Richard Branson to Kick Off Virgin Hotel Chain in New York?Bajillionaire Branson may be spending more time in Manhattan. Meanwhile, Cablevision lawyer Harvey L. Beneson mortgages his Hamptons house to pay off his lawsuit, UBS clients run scared as a federal investigation warms up, and another magazine catering to the rich appears on the horizon, in today’s roundup of news from the worlds of real estate, law, finance, and media.
gossipmonger
Richard Branson Pranks Larry Page AwesomelyIvana and her fiancé seem to have some pre-wedding jitters, Tom Cruise and Sumner Redstone canoodle, and still more New Yorkers cop to encounters with Ashley Alexandra Dupre in our daily roundup of news from New York’s best gossip columns.
gossipmonger
Ben Gazzara Will Have a Doggie BagBen Gazzara and his wife used to sneak their dog into restaurants in a bag,
until they got busted at a French bistro. Google co-founder Larry
Page is getting married this Saturday on a Caribbean island owned by
Richard Branson.
party lines
Richard Branson Forgives Colbert, Considers Janet Jackson as BallastRichard Branson was late to his own party at the Box for Virgin America Airlines’ inaugural flight from LAX to JFK. He blamed, no joke, flight delays. Daily Intel caught up with him and asked about the now-famous incident when he angrily splashed Stephen Colbert with a glass of water during a taping of the Colbert Report. Turns out all is forgiven. He and Virgin America CEO Fred Reid also have plans for hotels in space and fond memories of the time Branson threatened to throw Janet Jackson off a hot-air balloon. It’s all after the jump.
company town
Alan Greenspan Gets a Job, Richard Branson Goes BananasFINANCE:
• After touring the lecture circuit for the last year, Alan Greenspan finally got a real job advising Deutsche Bank’s securities division. [Bloomberg]
• Which heads will roll when all the dust from subprime settles? Some say John Mack, the CEO of Morgan Stanley, others Chuck Prince of Citigroup, but the biggest danger may be for Goldman Sachs’ “It” boy Lloyd Blankfein, who bet more than anyone else. [NYT]
• Time for another party? Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone group tripled its quarterly profits, sending stock back up. [CNN and NYT]
intel
By Dogsled or HMS Beagle, Celebs Prepare for ‘Time’ 100The Time 100 dinner, to be held tomorrow night at Jazz at Lincoln Center in celebration of the magazine’s annual “Most Influential People in the World” issue, is a hot ticket, an exclusive and glittering black-tie affair. And it seems the influential people will go to great lengths not to miss it. Virgin mogul Richard Branson, on the list this year, is currently on a 325-mile dogsled journey across Canada’s Arctic province of Nunavut to see the effects of global warming. He’s rushing to reach his endpoint — the delightfully named Igloolik — by Tuesday morning so he can be whisked to New York to make the dinner that night. “Will get the husky dogs to work a little bit harder!” he e-mailed.
