U.N. Traffic Does Not Part for Clive OwenAnd Marilyn Manson has swine flu. Which goes to show that all celebrities are only human — except Michael Jackson, who thought he could heal Hitler.
ByKatie Goldsmith
gossipmonger
Would You Have Sex With Lady Gaga?That’s what one British tabloid wants to know. It’s kind of a really good question, when you think about it.
J-Vanka a Step Closer to Jew-VankaIvanka’s found a controversial rabbi to oversee her conversion so she can finally marry Jared Kushner and create perfect, Chosen offspring.
P. Diddy’s Mom Knows Her Way Around a Stripper PoleThe Scores girls have nothing on Janice Combs. Plus, Helen Mirren, Peggy Noonan, and Joe Scarborough confess to drug use; and more unlikely tidbits, in our daily New York gossip roundup.
ByTim Murphy
gossipmonger
Tim Russert’s Son Luke Eyed for NBC Reporting GigThe son of late ‘Meet the Press’ host Tim Russert may get a gig on NBC. That and gossip about Ron Perelman, Patricia Duff, Lauren Conrad, and Bill Murray in our daily gossip roundup.
in other news
Did Paris Hilton’s PR Firm Give Lawyer the Tabloid Treatment?Fired intellectual-property lawyer Jeremy Pitcock claims his ex-employer’s flashy PR firm made a little “inappropriate behavior” charge sound like he was caught driving a hooker around backward in a car seat, or something.
in other news
Ashley Dupré Comes Back SwingingThe hooker who felled Eliot Spitzer is suing ‘Girls Gone Wild’ founder Joe Francis for $10 million.
in other news
Ashley Dupré: Overachieving Ho?We suppose it was inevitable that Girls Gone Wild head honcho Joe Francis would get involved with the whole Eliot Spitzer mess. But even we couldn’t have predicted the depth to which “Kristen,” a.k.a. Ashley Dupré, had penetrated the promiscuity market. Imagine Joe’s surprise when, after he offered $1 million to Dupré to film her, a Daily News reporter called him and told him that she already starred in one of the GGW movies! Francis told the Post: “I personally remember Ashley. She was really at her peak back then. I’m glad I got to her before Spitzer — she looked a lot better at 18.” You can judge for yourself in the tabloid’s online photo gallery of Ashley from the movie (they’re pretty tame, nothing like the “very good shower scene that alone is worth the money” Francis describes). So let’s review. Ashley Dupré was a high-class call girl and, by the age of 22, had arranged for an expensive topless photo shoot for herself, and had gotten it on with another girl for the Girls Gone Wild cameras when she was 18. And you thought there was only one gifted go-getter in Room 871.
gossipmonger
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
Predictably, ‘Lipstick Jungle’ Star Used to Lust After Andrew McCarthyLipstick Jungle’s Lindsay Price had a childhood crush on her co-star Andrew McCarthy. Tom Hanks walked past Eliot Spitzer’s apartment building on 79th and Fifth, but no one recognized him. A Madonna look-alike ran across the second-floor balcony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction at the Waldorf-Astoria, providing some levity to an otherwise boring event. Fashion Week will relocate to the Tenth Avenue rail yards after 2010. The Queens livery driver who faked the baby rescue weirdly will appear on an upcoming episode of The Real Housewives of New York City. A documentary about storied Tribeca nightclub the Wetlands opens Friday. Marc Jacobs’s boy toy, Jason Preston, got punched in the face outside Hiro after trying to get a guy who had thrown a drink at a girl to apologize.
gossipmonger
Renée Zellweger, Not on FireRenée Zellweger’s neighbor called the FDNY on her because she had a fire going in her fireplace. Jennifer Lopez and her mom don’t talk anymore, perhaps because of Marc Anthony. Mary Louise Parker took her adopted (and Brat Pitt–approved) African baby to a doctor’s appointment in New York. Blackstone chairman Steven Schwarzman’s charitable foundation has only $63,424 in assets and is holding just $991 for charitable purposes. Kelly Klein is expected to make $3 million by selling jewels ex-hubby Calvin bought her for $200,000 in 1987. Kanye West went to Blue Ribbon with a leather-clad dominatrix and some models. George Clooney was jokingly slapped by “a really hot girl” at Bungalow 8’s New York branch. Kim Kardashian and Terrence Howard were caught making out at Butter and Tenjune.
