Sheer GeniusThe season’s big trend? Showing some skin. Get ready to bare it all.
BySharon Clott
Back of the House
Tom Colicchio Named One of the ‘Sexiest Men Alive’ and Sandwich
In the wake of his bigger, bearier, and balder Top Chef season, Craft chieftain Tom Colicchio seems to be finding ways to keep himself busy. Craft L.A., though receiving mixed reviews, is doing boffo business, and two more Craft restaurants are on the way in Atlanta and Connecticut. And, having been appointed the new Earl of Sandwich by Sara Lee, Colicchio is now, just in time for National Sandwich Day, giving confused Americans helpful tips like “think BIG flavor.”
the follow-up
One More Thing About the Pirros: Al Wants Counseling
When Jeanine Pirro’s campaign for attorney general is over — or, to be cruel but precise, once she loses — she’ll be going straight into marriage counseling, at least if her husband has anything to do with it.
New York’s Steve Fishman profiled the Pirros’ increasingly confounding marriage for this week’s magazine, and he found Al Pirro, Jeanine’s wayward husband — by all accounts a screamer, a bruiser, a brusque alpha male — surprisingly wounded and therapized, talking about his anxieties. Al knows he needs to be flattered, to be reminded that he makes more money than Jeanine, to feel generous (Fishman zeroes in on his compulsive need to pick up the check, even for parties of 30). He denies the infidelities that drove Jeanine up the wall (and into the dubious confidences of Bernie Kerik) while readily admitting something even more hurtful to a relationship: that he needs outside female companionship, be it platonic or not, because he doesn’t feel encouraged, admired, or appreciated at home. And he knows the couple needs to work on these issues.
“He was essentially stewing,” Fishman says. “He feels that he’s been shut out, silenced, and attacked, both by the campaign and by his wife personally.” Is there enough therapy in the world to get the pair past all that? Maybe, Fishman says. The real turning point for the relationship, he says, was Al’s tax-evasion conviction. “But it was never a fake marriage. There’s a basis of deep mutual admiration — hell, love.”
Can This Marriage Be Saved? [NYM]
three is a trend
Waistlines: Going Up
Your panties may be pretty, but next season they’re going undercover. Designers are hiking waistlines practically up to the neck. Rachel Roy offered belted ivory silk skirts while Verrier’s ruffled number stopped just short of the ribs. United Bamboo’s sailor-buttoned black skirt aims high but has a loose fit, so you can breathe even though you’re covered up.