The Naked Truth About Kim Cattrall
While no one could accuse Kim Cattrall of being bashful – she gets naked practically every week on Sex and the City – she apparently draws the line at public nudity. Last week, Cattrall was filming a scene in which Samantha Jones was – what else? – getting intimate with a man (played by James Remar) at Sky Studios’ rooftop pool, across the street from the Silk Building in NoHo. With bright lights illuminating the nighttime set, several Silk residents got an eyeful. “People on the top floor with terraces have a bird’s-eyeview,” a tipster tells us. “They were out there with their binoculars.” But Cattrall had carefully planned her outdoor interlude. She not only wore flesh-colored panties and a bra but when it came time for her close-up, she had a body double step in, reports a spy on the set. “Kim was very nervous about doing the nude scene. She was not loving the fact that she was going to be out there for all of New York to see. Whenever she could, she jumped back into her robe.” An HBO rep insists the body double had nothing to do with modesty but was a stuntwoman hired for a diving sequence. The rep even claims Cattrall never bothered wearing a bra. Remar, on the other hand, didn’t have any problems putting on a show for the Silk Building. “He was more than fine with the nudity,” our source says. “He was just prancing around naked all night.”
Marlon Brando: Takes One to Know One
It’s ironic that Marlon Brando chose to nickname director – and former Muppeteer – Frank Oz “Miss Piggy” on the set of their recently released movie, The Score. After all, it was Brando – who plays one of three burglars alongside Robert De Niro and Ed Norton – who needed to lose weight for the film. The Gym Source – the fitness-equipment-supply chain popular with high-profile calorie-counters like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Jennifer Lopez – got a call from Brando’s office (on De Niro’s recommendation) asking that a stationary bike be sent to the Montreal set. Gym Source owner Richard Miller insisted, however, that a mere bike wouldn’t be sufficient for the oversized Oscar-winner and persuaded Brando’s handlers to rent a treadmill instead. No word yet on whether he actually used it.
Oh Brother! Madonna’s a Fashion Victim
Madonnadoesn’t have much free time these days, what with her Drowned World Tour and all, but we hear she’s already planning her next gig. She’s expected to appear in her brother Christopher Ciccone’s feature-film directorial debut, a spoof of the fashion industry. Who will the singer-actress play? Herself, of course – in a scene at a fashion show. “All the publicists are freaking out before the show begins,” a source tells us. “Out of nowhere, Madonna shows up. The publicists are all frantic. One publicist pulls out her cell phone and the phone flies out of her hand.” The airborne cell ends up whacking Mrs. Guy Ritchie in the head. Madonna’s rep confirms that the siblings are in talks: “Of course she’s interested. But I don’t think Madonna can see past this tour right now. It is the funniest script I’ve ever read.”
Where in the World Is Tina Brown?
If you happen to see Tina Brown wandering through Queens, please let her know that her husband, Harry Evans, is looking for her. Rather than deal with the usual Friday traffic out to the East End, Evans recently opted for the 4:06 express out of Hunterspoint Avenue Station in Long Island City. We spotted Evans pacing the platform, giving detailed directions to Brown and her driver on his cell phone: “The steps down to the train are right past an old newsstand!” A disheveled Evans hopped back on the train as the doors were closing. “Your mother has no sense of direction,” he said with a sigh to their 11-year-old daughter, Isobel. Getting back on his phone, he told Brown to catch the next train and he’d meet her in Westhampton. “The driver must be an absolute idiot,” he said. “He was a stone’s throw away from the station.” Settling into his seat, Evans cracked open a book he’d brought along for the ride (no, not Judy Bachrach’s Tina and Harry Come to America, but the paperback edition of James Patterson’s Along Came a Spider) and munched on apple slices from a Tupperware container. At least the 72-year-old Evans was able to get a break on the fare – he bought a half-price senior-citizen ticket.
Ross Bleckner’s Battle of the Bulge
Ross Bleckner was looking for a little “more” from his male models at a recent shoot for the winter issue of the gay quarterly Empire. A source tells us that Bleckner, in an effort to pump up the virility of his first fashion spread, suggested that the models take Viagra. Fearful of the hours-long aftereffects on their anatomy, the prudent young models politely declined. Stylist Stefan Campbell did not confirm the Viagra suggestion but did say that Ross wanted some “more texture” in the front of their pants. “No pills were used,” Campbell told us. “Believe me, some of the guys didn’t need it.” Bleckner could not be reached for comment, and Empire publisher Matthew Bank said with a laugh, “I cannot confirm or deny anything. No one from my staff was there.”
