All in the FamilyBee Shaffer and Austin Bryan, the offspring of Anna Wintour and her boyfriend, Shelby Bryan, held hands at Marquee. Harlem congressman Charles Rangel is likely getting a divorce and may be dating other women. The typewriter that disabled author Christy Brown used to bang out his best-selling autobiography (with his left foot, no less) will be auctioned off tomorrow. New York Yankee Jason Giambi took shots at a club. Sophie Dahl and longtime boyfriend Dan Baker Jr. broke up, and Mick Jagger may be to blame. Lindsay Lohan ex Harry Morton is now dating Friday Night Lights star Minka Kelly. Mark Wahlberg and the real-life “E” acted like Vinnie Chase and the fictional “E.” Ronald and Nancy Reagan were once funneled money by a Hollywood studio through an illegitimate real-estate transaction.
photo op
Call Me
So the iPhone went on sale Friday afternoon; America rejoiced, God smiled, and people who’d been waiting on line for three days could finally go take a shower. (We must say our favorite touch is the line of what seem to be Apple employees at left, applauding the dude for, you know, shopping.) Funny thing: After all the hysteria and lines and waiting and so forth, our friend walked into an AT&T store Saturday afternoon, bought an iPhone, and left in about a half-hour.
UPDATE: Aforementioned friend IMs: “Errata! I was in and out of Apple Store in 5 minutes.” Apparently reporting over drinks late on Saturday night doesn’t always yield complete accuracy. Who knew?
Earlier: Daily Intel’s we’re-giving-Steve-Jobs-exactly- what-he-wants iPhone coverage.
photo op
Tired, Poor, Huddled
Welcome to July 4 week. We suspect it’ll be a slow one in these parts. Nice weather today, at least.
the morning line
Safe
• Crime is drastically down so far this year, with the city on track to set a record in 2007: the fewest murders since the police began keeping track in the sixties. An NYU prof credits an NYPD program that sends crowds of rookie cops to bad neighborhoods — and those rookie cops would be the ones they’re now paying $25k. [NYDN]
• Is Joe Bruno the Alan Hevesi of the sky? The state’s top Republican is under investigation for allegedly steering state contracts to associates; now Spitzer is threatening to look into Bruno’s use of state aircraft — and police escorts — to fly to fund-raisers in New York City. [NYP]
• Those new New York City condoms hit 100 of New York’s 325 senior centers last week. The remaining 225 centers — save for seven apparently run by prudes — will get their rubbers this week, along with pamphlets on HIV prevention. [NYP]
• Bloomberg’s new noise code went into effect yesterday. See, isn’t the city nice and quiet now? [NYT]
• And A-Rod’s wife wore a tank top to yesterday’s game bearing the words “Fuck You” on the back. Perhaps it would have been better to convey this message at home? [NYP]
photo op
Staten Island’s Spring Awakening
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, and so did Holtsville Hal on Long Island. But the only weather marmot residing in New York City — Staten Island Chuck — woke up, saw no shadow, and thus allows us to confidently predict spring will come early for our fair (if, granted, soon to be inundated) city. The good people at Gothamist provide the picture we’ve been looking for, and it reminds us — in case we’ve forgotten — that Brooklyn Chuck will never miss a chance for a photo op.
Early Spring, Says Staten Island Chuck [Gothamist]
intel
Food Network Moves Feast for Catherine Zeta-JonesLess than a month before the Food Network Awards Show — when plans have been made, florists scheduled, hotel rooms booked — the Food Network is rescheduling the big event, pushing it up a day. Why? Because Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart have a conflict. Zeta-Jones, who plays a chef in the summer movie No Reservations, and co-star Eckhart were scheduled to be presenters at the show. But then Eckhart got an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and that ceremony is on the same day. And Zeta-Jones declined to do the gig without Eckhart. But the foodies are flexible. “We’d change the world for Catherine Zeta-Jones. She’s a star,” says Lee Brian Schrager, organizer of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, which hosts the awards. Among the big New York names who will have to change their plans: Gotham Bar and Grill’s Alfred Portale, Momofuku’s David Chang, and Aquavit’s Marcus Samuelsson. Even Laurent Tourondel, who was scheduled to cook a Champagne barbecue at the Miami festival that now conflicts with the Food Awards, says he doesn’t mind. But then Zeta-Jones probably needs no reservation at BLT Prime, either. —Alexandra Peers
Feeding Frenzy [NYP]
grub street
Room Service, at Your Service
The self-consciously hip Flatiron club Room Service has several gimmicks, and one of them is this: With a reservation for one of the curtained-off VIP cabanas — and 24 hours’ notice — a Room Service concierge will deliver anything your VIPness desires. So what have patrons been requesting? Grub Street’s Daniel Maurer got his hands on a list of every item demanded over a two-week period, and it runs from Ben & Jerry’s to wasabi peas. We promise some stops along the way are more salacious.
