‘21’ Had to Go Ahead and Spill That Dubya’s Never VisitedYou were almost in the clear, guys, but now he might show up. Also, Taylor Momsen, you are so not as famous as you think you are in Maryland. So declares the gossip roundup!
Leighton Meester Is a Text AddictThe ‘Gossip Girl’ star spent a party in her honor on her BlackBerry, and more bad behavior in our daily gossip roundup.
Eyebrows Are Raised Over Morgan StanleyMorgan Stanley CEO John Mack grapples with plummeting profits and a rogue trader, a summer associate messes with the wrong guy at the company picnic, and Rachael Ray buys in the Hamptons, in our daily roundup of finance, law, media, and real-estate news.
Book Publishers Sadly Agree: Silda Not Likely to Tell AllBook publishers and editors agree that a Silda Spitzer tell-all is unlikely. Rachael Ray’s people disagree with yesterday’s Post item which claimed that Ray’s show may soon be canceled. Broadway vet Phillip Hoffman would like you to know that he is not the same person as actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The Duke of Westminster succeeded in getting British papers to drop rumors that he was Client 6 because libel laws are stricter in England. The owners of Cain, GoldBar, Upstairs, Marquee, and Butter had a poolside nightlife summit down in Cove Atlantis. Of all the times for there not to be a tidal wave.
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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.
it just happened
Martha Stewart Kills ‘Blueprint,’ Ruins Christmas for Cute Girls in Grandma SpecsWell. Looks like the gals and gays from Blueprint are going to have a lot more time to make their own wrapping paper this holiday season. WWD reported that Martha Stewart Omnimedia had laid off a dozen people on Friday, and now Mediabistro is reporting that it was because they are shutting down the young lifestyle-y magazine. This saddens us, not just because we empathize with the staffers now facing a Christmas more anxiety-ridden than usual, but because we were kind of fond of Blueprint. Of all the recent nest-y publications, it was the quirkiest: a magazine for smart girls in grandma glasses who liked to knit, cooler than Rachael Ray but nerdier than Domino. Even when it totally veered from its mission and ran weird Highlights-era blurbicles like “What Your Doodle Means” or suggested an iPod playlist for you apropos of nothing, well, that was just part of its dorky charm. But we guess Martha didn’t feel quite the same way.
Martha Stewart Axes Blueprint [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
Related: Work-Appropriate Attire
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Cisco Adler Plops Down Near Another Hot BlondeA-Rod and ur-agent Scott Boras dined at Nello’s. Eva Mendes hopped in the wrong limo. New York’s First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer told attendees of a More-magazine convention that the best advice she ever got was “either piss or get off the pot.” Cisco Adler and Lydia Hearst were cozy at Bungalow 8. Jann Wenner was widely mocked at the 30th reunion party of the Rolling Stone staff from 1977 (everyone gave him the finger in the group photo, and no one drank the Champagne he sent). Joaquin Phoenix hung up on a reporter from Time Out after she asked him what he did to prepare for his roles. Single-again Nick Cannon hung out with a bunch of beauty-pageant queens at Tenjune.
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Judi Giuliani, Puppy Killer?Vanity Fair’s forthcoming takedown of Judi Giuliani paints her as “opportunistic, puppy-killing homewrecker.” ABC News employees were reminded not to surf for porn on company time after it was discovered that an intern had nude photos online. Married cosmetics heir William Lauder may be the illegitimate father of a child with nightlife honcho Howard Stein’s daughter. Mets pitchers John Maine and Aaron Heilman partied at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone. New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane might not technically be married to the mother of his two children, journalist Allison Pearson. Penélope Cruz and Bono were spotted holding hands in St. Tropez. Star Jones claims women on TV get a raw financial deal. Rachael Ray and Ron Jeremy were in Saratoga for the opening of the racetrack.
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Guv Love?The “tall and attractive” 25-year-old aide whom Jon Corzine may have been sitting next to at the time of his car crash was reassigned last month because she and the governor were allegedly getting too close. Larry and Laurie David may have split because Laurie had an affair with a married man on Martha’s Vineyard. Some Columbia Records staffers are worried that producer Rick Rubin has been named co-head of the label, given that he has no executive experience. Richie Sambora dumped Denise Richards during a Hawaii vacation a few months ago; she’d been expecting him to propose. Michael Jackson placed a number of odd, ill-timed room-service orders at an inn in Maryland, but he did bless the manager. Oliver Platt is an ardent supporter of the business tactics of George Steinbrenner, whom he plays in The Bronx Is Burning. Lindsay Lohan is dropping booze for bottled water.
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Happily Eva AfterOK! magazine paid more than $2 million for the rights to Eva Longoria’s wedding photos, much to the chagrin of People. Lily Allen was so drunk during a performance she referred to hostess Tinsley Mortimer as “Ashley Winksdale,” which, actually, is kind of awesome. Courtney Love has been licensing Kurt Cobain’s likeness for a bunch of lame products. (Certainly Al Pacino wouldn’t approve.) The Queen of England uses e-mail and has an iPod. Rachel Roy and Damon Dash got into a public spat at Dash’s club Socialista. Ryan Cabrera and Riley Keough — she’s Elvis’s granddaughter — are on the outs. Renée Zellweger might be dating an agent at CAA.
party town
Television, Radio, and Chamber Music• Museum of Television and Radio gala. Waldorf-Astoria, 301 Park Ave., nr. 49th St., 6 p.m. Hosted by Tom Brokaw in honor of Sir Howard Stringer; guests include Helen Gurley Brown, Dominick Dunne, Angela Lansbury, Morley Safer, and Andy Rooney. Wow. That’s a lot of people who are really, really … uh … experienced in the breadth and totality of television and radio history.
• “Lovestruck” party presented by Lincoln Center Chamber Music patrons’ society. Marlborough Gallery, 40 W. 57th St., nr. Fifth Ave., 7 p.m. Hosted by Gwyneth Paltrow, this event is allegedly a celebration of sensuality and indulgence. We’re not saying it isn’t, but all the people who got their pictures taken at the event last year must be really good at keeping a poker face on their sensual indulgence.
Or check out our Agenda listings for tonight, selected by New York’s culture editors.
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Derek Jeter, Jessica Biel Would Have Hot, Ambiracial ChildrenDerek Jeter has a new lady: Esquire favorite Jessica Biel. The owners of Stereo on West 29th are annoyed a club named Stereo is opening on West 33rd. The Catholic Church is in a tizzy over some book featuring a model-as-Catholic-schoolgirl in various stages of undress (and, finally, no dress). Rudy and Judith Giuliani took a one-and-a-half-day vacation in Italy. Jack Black says Jeremy Piven hates him because Black was cast as the record-store geek in High Fidelity and Piven wasn’t. Four women who had been knocking off sample sales all over town finally get caught in the act. Whitney Houston will be homeless in January, unless she comes up with $1 million. Terminator 3 babe Kristanna Loken comes out of the closet, and Michelle Rodriguez is by her side. An apartment building is being converted to condos, and opponents of the plan say a 97-year-old man died because of the construction (instead of, you know, old age). Ted Turner advocates nuclear power, getting Bush out of office, having fewer children. A women accused Rachael Ray’s husband of extra-marital kinkiness, but the couple denies it. Emilio Estevez is a self-proclaimed “garageiste.” Congrats to Grandpa Donald Trump!
