Ann Bass Was RobbedSocialite Ann Bass, ex-wife of billionaire investor Sid Bass, and artist boyfriend Julian Lethbridge were robbed at their tony Connecticut estate. Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia couldn’t bring herself to attend Frost/Nixon. Rutgers women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer signed a lucrative deal to write an autobiography. Alec and Stephen Baldwin split some macaroni and cheese while bowling. Madonna ex Carlos Leon hooked up with model Kat Forseca at the Bowery Hotel. Josh Lucas hooked up with a writer from Harper’s Bazaar at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Christine Ebersole once bribed a cop with $100. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony plan to file libel suits against the National Enquirer in Europe, where their odds of victory are higher. Chloë Sevigny writes about her wild youth in the introduction to a friend’s memoir.
gossipmonger
He Can’t Get No SatisfactionHas Jann Wenner been seeing Men’s Fitness editor-in-chief Neal Boulton? (And what about poor Matt Nye? And what about Jann and Matt’s new kid?) Tinsley, Fabiola, et al, are heading down to Turks and Caicos for a charity event. Speaking of Tinsley, she’s been intentionally wearing the same dresses as movie stars in an effort to make the “Who Wore It Better?” feature of gossip mags. Noho sushi joint Bond St. reopens tonight. An ad for The Year of Magical Thinking running in both the Times and the Post implies the Times gave the show a favorable review. It didn’t. Harvey Weinstein is looking to cast every actress and actor you’ve ever heard of for the film adaptation of musical Nine.
the morning line
Imus Scandal Claims Another Casualty
• New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is in critical condition, and on a breathing tube, after a serious car crash sustained on his way to moderate Don Imus’s meeting with Rutgers basketball players. Early reports say an out-of-control driver caused Corzine’s car to swerve and hit a guardrail. Richard Codey is acting governor for the moment. [NYT]
• It took a mere day for the other shoe to drop: CBS has fired Don Imus after about 30 years (and countless slurs) on the air. And now the talk-radio world is a safe and happy place again, of course. [NYP]
• Turns out New York City is not just a ravenous consumer of bootleg DVDs but also a major factory of them, so videotaping films off the screen, which used to get you fined a measly $250, is now a misdemeanor with jail time attached. [IHT]
• More scary housing stats: There have been 554 foreclosure auctions in New York City between January and March, up 56.5 percent from last year’s fourth quarter, as folks begin defaulting on loans. [Prime Newswire]
• And Governor Schwarzenegger — he of the Hummer fleet — is in New York teaching us about the environment. Okay, fine, California did pass a groundbreaking emission-reduction law and refuses to buy coal-derived electricity. Still: annoying. [NY Metro]