Weird Deliveries Demanded by Club VIPs [Grub Street]
party lines
Woody Allen Fights AIDS, Bores Us
Speaking of Wednesday’s amFAR benefit, it also brought out Woody Allen for a rare public appearance. (He presented an award to an old friend, Dr. Mathilde Krim, amFAR’s founding chairman.) After a charmingly bumbling speech, he sat, quite oddly, across the table from Soon-Yi and listened to Garry Shandling tell the room about watching Allen years ago on a short-lived Saturday-morning TV show, Hot Dog. “It was a show where they explained to kids how things worked and Woody Allen was one of the people who explained things,” Shandling said. “I’ll never forget the time he came out and told us that baseball bats were made of halvah, so that when you strike out, you can eat it.”
Later we approached Allen to ask for an interview and were shocked to have him agree. Suddenly, visions of brilliant, hilarious, angst- and Yiddish-filled quotes leaped to our mind. We were thrilled. And then he proceeded to give us a series of totally boring replies. (Except for one tiny bit of news, that despite his last few films, he hasn’t forsaken New York forever.) Feh.
in other news
Boston Cartoon Attack Was, Well, a GlitchSo those two hair-obsessed guys arrested in Boston for planting the Aqua Teen Hunger Force non-bombs that terrified New England? A bit of creative Googling reveals that both men — Sean Stevens, 28, and Peter Berdovsky, 27, who goes by “Zebbler” — are affiliated with a “live performing video force” called — and this is the sort of fun part — Glitch. Well, yes. We suspect that Turner Broadcasting, parent of Aqua Teen’s home, the Cartoon Network, sees this as quite the glitch. Which perhaps explains the whole thing: It’s all part of Time Warner, and Time Warner is trying to be more synergistic, and didn’t Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore just say her company needs to fail more? This, folks, is failure done right.
Two Men Charged After Boston Security Scare [Reuters]
show and talk
Fashion Week Is Here!
Oh, happy day! It’s the start of Fashion Week in New York, and everyone from designers to models to socialites to — of course — New York Magazine is gearing up for it. We’re especially pleased to bring back nymag.com’s full Fashion Week extravaganza. We’ll be posting next-day slideshows of all the shows. We’ll be giving our fancy new video player a good workout. We’re bringing back our Show & Talk fashion blog, which will bring you instant trend reports, lots of Harriet and Amy, plenty of Video Look Books, and, most thrillingly, the return to New York of our beloved Fug Girls. All that, plus we’re letting you post comments on Show & Talk. (We expect to regret that last bit.) It’ll be more fun than a Marc Jacobs costume party.
New York Fashion Week Preview [NYM]
gossipmonger
People Don’t Like Lennon’s Murderer, ApparentlySome people are boycotting the Lohan-Leto movie about John Lennon murderer Mark David Chapman because they think it gives him too much publicity. Mayor Bloomberg made an ill-timed Leonardo DiCaprio–Bar Refaeli joke. Mary-Louise Parker and Weeds co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan have split, though in this case she was not pregnant with his child. The Daily News sticks to its claim that Sienna Miller and Hayden Christensen are actually doing it in Factory Girl. George Soros spoke at Davos last week about America’s need for a “de-Nazification” process. The U.S. Postal Service refused to ship cards from Chez Josephine owner Jean-Claude Baker because they had pictures of boobies — Josephine Baker’s boobies — on them. — on them.
developing
Doctoroff Goes to Harlem, Gets Smacked
Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s all-powerful development czar, very rarely has his ass kicked in public. But at a Harlem symposium on Robert Moses’s legacy last night, Majora Carter, who runs the environmental advocacy group Sustainable South Bronx, did just that. As various bigshots praised the vital role of public input in today’s successful megaprojects — Atlantic Yards was never mentioned — Doctoroff contended that Team Bloomberg had buried Moses’s high-handed legacy. Carter, whose group has proposed a recycling facility where the city wants to build a 2,000-bed jail, begged to differ.
