Janice Dickinson: Her Lips Aren’t Sealed
Jack Nicholson may be a notorious ladies’ man, but at least one former lover doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. In her upcoming memoir, Car Wreck Woman: The Accidental Life of the World’s First Supermodel, former seventies model Janice Dickinson remembers Nicholson as someone who, though “full of himself,” was merely “okay” in the sack. (Wait till you read what she recalls Big Jack saying to her the morning after – it was actually too graphic for us to print.) Dickinson also has some harsh words for legendary model matriarch Eileen Ford. Dickinson claims that when Ford first saw her, she rejected her for being “too ethnic” and having big lips. But Dickinson would get her revenge. She eventually signed with Ford Models when Eileen’s husband, Jerry, learned Dickinson was up for a big JVC electronics ad campaign and promised he could get her a $20,000-a-day rate (her agency at the time, Wilhelmina, only asked for $5,000). But then, after a brief tenure with Ford, Dickinson decided it was time “to punish Eileen” by jumping to Ford’s archrival, John Casablancas’s Elite. She told Eileen the news over the phone: “It’s me, big-lipped Janice. I’m going to Elite. I don’t like you, I’ve never liked you.” Eileen insists she has no recollection of Dickinson’s claims. “I don’t remember that much about her because she was in my life such a short time,” she told us last week. “I’m an Aries. We try not to mention the unpleasant things. If something is unpleasant, I usually try to forget about it.”
A Blind Item on Hugh Grant
It’s a wonder Hugh Grant agreed to participate in the press junket for About a Boy at the Rihga Royal Hotel – the last time he was there, he went blind. About five years ago, while staying at the hotel, Grant woke up one morning and couldn’t see. Hotel employees helped him into a cab and he rushed to a doctor. At first, the doc didn’t know what was wrong, but then Grant told him how he had done a photo shoot earlier that day in which the photographer used unusually strong strobe lights for a black-and-white layout. “The doctor told him that could sometimes distort or blacken your vision,” his rep tells us. “It lasted for a number of hours, but it’s never happened again.” The rep declined to reveal the shutterbug: “I really can’t. That wouldn’t be very nice.”
Bubba’s Money Is No Good in This Town
Bill Clinton was recently spotted at the restaurant Town, in the Chambers Hotel, having a friendly argument with Democratic fund-raising powerhouse Haim Saban. When Clinton whipped out a credit card to pay for the $1,500 dinner they had just had with six pals – including Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa, and Saturday Night Live co-producer Marci Klein – Saban informed him that he had already taken care of things by handing over one of his credit cards before they sat down. Throughout the three-hour meal, Clinton declined offers from customers who wanted to buy him a drink, including a man who sent over a $1,000 bottle of champagne.
On Sex With a Married Man
Mandi Norwood is back. And she’s talking about sex with her husband, Martin Kelly. Norwood, who made a splash two years ago when Si Newhouse plucked her from London to edit Mademoiselle (which folded last year), has signed a deal with St. Martin’s to write Sex and the Married Girl, a book about being young and happily married. “The married world is a private place to be, and God forbid you should discuss conflict or power struggles or bedroom behavior, because you feel you’re betraying your spouse,” Norwood tells us. “These are real eye-popping, frank confessions. I’m going to be pretty confessional.” Is Kelly up for it? “Sure,” Norwood said. “For commercial purposes, of course.”
Change of Seasons? Buzz is, Edgar Bronfman Jr. wants to buy back his share in the Four Seasons restaurant. Bronfman gave up his stake when Vivendi acquired Bronfman’s Seagram and Universal businesses two years ago. Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini insists he doesn’t know about any deal, but would welcome Bronfman back: “That would be wonderful.”
Bikini Battle: Maxim and FHM are fighting over Pamela Anderson. In March, Maxim editors agreed to buy photos of Anderson in a bikini bottom, pasties, and stiletto boots from photographer Willy Camden for $25,000, but then decided not to use the pics. Camden didn’t hear from Maxim again until he sold the shots to FHM for $35,000. Maxim claims they still own the photos. “Maxim never paid Willy for the pictures,” Camden’s lawyer, Wallace Collins, tells us. “They just wanted them because someone else has them.”
Fly Girl: An insider tells us that VH1 had to charter a private jet to fly Stevie Nicks to this week’s VH1 Divas concert in Las Vegas because she was unwilling to travel without her two dogs. No commercial airline would allow the pooches in the cabin, and she refused to put them in cargo.
With Catherine Townsend.