Eliot and Silda’s Day OutBeen wondering what Eliot Spitzer’s been up to since his prostitution scandal? Look no further!
in other news
King Coot Wins Court Battle Over Subway SlappingJohn Clifford gets really, really angry when people talk on cell phones in the subway. Sometimes he lashes out, both physically and verbally. And that, we learn today, is A-OK.
gossipmonger
Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon Set a Bad ExampleJake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon texted on their BlackBerrys during the matinee show of August: Osage County before sneaking out at intermission. Criminal! Judith Regan is now suing the lawyers who are suing her for alleged unpaid fees. Anna Wintour sat courtside at the Knicks-Cavs game last night courtesy of LeBron James (she’s putting him on the cover of Vogue’s shape issue with Gisele in April). Jeremy Piven texted two separate models he met in New York to come meet him at the Mercer Hotel, though he didn’t know at the time that they knew each other. The Champagne Marilyn Monroe drank during her famous 1962 shoot was spiked with either drugs or vodka.
gossipmonger
Graydon Is Going to Have Another Grayby! Graydon Carter and wife Anna are expecting their first child together (Carter has four kids from his first marriage). Kim Cattrall has been bragging that her SATC: TM castmates got paid higher salaries because she held out for more money. Bono, his wife, and Helena Christensen were harassed by paparazzi while eating at Serafina in the Dream Hotel. New Yorkers Julian Schnabel and PR guru Dan Klores both took home Independent Spirit Awards. Abby Diaz, the former maître d’ of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s who wrote the restaurant tell-all PX This! was asked to leave Jean Georges while having a glass of wine. “Page Six” mourns that dive bar Siberia has been converted into a Dunkin’ Donuts.
in other news
SPLIT!!!!! Ann Coulter and Andrew SteinWhenever a longtime celebrity couple breaks up, it causes us to call into question everything we believe about relationships. When Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie broke up, we felt hurt, and confused. It was the same with Sean and Robin Wright Penn. And then today, we read that Norah Jones and her longtime boyfriend and collaborator, Lee Alexander, split up. If they can’t work it out, we said to ourselves, then what hope is there for the rest of us? In this sort of climate, we wondered what celebrity couple would be next. Please God, we thought, please don’t take Jon Bon Jovi and his high-school sweetheart, Dorothea. But it was even worse. Today, “Page Six” reported the demise of the couple of the century, Ann Coulter and Andrew Stein.
gossipmonger
Padma Leaves a Bad Taste in Fiamma’s MouthManhattan Moms, an East Coast equivalent of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County, will premiere early next year. A lot of the city’s foremost graffiti artists congregated for a book party at Auto in the meatpacking district. Billy Joel is in talks with the Mets to perform a bunch of gigs at Shea Stadium. George Steinbrenner will have a high school named after him in Tampa. Padma Lakshmi was rude to the staff at Soho eatery Fiamma, but Martha Stewart overtipped and was nice. CNN gave out an award to someone for forcing “one of the world’s largest oil corporations to pay more than $6 billion to clean up toxic waste in the Amazon rain forest,” but didn’t name Chevron as the company because they are an advertiser.
gossipmonger
Padma: When in Doubt, Suck Face With SalmanA prankster made lewd comments to Ann Curry and Matt Lauer during a media conference call between TV writers and the Today anchors. Banker Rafael Follieri, boyfriend of Anne Hathaway, flew commercial from Atlanta to New York despite supposedly owning a private jet. Padma Lakshmi was overheard telling someone she still was “still trying to work the secret to a great relationship out” hours before she made out with Salman Rushdie at Bungalow 8. (Rushdie also almost fell asleep during a play at the Guggenheim on Saturday.) Ivanka Trump couldn’t get into East Village dive Black and White because she didn’t have an I.D. The smoking hot ex–First Lady of France, Cecilia Sarkozy, is coming to visit New York with her kid.
intel
Padma Will Have the SalmanLike our cohorts at WWD, we spent much of the night at the after-party for the Keep a Child Alive benefit transfixed by the drama of the Salman Rushdie–Padma Lakshmi reunion. Lakshmi’s presence at the event had been a given; she’s a KAC “global ambassador,” and she’d designed the gala’s dinner menu. And it seemed pretty clear from repeated comments referring to her “ex-husband” earlier in the night that she hadn’t been expecting Rushdie to show. But Rushdie is the one who introduced her to the night’s honoree, Bono — they’d flown to a concert together once, Lakshmi said — and apparently the sneaky devil got an invite through other means and decided to come. God, we had an ex who used to do that all the time, just like show up places he knew we’d be. Padma! Fancy meeting you here! Actually, come to think of it, we’ve done that to exes ourselves. We’re a little bit of a stalker like that. Salman! He’s just like us! Anyway. To be honest, we were kind of shocked by the hot and heavy make-out sesh that ensued.