party lines
Miss USA Still Likes the Nightlife, Says Miss UniverseHas disgraced-Miss-USA-gone- wild Tara Conner — who entered rehab to curb her crazy ways, including cocaine use, underage drinking, and kissing Miss Teen USA Katie Blair in public — completely given up her partying ways? Not entirely, according to her roommate, Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera. “We still party, yeah. Sometimes. We’re just trying to be careful about what we do,” she said at Wednesday night’s benefit gala for amFAR. Besides, pageant owner Donald Trump “trusts us,” Rivera says. “I’m a person who shows my real self. If I like to go party, like a young girl do, I do it. Why not? I can’t drink. I’m 19. At least not in the United States.” Rivera is from Puerto Rico, and “In Puerto Rico I can.” And she does get treated better with the sash on. “If I compare when I was in Puerto Rico as a student in college, it’s different. Very different. I get into clubs, yes.” —Jada Yuan
Update: Miss Universe and her flack call us to deny everything!
the morning line
There Either Will or Will Not Be Six More Weeks of Winter
• We can all agree it’s Groundhog Day, but there’s little agreement beyond that. Contradictory early-morning behavior from local groundhogs Staten Island Chuck, Holtsville Hal, and Malverne Phil casts uncertainty on the duration of winter. [Newsday]
• Hillary Clinton has announced that her presidential fund-raisers must pony up a record-breaking $1 million apiece to make her BFF inner circle. (By comparison, Dubya’s BFF benchmark in 2000 was a trifling $100,000.) The burning question: Should the HRC BFFs be called “Pathfinders” or the naughtier “Hillraisers”? [NYT]
• Just in time for Black History Month, and egged on by rap legend Kurtis Blow, the City Council ponders a resolution to urge all New Yorkers to stop using the N-word. And even when you end it with an a, dawg. [amNY]
• In the political equivalent of wearing the same dress to the dance, ‘08 rivals Giuliani and McCain learned they’d be sharing top billing in May at a big New York State GOP fund-raiser — and some party insiders are calling it a major dis to Rudy. [NYP]
• One day after he suggested that Barack Obama was the first black presidential candidate to master both English and personal hygiene, Senator Joe Biden hit Al Sharpton’s radio show to insist he had the highest regard for the Rev’s syntax. [NYDN]
party town
Fab Five Wonders if Party Invite Lost in Mail• Glamour Fashion Gives Back event. Milk Studios penthouse, 450 W. 15th St., nr. Ninth Ave., 7 p.m. Tim Gunn, Anna Paquin, Elie Tahari, Padma Lakshmi, and Jamie King are among the expected guests. Todd Oldham has to sit this one out. In case of a catastrophic event, Bravo requires a designated survivor to ensure reality-TV continuity.
in other news
Sheryl Crow Will Save the Newspaper Industry!
So there are all the standard problems newspapers are having with their readerships — that they’re too old, that they’re moving online, that they never call or write anymore — and at the Wall Street Journal there’s a whole other set on top of that: Long seen as only the businessman’s paper, the Journal has a readership that’s particularly old and significantly male. How to bring younger, womaner readers to the paper? With a new ad campaign, of course. People like the New York Giants, Alice Waters, and Sheryl Crow will be depicted talking about why the Journal is important to them, according to a reporting today’s Times. For example:
Ms. Crow, 44, for example, learned last year that she had breast cancer; the ad with her includes part of a Journal article about breast cancer.
You know, as opposed to all those old Journal ads featuring men talking about their prostate cancer.
Newspaper Readers of a Different Kind [NYT]
cultural capital
Todd Oldham Is Not Our Bravo IdolTop Chef viewers who dealt with their postpartum depression last night by mooning around Bravo hoping for another toque or two before things were truly cashed found themselves suddenly facing an entirely different kind of high. Coming up next was the premiere of Bravo’s new Top Design, in which Todd Oldham wannabes remake rooms for a chance at some start-up cash and a place in a top interior-design firm. The new show, it seems, will stick to the standard reality formula: early ejection of boring contestants, the establishment of a villain (oodles of possible Marcels, don’t worry), and a new mentor and host in Oldham himself. But that, sadly, is the show’s big problem: Oldham’s wooden delivery was in desperate need of some hot Tim Gunn glue. (How Top Chef’s Padma was allowed to sound half-asleep all the time, we’ll never know.) Which gives us, suddenly, the perfect idea for the next reality show: So You Want to Be a Reality-Show Host. And sorry, Todd, you’ve got some talent, but we just don’t think you’ve got the stage presence to be an idol.
