The Real Housewives Successfully Stretch Their Fifteen Minutes Into at Least Twenty

They were sniping at a viewing party for the show's reunion special earlier this week. That, and all the rest of the city's best gossip in our daily roundup.

Posted 04/25/08 in Daily Intel : Gossipmonger

Tags: aaron brown, alain ducasse, anna wintour, britney spears, calista flockhart, cbgb, cnn, donald trump, eric gioia, eric ripert, gossipmonger, harrison ford, heidi fleiss, ice-t, jerry springer, john legend, john varvatos, keira knightley, maria sharapova, maria shriver, michael jackson, nbc, northwestern, oj simpson, paris hilton, quincy jones, real housewives of new york city, rupert friend, sophia bush, tenjune, top chef, vh1

A Designer Explains the Effect of the Writers' Strike on Fashion

After the Fug Girls got us thinking about the effect the WGA strike would have on the fashion industry, we caught up with designer Phillip Lim and asked him about it at Repetto's 60th-anniversary party last week. Lim is a well liked, quickly rising designer who has been showing since fall 2005, and is therefore a good example of a designer who is established but by no means on as stable ground as any of the giant houses that have been around for much longer. So what does he think about the strike, which is appearing to affect more and more people as time goes on? "It's about how it trickles down to retailers, how it trickles down to restaurants, how it trickles down to the community," said the bubbly Lim. "They've got to work it out and get on with it. It's almost selfish to just keep on with the struggle." So if it affects everybody, it must be affecting Lim himself, right? "For us, we have a distribution in Los Angeles. Our stores, people we sell to, they're affected by it. So in the end it affects us." And the loss of award shows? "[A presence on the red carpet] boosts business, but we didn't build our business on that premise, so in the end it doesn't hurt us a ton," Lim explained. "We make clothes for the 'everywoman,' you know." Still, we're guessing some other, more gown-oriented designers (Marchesa, much?) would have killed for the opportunity to dress Keira Knightley last Sunday…—Jada Yuan Earlier: No Golden Globes? Now Everything's Fugged Up Related: Mr. In-Between [NYM]

Posted 01/15/08 in Daily Intel : Party Lines

Tags: fashion, keira knightley, party lines, phillip lim, wga strike

Ben Gazzara Will Have a Doggie Bag

Ben Gazzara and his wife used to sneak their dog into restaurants in a bag, until they got busted at a French bistro. Google co-founder Larry Page is getting married this Saturday on a Caribbean island owned by Richard Branson. Tara Reid has dropped her appearance fee from $30,000 to $3,500. Seth Meyers says the hours he spends on the picket lines for the Writers Guild strike are tougher than the ones he spent writing for SNL. Mets pitcher John Maine says an impostor was asking women to give him their dresses. Damien Hirst got outbid on the world's largest truffle, which ended up selling to a Macau casino owner for $330,000. Dennis Quaid is suing Baxter Healthcare, claiming that faulty medication packaging led to his newborn twin's overdose. People are actually still suing Borat for being duped into appearing in his movie. James MacAvoy and Keira Knightley had to be talked through their sex scene in Atonement because "it had to be so erotic."

Posted 12/05/07 in Daily Intel : Gossipmonger

Tags: ben gazzara, ben stiller, britney spears, dave chapelle, dennis quaid, gossipmonger, james macavoy, john maine, johnny depp, keira knightley, larry page, lindsay lohan, ll cool j, maria cantwell, richard branson, tara reid, victoria beckham, zach braff

Our Next President Will Probably Be a Lawyer. Objections?

FINANCE • A former Morgan Stanley VP and her hedge-fund husband pleaded guilty in yet another instance of "pillow-talk" insider trading. [Bloomberg] • Richard Josephberg, a longtime financier and former Goldman analyst, was sentenced to four years behind bars for failing to pay his taxes for 29 years. That's one year in the slammer for every seven without the IRS, not bad. [NYT] • The unexplained cancellation of Henry Kravis's little talk at the NYPL has some wondering whether he's riding Steve Schwarzman's coattails once again — only this time out of the spotlight. [Deal Journal/WSJ]

Posted 09/06/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town

Tags: company town, henry kravis, keira knightley, steve schwarzman