Anne Hathaway Finally Gets Smart!Reports that Anne Hathaway broke up with boyfriend Raffaello Follieri go undenied by her reps, Ivanka Trump reveals a childhood trauma, André Leon Talley threatens to style again, and other celebrity reports in our daily digest.
Roger Clemens’s Icky AffairThe former Yankee pitcher allegedly kept up a ten-year fling with country singer Mindy McCready.
gossipmonger
For Cecilia Sarkozy, Revenge Is a Dish Best Served During the Venetian HourCecilia Sarkozy, the ex-wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, is set to get married to PR exec Richard Attias in New York on March 22. (Friends say it’s a “revenge” wedding.) Shelley Ross was so hated in her capacity as executive producer of CBS’ The Early Show that CBS News president Sean McManus didn’t even wait to find a replacement before firing her. Colin Farrell tried hitting on model Meghan Lowther at the Rose Bar, but found out the hard way that she has a boyfriend. The April issue of Elle features an interview given by Michelle Williams right after she broke up with Heath Ledger. New York real-estate giant Steven Fisher, best known for turning the aircraft carrier Intrepid into a museum, is trying to get his own TV show. Gossip Girl’s Conor Paolo wants, uh, Daniel Day-Lewis to join the cast.
it happened this week
Differences of OpinionWhile political watchers spent last week looking ahead to primaries in Ohio and Texas, the candidates engaged in a serious debate — over a photo of Barack Obama wearing Somali clothing. (An Obama staffer claimed Hillary Clinton had leaked the shot to make him look Islamic; Clinton’s campaign manager said no one had claimed the photo was “divisive” until Obama and his new friend at the Post played it up.) Latecomer Ralph Nader, unsafe at any speed as far as most liberals are concerned, moseyed into the presidential race. Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd backed Obama; Jersey governor Jon Corzine rushed to aid the Clintons in Cleveland.
the sports section
Will Andy Pettitte Help Send Clemens to Prison?
As reported in today’s Post, Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte isn’t taking the latest developments in the Roger Clemens steroid scandal well. If you haven’t been keeping up on your steroid news, Pettitte’s testimony against his best friend Clemens went a long way in corroborating the accusations of Brian McNamee, the trainer who claims to have injected Clemens with steroids and HGH. “I hate it, there is nothing else to say. You all know how I feel about it,” Pettitte told reporters as the Yankees trained in Tampa, Florida. “Whenever you testify against two guys [Clemens as well as McNamee] who are your friends it’s extremely difficult.” Now that the FBI is officially investigating Clemens and many expect him to be charged with perjury, it’s likely that Pettitte will be forced to testify once again. But in light of his shaky emotions, one wonders whether he will be able to summon the fortitude, when it comes down to it, to put Clemens in jail.
gossipmonger
Why Wouldn’t Sharon Bush Be Involved With Roger Clemens’s Steroid Scandal?Roger Clemens’s friendship with the black sheep of the Bush family, Sharon Bush, may cost him a pardon from George W. if he is convicted of perjury. Both HarperCollins and Random House are set to come out with books about George Steinbrenner. A “Page Six” spy thinks Howard Stern’s fiancée, Beth Ostrosky, wants to have a baby because she, uh, stopped to say hello to one. Will Ferrell and Tom Brokaw did an onstage bit together at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday for Ferrell’s Funny or Die tour. The New Yorker reveals that the late Bishop Paul Moore was a closeted homosexual. Tracy Westmoreland, owner of erstwhile dive bar Siberia, may play a bouncer in a movie called The Bouncer.
the sports section
Clemens Testimony Referred to DOJ for Perjury Investigation, After AllAfter hedging a bit, Congress has decided to refer Roger Clemens to the Department of Justice for a perjury investigation. They are concerned that his testimony over his alleged steroid use directly contradicts that of former trainer Brian McNamee and fellow Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte. You’d think this would be bad news for Clemens and his legal team, as a handful of U.S. leaders just basically called BS on his testimony. But we sort of suspect that his lawyers were a little bit psyched, because they got to deliver this line:
“Now we are done with the circus of public opinion, and we are moving to the courtroom,” Clemens’ lead lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. “Thankfully, we are now about to enter an arena where there are rules and people can be held properly accountable for outrageous statements.”
You can just hear the crack coming through between the words, as Hardin imagines himself hitting a PR homerun. No matter how good he is with words, it’s not going to fix all the damage Roger has done to himself by being bad with them.
