By: Andy Barr (Politico)The Olive Garden restaurant chain is denying that it canceled all of its scheduled ads on CBS late night comic David Letterman’s “Late Show” in response to a crude joke Letterman told about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter and instead contends that its ad schedule concluded.

POLITICO reported Thursday that the company would pull its remaining television spots and was emailing Letterman critics with a note informing them that “there will be no more Olive Garden ads scheduled for ‘The Late Show’ with David Letterman in this year’s broadcast schedule,” citing the talk show host’s “inappropriate comments.”

“We apologize that Mr. Letterman’s mistake, which was not consistent with our standards and values, left you with a bad impression of Olive Garden,” wrote Sherri Bruen, the company’s guest relations manager.

Bruen said the company “screens network television programs whenever possible,” but explained that “telecasts, such as ‘The Late Show’ with David Letterman, are taped on a daily basis, preventing advertisers from reviewing the content prior to airing.”

Olive Garden’s manager of media relations, who asked not to be quoted on the record, confirmed to POLITICO Thursday that the emails were sent by the restaurant chain, and also confirmed that the company would be pulling its remaining television spots on the program for the rest of the year when asked that question.

But in a statement released later in the day, Olive Garden Director of Media Relations Rich Jeffers disputed POLITICO’s report as “erroneous.”

“No authorized spokesperson for the company confirmed the information in his report,” Jeffers said. “The Olive Garden media schedule is planned months in advance. The schedule for the Late Show with David Letterman was completed earlier this month. We take all guest concerns seriously. And, as always, we will factor those concerns in as we plan our advertising schedule in the future.”

When asked about the cancellation confirmation POLITICO obtained from the company’s media relations office, Jeffers responded in an email that the individual listed as the press contact on the company’s website was unauthorized to speak for the company.

“The so called ‘confirmation’ didn’t come from an authorized spokesperson for the company. The guest email you received did not say any ads were pulled. And as our statement says, the schedule — which is set months in advance — was completed earlier this month.”

// CBS did not return several calls seeking comment.

Letterman has apologized for his comment last week about Palin’s daughter getting “knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” during the governor’s recent visit to a Yankees baseball game. Palin attended the game as part of a trip to New York.

“I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception,” Letterman said. “And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke.”

After repeatedly blasting the late night comic in statements and interviews last week, Palin accepted Letterman’s apology on Tuesday.

“Letterman certainly has the right to ‘joke’ about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction,” she said in a statement.

President John F. Kennedy once quipped that he was merely “the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.”
This week, Barack Obama might find out how he felt.
The first couple’s trip to Europe Tuesday takes Michelle Obama to a land that likes her husband but seems positively fascinated by her.

The British press in particular has followed Michelle Obama’s every move breathlessly, from her dresses to the “kitchen garden” behind the White House. One London paper tracked down her high-school prom date. Another asked plaintively, “Why Doesn’t the UK Have a Michelle Obama?”

So while the president has to juggle the politics, Michelle Obama’s job is in some ways more subtle and just as complicated. France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was judged recently on her curtsy before the Queen, and back in the day, Jackie O.’s outfits and her command of the French language were closely scrutinized.
“Her every ensemble will be front page news and endlessly interpreted and decoded,” said Patricia McDonald, a London-based editor for the Michelle Obama fashion blog, www.mrs-o.org. “Will she break out a new wardrobe, or in deference to the economy, recycle her greatest hits?”

Michelle Obama’s official schedule says she will accompany the president to many of his events – they both will have tea with Queen Elizabeth II, for instance – but she’ll have some solo outings as well. She’ll visit an all-girls school in London where the population is mostly minority and the second language is English — an echo of her work in Washington, DC.

Sarah Brown, Britain’s first lady, will give Michelle Obama a tour of a health facility in London Wednesday and will take her and other spouses on a tour in London Thursday during the G-20 economic summit.
In France, Obama will join NATO spouses in visiting a hospital and a cathedral. And at all of these events, she’ll stand next to some of the world’s most high-profile political spouses— including Bruni-Sarkozy, the Italian-born ex-supermodel who is an admirer of the self-described girl from the Chicago’s South Side.
“She looks like she’s a great, strong, intelligent woman,” Bruni-Sarkozy said in one recent interview. “I must say that she doesn’t look like she [needs] advice … I think it would probably be better for me to be getting advice from her.”
Aides say Michelle Obama is aware of the moment and she has been reading up on her fellow members of the first ladies’ club ahead of the trip.

