Liza Minnelli is cleaning house by auctioning off a huge chunk of her belongings next month. Among the 1,000 items Minnelli will offer on Gottahaveit.com beginning on October 23 are Chanel and Halston couture clothing, costume jewelry, original costumes from the movie Cabaret, and even the Golden Globe nomination plaques she got for Arthur and New York, New York. “Since she and David Gest got married and have it in their heads to adopt a child, they decided it was time to give everything back to the fans,” Robert Schagrin, president of Gotta Have It Auctions, told us last week. Gest isn’t getting rid of much of his own stuff, though. Schagrin says he’s only thrown in a few items, including the first-ever Best Actress Oscar, presented to Janet Gaynor in 1929. The auction kicks off right before the premiere of the couple’s new VH1 reality show, Liza and David, slated for November, and Schagrin expects the loot to fetch at least $1 million. The least expensive item? You could probably get a piece of the costume jewelry for about $80.
Don’t look for Gisele Bündchen to be joining PETA anytime soon. Following in the footsteps of Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, and Barbra Streisand, the Brazilian bombshell is the latest beauty to be the face – and body – of the Blackglama-mink “What Becomes a Legend Most?” advertisements. The campaign – due to debut in November – was shot in mid-August at Vasquez Rocks, near Los Angeles. The agency spearheading the ads, Laspata/DeCaro, didn’t let any of the crew know where they’d be headed until the night before because they were worried that animal-rights activists would try to disrupt the shoot. In addition to the estimated $500,000 Bündchen was paid for the fourteen-hour day, we hear Edward Brennan, president of American Legend Mink – Blackglama’s parent company – gave her two of the five mink coats she modeled. Total value? Around $250,000.
Is legendary punk landmark CBGB in danger of being demolished and replaced by NYU dorms? Rumors have been flying that the university is plotting to buy the building to make way for more student housing. Since opening the club nearly 29 years ago, Hilly Kristal has been credited with jump-starting the careers of the Ramones, the New York Dolls, and Blondie. NYU is already constructing a thirteen-story dormitory right next door to the club. This wouldn’t be the first historic nightlife site to be put out of business by the school: NYU razed the Palladium on 14th Street to build a sixteen-story dorm in 1999. Neither Kristal nor CBGB’s landlord, Muzzy Rosenblatt of the Bowery Residents Committee, says he’s heard from NYU. But Kristal isn’t sure what the future holds for his club. “They could triple my rent when my lease expires in three years,” he told us, “so I’m going to start exploring my options.”
Even Kid Rock has learned how hard it is to get around the Hamptons without your own car. While staying at Lava Records honcho Lee Trink’s Southampton home over Labor Day weekend, he decided to visit Atlantic Records boss Ahmet Ertegun. Opting not to take his tour bus, he spent about an hour calling various car services looking for a limo and a private driver. When none were available, he downgraded and asked for a Town Car. But alas, none of those were on hand, either. Finally, he was able to secure a cab – a beat-up station wagon – to take him to Ertegun’s. But then he needed a lift to Stuff magazine’s party at the PlayStation 2 house in Sag Harbor. He ended up on the phone for yet another hour looking for a ride. This time, however, there wasn’t even a cab available. Finally, a staffer working the party was sent to get the rocker in his pickup truck.
Don’t look for that infamous note Monica Lewinsky wrote to Bill Clinton in Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters From the End of the Affair, an anthology of letters edited by Anna Holmes. Although the galleys of the book that publisher Carroll & Graf sent out included the missive Lewinsky wrote to Clinton six months before their affair became public, Carroll & Graf’s legal team advised the publisher to pull it, reasoning that Lewinsky could sue because she didn’t give permission to print the note, a source tells us. Yet the letter is quoted in the Starr Report and, oddly enough, another Carroll & Graf book published two years ago called The Mammoth Book of Private Lives. A rep from the publisher explained that Carroll & Graf had only distributed Mammoth, not published it, so it hadn’t worried about permission issues. Holmes declined to comment but told us that the Lewinsky letter will nevertheless be read on October 24 during a fund-raiser for Housing Works, an AIDS housing group.
With Catherine Townsend.