Adrian Grenier Banged Bongos in BrooklynPlus: Victoria Beckham does the robot dance, Jamie-Lynn Sigler plays ping-pong, and other expressions of celebrity joy, in today’s gossip roundup.
Ryan O’Neal Hit On His Daughter at His Girlfriend’s FuneralPlus, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are still making out all over the place, Billy Joel wants Katie Lee back, and more dysfunctional celebrity relationships in our daily gossip roundup.
ByKatie Goldsmith
gossipmonger
Amy Winehouse Reportedly Stole Coke From Kate MossWe’re not sure why this matters, as there’s no chance Kate is going to get it back. Plus, Jessica Simpson is thin again and Kevin Federline is getting fatter in today’s roundup of celebrity ephemera.
ByKatie Goldsmith
gossipmonger
Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford SplitWestwick is getting kicked out of their joint apartment because he’s too messy. That, and the rest of today’s essential gossip.
Lourdes Just Couldn’t Take the Fighting AnymoreShe wants mom and dad back together, and Little Malawi David probably does, too. Also, come on with Cin to the Fulton Fish Market! In the Ides of January gossip roundup!
Madonna and A-Rod Seek Fortress of LoveSo no one will EVER see them coming in or out. Plus, speaking of coming out, Ashton Kutcher attends a deb ball, and Kate Moss comes clean about the lies and alibis. In the gossip roundup.
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.
in other news
Adrienne Shelly’s Killer Sentenced to 25 Years in PrisonDiego Pillco, the construction worker who killed actress-director Adrienne Shelly in November 2006, pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier today. He confessed to strangling her while attempting to rob her (he later set up the crime scene to make it look like it was a suicide). Pillco will serve 25 years in prison. Adrienne is survived by her husband, Andrew, and their young daughter, Sophie. Not long after her death, Shelly’s award-winning film Waitress debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Her next screenplay, Serious Moonlight, is soon to be produced.
Related: Shelly Lives [NYM]
developing
McCarren Park Pool to Be Commandeered by Children, Not Just Overgrown OnesSince the McCarren Park Pool was co-opted as an indie-rock venue, water sports there have been limited to hipsters spilling Brooklyn Lager and diving into that filthy Slip ‘N Slide. The most up-to-date plans to turn the site back into a place for actual swimming were presented, along with the image above and a tentative blueprint you’ll find after the jump, last night at Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 meeting: By summer 2011, the pool will reopen with a capacity of 1,400; come that winter, people will be able to ice-skate there, too. And in perhaps the greatest insult to the band-loving libertines who ruled the space last summer, there will also be a 5,800-square-foot gym installed. —Alec Appelbaum
party lines
Socialites Pinch Pennies (and Bums!) in the Face of Global RecessionIt’s not just common folk tightening the belt in anticipation of the Great Recession of 2008. Socialites, those airy creatures who are thin and rich and go to parties for a living, are also starting to (gasp!) budget. At a party to benefit the East Side Settlement show last night at Mallet Antiques, Melissa Berkelhammer vowed to take the subway more often. “I’m also buying less frivolous things,” she said. “I’m not paying $300 for a haircut.” Berkelhammer’s neighbor, Tana Dye, had a more extreme money-saving strategy: Don’t leave the house. “I live in midtown, so I have to stay in my apartment. I walk out my door, and I’m in Bergdorf or Barneys.”
neighborhood watch
Take a Walk Down Tin Pan Alley, Er, 28th StreetEast Village: Right across from its iconic 1859 building, Cooper Union wants to build a corrugated, spiky new thing by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. Um…yeah, we’ll skip the stupid, vaguely racist sushi joke. [NYO]
Flatiron: The next time you walk down nondescript 28th between Broadway and Sixth, sing out “Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey?” or “In the Good Old Summertime” to commemorate that the block was once the famed Tin Pan Alley. There’s no plaque or anything that denotes as much. And that’s a sad song. [Lost NYC]
Gowanus: Take a look at the residential-retail complex the Toll Brothers would like to build along the canal. Nothing like mixed-use magic alongside the miasma! [Gowanus Lounge]
party lines
Which Celebrities Will Be Bidding Tonight at the Sotheby’s (Auction)RED?With pieces donated by Banksy, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, and many more art heavyweights, the Sotheby’s (AUCTION)Red at the auction house tonight is gearing up to be a collector’s scrum. Christy Turlington, Dennis Hopper, and Mario Batali are all slated to attend, as is Michael Stipe, who already knows what he wants to buy. “I’ll tell you, the Ed Ruscha is so beautiful” he gushed to New York’s Fiona Byrne at Tuesday’s Edun party at the Desmond Tutu Center in Chelsea “I think it’s a 2007, but it’s brought what he does full circle, which is part of the reason I am drawn to it. I am tempted to bid; I may well.” Elsewhere at the party, Josh Hartnett told us he’s watching the pennies after a recent large purchase. “I have to find out if I have any money left,” he said, not ruling out the prospect of picking something up from the auction, which will go to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. “I just bought a new place and totally redid it and put in new furniture, but I have to get something for the walls!” Last night at a Gagosian Gallery preview, celebrities like Jon Bon Jovi, Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, Tory Burch, Russell Simmons, and Ivanka Trump were more hushed about what they wanted. But we think we can guess which painting caught Rupert Murdoch’s fancy. He spent the entire night standing in front of Damien Hirst’s Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way. It’s expected to fetch between $5 and $7 million tonight. Which, for Rupert, is probably a small price to pay for a piece of contemporary art that embodies your life philosophy.
