Heidi Montag reportedly bailed on the White House Correspondents gala when MSNBC wouldn't adhere to the demands of her manager and boyfriend Spencer Pratt for first class tickets for the pair, even though only Ms. Montag was invited. [P6]

Padma Lakshmi is apparently cozying up with IMG owner Teddy Forstmann since her divorce from Salman Rushdie. [P6]  read more »

Brian Williams and Tim Russert came to tonight’s debate prepared to moderate—or perhaps to instigate—an argument over the role of race in the Democratic presidential campaign and the matter of who first introduced the subject.

But Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton wanted none of it. And neither did an unknown member of the audience in Las Vegas, who interrupted the proceedings about 20 minutes in with loud castigations of the moderators and their “race-based” questions.

Williams and Russert devoted the first segment of the debate to various facets of the race question, which has dominated news coverage of the Democratic contest for the past few days, and they were anxious to force both leading candidates to address the way the subject has been used by their own campaigns.  read more »

On Tuesday Jan. 15, MSNBC will host a debate among Democratic presidential candidates live from Las Vegas.

According to today's announcement from MSNBC, the debate will focus on "issues important to minority voters" and will be sponsored a number of groups, including the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 100 Black Men of America, and the Democratic African-American Leadership Council.

Brian Williams and Tim Russert will moderate.  read more »

Jasmine Moy, a young lawyer with a habit of volunteering on campaigns in her spare time, bumped into some NBC cameramen during primary season in Manchester, New Hampshire.

She found out what happens when you claim to be a fan of the network’s star anchor, Brian Williams.

He finds you.

Moy sent over this transcription of the voicemail she says she received from Williams:  read more »

The Politico's Michael Calderone (formerly of Media Mob fame) recently caught up with a bunch of broadcast news bigwigs in Iowa.

Along the way, NBC's Brian Williams talked up his belief in the advantage for NBC of having a sibling cable news outlet providing plenty of real estate for its anchors and correspondents to appear throughout the day.

"Williams noted that NBCs advantage for 2008 is having a cable news network, MSNBC, working round the clock — 'a game-changer,' in his words," reported Mr. Calderone.  read more »

Over the last few weeks, we've learned from several reports that NBC is planning a series of layoffs at NBC News and MSNBC. Today, TV Newser provides some names.

According to the site, Davidson Goldin, MSNBC's editorial director; Amy Rosenblum, the senior producer of the 10am hour of The Today Show; Joe Alicastro, a veteran NBC News producer; and Jean Harper, a senior prodcuer at Nightly News who has worked with Brian Williams for many years are all on the way out.

Mr. Goldin's likely departure was first reported last week by The New York Post.

Mr. Russert has found a safe way to be a bully and to embarrass those who do not have the protection afforded by the role of journalist.  read more »

The Huffington Post notes that NBC Nightly News had almost a million more viewers last week than the week before, putting it back on top in the ratings--and attributes the bump, plausibly, to anchor Brian Williams' much-hyped November 3 appearance on Saturday Night Live.

The obvious lesson the networks will draw is that the best way to promote their news anchors to a younger audience is by putting them on shows that young people actually watch. In other words, brace for Charlie Gibson on Dancing with the Stars.

In case you missed it, here's a clip of Rudy Giuliani’s recent interview with Brian Williams.

When asked about his personal feelings about Hillary Clinton, Giuliani said he knew her well. In fact, he said, “I got to know her actually, probably the best, during September 11.”

Somewhere, Joe Biden was smiling.

]]> http://www.observer.com/2007/giuliani-brian-williams#comments Politics Brian Williams Hillary Clinton Joe Biden Rudolph Giuliani Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:35:13 -0500 Azi Paybarah 60046 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2007/bloombergs-interview

Coming out of the train on the way to City Hall this morning, I spotted two guys on a bench behind the building, chatting away casually.

The guys, it turns out, were Michael Bloomberg and NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. With the mayor's green initiatives, it's no surprise he's getting national attention.

But it's unclear if any of it will actually help with getting his congestion pricing plan approved in Albany. As long as a certain stunningly opaque official can single-handedly stop it, the national news appearances amount to a nice bit of personal publicity but little else.