Will ‘Kristen’ Get a High Rate From the Media, Too?MEDIA
• How did the New York Times get the Spitzer scoop anyway? [NYO]
• “CNN Admits: We Shouldn’t Have Used Alleged Stripper Biter As Spitzer Commentator.” [AP via HuffPo]
• Bids for an interviews with “Kristen,” the prostitute who slept with “Client 9,” are reportedly up to $100,000. [Guest of a Guest]
early and often
The Surprising Facets of Last Night’s Unsurprising Obama Victory
As you probably already know, but perhaps haven’t been much thinking about, Barack Obama won the Mississippi primary last night. It was a big win, something like 60 percent to 37 percent. Clinton didn’t make much of an effort in the state, so she probably didn’t take the loss too hard — for a woman who claims to want to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations so that every Democratic voter can feel like he’s been listened to, she’s certainly been ignoring a large amount of them. But the exit-poll numbers indicate a few surprises. For one thing, Hillary Clinton received the lion’s share of crossover votes (Republican voters who vote in the Democratic primary), which is a first — every other time crossover voting has been included, Obama has trumped her with this group. But this time, Hillary took them 3 to 1. Obama took 90 percent of the black vote, and Hillary did better than usual with the white vote, which Politico’s Ben Smith chalks up to the attitudes of southern white voters. And finally, Obama won either five or seven delegates more than Hillary did last night, depending on who is counting. This effectively erases any ground she may have gained after her big wins last Tuesday.
We will now return to our round-the-clock Eliot Spitzer hookapalooza coverage.
Mississippi Crossovers [Talking Points Memo]
Mississippi Delegates [Politico]
The Magnolia State Stats [Stumper/Newsweek]
Obama Wins In Mississippi [NYT]
photo op
Tinsley Mortimer Never Misses a Press Line Tinsley Mortimer, hair styled, full face of makeup, popped into a nail salon yesterday afternoon for a new coat of Ballet Slippers. As you can see, the nail salon she chose happens to be Iris Nails on Madison Avenue. Which happens to be next door to the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home. Which happens to have been surrounded by photographers since early yesterday, when Heath Ledger’s body was taken there to await burial. We’re just saying.
Tinsley Mortimer’s Grim Photo-Op [Socialite Life]
intel
The Night We Shared a Moment With ‘The Captain’
We had just arrived at Morandi last night when a pair of older, Sopranos-looking gentlemen sitting at the end of the bar got into a spat with some other patrons and stomped out. “You wanna start something with me?” the one with a pompadour snarled. “C’mon, Paulie, let’s get outta here,” his friend said, and they slammed their glasses down and stomped out. “Weird,” our friend said, as we settled into their seats. “Do you think Keith McNally paid those guys to be here, like Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding?” But we were too distracted to ponder this possibility, because right then, at the other end of the bar, directly in our line of vision, was a face that over the past five months and five days we had come to know, and indeed, to love. “Look,” we whispered to our friend. “It’s The Captain.”
party lines
Alan Cumming, ReporterWe know Alan Cumming has had sex with journalists. But would he ever like to try being a journalist, like Naomi Campbell, who recently interviewed Hugo Chavez for British GQ? “I’d love to ask certain questions to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama,” he said at the launch of the Italian Commission’s Made in Italy ad campaign at the Hearst tower. “I’d like to know where they stand on equal rights for gay people. I’d also like to interview George Bush, just to watch him squirm.” (Maybe he could ask him, “You’re into your cock, aren’t you?”) But what about the people who really matter?, we pressed. Which celebrities would he like to interview? “I’d like to find out who all those blonde girls are — there’s a whole lot of them who look the same, the ones from The Hills, and that Hayden, um, Pan-i-tare? She’s everywhere,” he said. “And who’s that one, that Kim Ka-shi-shen?” Kardashian? We said. The one who made a sex tape with Brandy’s brother and now has a TV show? “Yes! My friend told me she’s a skanky whore, and I’m like, ‘Wow, she’s a lot more interesting than I thought she was.’” Like any ambitious reporter, Cumming would like to land the big story. “I’d love to interview Britney,” he said wistfully. Then he changed his mind. “But I’d rather her do it with one of those E! TV people, or Oprah.” That’s it, Alan Cumming will take care of Hillary and Barack. Let the professionals handle Britney. —Amy Preiser
intel
Col Allan Is Not Afraid of Mary-Kate Olsen!Following our post this morning about how the Post’s story on Mary-Kate Olsen being questioned by police turned out to be wrong, we just received this statement from Post editor-in-chief Col Allan, via e-mail:
We confirmed this story last night with an impeccable source inside the NYPD and we stand by our reporting. Almost immediately after the tragic passing of Mr. Ledger, Ms. Olsen’s attorneys began emailing us threatening letters. As has been well reported, there were a number of calls to Ms. Olsen from the masseuse before the NYPD arrived on the scene. We would find it strange if Ms. Olsen were not questioned at all. The New York Post will not be pressured and we find it odd that the chiefs at the NYPD appear to be terrified of 4-foot-11 inch, 90-pound Mary Kate Olsen.
