After overdosing on a near-lethal combo of cocaine and heroin in a transsexual prostitute’s apartment in Turin in October, Agnelli heir and Italian tabloid obsession Lapo Elkann (pictured) went to rehab (the same clinic as Kate Moss) and decided to disappear into Manhattan. On March 16, Elkann, 28, was supposed to make an appearance at the opening of his friend Jamison Ernest’s store, Yellow Fever. Elkann’s name was on the list of confirmed RSVPs, right up there with a bunch of Victoria’s Secret models, celebrity surfers, and Tommy Hilfiger. “Lapo was supposed to host,” said the event’s publicist. Even a BlackBerry plea from Ernest that night couldn’t get him to show. “I’m very focused now,” Elkann explained a week later. “I don’t go out very much.” Although he did make an appearance at Allure magazine’s dinner for Lindsay Lohan at Da Silvano and the Bernard-Henri Lévy party at Diane Von Furstenberg’s far West Village place—a neighborhood now scrubbed of its cross-dressing hookers.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Deborah Schoeneman
• Table of Contents: April 3, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!