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.
ByKatie Goldsmith
gossipmonger
For ‘Lipstick Jungle’ Star, Life Imitates ArtLipstick Jungle actress Lindsay Price met LSV Advisors’ David Tisch at the Cynthia Rowley show last week, and they’ve been dating since. Scarlett Johansson refused to talk to an Us Weekly reporter because of the plastic-surgery cover they did of her. Bruce Willis hung out with Victoria’s Secret model Emma Heming at Marquee for Lauren Kucerak’s birthday party, where he tipped $100 a drink. Justin Timberlake was spotted shopping at Tiffany & Co. Natalie Portman showed up 45 minutes late to a vegan-shoe launch she was doing in Soho and only answered questions for five minutes.
company town
Hillary Clinton Dismays Anna WintourMEDIA
• Anna Wintour took Hillary Clinton to task for backing out of her Vogue photo shoot because she feared looking “too feminine.” Wintour: “The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying.” Ouch. [WWD]
• The Directors Guild showed up the writers in striking, heh, fashion: After just one week of negotiations, the directors struck a deal with the studios that includes the all-important online-video money. The writers are cautious, though, since the last time they followed the directors’ lead they got screwed on the home-video market. [WP]
• Wal-Mart, responsible for 20 percent of all “newsstand” magazine sales, announced it would dump more than 1,000 titles from its shelves. Shocking twist: The New Yorker stays, but Boar Hunter Magazine is out! [NYP]
gossipmonger
Underwear Model Hits the FloorA publicist for model Annabel Vartanian claims that the model fainted at a La Perla party because “she wore herself out,” not because she has an eating disorder. Kim Cattrall is donating all the furs she wore in the Sex and the City movie to PETA, which in turn will give them to charity. Cindy Adams is taking credit for breaking Enquirer’s John Edwards–is–having–an–affair story. East Village landmark dive bars Sophie’s and Mona’s are both going up for sale after the holidays. Police commish Ray Kelly says he won’t make a decision about running for mayor until after the presidential scrum plays out. Donald Trump will be David Letterman’s first guest back when he goes live on January 2. Model Selita Ebanks, who may have been dating James Blake, was at a Knicks game with Giants lineman Osi Umenyira.
company town
Former Cravath Associate Pleads Guilty to Sex CrimesLAW
• James Colliton, the former Cravath associate embroiled in a sex-crimes suit, got a lighter sentence after he admitted to paying a mother for sex with her two teenage girls. [Law Blog/WSJ]
• Debevoise and Plimpton’s marquee new hire, the former attorney general of the U.K., has a few scuffs on his highly polished shoes: He carried on an affair while in office with a leading woman barrister. [Above the Law]
• When $1,000 an hour isn’t enough, premium billing — a kind of law-firm tip for a job well done — is the best way to really start raking in the profits. [DealBook/NYT]
gossipmonger
Girl Trouble at CNBCA number of female anchors at CNBC are annoyed at the preferential treatment given to Money Honeys Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett. Kate Moss and Pete Doherty may be back together. Anna Wintour canoodled with Shelby Bryan at day one of the U.S. Open. Bill and Hillary Clinton may be buying property on Martha’s Vineyard next to Ted Danson. Mets shortstop Jose Reyes partied with girls at a club in Bridgeview. George Lopez’s bodyguard assaulted a Post reporter at a showing of Superbad. (Related: George Lopez has a bodyguard?) Several New York nightclub owners decided to party this summer in Europe and South America. Amy Winehouse’s father-in-law is urging her fans not to buy her albums until she cleans up her act in rehab. The Lohans are finally allowing estranged father Michael to visit Lindsay in rehab.
gossipmonger
It’s His PrerogativeBobby Brown beefed up security in Australia because he still thinks Osama bin Laden is after him. Former party girl Taylor Stein, who just had a baby with William Lauder, has dated a lot of very, very wealthy older men. A documentary producer claims Bobby Kennedy got into a shouting match with Marilyn Monroe the night she died, and not in the bedroom where her body was found. Mom of the Year Dina Lohan is being sued for allegedly failing to pay back a $400,000 loan she used to jump-start Lindsay’s music career. ABC misspelled Whoopi Goldberg’s name in a press release announcing her as the new host of The View. Rudy Giuliani made up for the fact that the Yankees lost Eric Gange to the Red Sox by raising $350,000 at a Greenwich fund-raiser. Chelsea Clinton tried, and failed, to quietly read Harry Potter on the 6 train. CBS News execs are not pleased with the performance of some of the company’s interns. Tyra Banks attended a party for her Air Force cadet brother, who is going to Iraq.
gossipmonger
High TimesDuring his Van Halen days, David Lee Roth used to pay staffers to bring him girls backstage. Pete Doherty writes in his new memoir that he and Kate Moss will get married if he stays away from the drugs. Newly minted NBC chief and notorious party boy Ben Silverman finally took, and passed, his company drug test. Not one of the Republicans Michael Moore invited to the D.C. premiere of Sicko showed up.
in other news
Celeb Guide to New York: Bad for Hitting, Good for PinchingIt’s a question that must plague all celebrities: Where’s the best place to be famous and act like an ass? Yesterday’s news that smack-happy singer Pete Doherty has been fined a mere $1,422 for smacking — well, kicking — a female BBC reporter suggests the answer might be London. But what of our fair city? Don’t celebs love New York, too? Well, if they’re being strategic, maybe not. Last year, Russell Crowe had to pay a six-figure settlement for assaulting a Hotel Mercer clerk with phone. That’s not only a lot more than Doherty’s paying, but it’s also a lot more than the $4,500 Alec Baldwin paid — admittedly in 1995 dollars — for punching a photographer who took a picture of Kim Basinger, his 1995 wife, in Los Angeles; a lot more than the $5,500 Axl Rose was fined for the inventively depraved act of biting a Swedish security guard; and presumably more than the undisclosed sum Naomi Campbell paid, in addition to taking anger-management classes, after attacking her assistant with a cell phone in Toronto. The good news is that New York does seem to remain the best place to be a lecherous but not actually violent celeb, as Christian Slater leared in 2004 when he groped the ass of a random woman on an Upper West Side sidewalk. His punishment: three days of community service.
— Ben Mathis-Lilley
Arts, Briefly: Pete Doherty Fined for Assault [NYT]
Celebrity and Its Discontents [NYM]