Classic.
Related: In Ledger Mystery, ‘Post’ Goes After Mary-Kate. Cops, Not as Much
neighborhood watch
Skeletons Found in Washington Square ParkGreenwich Village: Renovations in Washington Square Park have uncovered human remains, and not for the first time in the park’s history: The site used to be a graveyard for the poor. [Gothamist]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: You all know cool little Brownstone Books in Stuy Heights, right? Well, it’s going to take over the bookstore at BAM, too. Wowza. [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Carroll Gardens: Some streets here will probably be reclassified as “narrow,” rather than “wide,” in order to impose new building-height limitations in these quaint parts. [Gowanus Lounge]
in other news
In Ledger Mystery, ‘Post’ Goes After Mary-Kate. Cops, Not as MuchWe’ll admit it: When we saw the cover of the Post today, we felt a little bad for Mary-Kate Olsen. Sure, it was weird that she didn’t tell her masseuse to call 911 immediately after the employee found Heath Ledger’s dead body, but everything happened quickly, and she did try to help. Why was it suddenly her responsibility to take care of things? She’s only 13 years old for Pete’s sake. The “HEAT IS ON MARY KATE” headline, followed by the “Cops to grill her in death” kicker, seemed a little aggressive. And, we’ve just found out, it’s not even true. Both Us Weekly and TMZ.com are reporting that Mary-Kate will not be questioned. “We have absolutely no interest in talking to Mary-Kate,” a police source explained today. Now, if you look closely at the Post story, buried at the bottom, another cop source said the same thing. “Law enforcement sources last night said they did not think there was anything suspicious about either [the masseuse’s] or Olsen’s conduct,” their story said. So the heat, technically, was not on her at any time. Except, of course, from the Post.
Police Source: Mary-Kate Olsen Will Not Be Grilled Over Heath Ledger Calls [Us Weekly]
Mary-Kate Story Bogus [TMZ.com]
early and often
The Republican Debate Made Mildly Interesting!Last night’s Republican debate at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton was about as feisty as knitting lessons at the community center. It was as if the candidates, who mostly avoided attacks, were tired from the heat. Many observers handed Romney the victory for his smooth answers on the economy; McCain also did well. But Giuliani and Huckabee, while they didn’t do poorly, didn’t do much to break out of their second-tier positions in Florida. For those who missed it, we sifted the platitudes for the stuff that really matters.
gossipmonger
Has Al Gore Been Touching Bono in a Bad Way?
Bono says that being with Al Gore is like “being with an Irish priest.” Mel Gibson supposedly distanced himself from Heath Ledger after Ledger chose to play a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain against Gibson’s counsel. Celebs like Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey may like Hugo Chavez because of his drugs.
vu.
Margaret Truman Gets $2 Million Per FloorWhen she announced she was putting her Park Avenue apartment on the market last spring, writer and First Daughter Margaret Truman had banked on the triplex maisonette’s “brush with presidential history” helping to sell it, according to the New York Times. Apparently, it worked eventually. Truman, who authored a spate of murder mysteries set in the nation’s capital and was married to late Times editor Clifton Daniel, had offers by the beginning of fall. In October it had gone into contract, a deal that, according to a source, finally closed today. It took some price cuts, though: The triplex maisonette, which has four bedrooms, four baths, and a working fireplace, had an initial asking of $8 million but was slashed six weeks later to $7.5 million. The final price: $6 million. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
intel
Examining Our First Fashion Week Survival KitToday, publicists for Peroni Italian Beer, a sponsor of Fashion Week, sent us a very generous survival kit to help us make it through the coming two weeks. It included a lot of useful things that will keep us feeling healthy enough and looking unhealthy enough to fit right in at the tents at Bryant Park. But some of the objects had us scratching our heads. What on earth, for example, do we need a gift certificate to a spa in Miami for? Below, we’ve divided the contents of the kit into two categories: things that we know the uses for and things that, well, we’re not quite as sure about.
