Media Bigs Risk Scratches to Toast Murdoch Book

Last night was the book party for The Man Who Owns the News, Michael Wolff's generally admiring biography of News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch. Shortly after the party got under way, I asked the author -- whose willingness to make himself persona non grata is a big part of his appeal -- how he felt about being described in Newsweek as "the world's most abrasive media journalist."

"Well, I could've thought of a few more things I would rather have been said," he replied, "but that was certainly not on the bottom of the list of things that I look forward to being said about myself."

Wolff's abrasiveness evidently proved too much in the end for Murdoch himself, who was a no-show despite granting more than 50 hours of interviews for the book, but it didn't deter other guests including Bloomberg chief content officer Norman Pearlstine, Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black, Time Inc. managing editor Jim Kelly, Marie Claire editor in chief Joanna Coles and Men's Health editor in chief David Zinczenko.

Also on hand was Christie Hefner, fresh off announcing her plans to retire as CEO of Playboy Enterprises in January. I asked Hefner if her remarks about being inspired to enter public service by the election of Barack Obama meant she would seek a job in his administration. She said no: "I don't want to move to Washington." But, she added, she has a meeting scheduled tomorrow with people from John Podesta's Center for American Progress to discuss other ways she can contribute.

Among those who were on the RSVP list but whom I didn't spot in the crowd were NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

Wolff, by the way, told the New York Observer last night that his party was not, after all, rescheduled to avoid conflicting with Wendi Murdoch's 40th birthday celebration, which took place Monday. That raises the question of why he would have encouraged me to think it was -- unless, perhaps, he thought the misperception would generate a little extra publicity for his book? If so, it was positively Murdochian of him.