Top Design [BravoTV.com]
Earlier: For Todd Oldham, Brunch Is a Prison
video look book
Oh, Come On, You’ve Seen Irma Sandrey
Irma Sandrey is an actress, a dancer, and an acting instructor. She’s a member of the Actors Studio and a teacher at the Lee Strasberg School. So what’s her fashion Method? On the day New York’s Amy Larocca caught up with her, it was fur, lots of fur. “I do feel sorry for the little animals,” Sandrey says between giggles, “but … ” But, indeed. It’s cold in New York these days!
Irma Sandrey [Video Look Book]
neighborhood watch
Don’t Mess With Bill Moyers’s ViewRed Hook: The shady demolition of the Revere Sugar Factory is making the neighbors furious. [Gowanus Lounge]
Brooklyn Heights: Want a Mexican restaurant? It’s yours for only $389,000. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Chinatown: Some major street changes are in place, including a buffered bike lane on Grand Street, making it safer to eat sticky pork buns while cycling. [Streetsblog]
Clinton Hill: Looks like the topiary-stealing first reported two weeks ago by Brooklyn Record continues. Who’s the sticky-fingered horticulturalist? [Clinton Hill Blog]
South Slope: Developer Gregory Rigas has been quietly been buying up — and not so quietly demolishing — mucho property on Fourth Avenue between Prospect Avenue and 16th Street. [Brownstoner]
Upper West Side: Bill Moyers leads a pack of angry rich people against the New-York Historical Society’s plan for a high-rise condo off Central Park West and 76th Street. [Curbed]
in other news
Al Franken Decides He’s Good Enough, Smart Enough to Run for SenateIt’s semi-official: Al Franken is running for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota. This info, coming from a “senior Democratic official,” retroactively explains the former Upper West Sider’s hasty exit from Air America earlier this week. (He’d already moved himself and his show back to his home state two years ago.) But those that expect the race to be a nice comic diversion from the other 2008 carnage should look elsewhere. Franken is not a novelty candidate — not that that would be a problem in Minnesota, post–Jesse Ventura — and Republicans there, rather than dusting off old Stuart Smalley clips, are already saying unfunny things like “Minnesotans will reject Franken’s divisive, scorched-earth attacks.” He was also a close friend of Minnesota’s liberal, lamented Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash in 2002; a Franken candidacy is likely to invoke the specter of the popular senator. At any rate, this should be interesting.
Franken to Run for Senate in Minnesota [USAT]
early and often
Hillary and Chuck (and the Baileys) Take the Senate for Chinese
Chuck Schumer’s favorite Chinese restaurant in Washington was closed for a private party — his Positively American book party — Tuesday night, and Bernie Sanders, the Brooklyn-born Socialist senator from Vermont, was impressed. “This is a historic night,” Sanders said, picking string beans straight from the buffet and chatting with Jerry Nadler, the West Side’s man in the House of Representatives. “I’ve been coming here for years and I’ve never seen it shut down, but they shut it down for Schumer. He has reached the top. He has shut down the Hunan Dynasty.”
photo op
How’re You Doin’? Not So Good, Ed
At Bush’s you-people-make-too-much-money speech on Wall Street yesterday, onetime Democrat Ed Koch’s ever-increasing embrace of Republicans became disconcertingly literal.
Earlier: Bush Visits Wall Street, Discovers Income Inequality [NYT]
company town
So What Have You Done With Your Life?FINANCE
• Time to feel bad about yourself. Crain’s unveils its 40 Under 40 list. [Crain’s]
• Merrill Lynch will pay out $40.3 million to settle claims that it provided misleading research to investors about Internet stocks. [Bloomberg via DealBreaker]
• Instead of simply giving their employees more money, small businesses try to dupe them into thinking jumping out of an airplane is a perk. [NYT]
in other news
Susan Orlean Thinks You’re FatLong before politicians realized their idiotic public gaffes would be indexed forever in YouTube, writers faced a similar but somehow graver problem: ill-advised books published early in their career that stick around on shelves forever to haunt their authors. On Radar Online today, Claire Zulkey catalogues many of those wish-they-were-forgotten titles, hitting many of the greatest hits, like Lynne Cheney’s sapphic romp and Scooter Libby’s oddly bestial mystery. We were most interested, however, in a less well-known work that made the cut. New Yorker scribes Patricia Marx and Susan Sistrom — that’s Susan Orlean to you — apparently once interrupted their careers to author the compelling The Skinny: What Every Skinny Woman Knows About Dieting and Won’t Tell You!, which, according to Amazon commenters, is a “sick book by unhealthy women” filled with “tips on self-destruction.” We’d love to ascribe this detour to youthful desperation, but the book was published in 1999 — one year after The Orchid Thief and while Marx was firmly ensconced in a career as a novelist and Saturday Night Live writer. The book’s money quote? “Eat all you want, but never swallow. Spit always.” And to think of all the money Si Newhouse has wasted on their expense accounts.