Thanks, guys! This will really help!
1 tube deluxe body crème [For feeling soft while we look sharp.]
1 packet Emergen-C [For energy.]
1 pack Peroni mints [Because try as we might, we always end up having to talk to people.]
2 packets Advil [Since the above effort always gives us a headache.]
1 emery board [To sharpen our talons, of course.]
1 box TipToes [Well, we’re certainly not going to be wearing flats.]
in other news
Fox’s John Gibson Apologizes for Insensitive Remarks About Heath LedgerThe blogosphere has been churning all day over Fox host John Gibson’s comments on his radio show yesterday about the death of Heath Ledger. To recap: Gibson played the “I can’t quit you” clip from Brokeback Mountain; said, “Well, I guess he found a way to quit you,” to much laughter in the studio; then followed up with a barrage of the sort of tasteless banter we have come to expect from these shows. “I don’t know why a 28-year-old guy is thinking about death,” Gibson said disparagingly, referring to a quote from an interview Ledger gave in 2007 in which he said his daughter caused him to “look at death differently.” “Maybe he was a deep thinker,” a female co-host chimed in. “Maybe he was a weirdo,” Gibson said. He laughed, then played another clip from Brokeback, in which Ledger’s character says, “We’re dead,” several times. The clip made its way to Gawker, Newshounds, and other blogs, who dug up clips of Gibson’s remarks about Brokeback Mountain (“I just think most people do not want to go into a darkened room with a tub of popcorn and munch away watching two guys get it on,” among others), and now GLAAD is leading a protest against Gibson and Fox. The Intelligencer hears that Gibson will address his remarks on his television show, The Big Story, at 5 p.m. Watch this space for updates.
UPDATE, 6 p.m.: Indeed, Gibson closed out The Big Story tonight by reading an apology: “I have received many complaints regarding my comments on my radio show about the death of Heath Ledger,” he said. “I’m sorry that some took my comments as anti-gay and insensitive. I am aware that Ledger has a family, and I am sorry if I offended them and those who knew him, but most of all I am sorry for the loss of a young man I understand was a fine actor and human being. Once again, to those offended by my comments, I’m sorry.” Will this be enough to keep the wolves at bay?
early and often
Diva Debaters: Which One Is Bigger?Hey, everybody! There’s an update in New York’s patented 2008 Electopedia. In our exhaustive look at New York’s presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, we’ve already compared the two in categories ranging from “First Love” to “Relationship With Offspring.” Today’s matchup is “Best Debate Smackdown.” Think you know when Giuliani’s elbow (or Hillary’s voice) was at its sharpest? Click through to read all about it.
Best Debate Smackdown [Electopedia]
The 2008 Electopedia [Main Page]
intel
Hello, Kettle? This Is Bonnie. You’re Black.We’re a little confused by Bonnie Fuller’s Huffington Post tirade about Lynne Spears. Just a month ago, Fuller wrote a column on the Website thanking celebrity moms for making real moms feel better about themselves. “Every time that our girl [Britney Spears] cluelessly tries to whitestrip her toddler’s teeth instead of brushing them or runs a red light with the court-appointed monitor and her two sons all strapped in her car,” the tabloid queen wrote then, “working moms across the continent can set back our own personal guilt-meters about our mothering skills.” Aw. Perhaps that’s a little demented, but we can appreciate the sentiment. But today she no longer loves celebrity mothers. She hates them. Specifically, Britney’s mom, Lynne, whom she accuses of not properly teaching her daughters about the birds and the bees, and inadvertently causing her young daughter’s pregnancy. “Were you too busy pushing their careers to ever have this heart-to-heart with them?” the Star editorial director demands. “Were you too tied up lining up meetings with record company executives, TV networks, publicists and tour managers to check on whether you were instilling personal values and self-esteem in your daughters?”
