Leo DiCaprio Has Your BackAt Upstairs in Soho, Leonardo DiCaprio had the back of Danny A after the club promoter got into an altercation with a patron. New York Yankee Joba Chamberlain celebrated his 22nd birthday at the Plumm by drinking Red Bull with a bunch of teammates. Tom Touchet, who was a producer at the Today show until he was forced out by Katie Couric, may have to work with her again now that he’s at CBS. The Scores stripper who sold pictures of Oscar De La Hoya in drag regrets having done so for only $70,000. Derek Jeter sat near Hilary Duff at Megu Midtown. French soprano Natalie Dessay, star of the Met’s Lucia di Lammermoor, understands why a lot of people think opera is boring. George Clooney, girlfriend Sarah Larson, and a group of friends dined downstairs at La Esquina.
gossipmonger
Regan Outfoxes News Corp.?Judith Regan has secret tapes that may help her $20 million lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch. The Land Rovers and helicopters used to launch a new Ralph Lauren cologne may have disturbed a community of East Hampton piping plovers. Cindy Adams, who has a vendetta against Larry David because he dissed her once, claims that Laurie had been stepping out on him for quite some time (and that he’s being set up with Ellen Barkin). Olivia Newton-John really liked Xanadu. OK! dropped $400,000 on sex pics of Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo, but the mag won’t publish them. Claire Danes may have landed the lead in the Pygmalion revival because the director directed her boyfriend in Journey’s End. Annie Leibowitz angered the Queen of England by asking her to remove her crown during a photo shoot.
photo op
It Was Either This or Try That New Trend of Rapping on the Subway
Prince Charles shot hoops in Harlem yesterday, and we just can’t get enough of the photos. That’s all.
The Prince, in the City, Dribbled and Scores [NYT]
Earlier: Next on NPR: Sometimes Panhandlers Ask for Money on Subway Cars
the morning line
So Much for the Hill-Rupe Alliance
• Hillary stumps in Iowa — hey, the caucus is only twelve months away — and the Post is already scandalized. See, Hillary rolled her eyes when asked if she can handle “evil men” — and we all know what that means. [NYP]
• Remember Efrain Gonzalez, the Albany politician who funneled children’s-charity funds into vacation houses and custom cigars? Turns out Gonzalez is, at least, as cruel to his own children as to others’: He has “virtually abandoned” his disabled son, an ex-wife says. [NYDN]
• Charles and Camilla’s itinerary for the weekend New York visit included watching Harlem kids perform Shakespeare, picking up an environmental award from Al Gore, and getting photographed shooting hoops (one of the two princely shots went in). [WABC]
• The new contract between public-school teachers and the city had an interesting side effect: Teachers will now be making more than principals, who aren’t part of the same union. The latter aren’t happy (especially now that Bloomberg wants to give them more authority). [NYT]
• And thousands ran the “Idiotarod” from Greenpoint to Queens on Saturday — a bizarro race wherein costumed participants, tied to shopping carts, throw edibles at each other. The official winner is not yet known, so we’ll just go ahead and call it for Hillary. [
