Advertisers Still Wary of Don ImusPlus, the latest on what’s going on at Citibank, JPMorgan, and on the Upper East Side, in our daily industry roundup.
company town
Ana Marie Cox Comes Full Circle at ‘Radar’The founding Wonkette editor signs on to do irreverent political coverage for Maer’s magazine, another Charles Kushner associate goes down, and Andrew Cuomo noses around Dick Grasso’s package, in our daily roundup of news from the worlds of media, real estate, law, and finance.
company town
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]
21 questions
Charles Gasparino Is a Good TipperName: Charles Gasparino
Job: CNBC’s hunky on-air editor. Also, author of the recent bestseller, King of the Club: Richard Grasso and the Survival of the New York Stock Exchange.
Age: 40s. (How’s that for a hedge?)
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Town
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
My dad. The last man I knew to have such a distinct, New York accent that he used to pronounce the words toilet “terlet” and oil “earl”
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
Spaghetti with cherry tomatoes at San Pietro.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Scream at sources to get stories, scream at producers to put them on CNBC, and then scream at editors to get more time for stories that I’m writing.
gossipmonger
Steve Tisch, Billionaire Baller?Newly divorced billionaire and New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch might be dating women on both coasts. Martha Stewart created a special Christmas tree for Sirius Radio’s office, complete with Howard Stern cookie ornaments. Former NYSE head Dick Grasso left CNBC’s Charles Gasparino a creepy “merry Christmas” message on his answering machine, despite the fact that Gasparino’s new book takes Grasso to task for the $190 million kiss-off he took after leaving the Exchange. John Mayer has had a crush on Ricki Lake for two years (Ed. note: WTF?!), and actually got her digits at the wonderfully successful Sunshine Sachs Christmas party. Lance Armstrong picked up the tab for dinner with former flame Sheryl Crow. Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera hung out together at the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year party. Andy Samberg, Amy Poehler, and Seth Meyers had lunch together.
gossipmonger
Benicio Del Toro Helps Out a Gay Meth AddictFormer New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso may or may not have had an affair and fathered a love child. Steven Spielberg ate at the Waverley Inn with his family and a whole lot of other famous folks. Denise Rich sang a Rolling Stones song to an audience that included Donald Trump Jr. and Ivana Trump at new venue Espace. Benicio del Toro appeared at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis Center as a sponsor for a meth-addict friend. One of Howard Stern’s sidekicks filmed a porno inside Stern’s studio with Ron Jeremy. Jay-Z may be “scrambling” because the lead single from his American Gangster album is not doing well.
in other news
Taking Pleasure in a Self-Righteous Prick’s Misfortune
This Spitzer mess is making at least one group of people — well, another group of people, after State Senate Republicans — very happy. Financiers are predictably cackling, especially those who have gone through what a lawyer for tycoon Richard Strong calls “the Eliot process.” (As A.G., Spitzer made Strong fork over $60 million and accept a lifetime ban from Wall Street for improper trading.) It’s a testament to the lasting effects of the process, however, that the Times fails to get any of the big fish to slander the guv on or even off the record. Instead, we get “a senior banker” quipping that “it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy” and “an executive” intoning “what goes around comes around.” Bo-ring! We want more color: Hank Greenberg yelling “Who’s the fraud now?!” or Dick Grasso doing a little revenge dance. Of course, as a reader of The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog — which coins the term “Spitzerfreude” — sagely notes, “This relatively small scandal certainly doesn’t mean that Grasso and Greenberg are not thieves.” True, that.
Spitzer’s Woes Are Enjoyed on Wall Street [NYT]
Spitzer Schadenfreude [Law Blog/WSJ]