party lines
HBO’s Sheila Nevins Is Confused by Tina Brown, Bored by Hillary So, what exactly is Tina Brown doing at HBO? We asked Sheila Nevins, head of HBO’s documentary division, when we saw her at last night’s Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund Launch Dinner. “I don’t know!” she said. “You tell me! I thought I’d read it in New York Magazine!” Nope, it was Liz Smith. “Here’s the hot skinny on the queen of buzz,” Liz wrote yesterday. “The amazing Tina Brown is in a newly struck, first-look deal to bring projects and story ideas to HBO.” We can see how you’d confuse us, though. Anyway! Would Nevins be open to discussing ideas with Tina? “I talk to anybody! I like to work with anybody,” she said, although she rejected the idea of a Princess Di documentary inspired by Brown’s book. “There are too many Diana documentaries,” she said. Yeah, people said that about the book, too. How about something on one of the presidential candidates? Hillary? “Well they say Hillary’s tough to get good access to,” she said. “I think actually what’s her name tried. [Alexandra] Pelosi tried. But I don’t think she got in the door. Candidates are boring. I think real people are more interesting. I’m into sort of human things, beating the odds. Ordinary people that crawl out of manhole covers. I like to lift manhole covers. And womanhole covers.” —Amy Odell
white men with money
There’s Hateration in Goldman’s Dancery!Will no one let Goldman Sachs enjoy their moment? After news of their record earnings (and hefty compensation packages) broke yesterday, today the Goldman backlash begins in earnest, proving you can be too successful, too rich, and too pretty. “How long can Goldman keep it up?” Andrew Ross Sorkin asks on the Times DealBook blog. Meanwhile in the business section, Jenny Anderson uses Goldman CFO David Viniar’s remark yesterday about being “cautious” in the short term to go all negative Nancy. “For now, Goldman and its employees have much to celebrate,” she writes, going on to quote an analyst saying the bank can’t possibly do another “Houdini hedge escape” next year. That’s riiight. It’s never to early to worry about your future! Thanks, mom!
company town
Morgy Says, ‘I’m Too Old to Retire!’LAW
• Robert Morgenthau called a press conference in response to a “Page Six” item about him stepping down after 33 years: “I’m too old to retire.” The man is 88! [NYT]
• Big-time Mayer Brown partner Joseph Collins, who maintains offices in both New York and Chicago, has been indicted for fraud in the Refco case. [Above the Law]
• Which court is the worst “judicial hellhole” in the country? [Law Blog/WSJ]
photo op
Subliminal Messages in the HBO Store WindowIf you’ve walked up Sixth Avenue recently, you’ve probably noticed that there is what seems to be an odd boutique specializing in Sex and the City merchandise. What it turns out to be is the HBO store, which has tarted up its window display in honor of the upcoming SATC movie. It is “striking, innovative and fashion-forward” boasts a press release we just received in our in-box. It’s also continually playing the movie trailer, which was recently released. But in the still image above, without the flashy preview clip, we can’t help but be distracted by this question: How many of the objects in that window are sex toys?
Earlier: The ‘Sex and the City’ Trailer Arriveth
in other news
Questioning the ‘Times’ DogsThere are a few things we can’t wrap our heads around with this whole story about Blackwater shooting one of the New York Times’ dogs in Baghdad. One of them is, why does the Times bureau have dogs? It wasn’t someone’s personal pet, according to the stories. It was a pet shared by the residents of the Times compound. Even a Huffington Post blogger who was bitten by one of them doesn’t explain why they are there. Another question is this: On a day when Britney Spears’s 16-year-old sister gets knocked up, who at the Post thought it would be a good idea to split the cover between the pregnancy story and a drawing of a doghouse with “Pooch Sulzberger” written on it? The Spears family is like the mother lode (ha, they’re all mothers now) for the Post. Over the years, the paper’s probably devoted more ink to hating them than to hating Al Gore. But somehow a cheap joke comparing Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger to a dead dog elbowed Jamie Lynn halfway off the cover. And finally, how come everybody who has written about it gets to use a “this time the deadly shooting in Baghdad was of a dog” joke? How is that, in any way, appropriate? Ha-ha! Murders are so common here, it’s funny when something dies that isn’t an American! That’s a real home run.
