Whitney Port Is Moving On Quite NicelyThe ‘City’ star was spotted “getting smoochy” with Robert Buckley. Plus: Beyoncé buys a bling-y bra, and much to the tabloids’ consternation, Jennifer Aniston is still not pregnant.
NYU Jumps Aboard the Governors Island FerryBedford-Stuyvesant: Here, sometimes, the cartoon characters are thugged out with chains and the classic brownstones are pimped out with chrome. [Newyorkshitty]
Dumbo: What mysterious doings were going on yesterday in the 85 Jay Street parking lot — reportedly the largest plot of undeveloped land in the city — owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Looks kind of Blair Witch–y to us. [DumboNYC]
Governors Island: Shortly after the city announced plans for a fabu-luxe park here, NYU says it’ll build a campus, too, with academic, residential, and athletic facilities all in the mix. [The Real Deal]
intel
The Union Rat Descends Upon Gramercy ParkIn 1888, Edwin Booth, the famed Shakespearean actor, along with Mark Twain, General William Tecumseh Sherman, and a slew of other distinguished American notables from the nineteenth century, formed their own club where they could hang out and smoke cigars and sip brandy and yap about the dramatic arts. They also created a fund to help struggling actors. They called themselves “The Players,” and their club was run out Booth’s old townhouse at 16 Gramercy Park, where it is still in operation.
In the past few days, the club’s picturesque Stanford White façade, facing the tony private park, has been partially blocked by a sight uncommon in this quiet residential neighborhood: the union rat. It’s a sign of lingering troubles within.
intel
2008 Electopedia: Now With Full Obama FlavorAs the election has morphed, so has New York’s comprehensive Electopedia. It’s now Obamafied! It’s got everything you needed to know about the Illinois senator but never thought to ask, like: Who is his worst enemy? How often does he go to church? And just how rich is he? Answers to those questions are already in there for our hometown senator, Hillary Clinton. But now, as battle gets heated (okay, stays heated? Gets scorching?), don’t forget to use the handy guide to figure out how they stack up on the issues they don’t talk about on TV.
2008 Electopedia
party lines
Serena Thinks Gossip Girl Is Chuck!Since the writers’ strike has been keeping us from passing judgment on what’s real and fake on Gossip Girl, we took the debate to the street at last night’s celebration for the New Old Navy. The minute we saw Chace Crawford and Blake Lively, we of course asked them whether they read our awkwardly obsessive coverage. Both seemed politely interested (though previously unaware) of our weekly recaps. “Oh my goodness! I’m flattered!” laughed Lively, while Crawford asked us to show it to him on the red carpet, and told us that even though he “isn’t a big Internet blogger,” he’ll check it out. OMG! Did you hear that guys? They’re such liars. Even we Google ourselves and check to at least page three, and we’re not famous. But anyway, we know it’s standard stalkee procedure to pretend your stalker has no effect on your life. While talking blogs, we also dug into the carefully guarded identity of Gossip Girl herself. Lively laughed off the rumors of it being Eric, saying “I personally think it’s Chuck,” and real-life Gossip Girl narrator Kristen Bell took the more cerebral route: “She’s just that eminent being in the back of your head, the little devil on your shoulder all the time.” It felt like a good high-school gab session when Lively bragged to us about how she’s the best Guitar Hero player in the cast (hello! Just like on episode eight!) and her Crumbs cupcake routine (“I cut them into fours and love the peanut-butter and red-velvet ones”.) But as it turns out, we aren’t the only ones feeling that Serena and Nate are Just Like Us: “While we were on set, these very Upper East Side–ish kids came up to me and said, ‘We are, like, you guys, in real life.’ But I was like ‘I am so sorry to hear that, I would not wish that upon anybody, our lives of debauchery and scandal.’” Wish it upon us, Chace. Wish it upon us every Wednesday night, please! —Amy Preiser
Hear more from the New Old Navy Party, with quotes and pictures of Heatherette, Kirsten Bell, and Sophia Bush!
And we know you need more Gossip Girl, so just get it over with and click here.
in other news
Julian Schnabel Finds It in His Heart to Forgive Sean YoungBig snuggly papa bear Julian Schnabel isn’t mad at Sean Young for drunkenly heckling him during his speech at the Directors Guild Awards the other night. He just wants to press the Blade Runner star, who has subsequently checked into rehab, to his frontal afghan and make it all better. “It was fine. It was really fine. I’m sorry she got taken out of there,” the Schab, who has surely witnessed worse behavior from substance abusers in his day, told USA Today. “If I had a couple of minutes with her, I could have brought her up on stage and we could have worked it out.” Now that would have been an award-winning show.
