Catfight! Cindy Adams vs. Olivia PalermoCindy Adams discovers young socialite Olivia Palermo, and it’s almost too much for the famed gossip columnist to handle. Don’t go into the light, Cindy!
How to Translate the TabloidsEarlier this week, yet another crew of authorities on the gossip age congregated for yet another panel discussion on what it all means for humanity. This time, The Atlantic gathered the experts at the NYU Graduate School of Journalism, where they had the usual things to say — the pap-celeb relationship is one of fond symbiosis, publicists are so 1999, etc.
Cancer Has Not Impaired Patrick Swayze’s JudgementPatrick Swayze passed on playing a gay cheerleading coach in Fired Up for “creative reasons,” not because he’s sick. The script for Saturday’s Inner Circle show at the Hilton had to be overhauled in light of Spitzergate. Tom Brady made a rare post–Super Bowl public appearance with Gisele at the opening of the Zegna store on Fifth Avenue. Anne Hathaway bought five bottles of absinthe and borrowed an absinthe fountain from a restaurant for a party she was hosting with her boyfriend Raffaello Folllieri. ABC may cancel Rachael Ray’s show because of poor ratings. Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie shared an “uncomfortable silence” after being seated six feet apart from one another at a Cinema Society screening.
gossipmonger
For Cecilia Sarkozy, Revenge Is a Dish Best Served During the Venetian HourCecilia Sarkozy, the ex-wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, is set to get married to PR exec Richard Attias in New York on March 22. (Friends say it’s a “revenge” wedding.) Shelley Ross was so hated in her capacity as executive producer of CBS’ The Early Show that CBS News president Sean McManus didn’t even wait to find a replacement before firing her. Colin Farrell tried hitting on model Meghan Lowther at the Rose Bar, but found out the hard way that she has a boyfriend. The April issue of Elle features an interview given by Michelle Williams right after she broke up with Heath Ledger. New York real-estate giant Steven Fisher, best known for turning the aircraft carrier Intrepid into a museum, is trying to get his own TV show. Gossip Girl’s Conor Paolo wants, uh, Daniel Day-Lewis to join the cast.
intel
‘Daily News’ to Start New Gossip Column on SundayAfter over a year without a weekend-only gossip column, the Daily News is going to launch “Full Disclosure With Jo Piazza” on Sunday, we hear.* Running a half-page once a week, the column will cover the same kind of dish and celebrity news as the tabloid’s current columns, “Rush & Molloy” and Ben Widdicombe’s “Gatecrasher.” Piazza, whom you may remember as the girl who got hit on by a married Nick Lachey at the Super Bowl in 2005, has been covering celebrities since her days as a legwoman for “Rush & Molloy” three years ago. She also has a Fashion Week blog and column. Previous weekend columnists for the tab, which has tested a handful out to compete with “Page Six“‘s seven-day coverage, have included Widdicombe and Michael Gross. We think this is good news, because it’s okay for you to not read us for your latest news and gossip on the weekends. After all, you need to read about Britney Spears sometime.
*We hear this because Jo has totally been besties with Daily Intel editor Chris since the day Jo body-slammed her way past a doorman at Bungalow 8 to get into Chris’s birthday party in 2004, earning his respect forever.
ink-stained wretches
Can’t We All Just Gay Along?Today’s “Gatecrasher” column in the Daily News includes a truly excellent story that also appears in the Village Voice. Turns out News gossip Ben Widdicombe and Voice scribe Michael Musto were sharing a table at Bowery Bar last Tuesday during the weekly gay party, Beige. With them was former Village People cowboy Randy Jones, who had a delightful tale to tell. From “Gatecrasher”:
In 1977, [Jones] found himself sharing a table at Studio 54 with two people he recalls as being Paris’ parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton. “There was one rock of cocaine left, and it rolled off the table,” he said. “They just didn’t even bother bringing it back up to a hard surface — they just crushed it into the carpet and snorted it off that.”
Jones explained, “Whatever Paris Hilton is, she came by it honestly!” (Not the adverb we would necessarily use.) Now Rick Hilton denies this story ever happened, and it may be too good to be true. But it is a lovely little example of the gay media mafia at work. Widdicombe needs to fill a column every day, but he nonetheless waited an entire week to run this item so that he and Musto could run it at the same time. Thus, nobody was unduly scooped. See? Gay gossip columns will help you out! Unlike straight gossip columns, which threaten to rape you.
Violence is Golden [VV]
Hilton Story Doesn’t Seem to Check Out [NYDN]
in other news
Lance Bass Resorts to Name-Calling on His Blog
In the latest issue of New York Mag, former ‘N Syncer Lance Bass talks to Jada Yuan about the unquestionable pain in the ass that is New York real estate. He noted that a lot of furnished rentals he looked at didn’t have “any style,” and that “crap” apartments go for a lot of money (sing it, sister). And as for his former bandmate Justin Timberlake’s new dining establishment, Southern Hospitality, Lance says he’s been there “a few times,” though he’s not on the Upper East Side much.