gossipmonger
Closing the BoxSome Lower East Siders are trying to get the Box closed because it’s more a nightclub and less the “cultural institution” its owners promised it would be. (And also, we presume, because it’s utterly insufferable.) At the age of 50, Kelly Klein, ex of Calvin, is finally having a baby. Hillary Clinton raised $500,000 at a fund-raiser at Ted Danson’s house on Martha’s Vineyard. The beach is eroding in front of Tina Brown and Harry Evans’s place in Quogue. John McEnroe is in talks with Larry Ellison to establish a tennis training center in Flushing Meadows. Andy Roddick had stage fright when asked to say a few words at a party in his honor at Tenjune. A bunch of guests got lost en route to Donna Karan’s house in East Hampton. Tom Petty played two gigs in the Hamptons for $1.7 million. (Paul McCartney and Renée Zellweger were there.) Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning looked for the entrance to La Esquina.
gossipmonger
Bella Abzug Was Not in ‘The Apartment’Congresswoman Bella Azbug was once asked to be a stand-in for Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment, but she declined. On the set of her first movie, Kim Cattrall was told she resembled Marilyn Monroe, “not in looks, of course, but in lack of talent.” Harold Ford and three blondes hung out at Blue Ribbon Sushi till 2 a.m. Chris Robinson is happy that ex Kate Hudson is dating Dax Shepard because now he has more time to hang out with their 3-year-old son. The kiddie imprint of Simon & Schuster is releasing a guide to orgy etiquette. Ted Turner still owes merely $642 million of the $1 billion he pledged to donate to the U.N. a decade ago. Elton John once tried to commit suicide by sticking his head in an oven, though he used a pillow and put the gas on low.
intel
‘Page Six’ Gone WildDon’t quite see why Joe Francis being angry at Hugh Hefner is somehow the lead item in “Page Six” today? Don’t understand what the news is, with Francis having been in jail since April on these charges of taping underage girls for a Girls Gone Wild video? Perhaps you’ve forgotten this, then: That $50,000 Mexican bachelor party for “Page Six” editor Richard Johnson? Joe Francis threw it.
Jailed Joe Not Wild Over Hef [NYP]
gossipmonger
Vanity CareLimos parked outside Graydon Carter’s Waverly Inn delayed an ambulance en route to nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital. Former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill cut down his use of the company’s corporate jets right before 17,000 people were laid off. Michael Chabon is proud to have been branded an anti-Semite by the Post. Ellen Barkin is writing a novel based on her marriage to Ron Perelman. Bonnie Fuller is branching into TV. Barbara and Lauren Bush sang karaoke. The famous hawks living at 927 Fifth Avenue will soon be in a kids’ book. Jay Leno confused two Mexican comedians. Joe Francis says his Girls Gone Wild videos don’t feature black girls because they ask for money, not because he’s racist.
gossipmonger
Judi, Judi, JudiAmong the skits to be put on by the city’s political journos at the upcoming Inner Circle roast is one featuring Judi Giuliani as a blow-up sex doll. Us Weekly, Star, and other weekly tabloids are upping their negative coverage of Brangelina because they are sick of getting scooped by People. A handful of people are angling for a portion of deceased Dr. Robert Atkins’s $600 million estate. Mike Bloomberg’s 98-year-old mother sometimes pretends she’s not related to him so people don’t ask her to hook their grandkids up with jobs. NBC’s Today show is losing serious ground to ABC’s Good Morning America and even CBS’s Early Show in the ratings game. Charlie Rose and Amanda Burden may not be broken up, despite reports they are. Jay-Z has plans to ink a deal with Champagne label Ace of Spades to replace Cristal as his drink of choice.
