The Obamas All Over the Glossy Newsstand, Once AgainMichelle and Barack appear on the covers of ‘Ebony’ and ‘Essence.’ But Meghan McCain has an interview in ‘Glamour’! Plus the latest on Barbara Corcoran, John Thain, and the other captains of industry.
company town
They Waterboarded Christopher HitchensFinally, right? Plus, David Brooks thinks Goldman Sachs may be on the cusp of a coup, and the “summer of legal vindication” kicks off in our hump-day roundup of media, finance, law, and real-estate news.
company town
Buyout Exodus at ‘Newsweek’A dating blogger seeks a book deal, trading desks think recession, and Jean Nouvel wins the Pritzker in our daily roundup of media, finance, law, and real-estate news.
it just happened
Paul McCartney Is Still Rich; Heather Mills Is Still Crazy
A U.K. judge has just awarded Heather Mills around $50 million of Paul McCartney’s money, enough to keep her in golden legs for a lifetime. You think she’d be pleased about this, right? But no! Immediately after the proceedings, Mills stalked down the steps of the London court and complained to the press that the judge said that McCartney was worth £400 million when “everyone knows he’s worth £800 over the last fifteen years.” Then she announced she would contest the decision to make the settlement figures public, which she said Paul had insisted on doing. “He has always wanted it public because he wants to make it look like he is … generous,” she ranted, because apparently nothing will make her happy and she will never go away ever.
UPDATE: From CNN: “The judgment included 35,000 pounds ($70,000) a year for the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Beatrice. Mills said she was unhappy with that amount because it isn’t enough for school tuition, private security, or first-class airfare. ‘He likes her to fly five times a year on holiday,” Mills said of McCartney. “It’s 17,000 (pounds) for two people return (round-trip) first class, so that’s obviously not meant to happen for her anymore. It’s very sad.’” Because obviously that can’t come out of the $50 million.
Judge Awards Heather Mills £24.3 Million in Divorce Ruling [Times UK]
Related: Intel’s Weird Obsession With Crazy Heather Mills
neighborhood watch
Battery Pier: A Beautiful Disaster?Battery Park: Are we weird because all the decrepit buildings the city wants to renovate — like this pier with a Victorian clock tower — we think are beautiful just as they are? Yeah, we’re probably weird. [NYT via Curbed]
Greenpoint: It was difficult to visit friends yesterday at this crazy-ass apartment because “the buzzards” weren’t working. Well, it was a holiday, after all. [Newyorkshitty]
Harlem: The Rev. Al Sharpton said yesterday that if MLK were to walk through Harlem today, he might not like what he saw. You mean his dream didn’t include “the gentrification people”? [NYS]
party lines
Celebrities Skipping Out at SundanceHey, have you noticed how the celebrity supply in New York has been depleted these past few days? (Thankfully, we still have Tom Brady wearing a boot in the West Village.) It’s because all of the actors and directors are at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. But it seems like even in the celebrity fustercluck that is Park City right now, planners still can’t get enough star power to fuel their events. Apparently, Sundance schedules are so jam-packed with appointments, parties, and swag-suite visits that it’s no wonder they don’t make half the events they (well, their publicists) say they will.
Of course, some no-shows you can see coming: Robert De Niro and Quentin Tarantino “expected” at a dinner for 50 Cent sponsored by VitaminWater? Um, sure. And we look forward to seeing Paris at the poetry reading.
