Courtesy of Patrick McMullan
Last night was a can't-miss double-header for any party-hopping media-riffic type, especially those who love hyphenating words. ETP is well-known in certain circles for its love of party-going hyphenation, and we were duly out in full force working the room and breaking up fistfights. Not really, but that would have been awesome, especially if people fell into the pool in the middle of the CNN party like on Dynasty. Alas, the hijinks were limited to stealing CNN gift bags and playing "I crush your head!" with people from across the room, just because that's always a fun game. For more trenchant party reporting, however, we now cede the floor to ETP social-whirl correspondent and hyphenate extraordinaire Julia Allison, who also doubled as paparazzi for the event along with the other ETPers in attendance (and the gang from Patrick McMullan, from whom we borrow a snap or two). Grab a drink — they're free! — and get swept away in the glamour with us as we revisit the glittering affair times two.
The Four Seasons hosted a media two-fer last night, with parties for both the old guard — Larry King, celebrating 50 years of bad posture on-air, and the new — fresh-faced Observer-owning young Turk Jared Kushner, celebrating nine months of injecting new life into our favorite (new, smaller sized!) salmon weekly.
We walked into the lounge area at 5:30 (a full half hour early, because we take our party coverage very seriously) and were immediately herded to the bar by Four Seasons co-owner and consummate worker-of-the-room Julian Niccolini, who feted us with pink champagne and caviar. All on the Kush's Amex? This was a long way from free pizza on Tuesdays. (Ed. Er, yes, Julia, Niccolini greets aaaaaaaaall his guests with pink champagne and caviar!)
We quickly spotted Kushner — boy-publisher, occasional newspaper vendor, and possible Ivanka Trump paramour — holding court in the lounge area, grinning amiably with various media-friendly guests, including his father, 
siblings, the Observer staff, Tom Wolfe, and beleaguered Star EIC Bonnie Fuller (in a terrific set-for-spring blouse and Prada bag, we might add). We also saw the NYTBR's Rachel Donadio (so smiley!) — Page Six's Corynne Steindler and Bill Hoffman, Crain's Matthew Flamm, Rush & Molloy's relentlessly chipper Patrick Hugenin, New York Magazine's Jesse Oxfeld (so smiley!), the Daily News' Ben Widdicome (proudly sporting a man purse, or "murse"), and former Seventeen EIC and unabashed MySpace-lover Atoosa Rubenstein. Radar's entire masthead (no, seriously. Every. Single. Staffer.) was there, including a very jovial EIC Maer Roshan, deputy editor Chris Tennant (whose hair was going head-to-head with fellow staffer Adam Lakhof for sheer gravity-defying frontal 
height), gossipista-extraordinaire Jeff Bercovici, exec editor Aaron Gell, and the ubiquitous assistant editor Neel Shah. Flame-haired Observer alum and former Banana Republiquista Jessica Joffe made an appearance, as did Gawker's Doree Shafir (Gawquista!) Additional Gawquista Choire Sicha (and former Observista) was there in a highly touchable olive velvet blazer, plus other Observer alumns like Rebecca Traister (Salonista) plus Sheelah Kolhatkar and Gabe Sherman, now both at Portfolio (Portfolista? Okay, we're done now). Either way, both looked very chic and, it was observed by more than one person, very Condé. Laundry list of other attendees below; we need to get back to the storyline.
Although we were overjoyed at the opportunity to eat free tuna tartare (on potato chips!) with our favorite boldfaced newsmakers, we weren't exactly clear on what the party was for, per se. Of course, there's the new, way-cuter-and-easier-to-hold tabloid format, launched in mid-February (on 
Valentine's Day! Aw!). Then there's the upcoming website redesign, rumored to go live as early as next week. Or maybe - OMG! - they were celebrating the Kush's acquisition of that one New Jersey politics-ish web site thingee. Who knows!? Who cares!?! There's always something to cheer when you're a baby Citizen Kane in the making, without the whole Rosebud thing holding you down.
We sidled up to the ever-polite Tom Wolfe, to ask him what he thought of all this. Mixing up his signature white suit with a Yankees tie (yes, they played last night. Who knew it was baseball season? Not us.), he eagerly expressed his admiration for the paper's new format. "It's hard to downsize any publication," he admitted.
Especially one known for 3,000 word couples-therapy transcripts! Still, the small O "looks better than ever." His explanation? "Peter Kaplan is a genius. He's created more great journalists than any man in New York." No news there — you only need to look at the mastheads of the NYT/New Yorker/Salon/Porfolio/Atlantic etc. to know that. And also, that it takes more than 25k and free pizza to keep talent.
