Breaking: Someone Fancy Went to Mohegan Sun!Vanity Fair style arbiter Amy Fine Collins went to the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. Central Park carriage owners responded to Pink’s animal-cruelty charges by deriding them as the “ignorant comments of a B-list pop star.” Nets chairman and real-estate developer Bruce Ratner is getting married to plastic surgeon Pamela Lipkin. At Sundance, Paris Hilton gave a lap dance to Jared Leto, David Katzenberg took pictures of his privates for girlfriend Nicky Hilton, Cisco Adler got into a shoving match, Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian made out, and Adrian Grenier lost his drumsticks. John Legend says he doesn’t get caught up with dating models and that he’s “more concerned with (his) happiness.”
it happened this week
Hitting the RoadAs a halfhearted cabbie strike made it easier to flag down a school bus than a yellow taxi during rush hour last week, the Big Apple did its best to keep moving forward. Hillary out-earned rivals Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani in the city during the second quarter — and bested Rudy in a poll asking which candidate people would most like to have riding shotgun on a long road trip — but hit a speed bump trying to maintain her distance from former six-figure fund-raiser and felon Norman Hsu, who skipped out on bail.
gossipmonger
Clinton-Gore ‘48The Gores and the Clintons ran into each other at kiddie restaurant Mars 2112. Warner Bros. execs told Tim Burton to tone down the gore in his upcoming Sweeney Todd. (Perhaps he’ll be an only mildy disturbed barber?) Oprah is trying to get a woman to relocate her wedding because it is being held at a ranch that Oprah wants to reserve for guests attending her Obama fund-raiser. For some reason, ex-CNN anchor Paula Zahn kept a detailed diary of her affair with ContiGroup CEO Paul Fribourg. New York Rangers Sean Avery and Brendan Shanahan may star in hockey nut Mike Meyers’s upcoming movie. Bono’s duplex in the San Remo on Central Park West, once owned by Steve Jobs, may soon be for sale. Princess Diaries author Meg Cabot is setting her upcoming murder mystery at an NYU-like school.
in other news
Fake Steve Jobs Is Greedy, Outed, and at Work on a Fake Novel
If you’re enough of a techie that the idea of a parody blog written from Steve Jobs’s point of view strikes you as rife with comic possibilities, well, you probably already know Fake Steve Jobs. And if you do, you’ve probably just read (while browsing the Times on your iPhone, no doubt) that the paper exposed the anonymous author of that blog — i.e. Fake Steve himself — as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes. (“Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina,” wrote Lyons to Times reporter Brad Stone in today’s you-got-me post — written in his own voice, not Steve’s.)
company town
Jeffrey Goldberg Wants a PonyMEDIA
• Atlantic owner David Bradley sent ponies to Jeffrey Goldberg’s kids to help lure him away from The New Yorker. Seriously. [WP]
• Just before the Dow Jones deal went through, the Bancrofts voted to double this quarter’s dividend for themselves [NYP]
• Murdoch and Ailes’s next move? All-out war? (Wait, they’re not at war with everyone else already?) [Newsweek]
in other news
Problems for Apple? Ha!
Oh, no, the Sun told us yesterday, the iPhone is a disaster, and Apple is in trouble! But then the company released third-quarter earnings, and, well: Oh, yes, the Journal tells us today, Apple’s earnings are a massive 73 percent, and the iPhone had little to nothing to do with it! Um, huh? Well, while Apple has made the gizmo of the moment its face of the moment, the truth is that it continues to rack up incredible revenues on good old Macs ($2.3 billion in sales, up from last year’s $1.87 billion) and iPods ($1.57 billion). Even better, the phone, which is also an iPod, isn’t even eating into the iPod sales. (The new data also defangs AT&T’s report of 146,000 iPhone activations between June 29 and July 1: Apple says it’s sold 270,000 units over that period.) In short, while bloggers were griping about the fallibility of the Jesus Phone, Jobs sold ‘em two Powerbooks, four Shuffles, and a Nano. And the best fringe benefit of the iPhone hype? Nobody is noticing the total floperoo that is AppleTV.
Apple’s Old Standbys, iPods and Macs, Drive Profit [WSJ]
Earlier: Is the iPhone a Failure? Maybe!
gossipmonger
iGreedySony chairman Howard Stringer called Steve Jobs “greedy” at the Allen & Co. conference. The main character of Doug Stumpf’s Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy may be based on pervy billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise went to the Biography Bookstore in the West Village and then to Magnolia. Joe DiMaggio’s brother Dom is not pleased the Yankee Clipper’s diaries are for sale. Stone Phillips is leaving Dateline, and he bought his longtime assistant an Audi as a parting gift. Matt Damon wants Al Gore to run for president. Ashlee Simpson helped beau Pete Wentz conquer his fear of flying so Wentz could get to the Hamptons via seaplane. Democratic Leadership Council Chairman Harold Ford Jr. hung out with Jay-Z, Nas, and Kid Rock in Southampton. Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany brought their 4-year-old to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.
it just happened
Steve Jobs Wows the Faithful (But What About Those Options?)
It’s a camera! It’s a phone! It’s an iPod! Yup, as has been widely expected Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s new iPhone — a next-generation smart phone — in his
Macworld keynote address just a few minutes ago, and of course the nerds cheered. And he also introduced AppleTV, which allows users to integrate their computers and their televisions. The Apple CEO has an amazing flair for great products and better showmanship. But, as John Heilemann wonders in this week’s magazine, will the Cult of Jobs be enough to get him through a burgeoning options-backdating scandal?
Steve Jobs’s Halo [NYM]
iPhone Picture Gallery [Engadget]