Read in the Face [Radar Online]
in other news
Bush Visits Wall Street, Discovers Income Inequality
The president was in New York yesterday, and he brought some odd tidings for our city’s financial industry. In a speech strategically delivered across the street from the New York Stock Exchange, George W. Bush — who on a trip to New York years ago delivered his famous “Some call you the elite, I call you my base” line — spoke out against excessive executive pay and lush severance packages. Meantime, an editorial in the same day’s Wall Street Journal posited that any legislation curbing executive pay would immediately translate into higher taxes. As the person hectoring the gaggle of Wall Streeters about fiscal modesty was the same person who had drastically cut taxes for everyone in attendance, the listeners could be forgiven for mild confusion. The Sun calls the crowd’s response “muted.” But of course it was: The real target audience for the speech was the general public. “The fact is that income inequality is real,” said Bush. “It has been rising for more than 25 years.” And you’re first noticing that now, George? Pardon the pun, but that’s rich.
Bush Warns Wall Street on Pay [NYS]
George W. Bush: The Elite, My Base [YouTube]
grub street
All Hail the Top Chef
Well, hey, who’d have thunk it? Turns out Ilan won Top Chef. (Of course he did. No surprise ending has been this preordained since John Faso thought he stood a chance against Spitzer.) But, still, even though the result wasn’t in doubt, the great existential question of reality television demands attention: What did it mean? Thankfully, Grub Street’s Josh Ozersky joined New York’s favorite couch potato, Adam Sternbergh, to answer just that question. Read their colloquy on Grub Street.
Ilan Won, Yes, But What Does It All Mean? [Grub Street]
gossipmonger
Anderson, CelebutanteFox News compares Anderson Cooper to Paris Hilton, and CNN isn’t happy. (Which we imagine was the point.) Steve Madden will underwrite Fashion Week’s Designers for Darfur even though IMG backed out. Hillary Clinton is trying to infuse her campaign with some stand-up comedy. Jeremy Piven jokes that he’d like to settle down with a girlfriend if he weren’t “gayer than Liberace in 1972.” Parsons fashion chairman Tim Gunn to become chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne (but still do Project Runway). Bill Clinton will not be the next president of Harvard.
in other news
Public Life Means Having to Say You’re SorryInspired by Italy’s Veronica Lario — who in a front-page letter printed in yesterday’s La Repubblica requested a public apology from her husband, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, for flirting with and ogling various comely young women and then, even more remarkably, received one — we’d like to see if we, too, can elicit a public apology or two.
To everyone involved in ground-zero reconstruction:
It’s been five freaking years, and this is all that’s been accomplished? You should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you. (And, yes, at this point that includes you, too, sainted widows and family members.) We think you owe us — all of us, all New Yorkers — an apology.
