Derek Jeter Is Having a Good WeekPlus, did you know Anne Hathaway smokes? Sorry to ruin your naive worldview with today’s gossip roundup, but it had to be done.
Ramona the PestIs Real Housewife Ramona Singer the “most hated woman in New York”? Which famous-for-being-rich couple had to borrow cash to pay for their wedding license? And what other screen star may have had an affair with JFK? All this and more in today’s roundup of the best of the gossip pages.
Fans to Joe Torre: Did You Get a Haircut?’Joe Torre’s new look, Ashlee Simpson’s continued Saturday Night Live ban, and Rudy Giuliani’s black eye — read all about it in our daily roundup of the juice in New York’s gossip columns.
party lines
Pregnant J.Lo Still Wears ‘Gucci Gucci Goo!’We were delighted to discover when we arrived at Wednesday’s Gucci party that we weren’t the only ones totally awestruck in the presence of Madonna. As we interviewed Women’s Murder Club star Angie Harmon, she became visibly nervous when Madonna walked up the red carpet behind her. “I’ve been running around Fashion Week,” she stuttered, trying to stay on topic. Then she interrupted herself and burst out to her date, hairdresser Stephen Knoll, “Did you just say ‘Hi’ to Madonna?!” she gushed. “I’m totally freaking out! You said ‘Hi’ to Madonna!” Harmon turned back to us and admitted, “I can’t handle it! I’ve never met her. Probably won’t get up the nerve to do it tonight. Look at Lourdes! Look at how big she is! I bet she has a British accent.” We bet she does, too. Most of the rest of the celebrities, who included Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gwen Stefani, Salma Hayek, and Drew Barrymore, didn’t stop to chat on the red carpet. But when we asked the hugely pregnant Lopez what she was wearing when she tottered by on four-inch heels, she replied, “Gucci Gucci Goo!”
gossipmonger
George Clooney Thinks Cindy Adams Is Awkwardly NosyGeorge Clooney’s response to a question asking whether he planned on marrying Sarah Lawson: “What kind of question is that to ask in front of her? Let’s just say I’m fine the way I am right now, thank you.” Four Seasons owner Julian Niccolini is selling his own Sauvignon Blanc, available at Dean & DeLuca. After falling ill in Israel (perhaps with dysentery), Maureen Dowd got medical attention from White House doc Richard Tubb and hitched a ride home on Air Force One. Some pro-life bloggers are angry that Vogue did a fashion shoot with a woman who got an abortion 22 weeks into her pregnancy. Diddy is hiring both a personal and an executive assistant. (One responsibility: acting as a “liaison” between the chairman and his family.) Diane Keaton ate at Michael Jordan’s The Steak House in Grand Central Terminal.
gossipmonger
Zang Toi Incorrectly Assumes That Sharon Stone Wants to Meet More Gay DudesSomeone hacked into designer Zang
Toi’s computer and sent out an invitation to clients like Sharon Stone and Ivana Trump asking them to join Gayguyschat.com. Julian Schhabel wore pajamas under his jacket to the Critics Choice Awards. Duh. West Village neighbors of Tom Brady and Gisele are not happy that paparazzi now roam the blocks. Joey Buttafuoco is annoyed that a “friend” of his secretly filmed him having
sex with his second wife and is now selling the footage. Lizzie Grubman is unable to lend support to any of the candidates because she is a convicted felon and thus can’t vote. Barbara Corcoran is now nicknamed “The Usher of the Flusher” after appearing on a Today show segment on luxurious bathrooms.
intel
‘It Takes a Special Kind of Man to Want to Stick It in the Girl in the Philip Treacy Lobster Hat’We came across a copy of Simon Doonan’s upcoming book, Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You, and even though it’s not coming out until April, we are going to tell you a little bit about it now, because it is kind of awesome. In it, Doonan interviews the insanely fabulous and the fabulously insane — everyone from Dita Von Teese to Malcolm Gladwell — about their unique personal styles. The book is “intended as a wake-up call to the women of America to eschew the contemporary porno-chic trend and inject a little classy eccentricity into their fashion choices,” Doonan wrote in the Observer last summer, and it’s more a rumination on what glamour is than the style manual the title implies, but if you use it as such, you might be lucky enough to end up like Amy Fine Collins, who says her fashion choices cause her to get lots of attention from “homeless, gay, black street people.” How fun is that? Just don’t try and take them with you to the Waverly Inn.
company town
Jeffrey Goldberg Wants a PonyMEDIA
• Atlantic owner David Bradley sent ponies to Jeffrey Goldberg’s kids to help lure him away from The New Yorker. Seriously. [WP]
• Just before the Dow Jones deal went through, the Bancrofts voted to double this quarter’s dividend for themselves [NYP]
• Murdoch and Ailes’s next move? All-out war? (Wait, they’re not at war with everyone else already?) [Newsweek]
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.
gossipmonger
Jacko PornoMichael Jackson is trying to reclaim a trove of Jacko memorabilia set to be auctioned off this month, some of which is pornographic in nature. Lindsay Lohan and “boyfriend” Calum Best got into a shouting match at the Soho Grand. Jerry Hall called Mick Jagger cheap. Billionaire David Koch boasted that he had graduated college when his wife was only six weeks old. The Office star Jenna Fischer slipped and fractured four bones in her back at Buddakan, but she’s okay now. Charles Barkley thinks Don Imus should just have been suspended, not fired. Top Chef contestant Sam Talbot backed out of his deal to open a gastropub on the Lower East Side.
gossipmonger
Now With Daily Gatecrasher!Rosie O’Donnell called Barbara Walters a “(bleeping) idiot” in the latest round of The View–related acrimony, according to “Page Six.” (Ben Widdicombe has a slightly more reserved account.) Dita Von Teese and Marilyn Manson are squabbling over custody of their cats but not dogs. The TV critic who wrote a book about Bill O’Reilly wants George Clooney to play the title character. Fox is giving James Cameron a cool $200 million budget for his next film, Avatar. Julia Roberts may be pregnant with twins again. Arnold Schwarznegger forgets how old his mother is. Breaking: The Gotti Boys wear a lot of hair gel, gaudy jewelry. The Insider’s Lara Spencer might join Today when it adds a fourth hour. Snoop Dogg to host a television documentary on his childhood. David Schwimmer made out with a girl in public, possibly a ploy by her to get into the papers. (Success!) Disgraced Miss USA Tara Conner flirted with a bunch of male photo assistants at a cover shoot for New York Dog magazine, though her stint in rehab means she won’t actually be on the cover. The owner of Star Room in East Hampton set to open a branch in the Chelsea Hotel, described it as “elitist.” Bono got drunk in Utah. Mary-Louise Parker, dumped by Billy Crudup while pregnant, hung out with him at their son’s birthday party. Jessica Biel drinks water and champagne to stay pretty. Cindy Adams says Bryan Adams says he loves New York.