The Return of Peter Gatien?Deported former Limelight owner Peter Gatien might be coming back to the States because he is part Native American. CBS Evening News executive producer Rick Kaplan orchestrated an office dance-off to boost morale. Jewish boxer Dmitriy “Star of David” Salita, from Brooklyn, had his fight at Cipriani Downtown rescheduled because it fell on the Sabbath. Paris Hilton’s crisis PR guy, Mike Sitrick, is the reason she’s been out of the tabs lately, but friends say she can’t keep up the act. Robin Williams went to an AA meeting in Greenwich. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Isiah Thomas hung out at Socialista.
last night’s gig
Jonathan Ames’s Punch-out!Last night, at Gleason’s Gym in Dumbo, with friend Fiona Apple cheering him on, Jonathan Ames took to the ring to duke it out with fellow writer Craig “the Crippler” Davidson in a publicity ploy for Davidson’s U.S. fiction debut, The Fighter.
party lines
Muhammad Ali’s Daughter Is CrazyWhat do you learn as Muhammad Ali’s daughter? That it pays to be crazy. That’s what Maryum Ali told us last night at the opening of an exhibit she curated of Magnum photos of her father. “My dad always told me — he told me this as a little kid — act crazy,” she said. “Because I said, ‘Daddy, how did you beat Sonny Liston when the whole world said you were going to lose?’ He said, ‘I acted crazy! I had him scared!’” It’s a lesson that came in handy in the mid-eighties, when Maryum was living with her dad in L.A., and the champ, she said, was always a nice guy and would let anyone into the house. “This one guy he let into his house, this weirdo guy, the guy started stalking me,” she recalled. “So I got a gun. I told the guy, I said, ‘Look, it’s me or you, and it’s gonna be you. I’m not going to put on no gloves, I got a .38, so keep messing with me! I’m just as crazy.’ In any situation where I’m face-to-face with somebody crazy, I’m crazier. And they just leave me the hell alone.” Being a fighter’s kid probably doesn’t hurt, either. —Bennett Marcus
gossipmonger
Blowin’ in the WindBobby Kennedy Jr. says he and his uncle Ted aren’t as opposed to the proposed Cape Cod wind farm as a book says they are. Liza Minnelli and Isle Werther are fighting over a dress. Barneys creative director Simon Doonan is happy to be a “card-carrying fag.” Boxing will go upscale when three Ford models replace the traditional ring girls at the upcoming welterweight championship at MSG. Former Justin Timberlake flame Cameron Diaz and current Justin Timberlake flame Jessica Biel will both be at the MTV Movie Awards, which may be awkward. Adam Carolla noted that Rosie O’Donnell is a fat female lesbian, and thus has “triple coverage as a minority.” President Bush’s chief domestic policy adviser, Karl Zinzmeister, reportedly said he’d never hire another woman because they “just get pregnant and leave.” Dean McDermott broke up with girlfriend Mary Jo Eustace via “Page Six.”
