Beatrice Owners to Open New Club in … Jersey?At one point Smith and Mills owner Matt Abramcyk was toying with the idea of opening a Skee-Ball bar in the financial district, but now it looks like he has a bigger project on the horizon — in Atlantic City! The Times reports that he and his Beatrice Inn partner, Paul “brother of the actress Chloë” Sevigny, are teaming with Curtis Bashaw, a developer of the Mondrian in Soho, to turn a former Atlantic City Howard Johnson into the Chelsea, a boutique hotel with a Stephen Starr restaurant. A spokesman for the project tells the Times that the Beatrice team is “going to be in charge of celebrity wrangling, including bringing Paul’s sister’s friends down” to a fifth-floor lounge. Chloë has gone to AC for a Morrissey concert, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. Our favorite part of the story? When the Times reporter gripes about getting turned away from the Beatrice.
SoHo Meets HoJo In Atlantic City [NYT]
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We’ll Make It, I Swear … to the Governor’s Mansion?Jon Bon Jovi lives in Soho but is keeping a house in Jersey because he may run for governor there one day. Alec Baldwin is worried that Hillary Clinton won’t vote “no” on a $10 billion farm bill that subsidizes farmers who provide fattening foods to schools. Kelly Ripa claims she treats her butt like her breasts by buying really tight jeans and pushing her cheeks together. Cindy Adams claims that Time Warner may be looking to sell People magazine and In Style to Hachette. A stylist for Frederic Fekkai had to wear rubber gloves before shampooing a tweaked-out, sweaty Brandon Davis. High-end TV network Plum TV laid off a bunch of people and may be closing. Makeup maven Olivia Chantecaille has a new banker boyfriend. Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant are still buddies and attended a dinner party at the Upper East Side townhouse of Valentino.
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Si to Shutter ‘Teen Vogue’?Teen Vogue may be the next Condé Nast magazine to fold. Some 370 girls auditioned to be Rockettes recently; two were hired. Reggie Jackson took issue with the scene in The Bronx Is Burning in which he loses his temper. Usher and Tameka Foster may be married in the Hamptons this week. Kelly Clarkson apologized to Clive Davis after realizing that her album was as bad as he claimed it was. Diddy wrote a song and shot a video about ex-girlfriend Kim Porter. A 9-year-old girl cried after being rebuffed for an autograph by Hilary Duff. Flava Flav got the celebrity-roast treatment. Elle is throwing a party for August cover girl Sarah Jessica Parker in the Hamptons. John Legend shopped for BBQ fixings at the Houston Street Whole Foods.
Restroom Report
Head to Head, Round Two: The Loos at the Inns
Earlier this week we noted that Paul Sevigny’s the Beatrice is shaping up to be the downtown set’s own private Ye Waverly Inn. Only time will tell which of the historic, soon-to-officially-reopen West Village taverns will become the more chic destination. But at least you’ll know what to expect from the bathrooms.
Openings
Paul Sevigny’s ‘Top Secret’ Beatrice: Hipster Restaurant of the
When we spoke to Paul Sevigny about his soon-to-open hipsteraunt (the second coming of onetime West Village speakeasy the Beatrice Inn), he at first told us “it’s kind of top secret.” (Doorman Angelo certainly wasn’t letting us in on the secret when we tried to crash Courtney Love’s party there on Halloween night.) But after throwing down with the beautiful people at actor-jeweler Waris Ahluwalia’s birthday bash last weekend, we can now let you in on the details of what looks to be the downtown set’s answer to the revival of Waverly Inn.