Rielle Hunter

Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, Will.I.Am, and Star Jones were among the celebrities who attended Barack Obama's victory rally in Chicago's Grant Park last night. Ms. Winfrey called the win "the greatest experience of [her] lifetime." [US Weekly] 

An indignant Tim Robbins spent five hours attempting to vote yesterday after a registration mix-up that eventually required the attention of two police officers and the Board of Elections. [R&M]  read more »

The red and black dress Michelle Obama wore at last night's acceptance speech was from Narciso Rodriguez's Spring 2009 ready-to-wear collection. [Mrs. O via Racked] 

Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson bailed on the birthday celebration that Ms. Ronson celebrates every year with her twin sister Charlotte because of the lurking paparazzi at the Bowery Hotel. [P6]

Meanwhile, Ms. Lohan's reported ex and daughter of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, Courtenay Semel, got arrested in Las Vegas on Tuesday for having an altercation with a security guard at Pure nightclub; she had been asked to leave because she was rather intoxicated. [P6]

John Edwards' lawyer pals reportedly helped Rielle Hunter escape to the Virgin Islands a day before his public confession on August 8.  read more »

Radar has posted an in-depth analysis of potential meaning behind Rielle Hunter’s soundtrack choice—the Dave Matthews Band’s “True Reflections”—for the “webisodes” she filmed for the John Edwards campaign. We appreciate the effort, but given what we now know about the relationship between this particular subject-artist pairing, we don’t think you need to dig any deeper than the dialogue for insights into the former presidential candidate's psyche—it really does seem to speak for itself!

In the above episode, entitled “Plane Truths,” Edwards lounges on his plane, bantering with his young aids (“If any of these guys aren’t nice to you, you tell me!” he instructs Hunter) about shoe-shopping before asking the camera: “Do you think most people have any idea what we’re doing when we’re not on the stage? All this, everything that we do … do you think most normal Americans have any idea what we do?”

Next, he claims to be having trouble with the casual nature of the videos, explaining: “We train to be careful, to close off if it feels sensitive, to close off if it feels personal.  read more »

Nineteen-year-old British socialite Peaches Geldof (daughter of Live Aid impresario Bob Geldof) announced that she married 23-year-old Chester French frontman Max Drummey in Las Vegas last weekend. [P6]

In other Vegas news, Jay-Z is in talks to sell 50 percent of the Nevada branch of his 40/40 club for $44 million. [P6]

Sources are saying that Rielle Hunter's child looks like "John Edwards in a onesie." [NYDN]

Worldwide Entertainment Group is suing Paris Hilton for $74,000 over her prescient failure to promote her 2006 film National Lampoon's Pledge This! [TMZ]

Hamptons residents who paid up to $2,500 a plate to hang out with Gwyneth Paltrow at a benefit for the Amaryllis Farm Equine Rescue Organization at Steven Klein's Bridgehampton farm (read Daily Transom's account!) were upset when the actress refused to come out of the host's house for most of the evening. [NYDN]

Maybe she was just saving her energy? Ms. Paltrow later attended at party at Def Jam Chairman L.A. Reid's house celebrating Mariah Carey's recent marriage to Nick Cannon. Mary J. Blige, Kelly Ripa, Samuel L. Jackson and Star Jones were also there. [P6]  read more »

After months of sitting on the sideline, the mainstream media let loose over the past three days with coverage of former Senator John Edwards' admission that he had had an affair with filmmaker Rielle Hunter.

Some highlights from the coverage:

On ABC's web site, "The Blotter," Brian Ross and company posted a story today entitled "Is John Edwards Still Lying," which includes an exclusive interview with a friend of Ms. Hunter's named (apparently) Pidgeon, who suggests that he is, in fact, still lying.

In Broadcasting & Cable, Marisa Guthrie writes that according to multiple sources "Edwards was apoplectic that ABC News broke the story on its website and began promoting it early on Friday, giving the rest of the media a chance to play catch-up and cite ABC News' report.  read more »

In the three national campaigns he has run - two for the Democratic presidential nomination and one as the party's vice presidential nominee - John Edwards won a grand total of one contest as an active candidate*: the South Carolina primary in 2004. But amazingly, he managed to emerge from each losing effort with his political standing not only unharmed, but actually enhanced.

His 2004 primary bid, which peaked with his strong second-place showing in the lead-off Iowa caucuses, ended with wide agreement among activists and party leaders that his Southern roots, working-class appeal, and powerful communication skills would make him the ideal running mate for John Kerry, who finally gave in and offered Edwards his No.  read more »

The Media Mob has learned that Brian Ross, chief investigative correspondent for ABC News, currently has his team of reporters looking into a story that few of his colleagues at major news organizations have been willing to investigate—namely, the so-called "love child" scandal, involving former U.S. Senator John Edwards.

For weeks, members of the media meta-sphere have been debating about whether the MSM should follow up on the numerous stories in The National Enquirer, alleging that Mr. Edwards has fathered an out-of-wedlock child with filmmaker Rielle Hunter.

"I think the mainstream media is right to be cautious with this story," Brent Cunningham, managing editor of The Columbia Journalism Review, recently  read more »

Paris Hilton has filmed a mock campaign ad responding to John McCain's references to her in his latest campaign ad. In it, she calls the Republican candidate "the oldest celebrity in the world. [NY Daily News]

Writer Jay McInerney says John Edwards's reported mistress, Rielle Hunter, is "a nice girl"; she was the inspiration for the character of Alison Poole in Mr. McInerney's 1988 novel Story of My Life. [P6]  read more »