But could the dapper Mister Wolfe be a bit biased? Well, his 26-year old daughter Alexandra began her J-school-perfect career under Kaplan, followed by the WSJ and now, Portfolio. In fact, an article she wrote there, "American Coddle" (about parents who, yep, coddle their kiddies) led to a book deal about the same subject - out from Doubleday in spring of '08. "She had some hard edits," he says, "but she just came home singing their praises. I really love the paper. Even the snarky part!"
And what says the resident genius Kaplan of the redesign? "My mom thinks it's adorable." Nothing like the focus group of ... mom. But adorable? "Adorable is good! Younger is good! More female is good!" We agree. Kaplan joked about the Observer's new look in his remarks to the crowd, saying that "like Jared, the paper has become younger, thinner, and better looking." (Ed. It should be noted that Kaplan was sporting a fairly adorable new haircut that made him look all of fifteen — Kushner certainly hadn't cornered the market on the Observer's boyish charm!) The paper, says Kaplan, is looking for those readers in the "generation that wants strong attitude with their writing. That's our calling. In a bloggy world we rely on a print tradition - story telling, reporting, writers who will cut through the crap with smart, edgy writing. Witty goes a long way."
But what price, wit? As we were asking media reporter Michael Thomas about his column in this week's issue, Kushner, ever cognizant of the bottom line, cut in and said "You have a dollar? Go buy a copy!!"
We're going, we're going!!
Ed. Here's that laundry list, in no particular order: Salon EIC Joan Walsh, braving the JetBlue skies to grace our coast (and wearing a great blazer with nice lapel detailing); dapper NYO style guru Simon Doonan; the lovely and erudite Liesl Schillinger; New York's John Heilmann; the NYP's Keith Kelly; Sir Harold Evans (and, according to Doree at Gawker, wife and Diana biographer Tina Brown); Steve Rubenstein plus Rubenstein pere, Howard; HuffPo's own Katherine Thomson, late of the NY Daily News, plus ETPer Sven Hodges; some dude who has a movie coming out in June at BAM who almost maxed out our patience; plus current Observer staffers Spencer Morgan, Alexandra Jacobs, Michael Calderone, Chris Schott, Lizzy Ratner, Felix Gilette, Tom McGeveran, and additional hyphenate Anna Schneider-Mayerson. We're sure we're missing people but, wow, not many.
As for the CNN party: You already know about the gift bags, but here's who we noticed/spoke to: Lou Dobbs, as mentioned; um, Larry King, we assume, and heard, though in truth did not see — oh, but the folks at Patrick McMullen did, and wow, looky who else was there: Donald & Melania Trump, Gayle King, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Walter Cronkite, Phil Donahue, Peter Max, Mario Cuomo, Andy Rooney, Cindy Adams, Steve Kroft, plus former Time top dog Jim Kelly (no relation to Keith above). 
We also saw Jerry Stiller milling about, and the sight of his receding form shuffling off with a gift bag in tow was very cute (we think he'd look just as swell as Neel in the hat). Plus, we are 85% positive that CNN commenterista Jeanne Moos was there, too (and definitely sure that B&C's Anne Becker was there, we shoulda asked her). We said hello to showtune-loving CNN prez Jon Klein but, alas, did not have a chance to sing with; as well as his not-relative Joe Klein from Time, with whom we enjoyed an extended conversation along with HuffPo contributor John Neffinger, until the lights were raised, the room cleared, and Klein's very patient and stylish wife Victoria tactfully came over to signal that it was time to go. The Observer party easily outlasted the CNN party, with stragglers keeping the spirit alive as all that remained of the CNN party was a lone pen floating in the pool. People finally — finally! — departed the Four Seasons (including, we assume, the couple sucking face on the windowsill, where they had been parked for at least an hour); Maer Roshan swore that he wouldn't be the last one, and wasn't, if you count being the sixth-last to get your coat, but not if you count standing on the street after with your staffers having a cigarette. Sorry Maer! Larry King was long gone, as were Jared and Peter and Tom Wolfe in his natty whites, and it was time for us to go, too. Apparently we had to go buy an Observer for a dollar; we didn't have the heart to tell Jared that it was free online.
Above, from L to R: Jared Kushner and Peter Kaplan (courtesy of Patrick McMullan); Megan Asha, Julian Niccolini, and Julia Allison; Corynne Steindler, Michael Calderone and Bill Hoffman; Atoosa Rubenstein and Jeff Bercovici; Rachel Donadio; Tom Wolfe (courtesy of Patrick McMullan); Chris Tennant, Jesse Oxfeld, Adam Lakhuf, Adam Lakhuf's hair; Neel Shah modeling CNN's spring hat line. All non-PMC photos above taken by Julia Allison and Rachel Sklar, who takes responsibility for all the italicized stuff and the relentless use of the "-ista" meme.
