are broken, dreams are shattered, and business cards are destroyed.
• The Transit Workers' Union goes on half-strike, which means we'll continue to wait for news on when shit gets really inconveniencing.
• Now that Michael Cooke has ditched the Daily News, editorial director Martin Dunn is so inconvenienced to act as editor-in-chief. Meanwhile, Orla Healy returns from the Post and Lloyd Grove finds himself an innocent, new fluffer.
• There's no time like the holidays for some serious, ass-kicking lay-offs.
• We never thought we'd see the day, but Andrew Krucoff is finally, technically, a man.
• MediaLand continues to celebrate the season with boozy staff parties; New York magazine goes so far as to bring out the Karaoke torture device.
• Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. gets a gentle spanking while Judy Miller hits the high seas.
• PETA continues to cheerfully annoy Anna Wintour.
We've admitted before our fondness for the dark arts of karaoke. (Every now and then, after enough drinks and among the right people, your usually mild-mannered Gawker editors have been known to miraculously transmute into Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.) And so the Media Christmas event to which we were most looking forward was last night's singalong celebration for New York magazine.
There's a big night of Media Christmas parties tonight, including the one we're perhaps most excited for: New York's karaoke party at Encore. (Though we wouldn't mind being invited for dinner at Ruth Reichl's, either, as is her Gourmet editorial staff is this evening.)
• A few additions to the Big List, including Rodale tonight at Django. (Will Dave Zinczenko permit beer? So many carbs!) Full, updated list is after the jump.
We've received a few Media Christmas reports over the past few days, but nothing even comes close to this tale, from last night at Hiro:
We're hearing those sleigh bells jingling, sure, but we're not hearing much more than that. Why no reports from you people? Friday night brought a bunch of big Media Christmas parties. There's was a bunch of TV — GMA, Fox News, the Food Network — plus notables like Google and the CBS Evening News. We count on you for the good goss from these get-together, and so far: nada.
We're making the biggest and bestest Media Christmas list ever, and we're checking it twice and thrice and ever four times. Here are today's new additions:
Three reports from last night's Media Christmas celebrations.
Several exciting new Media Christmas developments!
In today's update, we've added ten more parties — from big names like Harper's and CBS News — and, best of all, finally found out when Vogue and Men's Vogue will be holding their big joint celebration.
Despite their management and merger woes, the Voice had its holiday party last night. A spy reports that things heated up with a sexy dance-off between columnist Tricia Romano, interim EIC Doug Simmons, photo ed Staci Schwartz, and some guy no one knew — Schwartz took all, but we're sure the no-name guy took home some sort of lady prize. Everyone loves the random dude.
Amid all the Media Christmas cheer, this sad email arrived today from Liberty Street:
Thanks to a bunch of tips in the last 24 hours, and thanks also to the hard work and diligence of the Observer's holiday-party crew, we're proud to present an even more comprehensive list of the Media Christmas shenanigans set for this December. As you learn about more parties, keep telling us. We'll keep updating.