photo op
Your Week May Be Ending, But Fashion’s Stomps On
Wondering why Padma Lakshmi and Ivana Trump gave each other the up-close cold shoulder at the Vera Wang show? Confused about the difference between Gemma Ward and Sasha Pivovarova? All the answers, and more, are in New York’s in-depth fashion coverage all weekend long.
New York’s Fashion Week coverage
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A Royal PainPrince’s highly publicized performance at the Ross School in East Hampton didn’t exactly get the crowd going. And he wouldn’t attend the after-party until everyone else left. Padma Lakshmi has been spending a lot of time with billionaire Teddy Fortsmann. Hillary Clinton has a subscription to the Post but not the Daily News. Jon Lovitz put a beating on Andy Dick at an L.A. comedy club during an argument over murdered SNL star Phil Hartman. Paris Hilton drugged her newest boyfriend with pills. Naomi Campbell gets to throw a temper tantrum in a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial directed by Zach Braff. Some staffers don’t like the cubicles and the food-paying system in the new New York Times building.
gossipmonger
Ron Perelman Is Making Up for Lost TimeRon Perelman wasn’t the ladies’ man he is now when he was in high school. Harold Ford Jr. wants to be governor of Tennessee. Lindsay Lohan turned 21 yesterday, looking healthy and acting rather adultlike. Jackie O. didn’t like it when Caroline gained weight. Anna Wintour’s stylist is working weekends at a salon in Bridgehampton. Zach Braff and Drew Barrymore made out at Beauty Bar. Mice, dead and alive, are wreaking havoc at the new New York Times building. Padma Lakshmi is finally divorcing Salman Rushdie, and a billionaire or an unidentified chef may be to blame. Europe is the new Hamptons for celebrity Fourth of July celebrations.
cultural capital
Padma Lakshmi Introduces Dismemberment, Cannibalism to ‘Top Chef,’ Our FantasiesThe freakazoid highlight of last night’s Top Chef premiere, provided by host and Salman squeeze Padma Lakshmi in response to a contestant’s decision to fry a snake:
“Anything can stand up to frying. You can fry my toe and if you batter it right, it’s going to taste good.”
We don’t know if we’re hungry, horny, or nauseous.
party lines
At PEN Gala, Rushdie (With Lakshmi!) and Shteyngart Bemoan Demise of Book ReviewsThe T. Rex cantilevered over the famous writerly heads at the PEN gala last week at the Museum of Natural History supplied a metaphor too crushingly obvious for any of the assembled literary luminaries to use. Which didn’t make it any less valid: With one daily newspaper after another dropping book coverage, the world of letters hasn’t felt this vulnerable since the first TVs flickered on. “Literature is going the way of this dinosaur!” proclaimed a very trim Gary Shteyngart. “Wait, Salman Rushdie has already said something like that, ” he continued. “Let’s elaborate. Hang on. If the literature is the dinosaur, then the creeping national illiteracy is the meteoric event that Okay, this is not working. I can’t be pithy with my clothes on.” Within minutes, Rushdie himself arrived, accompanied by supposedly estranged wife Padma Lakshmi. His take on the book-critic shortage: “When I was starting out, any novelist’s debut, no matter how small, would get reviewed across the country. I would hate to be a young writer right now.” Letting Lakshmi get momentarily lost in the crowd while he finished his point, Rushdie added, “But let me tell you, it’s a dangerous game. The newspapers that are cutting people’s attention to reading may be cutting their own throats.” —Michael Idov
gossipmonger
The Donald Picks a New FightDonald Trump claims that Golf Digest didn’t include his West Palm Beach course on their “Greatest Courses” list because he refused to advertise in the magazine. Jennifer Lopez arrived three hours late to her album-release party. Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie may be breaking up. James Gandolfini picked up a girl Tony Soprano–style. And Christopher is apparently the odds-on favorite to get whacked in the final season. Julianna Marguiles bought condoms with some guy at Duane Reade. Lindsay Lohan was allowed to use an apartment in the Atelier on West 45th Street because developers wanted to give the building some star power.
