It Happens This Week
• Rare public appearances of icons from very different fields: Barry Diller speaks at the 92nd Street Y (be the first to ask Barry why he bought Ask Jeeves), and Lou Reed plays Crobar.
• A Max Ernst retrospective opens at the Met, while the Mets play the Astros in their home opener at Shea.
• And More magazine’s marathon for women over 40 takes place in Central Park.

(Photo: William Regan/Globe Photos)

Puffy’s 6,000-S.F. Pent-Office
Downstairs, things aren’t nearly so spacious for staff.
When Sean Combs consolidated his various entertainment and clothing operations into one big Puffy Palace at 1710 Broadway, the bad boys and girls were surprised at how cramped it was. “It’s a gorgeous building,” says a Sean John insider, “but it’s not big enough for 150 employees. Senior-ranking people are sharing offices.” Not Combs, of course. His office is 6,000 square feet—the entire top floor. “A big space that’s not sectionalized,” he told David Letterman (whose studio is across the street) on March 23. “Amenities? I got a few,” he went on: Jacuzzi, theater, bedroom, and bar (“I need a drink every now and then”). Still, his rep insists that the employees downstairs in steerage will be able to enjoy the penthouse, too. “He definitely won’t be sitting up there in an ivory tower. His door is always open.” But our source just rolled his eyes. “Even in the old buildings regular employees knew there were certain sections you just didn’t hang out in. This sounds like it’ll be one of those sections.”
—Amy Zalneraitis