But her first stride across the global stage is about more than merely sightseeing with other first ladies. The first spouses also will have a chance to talk to each other about their various projects and how they see their roles in their respective countries — Bruni-Sarkozy, for instance, has an interest in shedding light on HIV/AIDS.
And for all the attention that will be paid to the arrival of America’s first black president, there is also a deep fascination with his wife – her humble roots, her Ivy League education, her groundbreaking role and her ability to juggle being first lady and raising two daughters out of the spotlight.

Some Europeans even seem puzzled by the complex mix of expectations placed on Michelle Obama in America. While her sleeveless-in-winter look caused a bit of a stir here—seen as immodest by some and fashion forward by others—across the pond, many observers just didn’t understand the fuss.
“In the U.S., Michelle is the locus for a nation’s attitudes about femininity, motherhood, feminism and sexuality,” McDonald said. “In Europe, she carries less symbolic significance. Her willingness to experiment are all traits European fashionistas admire — and if the occasional misstep is the result of taking a few risks, c’est la vie.”
Michelle Obama’s aides also insist that she is there in a support role to her husband. Yet if history is any guide, first ladies can overshadow their spouses, and the comparisons to Jacqueline Kennedy’s 1961 trip to Paris seem sure to abound, much like some are fond of comparing Michelle O. to Jackie O.

Kennedy had a few built-in advantages, of course – she charmed Charles de Gaulle with her style and impeccable French, and her French maiden name and schooling at the Sorbonne didn’t hurt—but her turn in Paris proved that little things matter.
Notably, Bruni-Sarkozy, who had been fodder for British tabs for her racy, rock-and-roll past, was able to sway public opinion in her simple visit with the Queen.
“She was so elegant in her Chanel and the way she did her curtsy in front of the Queen, she was elegant,” Renaud Girard, a foreign editor with Le Figaro said. “She was so modest. The British public
loved it. They became mad with her and she became instantly a new Jackie.”
The comparisons are inevitable, as are the questions – will Obama stick with American designs, or go international? What does one wear to have tea with the Queen? And what will she wear to stand next to Bruni-Sarkozy, dubbed the “Chanel gazelle?”
Brown, Britain’s first lady, was quite candid after her meeting with Bruni-Sarkozy that it’s all a bit intimidating.
“Well, I didn’t stand a chance, did I?” Brown confessed in one interview. “I mean, I was standing next to a supermodel. I thought that whatever I wore didn’t matter. With all due respect to myself, I knew that day I couldn’t win.”
But at least some in France think their First Family could take a few lessons from Michelle Obama.
“She has shown that she has a good sense of communication and PR, like being photographed at a charity place,” said Marie Colmant, a French television commentator. “When she was doing that, our French first lady and the president were in Mexico at a luxury villa. She has a good perception of the temperature of the American people. She gets it.”

Source »»

by Tara Weiss, Forbes.com
With competition so fierce for every open position these days, even the smallest edge can make the difference in landing you that interview or even a job. One way to gain an advantage: Start a blog about your profession or industry.
The concept is simple. Keep your blog entries short and conversational. Anywhere from a few brief sentences to about 500 words commenting on industry news or trends is enough. Post at least three or four times a week, more if you like.

It’s a small amount of work that will likely impress recruiters and hiring managers, because it shows you to be enthusiastic and engaged with your industry. It also makes you look like an expert in your field.

Getting an Advantage

In addition, it can help control how you come up in online searches of your name. “Recruiters will always try to find out more about you,” says Liz Lynch, author of “Smart Networking.” “They Google you. You want to stack the deck in your favor. If you’re competing with someone who has equal skills and experience, a blog can be the tie-breaker. Having that little bit extra can tip the scales in your favor.”

Getting started is easy. Open an account with a free bogging service such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Or pay a little. Ted Demopoulos, author of “Secrets of Successful Blogging,” recommends Typepad.com, since it “looks a little more professional” and the company offers customer support. Typepad starts at $4.95 a month and rises to $89.95 monthly for the package with the most features.

All three sites provide instructions that make it easy to begin. “If you can write an email, you can start a blog,” says Lynch.

For the blog’s title, use your name exactly as you use it professionally, unless someone’s already taken it. That way, your site will come up earlier in searches and be more visible. If your own name isn’t available, pick one that has something to do with your industry. If you’ve got a common name, add in your middle name or initial and use it consistently throughout the blog.

Make the blog as visible as possible. Search engines tend to list blogs high up in search results, usually within the first few pages in a search of someone’s name. That’s because blogs tend to have links to other blogs or news stories, and links influence search ranking. So link to other blogs.

“Other bloggers will find your blog, and they will in turn link to you,” says Demopoulos. “Bloggers love to link to one another. Google takes every link as a vote of confidence.”

Your Visibility Booster

Another way to increase your blog’s visibility is by including its address on your LinkedIn profile and Facebook page and putting it on your resume.