New York Times in Iraq: Blackwater Shot Our Dog [Reuters]
gossipmonger
Um, Jamie Lynn Spears Is PregnantLindsay Lohan has been hanging out a lot with Courtenay Semel, the daughter of Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel and a “power lesbian.” Also her dad, Michael Lohan, played Joseph in a Times Square Nativity scene. Dennis Miller and Jon Voight are among the Rudy Giuliani supporters in Hollywood. The Spears line continues: Britney’s 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, is pregnant. Is Damon Dash’s junk mind-blowing? A woman is claiming that he made her bipolar when he exposed his genitals to her.
early and often
The ‘Times’ Issues a Verdict on Bill Clinton’s PresidencyToday the New York Times caved to the onslaught of Bill Clinton stories around the country (Secretly he’s the one running against Obama! He kept Hillary waiting at a grocery store! Even other countries noticed it was awkward!) and posted online their massive Bill Clinton story that will run in this weekend’s Times Magazine. They did that weird thing where they publish things into the future (its pub date is listed as December 23). It’s a behemoth of a story by their political blogger and writer Matt Bai. In it, Bai exhaustively retells the story of the Clinton presidency and then throws in some details on how it may affect Hillary. But we thought that the most telling of Bai’s anecdotes was this one:
When I asked Bill Clinton about this issue, during an informal meeting in South Carolina, he readily agreed to sit down for a longer interview on his legacy’s role in the campaign. A few weeks later, however, and at the last minute, Hillary’s aides canceled the interview. Famously controlling, they would not even allow the former president to talk about his record.
Hillary’s advisers were probably trying to stop the onslaught of Bubba coverage, which they knew would inevitably become the main story if it got too big. Unfortunately for them, it looks like this week, they failed in that effort.
white men with money
Cayne & Co. Will Not Bogart the BonusesChristmas is a time for giving, and lest we forget, it is also a time for sacrifice. This year, James Cayne and the other top executives at Bear Stearns are making the ultimate sacrifice: They’ve decided to forgo their year-end bonuses. Because they have enough money? Because they decided to donate it to the children of Darfur? Because J.C. hit it big at bridge? Eh, no. Ostensibly this decision has come about because they’re gearing up to announce some pretty shameful fourth-quarter results tomorrow, and after losing $1.6 billion in investor money this year, pocketing what little is left would look kind of bad. So instead they’re divvying up the small pool left over from what they didn’t blow on subprime mortgages and giving it to players in the firm in hopes that they don’t jump over to, say, Goldman Sachs.
Bear Stearns Chiefs to Skip Bonuses [WSJ]
Update: It’s a trend! After announcing a $9.4 billion writedown, Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack is foregoing his bonus, too. Somewhere, Zoe Cruz is snickering.
intel
‘Happy Is the Lawyer Who Dwelleth in the House of Unroch’s Blog’You remember William Unroch. He’s the lawyer representing possible transsexual Maximilia Cordero in her lawsuits against Jeffrey Epstein and the Post; a blogger; a sometime Daily Intel correspondent; and a genuine crazy person. William read our post earlier on the Wall Street Journal’s story about the large percentage of lawyers who suffer from depression and the Websites that have sprung up to help them, and he decided to put his two cents in on the subject.
Lawyers are Sad because they do not read Unroch’s blog The Spirit World (you known the site). Guilt and misery are common byproducts of most lawyers. Vicious is as vicious does. The Spirit world will cleanse them. Happy is the lawyer who dwelleth in the house of Unroch’s blog.
Hm. Actually, lawyers are depressed because they have insane billable-hour quotas and are constantly fighting with people. That said: Unroch’s musings on “dead pig vapor,” “Devil Midgets,” and Mike Huckabee (“Sounds like a good guy. But does he accept the Space Pig?”) do make us smile. Happy holidays, lawyers!