Congress Asks DOJ to Investigate Clemens [AP]
Earlier: As Clemens’s Story Weakens, Congress Drafts Perjury Letter
the sports section
As Clemens’s Story Weakens, Congress Drafts Perjury LetterRoger Clemens’s congressional steroid testimony appears to be unraveling word-by-word and boob-by-boob just as the Times discovers that a letter is being drafted to refer Clemens to the Department of Justice for a perjury investigation. The Daily News reports that a famous Yankee locker-room story about Debbie Clemens, Roger’s current wife, comparing her breast enhancements with Roger’s previous wife, Jessica, at a 1998 barbecue at Jose Canseco’s house may be proof that the pitcher was lying about not being there. Meanwhile, the Times pokes holes in Roger’s claim that he needed to privately meet with his nanny before she talked to investigators because her English is “not that good.” According to the paper, she speaks the language very well, with just an accent, which indicates that Clemens may have wanted to prep her for another reason. The letter to the DOJ has not been sent, but its mere existence is a blow to Clemens. So far, Congress has not drafted one to recommend a perjury investigation on Brian McNamee, his former trainer who has supplied the steroid allegations. But more importantly, if there is an investigation, Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte will probably be dragged into all this again to testify. Leave our Andy alone! He’s trying to put all this mess with Clemens behind him. Can’t you just let him enjoy his rebound bromance in peace?
Congress May Single Out Clemens [NYT]
the sports section
A-Rod Also Finds Andy Adorable!Looks like Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte has a new big brother on the team. After the Mitchell Report was released and Andy Pettitte claimed that he and Roger Clemens both used performance-enhancing drugs (a claim Clemens very publicly denies), the media made much over the former “bromance” between the two. Since they were both from Texas and frequently trained together, it was easy to assume that they had a close mentor-protégé relationship. It added a dramatic detail to the steroid mess. Since that’s clearly been shot in the ass (HA!), it looks like the media is ready to assign Pettitte another bromantic entanglement. The Daily News says they have a “strange love” today:
“If I had a daughter, I would want her to marry Andy Pettitte,” Rodriguez told reporters. “That’s the biggest compliment I could give. The age difference might be a little awkward, but in today’s day and age anything is possible,” he said to laughter.
The Post quoted Rodriguez as calling Pettitte “one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met,” and pictures of the pair hugging joyfully appeared in papers and blogs all over. What can we say? The sports press loves a good bruv story!
A-Rod in Strange Love for Pettitte [NYDN]
WEAKEST LINKS [NYP]
Earlier: Andy Pettitte Is Delightful, Doomed
the sports section
Andy Pettitte Is Delightful, DoomedBreaking news: Andy Pettitte is adorable. He’s likable, he’s sweet, he’s honest, and he may just be the victim in all of this MLB performance-enhancing drug mess. Sure, he may have received injections of human growth hormone and been forced to throw his friend and mentor Roger Clemens under the bus, but isn’t he a peach? That’s the takeaway that many viewers and fans were left with after the Yankee pitcher’s hour-long press conference yesterday, during which he answered questions about his own drug experiences but avoided directly contradicting Clemens’s assertion that he “misremembered” a conversation about steroids with the older pitcher. (He did, however, pointedly say that trainer Brian McNamee, who claims to have injected Clemens and Pettitte, “told the truth about me.”) New York’s sports columnists, on the whole, were wildly impressed with Pettitte’s humble, endearing performance — if not entirely sold on his emotional honesty.
• George Vecsey was impressed by Pettitte’s reference to biblical lessons on conscience. “[It’s] a word one does not hear on a daily basis, particularly in the big-time sports mill.” [Times]
• Will Leitch thought the performance was similar to many other vaguely apologetic sports press conferences after past scandals. But he also thought Pettitte was being honest. “He’s completely full of bullshit,” Leitch wrote. “But we nevertheless agree with him, across the board.” [Deadspin]
it happened this week
Pulling Apart
The year’s first blanket of snow dropped from the skies two days before Valentine’s Day, but it soon washed away — and on the ground, heartbreak abounded. Barack Obama spoiled the Clintons’ romantic holiday, beating out Bill for a Grammy (with his reading of The Audacity of Hope) and stomping Hillary in eight primaries. Roger Clemens told a congressional committee that best bud Andy Pettitte was mistaken in his recollection that Clemens took human growth hormone, maintaining that wife Debbie was the only family member who’d done so.
