With Deborah Schoeneman
Animal House
Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson helped make James Van Der Beek a star, and how does the young actor repay him? By treating his downtown apartment like a frat house. A tipster tells us that Williamson has been complaining to friends that he regrets lending Van Der Beek his pad this spring while Van Der Beek was in town performing in the Signature Theater Company’s production of the World War II drama Rain Dance. “He trashed it,” the source says. “The worst part was the stove. He burned something in it and it had to be replaced.” Williamson has always been happy to let his young Hollywood pals use the place, asking only that they pay for his housekeeper. Katie Holmes, one of Van Der Beek’s co-stars on Dawson’s Creek, has spent time there: “The place looked ten times better than it did when he gave her the keys,” says our source. “Katie didn’t even use the housekeeper. She said that no one could clean the place as good as she could.” Reps for both insist that Van Der Beek was the perfect houseguest.
Field of Dreams
Shopping was a full-contact sport in the Hamptons July 26 at the Super Saturday benefit for ovarian-cancer research. Donna Karan, Coach, and Ralph Lauren were among dozens of fashion houses selling at discount prices, raising more than $1.3 million—along with the blood pressures of Mariska Hargitay, Lauren Bush, Christie Brinkley, Bianca Jagger, Marisa Berenson, and Ali Wentworth, who fought for the best deals. The First Niece snapped up two Alice + Olivia miniskirts for $75. “This is definitely the most shopping I’ve done this summer,” she told us. Meanwhile, EMS workers were busy rescuing retailers from beneath clothing racks that got knocked over in the strong wind. The only injuries were some bruises and scrapes—much easier to forget than those Calvin Klein leather motorcycle jackets that sold out early.
Idol Chatter: Orange Clay
American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken is a glowing success. While Idol stylists famously transformed the 24-year-old crooner by lightening his red hair, replacing his Coke-bottle glasses with contacts, and outfitting him in trendy clothing, things didn’t go quite so smoothly during a recent video shoot. Buzz from the set has it that handlers wanted to get Aiken to use some self-tanner so that he wouldn’t look too pale in the video. But they were left aghast before the shoot was to begin because Aiken was smothered in bronzer. Although the video was eventually shot, we hear that the production was delayed several hours while Aiken tried to scrub off at least some of the unnatural hue.
Atlantic Waves: Site Unseen
In the latest issue of the Atlantic Monthly, managing editor Cullen Murphy devotes his “Pursuits & Retreats” column to “bad ideas” and rants against Coincidence Design, an Internet-based stalker-for-hire service. The site states that for a fee of $78,000, it will conduct a background search on any woman, follow her around, interview her friends, and then arrange for a “coincidental” meeting (say, being seated next to her on a transatlantic flight). But Murphy didn’t seem to realize that the site was outed as a hoax more than a year ago. “I knew full well … there was a distinct possibility that this existed only on a Website as somebody’s joke,” Murphy tried to explain to us last week. So why bother quoting extensively from the site five times, as if the service really existed? “I’m musing on the whole idea of bad ideas one encounters, and this is just an example of something that would be a bad idea,” Murphy said. “I’m not writing about it as something that’s real.” We get the idea, we think.
“The only way any Red Sock can win the divisiontitle is if he gets traded to the Yanks quick.”
-Carson Daly, on whether the Yankees’ archrivals can finally overtake them.
Anger Management: Motley Fool
Bad-boy rocker Tommy Lee insists that his temper is under control these days. But that didn’t seem to be the case when he appeared on the Fox News Channel’s Your World With Neil Cavuto on July 22. Lee was there to promote BuyMusic.com, the Internet music service for which he is a celebrity spokesman. When Cavuto questioned him and Scott Blum, BuyMusic’s president, about how business might be affected by Lee’s sordid past, Lee calmly explained that he was a new man and that “everything is fine now.” Shortly after the segment ended, however, Lee came back to the studio, opened the door, and shouted, “Low blow, bro!” Cavuto says that when he turned around, Lee flipped him the bird. Lee’s rep, Beth Katz, insists he didn’t give him the finger but admits he was pissed because of Cavuto’s tone and the use of old footage showing Lee during his bad-ass days.
Missy Talks Back: Madonna & Me
After reading our item last week in which we reported that she and Madonna didn’t hit it off right while filming their new Gap ads, Missy Elliott called us up to explain that she wasn’t herself that day because of a personal crisis. “Madonna came to me and asked what was wrong, and I told her in a roundabout way,” she told us. “She called her spiritual adviser over the day of the shoot; he gave me, like, the red string, and he prayed for me. The rest of the shoot was fine … I would never disrespect her.”
Mountain Man: Moby heads for the hills.
East Hudson may be the new East Hampton, or at least the new Springs. First came the Dia:Beacon art center, and now the artists themselves. Moby just closed on a 7,500-square-foot house on 25 acres for $1.35 million, complete with 40-mile views: “Going up my driveway the other day, I saw four deer and one fawn, a family of wild turkeys, and hawks soaring over the valley.” He won’t be alone in the wilderness. His friend Andrew Jarecki (who directed Capturing the Friedmans) just bought a home on 700 acres near Rhinebeck, about 30 minutes from Moby’s place.
The post-Labor Day party season is just around the corner. Here are just acouple of annual bashes to look out for.What: The Angel Ball. Denise Rich’s gala benefits the G & P foundation for Cancer Research.Who: Honorees include Clive Davis, Marty Richards, and Bonnie Fuller. Musical performances still to be announced (but, trust me, Rich always getsthe biggest names).Info: October 27 at the Marriott Marquis; email Inezevents@aol.com, or call (212) 254-6677. *** *** *** *** What: Hulaween: A Hawaiian Gala Celebration. Bette Midler’s costume ball benefits The New York Restoration Project.Who: Honorees include Ellen and Richard U. Levine; there will also be a surprise celebrity auctioneer.Info: October 29 at the Marriott Marquis; call (212) 685-1095.
