Where to Be on Fashion’s Night OutEighteen can’t-miss spots for shopping, drinking, elbow-rubbing, and generally proving to your Midwestern friends how cool New York is.
Peter Cook Primps for His Big DivorceChristie Brinkley’s ex gets a MAN-icure for the big day, Madonna’s brother continues his bizarre publicity campaign, and Cindy Adams picks up on some ‘Gossip Girl’ rumors.
summering
Billy Joel Goes Hog WildThe Piano Man takes out his motorcycle and doesn’t crash into anything, which is always a good thing.
gossipmonger
Busta Rhymes and Rob Schneider Are FriendsThe rapper and ‘Don’t Mess With the Zohan’ star hang at Marquee, Paris Hilton refuses to be photographed for the first time in her life, and Lance Armstrong and his new blonde enjoy their brief happiness, all in our daily roundup of the juice from today’s columns.
Patrick McMullan Knows Everyone (Almost)Everyone we talked to at Patrick McMullan’s Glamour Girls book launch party last night at the Whitney agreed: Patrick knows everybody. Just not always their names. Though he signed books with personalized messages for hundreds of guests, he wasn’t always sure exactly who they were. “His mind goes blank sometimes,” said designer Esteban Cortazar, McMullan’s “friend” for the past ten years. “Then he’ll remember it and apologize forever.” Michael Musto, godfather to McMullan’s son, recalled, “He’s always pulling you over to have you meet someone you already know. Once he said, ‘Oh Kelly Catrone! Do you know Robbie Catrone?’ And they had been divorced. That’s why they had the same name.” We asked Patrick what his most embarrassing slip-up was. “One time I spit on Kelly Ripa by accident,” he said, while socialites fawned over him as he sat behind a white lacquered table signing books (purchased by guests for $75 a pop). But there are some women left in the world he has yet to meet. Such as: “The Queen of England. I think her and I would be able to get along,” he said. “We could watch television programs together,” he said. “Or Camilla. If we could talk about horses and dogs I think that would be fun.” — Amy Odell
Get more McMullan gossip from Vera Wang, Muffie Potter Aston, and others at our complete party coverage.
party lines
Patrick McMullan Wants to Know Who You Are
Patrick McMullan, the city’s best-known photog-about-town, provides a pictorial record of just about every New York party worth mentioning. (In what might shock those who’ve followed his career since the days of Studio 54, McMullan himself isn’t omnipresent; he long ago set up a stable of young men — they’re all young men — who help him make a showing at all those events each night.) Usually, the photos end up on his Website, PatrickMcMullan.com, and in all sorts of magazines, including New York. But now they’re being displayed in a gallery-ish exhibition. Over the past few weeks, he and curator Gavin Brown have picked photos from the PatrickMcMullan.com archives and dry-mounted them on the walls of the Chelsea bar Passerby, which loses its lease in September. That the whole enterprise may soon be torn down makes the whole thing even more artistic to McMullan, who — in great meta form — snapped photos of people looking at photos through the opening party the other night. Between snaps, he told us the secrets to his success.
gossipmonger
Al for Hill?Al Sharpton claims he is not backing Hillary Clinton for president, despite a rumor that he and Bill smoked cigars in Harlem two weeks ago. Rupert Murdoch would back Michael Bloomberg for president, if Bloomberg were to run. A $1.5 million lawsuit against Beyoncé, regarding her House of Dereon clothing line, was thrown out. Michael Jackson was reported to have been hospitalized for pneumonia, but his flack says he’s just fine. Bravo is shooting a reality show about photog Patrick McMullan. Jenna Jameson hasn’t been attending meetings with mainstream producers regarding the film adaptation of her book How to Make Love Like a Porn Star because she’s allegedly unhappy with her vaginoplasty.
21 questions
Party Photog Patrick McMullan Is Older Than We Thought He WasName: Patrick McMullan
Age: 99
Job: Photographer
Neighborhood: Greenwich Village
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
There are so many: Andy Warhol, Margie Beck, Thomas Edison, Billie Holliday, Bill Clinton, my son Liam McMullan, Mark Twain, Michael Musto, Amanda Lapore, Zelda Kaplan, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ella Fitzgerald, Carolina Herrera, Anderson Cooper, Bruce Weber, Cole Porter, Bettina Zilkha, Michael Bloomberg, Holly Golightly, Alfred Eisenstadt, Julia Roberts — I really could go on and on, especially with the “dead or alive” thing.
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
Something at Daniel, Le Cirque, Nobu, or the Pump.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Read, edit, talk, dress, arrive, take photographs, ask people their names, smile, download, delegate, get confused, make decisions, deal with knuckleheads, dream, struggle, answer questions, imagine.
party lines
Bold-Name Desperation Outside the French Vogue PartyHow exclusive was French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld’s Saturday-night party for the young swans of fashion, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Bee Shaffer, and Margherita Missoni? Too exclusive for us. But the scene outside the velvet ropes at the Gramercy Park Hotel might have been as entertaining as the one inside.
