News: Will Meryl Streep Play Hillary Clinton? | Newt Gingrich Is Fundamentally . . . | Russian Rebuke | Editorials 12/4
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Meryl Streep was joined by her three daughters and husband Don Gummer at the Performing Arts for the Kennedy Center Honours gala in Washington DC. AP photos via Daily Mail
Daily French Roast
Anne is reading …
The Obamas hosted the Kennedy Center Honors reception at the White House Sunday evening. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters via Mrs-OMeryl Streep, pictured above husband Don Gummer and three incredibly gorgeous daughters, was honored with four other artists Neil Diamond, Barbara Cook, Yo-Yo Ma and Sonny Rollins, at the Kennedy Center Honors awards last night. Entertainment Weekly writes:
Writer Nora Ephron said Streep’s talent, versatility and resemblance to Clinton made it “inevitable” that she would one day play the secretary of state and former first lady. Clinton, who flew home for 36 hours to celebrate the honorees over the weekend, just laughed, while Streep stood up for a better look at the nation’s top diplomat.
CBS will broadcast the show on Dec. 27.
2011 Culture Club
New York Magazine’s new issue is devoted to a ‘culturati caucus’ on the best books, exhibitions, performances, films, theater and lots more from 2011.
Russian Rebuke
Members of Nashi, a pro-Kremlin youth movement, held a victory rally in Moscow on Sunday night.James Hill for The NYTimes Russian Election Results. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has suffered surprisingly large losses in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. Three minority parties — the Communist Party, the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Just Russia, a social democratic party — all made unexpectedly strong gains, rendering Vladmir Putin not quite as powerful as he was days ago. Given Putin’s intention to return to the presidency for another six-year term — if not two terms — Russian voters have said “not so fast”. Read on at the NYTimes.
WSJ writes that organizations monitoring the vote this weekend call it marred by apparent manipulations and “serious indications of ballot box stuffing.”
“To me, this election was like a game in which only some players are allowed to compete,” said mission head Heidi Tagliavini at a news conference. “And the game was tilted in favor of one of the players.”
More DFR
Fundamentally for fundamentalists
In 2009, Lazar Stankov published “Conservatism and Cognitive Ability” in the peer-reviewed journal Intelligence. The article’s abstract confirmed:
Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated … At the individual level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with SAT, vocabulary, and analogy test scores. At the national level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with measures of education … and performance on mathematics and reading assessments.
Clarifying that Stankov wasn’t referring to economic conservatives but social conservatives, Jason Richwine wrote in The American, online magazine of the American Enterprise Institute:
The Conservative syndrome describes a person who attaches particular importance to the respect of tradition, humility, devoutness and moderation; as well as to obedience, self-discipline and politeness, social order, family, and national security; and has a sense of belonging to and a pride in a group with which he or she identifies. A Conservative person also subscribes to conventional religious beliefs and accepts the mystical, including paranormal, experiences.
Recent brain scan tests indicate that conservative and liberal brains do actually work differently. Taking up the topic of social conservatives and intelligence is really “asking for it” but we say the future of America is at stake.
Within this context, we find NYMagazine’s article Fundamentally: Newt Gingrich’s Favorite Word to be hilarious — and also very sad. Talk about playing to your audience. Dan Amira writes:
I started in the present day, and made it all the way to the beginning of 2007 before I had to stop, for my own health and sanity, which, according to my editors, was beginning to suffer in noticeable ways. The list below contains only unique usages — for example, if he said the phrase “fundamental change” five different times, we only included it once — and, obviously, we only included remarks that were public and recorded in some way. Scroll onward, if you dare, to behold all loosely alphabetized 418 entries. Read on at NYMag
More DFR
Anne of Carversville 12/4
Denisa Dvorakova | Tina Luther | Harper’s Bazaar Hong Kong November 2011 | ‘Elegant Naughty’
AOC Private Studio
Eniko Mihalik | Jeff Burton | Numéro #129 December 2011 | Incognito
Magdalena Frackowiak | David Roemer | Vogue Mexico December 2011
Sophie Vlaming | Raphael Delorme & Thierno Sy | Vogue Portugal December 2011 | ‘Jogos de Sombra’
Svetlana Kuznetsova | Andoni & Arantxa | View of the Times Fall 2011 | Paria Sera Toujours Paris!
Ava Smith | Takashi Osato | Bambi Magazine Issue 8
Sensuality News 12/5
SN Living
Karlie Kloss | Greg Kadel | Numéro #129 December 2011 | Magic Karlie
Kristina Romanova | Blossom Berkofsky | Crash Magazine December 2011 | No Place Like Home
Bar Refaeli | Simon Emmett | GQ UK January 2012 | Belle Aviv
Han Hye Jin | Hong Jang Hyun | Vogue Korea November 2011 | Fetish
SN Provocateurs
Réka Ebergényi | Gregory Derkenne | Citizen K Fall 2011 | ‘Midnight in Paris’ NSFW
Lydia Hearst | Terry Richardson | The Creatives NSFW
Meryl Streep’s New York Film Critics Award
In addition to her Kennedy Center Honors award this weekend, Meryl Streep has also received the best actress New York Film Critics Awards, making her a frontrunner for an Oscar as The Iron Lady in which she portrays an aged Baroness Thatcher looking back at her 11-year career as Britain’s Prime Minister.
Carl Kleiner: Flour Power
Photographer and filmmaker Carl Kleiner’s elegant, geometrically composed still lifes portray the delectable ingredients and sumptuous produce of French-born chef Sebastien Boudet’s celebrated Stockholm patisserie-café-bistro, Petite France. Today NOWNESS interviews the famous chef.