As for your posts, keep them strictly professional. Save tidbits about your family or home renovation for another blog. Also stay away from religion, politics and sex — unless, of course, one of those is the industry you work in.

To help make sure you have enough to write about, set up a Google news alert to receive e-mails about stories with keywords from your industry. That way, you’ll get news about your field in your inbox automatically. Link to those articles on your blog, and write about whether you agree with them and why. Describe relevant professional experiences of your own. Predict how the matter at hand will affect your industry in the future.

If you attend a seminar or industry trade meeting, blog about an interesting speaker or a discussion on a controversial topic.

Above all, keep your posts short, conversational and informal. And don’t click “Publish” without doing a spelling and grammar check. A blog riddled with errors will hurt you more than it will help.

When you do land a job, don’t just shut the blog down. Update it less frequently if you must, but keep it going. It’s a useful networking tool, and it may even help you get speaking engagements and interviews for future jobs.

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will talk about regulatory reform, risks to the financial system and executive bonuses when he meets top bankers on Friday, the White House said on Thursday. “Wall Street and Main Street, all of us, are in the same boat together,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. He said Obama would receive an update from top bank chief executives “on precisely what they’re seeing” in the troubled financial sector. The Obama administration is ramping up efforts to reach out to the financial community to ensure its participation in government plans to stabilize the financial system. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is scheduled to meet Thursday evening with the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents the largest financial services firms.Geithner unveiled on Monday more details on the government’splan to cleanse banks’ balance sheets of up to $1 trillion in distressed assets, most of them tied to mortgages. Earlier on Thursday, Treasury released its plans for
regulatory reform, calling for broad changes to curb risk-takingon Wall Street, including a new regulator to oversee the entire financial system. The announcements came on the heels of an outpouring of public outrage over $165 million in bonuses being paid at troubled insurer American International Group (AIG.N), which has been propped up with up to $180 billion from taxpayers. Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to claw back most of the AIG bonus money, making investors and banks wary of partnering with the government because of fears that the rules could later change. Goldman Sachs is prepared to pay back the U.S. government’s $10 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) investment as soon as allowed by regulators, a person familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

A growing number of financial firms that have received aid from the $700 billion TARP have said they plan to repay the
money after lawmakers tagged on restrictions involving executive pay and dividend policies. A White House official said earlier this week that Obama plans to “reiterate his belief that getting the economy back on track will require an understanding that each of us must look beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other in order for America to succeed.” (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Karey Wutkowski; Editing by
Eric Walsh and Matthew Lewis)

Source

With Monday’s massive volcano eruption in Alaska likely to leave Anchorage and Gov. Sarah Palin’s hometown covered in ash, a Democratic strategist sends over the reminder that just a month and a half ago, another up-and-coming Republican star, Gov. Bobby Jindal, mocked the very notion of volcano monitoring.

Speaking in the non-State of the Union rebuttal, the Louisiana Republican said that instead of spending $140 million “for something called ‘volcano monitoring,’” Congress “should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.”

It was a comment not well received among geological experts and one that now seems to pit Jindal against Palin on a minor but important spending provision.

Then and now, the U.S. Geological Survey, which will receive the stimulus money for volcano monitoring, had been keeping track of several active volcanoes across the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and, of course, Alaska.

And the agency’s efforts seemed to pay off. As early as February 6, indeed, residents of cities near Mt. Redoubt were preparing for a volcano eruption because of information gleaned from early monitoring systems. As reported by USA Today, taxicab drivers were replacing air filters more frequently and local citizens began purchasing dust masks and preparing to be stuck inside their homes for lengthy periods of time.

Many Alaskans took issue with Jindal’s comment, the Anchorage Daily News reported. “Of course Alaskans want to know if a volcano is going to blow,” a Palin press aide told the paper.

A call to Governor Jindal’s office for comment was not returned.

Halle Berry and her 1-year-old daughter Nahla do a little shopping in LA over the weekend.
Halle Berry’s daughter Nahla recently celebrated her first birthday on March 16. We don’t get to see much of the “Catwoman” star and her little girl, so it was a special treat to catch the duo shopping at trendy baby boutique Bel Bambini in LA over the weekend.

Since giving birth, Berry’s career has taken a backseat to motherhood, but she couldn’t be happier. On February 23, Halle attended Essence magazine’s Black Women in Hollywood luncheon. Although she was honored for her acting, producing, and philanthropic efforts, the 42-year-old noted in her acceptance speech that nothing beats being a mom.

“As a woman, I thought it was all about work and accomplishments,” she admitted. “Then this little baby comes along and says that it’s not about that. I’m complete. I have more to offer my craft because [my daughter] makes me indelibly better every day.”

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