William Unroch’s Blog [Attorneys NYC]
Earlier: Daily Intel’s coverage of William Unroch and Maximilia Cordero
neighborhood watch
Malcolm Gladwell: Big Hair, Big Feet, Big Heart?Upper East Side: Malcolm Gladwell revealed his big feet, gesticulated intensely, said people shouldn’t be allowed to say where they went to college, and stole bloggery hearts at the 92nd St. Y the other night. [UES Informer]
Bushwick: Now the hipsters are staging Punk Rock Pillow Fights. Will their crazy, ironic, lo-fi fun ever stop? [Brooklyn Rink via the vaguely anti-Semitic BushwickBK]
East Harlem: A principal at a high school here sent teachers a memo telling them to dumb down their standards for the kids. Uh-huh. [NYDN]
Harlem: Amid its massive, seventeen-acre expansion in the hood’s west side, Columbia says it won’t tear down the Cotton Club on 125th after all. That’s Christian of them. [NYP]
the sports section
WNBC Plays the DopeYesterday WNBC beat everyone to the punch by printing the much-sought-after list of doped-up baseball players in the Mitchell Report. They ran their list online at 11:23, nearly three hours before the press conference, smugly scooping everybody but the blog Deadspin.com, which published the same names just seven minutes earlier. Unfortunately for our local NBC affiliate, the list of names was fake. It included Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, and a whole bunch of other players who weren’t fingered in the Mitchell Report. And unlike Deadspin, WNBC didn’t publish them with the caveat that they weren’t sure it was real. So fifteen players who were on their list, but not in the report, had their names smeared (as yet without apology) for several hours yesterday. The Smoking Gun has the full fake report, and MLB.com has the real one. We don’t know who made the screwup of posting the WNBC list, but we’re betting they’re Yankees fans. Theirs hits the Red Sox much harder than the real one.
WNBC’s Bogus Steroids Scoop [Smoking Gun]
Earlier: MLB Steroid Report Fingers 29 New York Players
Update: WNBC has a correction on their site. “There were a number of discrepancies between our list and the Mitchell report, and we mistakenly listed several players that did not appear in the report,” they explain. “[Reporter] Jonathan Dienst and WNBC.com regret the error and sincerely apologize for providing the incorrect information.”
in other news
Macy’s Hosts Your Holiday After-partyMacy’s announced this week that they are going to keep eight of their locations, including the Herald Square flagship store, open at all hours of the day and night from December 21 to Christmas Eve. From the Staten Island Advance:
Shoppers will be greeted with the ongoing sales Macy’s has been holding since Black Friday, said spokeswoman Elina Kazan. “The most important thing about being open 24 hours is that it makes shopping convenient to people with different schedules,” she said. “This gives everyone a little extra time.” Company officials have been planning the shopping marathon for months to ensure there is enough manpower and merchandise.
Everyone is saying this is so nice of Macy’s to open the store so everyone, no matter what their time constraints, has a chance to shop. Now, once all the crowds have gone for the day, customers will be able to wade through the dunes of scattered merchandise in peace. What a great Christmas present. And just think of all the homeless people who will have a nice bed of jumbled merino V-neck sweaters!
At Macy’s, A Shopping Marathon [SI Advance]
intel
Trying to Save Part of Edward Hopper’s New YorkWhen much of Greenwich Village was landmarked in 1969, the low-rise sprawl of humble Italian-immigrant groceries and tenements southeast of the neighborhood, along Sullivan and Thompson streets and even Seventh Avenue South, didn’t make it inside the designated historic safety zone. The area, while not full of great monuments, has its own quiet claims on history. The artist Edward Hopper lived there most of his life, and his paintings like Early Sunday Morning were set there. On December 10, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the local community board convened more than 100 people inside Our Lady of Pompeii Church to figure out how to get the city to landmark the area to keep its Hopperness intact. GVSHP’s Andrew Berman points out that it’s filled with gems like Macdougal Street’s Provincetown Playhouse, which launched Eugene O’Neill, and a nearby rowhouse where Louisa May Alcott may have worked on Little Women. Parts of the façade are all that remains of Edgar Allan Poe’s house on West 3rd, which NYU subsumed into a big new building, raising alarms.
office-party patrol
‘CosmoGIRL!’ Parties Like It’s Freshman Year All Over AgainLast night saw loads of magazine parties: The blazered GQ staff boogied down at Passerby, Wenner Media rocked out at Madison in the meatpacking district, and W celebrated its continued existence at Death & Co. We didn’t go to any of those, because we were at New York’s own fiesta at the Cub Room. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you much about that, partly because we’re not allowed to but mostly because we can’t remember much — except that we were pleased to learn that our co-workers like to party. And that Jessica Coen will do the splits if you ask her nicely. But we can offer you a report from inside the CosmoGirl soirée, held at the decidedly un-girlie Rumours, a tinsel-decked, wood-paneled sports bar on Eighth Avenue in midtown.
party lines
Fern Mallis and Simon Doonan’s Tips on TippingAttention shoppers! It’s that time of year. Yes, the Tipping Time, wherein you must give of your bounty unto all those little people who make your world go round (even if it makes you a little morally queasy). But what to give, and to whom? Well! We ran into Barneys creative director Simon Doonan and Fashion Week overlord Fern Mallis several weeks back at the launch for our New York Look fashion magazine (which, we might add, yet again, is pretty fucking fantastic), and asked them how they treat the help when the holidays come around. What we discovered was a highly detailed system of reward, based on equal parts anger, fear, and compassion, which we’ve made into a handy list, below.