the sports section
Digesting the McNamee-Clemens Testimony Before CongressIf you haven’t been watching today’s drawn-out congressional hearing with former Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens and his ex-trainer, Brian McNamee, then you’ve been missing a whole lot of awkwardness, lies, and frustration. As expected, Clemens began his testimony by insisting that he had never been injected with human growth hormone or steroids. Shortly afterward, McNamee (sitting two seats away) maintained that Clemens did. What has followed has been an incredibly tense grilling from cranky congressmen, in which one of the two men must be lying and both seem to be constantly contradicting small elements of their previous stories. One, if not both, will most likely be charged with perjury, according to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman Henry Waxman. Below, we’ve summarized what we’ve learned so far during each of the grillings by various members of the committee.
company town
‘Post’ Ruins Man’s Life Because He Has Weird SexMEDIA
• The Post violated a man’s privacy by publishing his name after he was injured in an S&M sex tryst. They also, um, called his wife and published where he lived. While activists protest, a spokesman says, “The Post will happily name every adult caught in a dog collar.” One day we need to really start “happily” naming every married Post editor caught at a strip joint. [Portfolio]
• Sam Zell’s Tribune Co. will cut staff by two percent. Is it the same two percent that he’s already cursed out? [LAT]
• Times scribe Alessandra Stanley spends a column (a few days late) talking about how MSNBC’s “Best Political Team on Television” is in disgrace. Sadly, it’s CNN that incessantly uses the “Best Political Team” moniker, which causes Gawker to ask whether the TV critic actually “owns a TV.” [Gawker]
the sports section
What You Need to Know Before Roger Clemens Testifies Before Congress TomorrowRoger Clemens’s bullpen got a little emptier today after his former Yankee compatriot Andy Pettitte effectively came in for relief on the opposing team. In the morning, Newsday broke word that Pettitte has already backed up a crucial piece evidence linking Clemens to steroid use. According to Representative Tom Davis, Pettitte’s account of a particular 2002 workout session with the two athletes and Clemens’s trainer Brian McNamee corroborates the version that McNamee tells — that while the three were training six years ago, McNamee told Pettitte that he was giving Clemens illegal drugs. McNamee, of course, is the source of much of the Mitchell Report’s evidence on steroid and HGH use in the MLB. He’s insisted that he repeatedly injected Clemens with steroids and HGH, and Pettitte with HGH (which Pettitte has admitted to). If Pettitte’s deposition validates the conversation, as Representative Davis said it did, then Clemens is going to have a much harder time convincing the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that McNamee was merely injecting him with a healthy dose of legal vitamins. Now, instead of just disputing the testimony of McNamee — a somewhat shady character to begin with — Clemens is also contradicting Andy Pettitte, who is (a) Clemens’s best friend, (b) a relatively honest guy since he came clean about the HGH, and (c) a two-time twenty-game winner. More important, Pettitte has no reason to lie. (Clemens’s claim that his fellow pitcher is simply “misremembering” sounds pretty weak.) Add to this McNamee’s recent delivery of allegedly tainted old syringes and gauze pads to authorities, and Clemens isn’t going on the mound tomorrow looking too good.
company town
Rudy Takes a BreatherLAW
• Now that he’s dropped out of the White House race, Rudy Giuliani plans to decompress before he starts lawyering at Bracewell & Giuliani. [Texas Lawyer]
• Oh, snap! Skadden is so not pleased about the hottest-female-associate contest that took place on the Skadden Insider blog. [Law.com]
• Perhaps Covington & Burling should have consulted its client Major League Baseball before agreeing to represent pitcher Roger Clemens. [American Lawyer]
company town
Meet Microsoft’s ‘Gatekeeper of Funding’FINANCE
• Now that Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid, it’s up to Microsoft’s self-described “gatekeeper of funding” Christopher P. Liddell to plot the company’s next chess move. [DealBook/NYT]
• Fearful that 90 percent of TheStreet.com’s franchise revolves around Jim Cramer, today the finance-driven Website launched Mainstreet.com, which will revolve around celebrities and personal finance. You think Britney’s psychological drama is intense? Wait until you hear about her bond portfolio. [NYP]
• France’s rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel might have had an accomplice. How did police find out? By sifting through 2,000 pages of instant-message traffic. Bet that was a gr8 time. [NYT]
company town
Martha Stewart Gets Starstruck When It Comes to MadonnaFASHION
