P. Diddy Piggybacks on J.Lo’s Party
The first hit from Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’s new CD is called “I Need a Girl.” Last week, it looked like what he needed was some of the attention given to his ex, Jennifer Lopez. As guests began to arrive at Roseland for the premiere party of Lopez’s new thriller, Enough, about ten men in the crowd of onlookers spontaneously started waving posters for the Combs CD, P. Diddy and Bad Boy Records Present: We Invented the Remix. The Combs fans were promptly chased away by security. Near the Sony Theatres Lincoln Square, where the movie was screened, Combs posters also sprang up under ads for the film and for J.Lo’s new clothing line. An insider at Bad Boy says Combs was not trying to take any attention away from Lopez: “It’s just smart marketing. Whenever there are movie premieres or music launches, you’re going to see posters there from competing artists.”
Koolhaas’s Whitney Makeover? Concrete and Curvy
The Whitney Museum is trying hard to keep its Rem Koolhaas–designed expansion under wraps, but one of our tipsters got a peek at a recent proposal. A massive crescent-shaped concrete structure would be built between the angular Marcel Breuer–designed museum and a neighboring brownstone. “It twists to the south before twisting to the north to hover over the existing Whitney,” our source reports. The new structure would soar 200 feet above street level, more than doubling the height of the museum and increasing the amount of usable space to 700,000 square feet. Museum director Maxwell Anderson has maintained that the existing museum – built in 1966 – can’t properly exhibit its collection or accommodate its 700,000 annual visitors, and has said the Whitney’s expansion should break ground within the next six years; Koolhaas has been working on the project for more than a year. “All the trustees are thrilled with the design,” the tipster says. “But they’re aware that it might be difficult to get it approved by the city.” A rep for the museum confirms our source’s description but warns, “It’s just one of the alternatives we’re looking at. We won’t be making a definitive comment until fall.”
Tina Brown Has Time on Her Mind
Time magazine managing editor Jim Kelly better watch his back: Tina Brown wants his job. A tipster tells us that a friend recently asked Brown what she’d like to be doing now, and says Tina answered, “I want to edit Time.” She already has an in with Time Inc. editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine. According to Judy Bachrach’s Tina and Harry Come to America, when Brown was at the helm of Vanity Fair, she cut some remarks Pearlstine’s then-fiancée, Nancy Friday, made about his sexual prowess in a story by Michael Shnayerson. Also, despite the fact that nobody’s buying Talk Miramax’s recent book by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children, newsstand sales of Time jumped 10 percent when the book was featured on a recent cover. Brown insists she has never said she wants Time. Even so, Kelly is flattered. “Who wouldn’t want to edit Time?” he asks. “Tina would have to join a long line, or I guess, in her case, a queue.”
Liza and Rosie: It’s Not “Over”
Liza Minnelli wanted to be on Rosie O’Donnell’s final show last week, but O’Donnell wasn’t thrilled with what the songstress planned to perform. O’Donnell wanted her to sing the Judy Garland classic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” hoping the moment would make for historic TV, reminiscent of when Bette Midler sang “One for My Baby” to Johnny Carson on his farewell show. Minnelli had a different plan. “She wanted to sing a song called ‘Never Never Land,’ which ends with about six bars of ‘Over the Rainbow,’ but that wasn’t acceptable to Rosie,” Minnelli’s rep tells us. “So they just decided to skip it.” A rep for the show insists that Minnelli wasn’t there because of a scheduling conflict.
Kerik and Regan Work It Out
Fiery editrix Judith Regan and former police commissioner Bernard Kerik are getting sweaty together – but it’s not what you think. Ever since Regan published Kerik’s best-selling memoir, The Lost Son, the two have become so close that they now work out ensemble. A spy at the Sports Club/LA at Rockefeller Center reports that they recently spent about an hour there pumping iron. Regan spotted Kerik as he bench-pressed 270 pounds. He helped her lift 70 pounds with grunts of “You can do it – one more!” Later, Kerik showed Regan how to use the Iso-Row machine while she hummed along to the song blasting in the gym: Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Women.”
Osbourne Bust: Kelly Osbourne is doing her best to improve her image. The star of MTV’s The Osbournes stopped by East Village boutique Fab 208 recently to pick out clothing for a shoot with YM magazine. “She was saying how she shouldn’t say ‘bitch’ or ‘fuck’ because she was being taped for the article,” a spy tells us. Then, after choosing a “very demure” white denim skirt, Osbourne discreetly asked about buying a slinky white T-shirt – with naked breasts airbrushed on it. Later that night, Kelly, 17, and her brother Jack, 16, were spotted hanging out at about 1 a.m. at the bar at Black and White in the East Village.
With Catherine Townsend.