1. If you subscribe to fashion magazines, be generous to your postal carriers.
As every girl or gay knows, September fashion magazines are heavy enough to be used as doorstops or murder weapons. You’ve seen your coffee table buckle under the weight. Now imagine the spinal discs of your poor postal carrier, forced to lug a 5,000-page Vogue to every apartment in your building. And then there’s Bazaar. And W. Oh, God, that W. Feel guilty yet? Doonan does. “Every postal worker who has ever delivered to my building has gone on sick leave with hernia from lifting magazines. It’s a really disastrous situation,” he says. His tipping solution: at least $25. “But I do raises, so [my postal carrier] is making a fortune now.”
photo op
Chelsea Clinton Floored at StarbucksYeah, hey, it’s me. I’m at Starbucks. Guess who’s sitting right behind me. [Whispers] Chelsea Clinton. She’s sitting right behind me. I don’t know, she’s typing on her laptop. She’s sitting on the floor. She looks hot these days. Totally hot. I mean, way hotter than when she was like 13. No, I’m at a table. What? You think I should give her my seat or something? No fucking way, dude.
Chelsea Clinton at Starbucks: We Have Soooo Been There [Jezebel]
neighborhood watch
You Aren’t the Only Person Who Comes Home to Find Random People Smoking in Your StairwellClinton Hill: Beware of undesirables who sneak into your apartment building to smoke butts, do drugs, copulate, urinate, and drink coffee. Because it’s happening. [Clinton Hill Blog]
East Village: The latest bank branch hopes that if it puts up a big photo of the hood in Ye Olden Days, no one will notice that it’s filled mostly with bank branches now. [Vanishing New York]
Flushing: Local Quaker farmers demand freedom of worship! Well, they did in 1657. But the tatty document in which they listed their demands, called “The religious Magna Carta of the New World,” is on display up in here. [NYT]
in other news
Your Council Speaker Is Totally Crushing on Valerie Bertinelli
In 1978, before we knew we really like boys, we had the mad hots for our bubbly 13-year-old babysitter, Lisa, who rocked gym shorts, knee-length Jox socks, and two perfect, feathered brunette wings over her forehead. But why did we really worship her? Because she was a dead ringer for Valerie Bertinelli, that spunky Italian nymphette who, back then, played youngest daughter Barbara on One Day at a Time. (Today, she duels with Kirstie Alley in those Jenny Craig commercials.)
So, in this new NY1 clip, when our (sometimes) bubbly, openly lesbian City Council speaker Christine Quinn said that she likes to chill out by watching Lifetime flicks starring the adult, still-perky Val, we knew just what she was talking about: “Anything with Valerie Bertinelli is usually a good show because there are struggles,” said Quinn, who also did the usual dodge of the usual probe into her mayoral ambitions. “They are strong women, and it usually ends on an up note.”