Schnabel: No hard feelings [USAT]
Earlier: Sean Young Learns Not to Mess With the Schnabel
new york fugging city
The Fug Girls: But Who Do You Take Home to Mama AFTER the Super Bowl?With Super Bowl Sunday looming, football pundits worldwide are typing their fingers to the bone predicting who will step up, who will choke, and which commercials will be the most buzz-worthy. Sure, football is a group sport and there’s no “I” — or “Eli” — in “team,” but we can’t help boiling down the big game to its most fascinating matchup: the budding legend versus the legacy kid. How do Tom Brady and Eli Manning stack up, and more important, which one looks better in spandex? Let us be your guides.
TABLOID APPEAL: Tom Brady has been all over the rags this year, thanks to his baby-mama drama with Bridget Moynahan and his ensuing photo-friendly relationship with Gisele. Whereas we only know from Wikipedia that Eli Manning is engaged; “Giants QB Really Digs College Sweetheart” probably won’t move any magazines unless he knocks her up with some baby joy. At Tom Brady’s house.
Advantage: Tom. Unless you prefer keeping your private life private, but where’s the fun there?
company town
Have You Heard? There’s a New Economic Freak-out Happening!FINANCE
• William A. Ackman of Pershing Hedge Funds got everyone freaking out about bond insurers by issuing a report yesterday afternoon predicting that MBIA and the Ambac Financial Group might just lose $24 billion on mortgage investments. “Here comes Ackman at the 11th hour upsetting the apple cart,” Douglas M. Peta, chief market strategist at J.& W. Seligman & Company, told the Times. “I don’t think anybody has really thought it all through, but we all understand the implications of real trouble in the bond insurers could be far reaching.” [NYT] Related! MBIA announced a $3.5 billion write-down this morning. [CNN]
• Wharton is still the number-one place in the universe to pick up an MBA.
[FT]
• Following in the steps of other CEOs with giant mortgage-related losses, Merrill won’t give its top brass any bonuses. But they will give them stock options “to promote the continuity of the management team as they continue to navigate through challenging market conditions in 2008.” That’s one way to hang on to staff. [Reuters]
bons mots
Some Save the World by Creating Vaccines; Patricia Field Makes Giant FlowersIt’s hard to believe, but going into fashion was really something Patricia Field struggled with. Like, philosophically. Because in addition to being the Picasso to Sarah Jessica Parker’s Dora Maar, a scorner of the big-boned, and the woman responsible for turning every woman into a clone of Carrie Fucking Bradshaw, Patricia Field is a philosopher. “I studied philosophy and art and history, and I spent a large portion of my life dealing with fashion and thinking how frivolous it is,” she tells Fashion Week Daily. “But now, with all the ugliness we see around us today, I’m thinking that the work I do isn’t so frivolous. It brings beauty and happiness to a world that’s so tortured, and it makes me really happy that I can be a part of that.” Now if she could only get Mahmoud Ahmadinejad out of that suit.
Party Beat [Fashion Week Daily]
Earlier: ‘Sex and the City’ Violates Fashion in Its House of Worship
in other news
Patricia Field Dresses Sarah Jessica Parker Up in Her LoveThough fashion is full of men and their muses —Yves and Loulou, Marc and Sofia, Isabella and Phillip — rarely do female designers cop to having a special lady of their own. But corsage-crazy moppet and noted destroyer of women’s fashion Patricia Field is apparently the exception. “Sarah Jessica Parker has the best body that I have experienced and probably will experience in the future,” she rhapsodizes in today’s Observer. “Because I mean, she’s just got great proportion, great tone, great movement, grace,” she continued. “She’s got long legs, a high ass. She’s miniature, but it’s all perfect.” Yeah, nothing like that hulking Germanic horse Meryl Streep.
How Patricia Field ‘Experiences’ Sarah Jessica Parker’s Body [NYO]
in other news
The Devil Wears Giant FlowersOh, no, she didn’t! While talking about her costume designs for The Devil Wears Prada this past weekend at the New Yorker Festival, Patricia Field committed the ultimate woman-on-woman crime: “No way I was going to apply Anna Wintour’s look to Meryl Streep; it would have been a mess,” she told the audience, then explained why: “Meryl Streep is a German, big-boned, different woman.” Oh, dear. In lady-speak, calling someone big-boned is like calling someone Rubenesque, or curvy, or basically, an outright lardass. Patricia better send Meryl some chocolates — no, flowers! — right away.
Redesigning the Crowd [WWD]