• Martha Stewart used her digital camera to snap pictures of celebrities at the Gucci event at the U.N. the other night. “It’s for my blog,” she explained. [WWD]
• Anna Wintour and Suzy Menkes are getting kind of tired of Fashion Week. [The Cut]
• A twelve-page photo spread in the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar reenacts the two-hour delay of the Marc Jacobs show last fall, starring Helena Christensen, Allison Sarofim, Genevieve Jones, Cindy Sherman, Kim Gordon, and members of Jacobs’s own PR team, all looking visibly annoyed. Weird, and also kind of awesome? [Fashion Week Daily]
Hillary Clinton Dismays Anna WintourMEDIA
• Anna Wintour took Hillary Clinton to task for backing out of her Vogue photo shoot because she feared looking “too feminine.” Wintour: “The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying.” Ouch. [WWD]
• The Directors Guild showed up the writers in striking, heh, fashion: After just one week of negotiations, the directors struck a deal with the studios that includes the all-important online-video money. The writers are cautious, though, since the last time they followed the directors’ lead they got screwed on the home-video market. [WP]
• Wal-Mart, responsible for 20 percent of all “newsstand” magazine sales, announced it would dump more than 1,000 titles from its shelves. Shocking twist: The New Yorker stays, but Boar Hunter Magazine is out! [NYP]
the sports section
MLB Steroid Report Fingers 29 New York PlayersGeorge Mitchell’s report on steroids was released today, and there are plenty of local names named. The document is a whopping 409 pages long, but we count no fewer than 29 onetime Mets and Yankees. The report lacks the out-of-nowhere bombshell name — did anyone really expect someone like A-Rod or David Wright to turn up? — but does confirm the rumors that Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte had juiced up. In fact, eight members of the Yanks’ last World Series championship team — Clemens, Pettitte, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, Mike Stanton, Glenallen Hill, Denny Neagle, and Jose Canseco — are named. Pettitte, Jason Giambi, and Scott Schoeneweis are the only active New York players on the list. —Joe DeLessio
it happened this week
Hitting the RoadAs a halfhearted cabbie strike made it easier to flag down a school bus than a yellow taxi during rush hour last week, the Big Apple did its best to keep moving forward. Hillary out-earned rivals Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani in the city during the second quarter — and bested Rudy in a poll asking which candidate people would most like to have riding shotgun on a long road trip — but hit a speed bump trying to maintain her distance from former six-figure fund-raiser and felon Norman Hsu, who skipped out on bail.
the sports section
The Yanks’ Losing Season: How Can Fans Cope?
As the halfway mark passes — um: yay, American League! — the Yankees’ season is already over: They’re ten games behind the Red Sox and out of the wild-card race. They’ve run out of saviors. Unless the earth starts spinning backward, or someone fudges the math, or Steinbrenner discovers a way to fire the entire A.L. East, there will be no signature late-summer heroics, no storming back and humiliating the Red Sox, no sweeping the postseason awards. We are witnessing, at long last, the global-warming-ish collapse of the Torre dynasty — long predicted by doomsdayers, supported recently by airtight statistical trends, and now suddenly upon us.
This leaves Yankee fans in an unfamiliar position. How do we cope with an entirely meaningless second half of the season?
gossipmonger
Gore and Sting, BFFAl Gore hung out at Sting’s apartment on Central Park West after the Live Earth concert. Roger Clemens got his hair highlighted for $120 at the Pierre Michel Salon. Jane Pratt feels vindicated now that Jane magazine has folded. Newly IPO’d billionaire Stephen Schwarzman and his wife dined at Club 55 in St. Tropez. A movie starring Alec Baldwin is set to hit theaters, even though he doesn’t want it released because he thinks it’s so bad it’s “unrecognizable.” Jon Bon Jovi took a helicopter to Ron Perelman’s party in the Hamptons. Teri Hatcher acted like a diva at Eva Longoria’s wedding. A clubgoer caught Paris Hilton smoking pot.
it happened this week
Forever
It was a good week to consider one’s legacy, as the world’s most beautiful women Scarlett, J.Lo, Cameron, et al. descended on the Met decked out in some of the world’s shiniest dresses to honor a long-dead, but once terribly important, French designer. Mayor Bloomberg spent the week giving high marks to himself, for fulfilling campaign promises. But he denied that he was seeking immortality in Albany by gunning for Eliot Spitzer’s job in 2010. (State Republican chief Joseph Bruno’s insistence notwithstanding, Mayor Mike said any reports of Albany envy were “totally made up.”)