Hey, Mr. D.J., Put a Record On
At least one person has been dropped from the “Area: One” concert tour – the guy in charge of D.J. Paul Oakenfold’s record collection. Oakenfold arrived at Jones Beach Theater on the second day of the tour’s New York stop last week only to discover that the 120 albums he needed for his show were still sitting in his hotel 35 miles away at 60 Thompson in SoHo. Luckily, when an Oakenfold assistant called the hotel, Stephan Kaliscuk, a 60 Thompson employee who also happens to be a part-time D.J. and a huge Oakenfold fan, answered the phone. Kaliscuk got the albums, jumped in a Town Car, and headed for Jones Beach. But bumper-to-bumper traffic kept him from making it to the concert – featuring Moby, Nelly Furtado, the Roots, and Incubus – until after the arena’s midnight curfew. “I felt like I let everyone down,” Oakenfold told us over cocktails at the SubMercer. “Who would have thought this would ever happen?” Perhaps the only person smiling about the debacle was Kaliscuk. He rode the tour bus back to the city, where he was Oakenfold’s special guest at the “Area: One” after-party at Spa.
Mary Boone Won’t Put a Lid on It
Diane von Furstenberg had some help going to the bathroom at the Mary Boone Gallery last week. During the Friends of the High Line benefit, partygoers were told that if they needed to use the lone bathroom at the West 24th Street gallery, they would have to be personally escorted. Not that Mary Boone doesn’t trust her guests – the bathroom is located near an area that is under construction, and escorts were strictly for safety reasons. At least the bathroom monitors didn’t have to remind patrons to put down the lid. Turns out that Boone’s molded metal bowl is actually a prison toilet that doesn’t have a lid. “It’s stainless steel,” a rep for the gallery explained to us. “It was the only one we could find that matched the stainless-steel bathroom.”
Linda Evangelista’s Back, Fur Sure
Linda Evangelista is on a roll. Not only has she been slated for the September cover of Vogue, but according to a source, the slimmed-down supermodel will be the face of the relaunched Blackglama-mink advertisements, “What Becomes a Legend Most?,” the once-famous campaign that has featured such lookers as Cher, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, and Barbra Streisand. We’re not that surprised about Evangelista’s new job. The ad agency spearheading the fall campaign, Laspata/DeCaro, also created the 1998 Leave It to Beaver-inspired Kenar ads, starring – you guessed it – Evangelista.
Have a Kneecap … er, Nightcap
Move over, Barbra Streisand – there’s a new gay icon in town: Tonya Harding. Curiously enough, the fallen ice-skating queen is set to appear at Barracuda, the popular gay bar in Chelsea, on July 26 to help celebrate the watering hole’s upcoming redesign by Jump NY. Why Harding? “Gay men have an affinity for women who have had their ups and downs in their lives,” Barracuda co-owner Stephen Heighton tells us. “And she’s certainly been through the ringer.” At first, Harding’s godmother and manager, Linda Lewis, wasn’t too thrilled with the idea. “We told her we were a men’s bar,” Heighton says. “She was like, ‘Where I come from, a gentlemen’s club is a strip club.’ We had to clear things up for her.”
MORR THE BETTER:
Hotel owner-restaurateur Jonathan Morr’s empire keeps getting bigger. His roster already includes Bond St, Republic, APT, and the Townhouse hotel in South Beach, and now he’s opening a new eatery, called Theo, at 325 Spring Street in October. Chef Spencer Black, whom Morr discovered in Phuket, Thailand, will offer up “New York dishes with French and Italian accents.”
YELLOW FEVER:
We hear that Deborah Yates, who plays the mysterious “Girl in the Yellow Dress” in Broadway’s Contact, will betwirling her way into a national tour of her own one-woman show. A rep for the Tony nominee, who created the role in 1999, confirms that the dancer is leaving Contact in early September but denies that there are plans for a solo project.
WithCatherine Townsend and Aric Chen.