And then, perhaps because his broker got indignant, or perhaps because JT made a phone call or two, Lance decided that he’d never said any of that stuff at all. On a defensive little tirade on his MySpace blog, Lance called Yuan a “dumb reporter” who got it all wrong. Oh no he didn’t! But he did, and he did it again in an e-mail sent directly to the gang over at Vulture. Head over there to see Lance’s official “you are so wrong” (even though we’re not — we stand behind Yuan’s reporting) statement.
Lance Bass Learns About Damage Control [Vulture]
Lance Bass Not Hooked on NYC [NYM]
intel
Sienna Miller Surprised by Her ‘Interview’ InterviewsIn her new movie, Interview, Sienna Miller plays an actress who isn’t taken seriously because of her tabloid notoriety. And as she promoted the film last week, life (vaguely) resembled art: Coverage has focused on a rumored romance with her friend Sean Combs, with whom she hung out in London just days before Diddy’s longtime girlfriend, Kim Porter, the mother of his newborn twins, was reported to move out of their shared apartment.
gossipmonger
Next Year in ‘Playboy’!Some female Israeli government officials are not happy that the consulate sanctioned Maxim’s “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces.” Bloomberg staffers overbooked a dinner at the home of L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and had to uninvite people. Harvey Weinstein is going after people who illegally downloaded Sicko, which he produced. Megan Ruddy may be the scribe behind the Southampton Press gossip column. A movement is afoot to get Isaiah Washington back on Grey’s Anatomy — and it’s being spearheaded by a gay activist. Paris Hilton’s neighbors aren’t pleased that her release from jail will cause a media frenzy at her house. A lot of famous people showed up at the funeral of former gossip reporter Claudia Cohen.
in other news
How to Make Easton Ellis’s Imaginary Lit Feud More InterestingGod, are literary feuds lame lately — even, or especially, fake ones. Watch, for example, today’s Daily News try to imply there’s some beef afoot between Bret Easton Ellis and mentee Jeff Hobbs. What happened? Ellis didn’t show up to the book party (at the Box, natch) for Hobbs’s novel, The Tourists, about misbehaving Yale grads. The third paragraph casually mentions that Ellis lives in L.A., and the best evidence Rush and Molloy can dig up on the rift is that Ellis and Hobbs haven’t seen talked in “three or four weeks.” Say it ain’t so! If they’re determined to find a fight, we suggest they pick up on Ellis’s quote in which he says Hobbs “has a lot of interesting things to say about that generation’s fluidity about sexuality,” and then plainly, just this side of legally, allege Ellis’s own “fluidity” with Hobbs: Why else would he even be expected to fly cross-country to the Box in the first place? Then, suddenly, the news item’s joke about “the well-endowed (um, with literary talent) Ellis” doesn’t, um, dangle.
Odds of a Rift Between Ellis and Protege: Less Than Zero [NYDN]
21 questions
‘Voice’ Gossip Michael Musto Still Catty, GayName: Michael Musto
Age: Between 40 and death
Job: Social arbiter, The Village Voice
Neighborhood: Kips Bay
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
Alice Kramden.
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
Mama’s holiday lasagne with meatballs and ice cream.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Delete spam e-mails.
cultural capital
Liz Smith Drives the Downeaster Alexa
One of the Post’s antique gossipers is suddenly giving Pitchfork Media a run for its money. In today’s column, Liz Smith breaks an obscure new singer who’s just had her first show at Pianos. Who’s this up-and-comer? Well, it’s 20-year-old Alexa Ray Joel, spawn of Billy, and her first CD was personally fed to the columnist by her mom, Christie Brinkley — but otherwise Liz’s excitement over discovering a hot unsigned artist is palpably bloggerlike. “Her voice is big, beautiful and perhaps even more impressive than her impressive dad’s,” Smith writes. But there’s a problem: “She doesn’t have a label yet.”
Poor, unsigned girl. But wait! Somewhat unlike your typical self-released debut EP, however, young Joel’s has already been picked up for exclusive nationwide distribution at Target stores. She is also paying her dues on the road, “slowly building her career,” as Liz puts it. A jog over to Alexa’s MySpace page does reveal a full touring schedule, albeit one filled with Northeastern dates marked PRIVATE; her next gig after Pianos is something called the Princess Grace Awards. Wasn’t that TV on the Radio’s big breakout moment?
Young Lady Is Hot! [NYP]
Alexa Joel [AlexJoel.com]
Alexa Ray Joel [MySpace.com]
21 questions
Lloyd Grove Gives to Panhandlers, Won’t Settle for Less Than 600 Thread Count
Name: Lloyd Grove
Age: None of your damned business
Job: Unemployed gossip columnist
Neighborhood: Upper West Side
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
Geraldo Rivera, who fits all of the above categories.
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
The grilled calamari at Gennaro, washed down with a bottle of Sangiovese.
What’s the one-sentence explanation of what you actually do all day in your job?
Ruining lives and destroying reputations when not hawking products and creating temporary stars.