Sincerely, Daily Intel
intel
Cuomo Follows in Spitzer’s A.G. Footsteps, Tackling the Big Issues
A press release issued yesterday afternoon by Andrew Cuomo’s Attorney General’s Office:
Department of Law, The State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224
Department of Law, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
Department of Law
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
News from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Press Office / 212-416-XXXX
ONTARIO COUNTY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER BANNED FOR FAILING TO DELIVER PHOTOS AND DECEIVING CONSUMERS
Prohibited from operating in New York State and must pay over $10,000 in restitution and penalties
the morning line
So Dark the Con of Man
• The Times declares Spitzer’s political honeymoon over; the governor’s first state budget, which cuts $1.2 billion from health care and increases spending by 6 percent, seems guaranteed a hard time in both the State Senate and the Assembly. [NYT]
• Firefighters: Every time we come dangerously close to deifying them, they do something crazy. Like, in this case, by buying fake “St. Regis College” diplomas online, at $500 a pop, and submitting them to the Fire Department for promotions. [Newsday]
• A Long Island con-artist duo lured married marks into one-night stands, videotaped the trysts, then proceeded to blackmail them. The scammers’ photos, printed in the Post, make the “luring” part positively puzzling. [NYP]
• In a feat of participatory journalism, a Daily News reporter spends a “day dressed like Sienna” (Miller). For our money, she looked more like JT LeRoy. [NYDN]
• And a New York marketing firm scared the bejesus out of Bostonians with promo signs for Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which the Boston Police Department somehow mistook for bombs. Nobody objected here, where “a box of fries … giving passerby the finger” is a relatively normal sight. [amNY]
intel
Wal-Mart Claims Proof of Fired Marketing Veep’s AffairThe operatic battle between Wal-Mart and its fired senior vice-president of marketing communications, Julie Roehm — the juiciest Madison Avenue scandal in years, and the subject of an upcoming piece in New York — escalated today when Wal-Mart claimed it had “irrefutable and admissible evidence” that she had an affair with Sean Womack, a vice-president who reported to her.
“Julie Roehm didn’t tell the truth about the inappropriate relationship with one of her subordinates,” Wal-Mart spokesperson Mona Williams said from London. “Despite these denials, Wal-Mart now has irrefutable and admissible evidence of the relationship” between Roehm and Womack. “I would not tell you this if we didn’t know it was true.” A romantic relationship between employees violates Wal-Mart policy. The company apparently decided to respond after Roehm filed a lawsuit seeking money she claimed Wal-Mart owed her. The suit also referred to “false and malicious” statements by Wal-Mart in the press.
party town
Will Woody Allen Escape the Upper East Side?• amFAR New York gala. Cipriani, 110 E. 42nd St., nr. Vanderbilt Ave., 6:30 p.m. An AIDS charity benefit so gala-riffic that Woody Allen is (scheduled to be) venturing south of 59th Street for something besides a Knicks game. Other expected guests include Beyoncé, Sharon Stone, Liza Minnelli, Michael Eisner, Richard Gere, and Rosie O’Donnell.
• Joey McIntyre performance. Plumm, 26 W. 14th St., nr Fifth Ave., 11:30 p.m. On the guest list: Drew Lachey, Joey Lawrence, and 400 VH1 producers.
grub street
No, One Does Not Go to Lucky Cheng’s for the FoodWe know we’re biased, but we say this in all seriousness: Grub Street has just published its best Ask a Waiter thus far, and what we have to imagine will be the best Ask a Waiter ever. It’s with Dirty Delta of Lucky Cheng’s, and you’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know — plus much more — about being a drag-queen waitress. What does Dirty think about the East Village institution’s food, for example? “You don’t come to Lucky Cheng’s to eat gourmet food,” she says. “You come to see some bitch in a G-string acting crazy at your table.” But of course. There’s so much more at Grub Street.
Dirty Delta of Lucky Cheng’s Serves Orgy Bowls to Britney Spears [Grub Street]
in other news
The Secret Feuds of Dentists
In one corner: Dr. Larry Rosenthal, dentist to the likes of Donald Trump, Michael Bolton, and Matt Dillon, who uses New Age babble on his patients and is said to practice something called “self-esteem dentistry.” In the other corner: Relationship guru Ellen Fein, the author of the despicable treatise The Rules (“Rule Five: Don’t Call Him and Rarely Return His Calls”), who says Rosenthal gave her “gigantic teeth.” (Oh, Ellen: you should see Matt Dillon.) In revenge, as today’s Daily News reports, Fein proceeded to register domains LyingDentist.com and BadDentist.com.
in other news
The Missing SuperstarA tragedy told in Craigslist ads.