neighborhood watch
Ditmas Park Manse Finds a Fixer to Up ItDitmas Park: Remember that beautiful, dilapidated mansion on the market for $1.75 mil that New York featured a while back? It just sold for $1.55 mil. Happy fix-up, somebody. [Ditmas Park Blog]
East Village: Gentrification haters have two fun protests tonight — one of the imminent Cooper Square Hotel, another of a local shoot for SATC ripoff Lipstick Jungle. [Vanishing New York]
Greenpoint: Chuck, fuck, but definitely not marry. That’s how Miss Heather feels about the daily papers that rip stories off from her posts (like last week’s one about sneakers hanging from phone lines) without crediting her blog. Girl, you gotta change that scatological blog title … yeah, even for the gutter mouth Post! [Newyorkshitty]
developing
Hudson Yards Development: Guaranteed GreenYou may have seen a bunch of renderings of potential designs for the land above the Hudson Yards in this morning’s papers. But as one of the teams’ lead architects pointed out to us, “The challenge is, your eye immediately goes to the buildings, but it’s unlikely any of the buildings are going to look like this. That’s the challenge to the MTA, to boil down fundamental issues for the public.” So instead, we’re giving you one of the images that probably will find its way into reality if its team is selected — one for the long, narrow green space looking eastward from the Durst/Vornado proposal. That might just be the glass arc over the proposed Moynihan Station that you see in the distance. But meanwhile, what is Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling doing in the foreground on the right? —Alec Appelbaum
Related: The Next ‘West’ Thing [NYP]
Five Companies Bid to Remake Six Blocks of Hudson Yards Area [NYDN]
in other news
A Beard for Every BoroughOver on Men’s Vogue’s Website, socialite/designer/whatever Amanda Brooks is agitating hard for the return of the “uptown beard.” Even after perusing the pictures, we personally can’t tell exactly what separates an uptown beard from the others — probably because we come from slightly different stock than Amanda and such subtleties are lost on us — but we’re guessing she means something like the fuzz George Clooney has been sporting lately. And we quite like the idea of regional beard styles. For instance, there could also be the downtown beard, dark and spirited, like Simon Hammerstein’s. Or the Williamsbeard, which would be pomaded with Miller Genuine Draft and sprinkled with panko bread crumbs (the East Williamsbeard would have side curls.) The Jerseybeard would be a soul patch. Other beard suggestions? Tell us in the comments!
Uptown Beards [Men’s Vogue]
in other news
Dolly Lenz Can’t Imagine Why Anyone Would Dislike HerWhen it first came out that a prominent real-estate agent had been murdered several weeks ago, Robert Kolker writes in New York this week, before that person was revealed to be Linda Stein, some in the real-estate community guessed the deceased might be super-broker Dolly Lenz, a fact Lenz backed up herself, telling the writer she got twenty calls from people that night, including her own son, asking if she was okay. That’s weird, we thought. Wouldn’t her own son know if she was dead or not? Oh maybe not. “I would say I speak to my son 10 minutes a week,” Lenz says in an Observer profile coming out later this week, tidbits of which are on their Website now. “I would say I spend an hour [a week] with my daughter.” Even with her superb parenting skills, sterling reputation (“I’ve known Dolly for over twenty years, and systematically, whatever friendship she has, it dissolves,” former Elliman president Paul Purcell told New York in 2005), and — as the Observer nicely puts it — “outsize” personality, Dolly can’t imagine anything bad happening to her. “Never,” she tells the paper. “I feel like I treat everybody 100 percent fairly, and I think at the end of the day that’s all they really expect.” But maybe she shouldn’t be so sure. When Stein died, “we were hoping it was Dolly,” one broker told New York with a giggle. Um, yikes.
The $748,319,000 Woman [NYO]
Related: Death of a Broker [NYM]
neighborhood watch
Chelsea, Now With Lap Pools!Chelsea: New promo pics for the too-fabulous Yves (so French!) condo tell a smoldering story of love, lust, and on-site lap pools. [Curbed]
Clinton Hill: Don’t click here unless you’re ready to see the dead, mutilated squirrel left in front of the home of this blogger. Revenge from a developer who got a snarky write-up? [Brownstoner]
Downtown Brooklyn: The massive new real estate planned for the area may not be so massive overall…think 1.6 mil square feet of office space versus the 4.5 mil projected a few years ago. [NYO]
the sports section
David Beckham Lures Us With His Brilliant Smile, Bendy KicksThe David Beckham Experience (known to some as the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer club) is in town to play our New York Red Bulls tomorrow. We were excited to make a bunch of sarcastic comments about how tomorrow was the first day of the rest of our lives. Or how Pelé playing for the old New York Cosmos was clearly just a St. John the Baptist paving the way for the sport’s real Messiah. But then we started to dig around a little, and we read that the Red Bulls had sold some 60,000 tickets for the game. And that the cheapest ticket on StubHub.com (as of 2:30 this afternoon) was going for $62. (By comparison, tickets for next Saturday’s game are going for $8.99.) So we wondered, are we just behind the curve? Is there really something to seeing this Beckham guy? After all, we fit the demographic soccer is trying to win over: We like sports, we watch the World Cup every four years, and our love of hockey proves we’re willing to stand alone. Would we actually enjoy a soccer game in person?
So we just bought a ticket to attend our first professional soccer game, and we’ll let you know on Monday how it goes. Well played, Beckham. Well played. —Joe DeLessio