party lines
Stephen Colbert and Nancy Pelosi Make Jokes, Nice
At the Glamour Women of the Year awards last night, Stephen Colbert exchanged jabs with honoree Nancy Pelosi. During his (in character) introduction of the Speaker of the House, he could only muster: “I am so honored to be here tonight to honor all of these honorable honorees.” (“My writers are on strike!” he cracked, moments later.) Colbert went on to praise Pelosi’s fashion — over her politics — calling her “by far the most glamorous Speaker we’ve ever had” (an accolade that received enthusiastic applause). “Whether she’s prowling the Capitol steps in a cream pantsuit, or strutting the halls of Congress in a blue pantsuit, or grudgingly clapping behind the president at the State of the Union in, say, cream pants and a blue pantsuit blazer — she always has the right accessories,” he said. “While I may disagree with everything she stands for, I will defend until death her right to” — snapping in a fashion-savvy Z — “MAKE. IT. WORK.” Pelosi took the jokes happily, (perhaps she’s over the time he kicked her virtual ass on Nintendo Wii?), but she saved a barb for him as he left the stage. “Of all the introductions I have ever received,” she said to the comedian, “yours is certainly the most recent.” —Ben Kawaller
Read what Diane Sawyer thinks is the biggest problem facing TV journalism, and other important factoids, in our complete quotable coverage of the Glamour Women of the Year Awards.
ink-stained wretches
When Journalists Attack … Other JournalistsRemember Alive? The book/early–Ethan Hawke movie where the plane crashes and everyone’s starving so they become cannibals? Okay, whatever we are old. The point is, we’re kind of reminded of that whenever a journalist covers another journalist’s missteps in that over-the-top holier-than-thou tone. Times are tough, and so they’re eating their own in order to save themselves. We thought about this last week when Katie Couric clamped down on Dan Rather’s “sloppy reporting” with her little white teeth, and today, the smell of media blood is in the air again. Over at the New York Press, Matt Elzweig feasted on the flesh of the Times Magazine’s Deborah Solomon in a deeply self-serious “examination of the questionable ethical choices one very prominent reporter made on behalf of the nation’s top newspaper” blah blah blah blah Jayson Blair blah blah.
the week in beef
Cranky Fashionistas Hungry … for BloodNew York’s Fashion Week is over, and in the five minutes between the closing of the tents and the start of London’s Fashion Week, all the stylish folks have had just enough time to focus on their distaste for one another. Seeing as industry-standard diet of clen and champers does little to help one’s mood, we can’t be surprised at this week’s outpouring of bitchery. A quick rundown of the postshow battles:
Rachel Zoe vs. Anna Wintour
In Sunday’s Times’ mag, stylist and possible “raisin-faced” alien Rachel Zoe unwisely taunts Anna Wintour: “Anna Wintour is one of my heroes, but they say I’m more influential,” the stylist tells Lynn Hirschberg. “As great as it is, Vogue won’t change a designer’s business. But if an unknown brand is worn by a certain person in a tabloid, it will be the biggest designer within a week.” Oh no, she didn’t. But she did! And now let’s follow the backbiting path over to…
gossipmonger
Searching for Mrs. XHarvey Weinstein hired private eye Bo Dietl to try to figure out the real identity of The Nanny Diaries’ Mrs. X. New School prez Bob Kerrey seems likely to run for Senate again if Chuck Hagel quits. Jerry Lewis said that Merv Griffin deserved to die of prostate cancer. The fake feud between Kanye West and 50 Cent is officially over. Richard Gere thinks he could capture Bosnian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, even though NATO has unsuccessfully looked for him for a decade. (And James Brolin flies planes and builds houses.) Subscribers to the now-shuttered Jane magazine are getting Glamour instead, and ex Jane staffers are pissed. Katie Holmes fell and bruised herself after chasing Suri in Paris.
intel
‘Glamour’ Awards Reduce Winners, Audience, Our Reporter to Tears
We’re not the type who cries during Extreme Makeover: Home Edition or Verizon commercials or when that diamond-ad music starts playing. (Duh duh da da, duh duh da da.) Still, we had a hard time fighting the stereotype during Glamour’s tissue-fest of an awards show Monday night at Carnegie Hall. The magazine’s “Women of the Year” honorees ranged from three generations of Missoni women to Queen Latifah — who, judging from chorus of screams that greeted the mere mention of her name, is the most popular person in the world — and all of them, plus nearly everyone in the audience, had wet eyes through much of the evening.