January 29, 11:42 a.m.:
Courtside Knicks/Lakers Tickets Behind Basket - $700
January 29, 3:36 p.m.:
I need Knicks Lakers tickets please!!!! - $1000
January 30, 12:42 p.m.:
KOBE SUSPENDED FOR TONIGHTS GAME
January 30, 2:37 p.m.:
Two Knick vs. Lakers tix for face value
—Ben Mathis-Lilley
Kobe Suspended for Knicks Game [Newsday]
neighborhood watch
In East Harlem, the Bohemians Can’t SpellBrooklyn Heights: Our compelling bocce coverage continues! Brigate Bocce almost beat the Old Dirty Barristers in the opening week of FloydNY’s winter bocce league, but then they didn’t. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Chelsea: Apparently unable to save his landmark mural Venus from being blocked by an imminent condo tower, artist Knox Martin will now save whales with a new mural downtown. [BlogChelsea]
Clinton Hill: Bank of America is throwing a grand-opening party to convince you that it’s just like all the other homegrown, mom-and-pop storefronts on Myrtle Avenue. [Clinton Hill Blog]
East Harlem: Attention, “Sophiscated [sic] Bohemians”! Prudential Douglas Elliman has a brand-new luxury tower that captures the “soul and lifestyle” of “the ‘New’ East Harlem.” [Uptown Flavor]
South Slope: The illegal demolition at 574 Fourth Avenue continues, according to the Concerned (and video-enabled) Citizens of Greenwood Heights. [Gowanus Lounge]
Tribeca: Could entrenched Tribecans actually not want newbies flooding into all those rising new towers? The residents of 49 Vestry suggest as much. [Curbed]
intel
Russian Hockey on Brooklyn Ice? A Miracle!
Feeling nostalgic for the Cold War? Then head to Brooklyn this weekend for a completely un-ironic celebration of one of the reddest symbols of Communism the Soviet Red Army hockey team. An exhibition game at the Aviator Sports and Recreation complex Sunday is meant to recognize the 50th anniversary of the USSR’s first Olympic gold medal in ice hockey. And though the team is perhaps the most historically unpopular one ever assembled — among Americans, at the very least — you wouldn’t know it from the publicity material for the game, which could have been published in Krushchev-era Pravda. “Historically, Russia and the former Soviet Union have produced some of the strongest, most talented and admired hockey players the world has known,” says a blurb on Aviator’s Website. Organizer Alexander Vasiliyev insists that the game is completely void of politics and that the fans who attend — 90 percent of whom he estimates will be Russian — would agree with him. “These are really sports people,” he says. “They don’t care about the politics. They care about hockey.” Even, apparently, commie hockey. —Joe DeLessio
50th Anniversary of the First Victory of Team USSR at the Olympic Games [Aviator Sports]
neighborhood watch
Times Square Dirty Like the Old DaysBrooklyn Heights: Local resident and restaurant owner Gianluca Martorelli launches mag and Website compiling area’s eateries. [Ready to Order Guide via Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Chelsea: Della Valle Bernheimer’s futuristically fabulous High Line–snuggling 245 Tenth Avenue development is ready for takers, complete with snazzy Website. [245 Tenth Avenue via Curbed]
Coney Island: New mailers going out to residents talk up the “future of Coney Island” but neglect to mention high rises or Thor Equities. [Gowanus Lounge]
Midtown: Are Mickey and pals staging an offensive old-time minstrel show atop the Disney Store entrance … or do they just need a scrubbing? [Englishman in New York]
Park Slope: Let there be light! Half a mil earmarked so that everything is (better) illuminated at Grand Army Plaza. [Dope on the Slope]
Times Square: Hotel Carter and New York Inn, two of the cheapest stays in the city, also among Top 10 Dirtiest Hotels in the country. Old Times Square lives! [Trip Advisor via NewYorkology]
vu.
Forge an Inexpensive Path in Red HookLet others stake their claim on Crown Heights or Fort Greene: Fans of Red Hook believe it’s the next best Brooklyn neighborhood, à la Williamsburg. This despite the area’s staunchly industrial feel and proximity to the constantly belching Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Or its remoteness Red Hook’s so far from the subway it feels like its own port city. In fact, those who can still get more space here for the money than in other, more fashionable parts of Brooklyn, may actually be attracted to it because this waterfront slice of the borough feels so removed from every other part. But the neighborhood is changing. Fairway has arrived, Ikea’s on its way, restaurants are moving in, condos have sprouted, and asking prices are inching up: A townhouse on Pioneer Street is said to have fetched more than a million dollars last year. (Pioneer, indeed.) After the jump, a map shows you what all the fuss is about. S. Jhoanna Robledo
photo op
Yes, Park Slope Has Too Many Strollers
Only in the Park Slope Barnes & Noble, kids. Only in Park Slope.
[Snap a Photo Op–worthy shot? Send it to us at intel@nymag.com.]
video look book
Tess Lindgren Bought Her Jacket in Northern Minnesota
Tess Lindgren is a Parsons student who lives on Union Square, listens to “strange avant-garde music,” and makes most of her own clothes. “Someone told me,” she says, “that how I look every day, I looked like I was attacked by my wardrobe.” She’s this week’s Video Look Book.
