Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

The Huffington Post has an "exclusive" interview with Patrick Liotard-Vogt, the 25-year-old heir/spoiled brat from Switzerland who just bought the also-ran social network ASmallWorld from Harvey Weinstein. Curiously, the interview was conducted by Sabine Heller, who actually works for ASmallWorld, a fact she doesn't bother to mention. But that only makes it all the more amusing when Liotard-Vogt uses the discussion to mock the movie mogul who has fallen on hard times:

Heller: How did you and Harvey Weinstein first meet?

Liotard-Vogt: We met at the AMFAR benefit in Cannes last year. I walked up to him and said, "Hey, I want to buy your shares in ASMALLWORLD" to which he responded, "you need to show up with a lot of money, which I don't think you have." I laughed and said, "I think I have ten times more than you do."

Patrick Liotard-Vogt, New Kid On The Block [HuffPo]

The Weinsteins Part Ways With aSmallWorld | Struggling movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob are selling off their controlling stake in the struggling social network aSmallWorld, according to the LA Times. (The buyer is Patrick Liotard-Vogt, an heir to the family that founded Nestle.) Clearly the site and Weinstein boys have both seen better days, and with the Weinstein Co. now focused on getting out from under a mountain of debt, presumably even a hundred-dollar bill for a site that hasn't been relevant in half a decade is better than nothing. But the saddest footnote to the story? In the three years that Harv owned part of the social networking site, he never found time to set up a profile, it seems:More

• Glenn Beck is Time magazine's cover boy this week, sadly. [Time, HuffPo]
• Spike Lee and Robert De Niro are teaming up with Showtime "to develop a drama series about Manhattan's Alphabet City." [THR]
• Twitter is now worth $1 billion, believe it or not. [TechCrunch]
• Nikki Finke hears that Variety is planning to start charging for access to its website and The Hollywood Reporter is dropping its daily print edition. [DHD] 
• Jenna Bush made her debut on the Today show this morning. [BS]
• An update how Jay Leno's new show is faring three days in. [NYT]
• An update on the protracted legal battle between CBS and ex-anchor Dan Rather, a feud that only "seems to get pettier by the day." [TDB]
• Fox 5's Ernie Anastos managed to both embarrass himself and coin a delightful new catchphrase on the news last night. [Gawker, NYP, B&C]More

Weinstein Under Pressure? | Is Harvey Weinstein looking to unload his stake in the failed social network ASmallWorld to raise some much-needed cash? Guest of a Guest received a tip to that effect today, and Gawker reports that a conversation did take place, but no deal was reached: "They were approached by an interested party and were willing to hear what they had to say." Needless to say, feel free to reach out to Harvey if you have any interest in taking over the long-since-faded site. [Gawker, GoaG]

ASmallWorld Finds Its Niche | We're not sure what purpose ASmallWorld serves given the Euro-heavy social network was eclipsed by sites like Facebook years ago, but we finally understand the value of this ASW "magazine" that the faded site introduced a few months back: It's a fantastic vehicle for self promotion! The "mag" checked in with a handful of people to ask them what they'd recommend buying in honor of Valentine's Day. Any what do you know? Most of them proposed items that they produce themselves.  A few examples appear below. In the meantime, we eagerly await the upcoming food issue and Mario Batali's humble suggestion that we eat at Babbo every night.More

Nadine Johnson, Version 2.0 | Here's some pleasantly surprising news: Publicist (and legendary hard-ass) Nadine Johnson is feeling "tremendous positive energy." It's all because Barack Obama was inaugurated this week, so don't expect it to last very long. Until then, though, you'll be happy to hear that Nadine is steering clear of "negative forces" and bringing "integrity, real value and compassion" into every "action, thought, and behavior." The full transcript of Nadine's surprisingly cheerful comments, which appeared in the newsletter of long-suffering social network ASmallWorld, after the jump! More

Hearty congrats to Deborah Trachtenberg, the fame-obsessed partygoer better known as Devorah Rose: According to the social networking site aSmallWorld (which is still in business, by the way), she's the 34th most notable social in New York! (All that money she's been handing over to Columbia seems to be paying off nicely, doesn't it?) The "Top 100" list appears in the debut issue of "aSmallMagazine," which promises to cover the "cultural return to sincerity," an era defined by "the end of flash and a return to substance." How does placing socialites on a list constitute "substance"? Did we mention the issue also has "a peak behind the walls of one of the world's last totalitarian regimes, North Korea." It does! They've covered all the bases! aSmallWorld's announcement to site members is below. More

A Small Gathering for ASmallWorld | The party for ASmallWorld—the one that featured protests by a group opposed to Lev Leviev's business practices—didn't bring too many socialites out in the rain last night. "The likes of Annie Churchill, Dalia Oberlander, Jennifer Creel, and Gillian Hearst Simonds stayed away—until the private post-event dinner at Serafina, that is," reports Fashion Week Daily's Ashley Baker. Judging by photos Adalah-NY directed us to this morning, it seems the protesters had a bit of trouble generating a turnout, too. [The Daily]

It looks like there will be some additional drama at tonight's splashy "Champagne & Diamonds" party for the faded social networking site ASmallWorld and Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. (ASmallWorld informed us this morning, by the way, that Harvey Weinstein will not be attending personally.) A protest is planned by a group that objects to Leviev's record on human rights. Says a rep for Adalah-NY: "It's truly a small world for Leviev, as his companies are simultaneously involved in destroying communities in Palestine, Africa, and New York City. We will protest this outrageous celebration of worldwide human rights abuses and economic catastrophe by Leviev and New York's elites, because it ridicules the losses of homes, jobs and security being inflicted on working people worldwide." Sounds like Annie Churchill, Jennifer Creel, Amanda Hearst, and Annelise Peterson are in for a treat! The full press release is after the jump. More

Harvey Weinstein is the co-founder of the Weinstein Company, the struggling studio that has produced very few hits over the past year, has seen a handful of senior of execs flee for the exits in recent weeks, and has been immersed in a nasty legal spat with NBC over the fate of his one big hit, Project Runway, over the past few months. (Further evidence of his financial woes: He owes Cindy Adams $10,000 and has refused to pay up.) Lev Leviev might be a less familiar name to you. He's the Ubekistan-born, Orthodox Jewish diamond and real estate billionaire who lives in Israel and controls the Africa-Israel Group, which dominates the diamond mining industry in Angola and owns a good deal of real estate, too, including the former headquarters of the New York Times. More

• Is Eurotrash social networking site ASmallWorld.net running low on cash? It seems employees weren't paid on time last week. [Gawker]
• The Times has entered into a partnership with LinkedIn. The paper also plans to launch a "public records" blog. [CNET, Romenesko]
• The iced coffee on the anchors' desk during Fox's morning broadcast in Las Vegas? It's brought to you (or them) by McDonald's. [NYT]
• Conde Nast employees will have to pay for their own tickets to watch the Black Eyed Peas perform at the Fashion Rocks benefit at Radio City Music Hall in September. [Observer]
• Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper will be replaced by Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz. [Jossip]
• Radar has picked up Moe Tkacik, one of the editors of Jezebel.com [Radar]
• Lots of speculation about Amy Poehler's new NBC comedy. [TV Decoder]