white men with money
The Internet Wishes Steve Schwarzman a ‘Happy’ BirthdayStephen Schwarzman’s 60th-birthday party at the Park Avenue Armory last year, replete with its lobsters and baked Alaska, Patti LaBelle and Rod Stewart, has, fairly or unfairly, become a symbol of the wealth and self-indulgence of the private-equity set and made the Blackstone CEO “the designated villain of an era on Wall Street,” as James Stewart put it recently in The New Yorker. Exactly one year later, with the country in the midst of a credit crunch on the verge of a recession, people across the Internet are heralding Schwarzman’s birthday as a turning point and offering the multi-billionaire some very special birthday wishes — with a side of Schadenfreude. Reuters gloatingly notes that “Blackstone’s stock hasn’t topped its opening day price, politicians have proposed restrictions on the industry’s tax status, and a credit crunch has made financing deals difficult” in an article headlined “Happy Birthday, Mr. Schwarzman.” Portfolio made a musical, interactive card that readers can use to send him messages. “Still down with EOP? :)” says one signed “Sam.”
it just happened
‘Times’ to Eliminate 100 Newsroom PositionsDoesn’t New York Times executive editor Bill Keller know it’s cruel to break up with people on Valentine’s Day? Apparently not: Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici just reported, and the Times just confirmed, that he just announced that the company plans to eliminate 100 newsroom positions, or about 7 percent of the newsroom, this year. “The cuts will be achieved primarily through attrition and buyouts,” the Times says, “but layoffs are a real possibility.” Guess we’re not the only ones who will be crying ourselves to sleep tonight.
Newsroom Cuts at the New York Times [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
New York Times Plans to Cut 100 Newsroom Jobs [NYT]
intel
Uno’s Final Moments Before His Huge Westminster WinJust before Uno the beagle chomped down on his historic Westminster victory on Tuesday, New York had a reporter backstage at Madison Square Garden watching his tense last few minutes.
While stylists primp a nearby Sealyham terrier and its owner before Westminster’s Best in Show contest, Uno sleeps. It’s barely an hour until he makes history as the first beagle to take top honors, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he’s splayed out in his crate. Nor are his owners worried. Whether they spend 45 minutes brushing and combing his hair or not, Uno’s coat will look the same. “It’s a low-maintenance breed,” says co-owner Jon Woodring. Still, Uno stands at attention as handler Aaron Wilkerson snips and cuts the dog’s hindquarters and runs clippers over the beagle’s sensitive bits.
company town
‘Us Weekly’: Keeping ‘OK!’ HonestMEDIA
• NBC golden boy Ben Silverman sells his production company, Reveille, to
Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Elizabeth. [LAT]
• CNN producer Chez Pazienza is forced to pack his bags after blogging for the Huffington Post. [TVNewser/Mediabistro]
• Us Weekly reports that OK! magazine “sensationalized” Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane’s battle with cancer in a cover story. (Actually, he only had some malignant cells on his lip frozen off in a doctor’s office.) “This isn’t the first time OK! has been wrong,” they note. But is Us really crusading against yellow journalism? Or are they just annoyed they didn’t get the scoop? [Us Weekly]
intel
Something We All Hate in Common: Terrible DoormenSo, recently, we had a bad experience at a club. It was one of perhaps one million bad experiences we’ve had at clubs, and it got us thinking about the universality of such events. We were waiting to get into Suzie Wong for a party for which we were on the list. We even knew the people throwing it. But for some reason, the doorman wouldn’t let us in. Cell phones didn’t work inside the club, so we couldn’t reach our friends. We patiently explained the situation to the doorman, who responded with disdain and rudeness. (We’re apparently not the only people to have trouble at this club.) We decided to sit and wait politely, which is humiliating but almost always works eventually. But as time went by, and we kept getting the “We’re at capacity” excuse, even though the doorman was letting other (much more trashy, might we add) guests in ahead of us, we started getting mad. This guy may be an idiot, we thought, but surely he recognizes the face we are making. You know, the “I’m going to be patient, but you have NO idea who you are messing with” face?
early and often
Should Superdelegates Follow the ‘Will of the People’? Or, Uh, Not?
Whether you think superdelegates are as useless as a third nipple or a great way to get the party elite more involved in the nomination process, you have to at least admit they’ve made for very interesting political discussion. And despite a certain candidate’s momentum, said superdelegates are going to have to help decide this thing. Obama says the superdelegates should follow the “will of the people” (a phrase that will be used seven times in this post) by supporting whoever has more pledged delegates; Clinton maintains that the superdelegates should do whatever they think is best. Both positions, of course, reflect where each camp expects to stand after the last primary votes are tallied on June 7, in Puerto Rico. But like a lot of things in this race, the debate over superdelegates isn’t quite so simple. Plus, a bonus round: Should the regular Florida and Michigan delegates be seated?