Tess Lindgren [Video Look Book]
company town
CNBC Backs Anchor Maria BartiromoMEDIA
• The story of the jet-fueled relationship between ex-Citigroup exec Todd Thompson and CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo has turned from a snowball into an avalanche. [WSJ]
• Newspapers eliminated about 1,500 positions in 2006, an improvement over 2005, when 2,500 scribes took a walk. [E&P]
• Putting scratch-and-sniff ads in the Wall Street Journal actually makes us less inclined to read a newspaper. [AdAge]
intel
All These People Wore Khakis
On Monday the Gap — you know, that ubiquitous purveyor of khakis and pocket T-shirts you stopped shopping at sometime in college — fired its chief executive, Paul Pressler, after it decided he couldn’t turn around the flailing brand. As the company searches for a new direction, we sent an intrepid New York reporter to the enormous Fifth Avenue store in midtown to chat with shoppers on their way out and see what advice New Yorkers have for the retailing giant.
neighborhood watch
Tour Kanye West’s New Apartment
Brooklyn Heights: It’s either a yoga center with an aggressive marketing plan or a cult. You decide. [Brooklyn Record]
Gowanus: Demolition starts on land owned by the Toll Brothers. What happened to that mixed-use development? [Food of the Future via Gowanus Lounge]
Greenpoint: Why should bodega phone cards be dull when they could be completely offensive? [Holla Back NYC via Newyorkshitty]
Midtown: Kanye West’s new apartment (above), designed by Claudio Silvestrin, is beautiful. But where’s the master bath? [dezeen via Curbed]
Nolita: Sheetrock shipment arrives at 11 Spring Street. Just in time to cover up all that nasty interior artwork so the place can go condo. [Curbed]
Sunset Park: Expect a major ruckus as this pretty nabe of three-story homes wakes up to a new ten-story, view-wrecking, context-snubbing leviathan. [Brownstoner]
intel
And Another East Village Rock Club Goes Away: Sin-é
It’s last call for another of Manhattan’s hard-rocking music venues. Sin-é, the epicenter of the nineties St. Marks scene, shut its doors once before and relocated to the Lower East Side in 2003. But come March 31, it’ll close — for good — at its Attorney Street location. The original Sin-é hosted some of the most infamous songwriters of its decade and produced the seminal Jeff Buckley album Live at Sin-é. The current incarnation gave play to New York staples like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Walkmen. “It’s over,” said Shane Doyle, Sin-é’s owner. “It’s all changed around here. I’m just not gonna keep doing this.” —Annmarie Pisano
in other news
Stewart Airport: Good for Everyone, Great for Rich People
As you may have heard, the Port Authority is planning to soup up sleepy Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, New York — that’s about 55 miles up the Thruway — and turn it into the area’s fourth major airport. (The already-crowded Kennedy, La Guardia, and Newark airports are projected to reach capacity in 2020.) Moving to the big leagues will be a major change for the now-underused airport, which currently touts its appearance in an upcoming Denzel Washington movie as a primary claim to fame. But more than just easing congestion for all of us and giving New Windsor something to brag about, the transformation of Stewart will also have one more major effect. The new airport will significantly benefit the area’s posh exurbanite community; local VIPs will be able to dash to L.A. and back to their organic-squash farm without the hassle of swinging by Teterboro. The Catskills: soon to be just like Aspen.
4th Major Hub for Air Traffic Moves Ahead [NYT]
early and often
Obama Snags Major Clinton Money ManAdd to Barack Obama’s list of marquee New York donors — and former Clinton supporters — the name of Orin S. Kramer. Kramer is an enviro-friendly financier and author who has been a stalwart in Clinton money-raising quarters for years. He played a key role in the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns, serving as New York co-chair for both. A domestic-policy staffer in the Carter White House, Kramer is currently the general partner of Boston Provident, L.P. He’s the latest fund-raising coup for the Obama camp, which also picked up support from lefty billionaire George Soros earlier this week. How did Kramer reach the decision to leave team Clinton? “I ran up against my pain threshold,” he said. “I have unalloyed respect for Senator Clinton. She is eminently electable, and some of my closest friends are major players in her universe. But despite being a dinosaur, I’m drawn to a different kind of political experience. Whether large numbers of people will see the world that way, we’ll see.” —Geoffrey Gray