The Way We Live Now: Disneyfied! You can buy into Disney's simulacrum of an American community right now—cheap! It's the only place left without wild dogs roaming the trash-filled deserted main streets.
Apple is famously hostile to leaks; to keep secrets, the company sued a teenaged blogger and lied about its CEO's health. This paranoid culture's new poster boy: a Chinese engineer who has killed himself after losing an iPhone prototype.
Sun Danyong, 25, recently jumped out the window of his apartment building to his death, VentureBeat reports. The engineer had just has his apartment illegally searched and may have been detained and abused by his employer, Apple manufacturing contractor Foxconn, after he lost one of 16 prototypes for a fourth-generation iPhone. Sun's frantic efforts to find the missing phone at a factory in Shenzhen, China had been unsuccessful.
It's a good thing that author Fran Lebowitz is so tight with editor/restaurateur Graydon Carter that she can walk into Monkey Bar (or the Waverly Inn) without a reservation and get a table a moment's notice. If she had to use the phone—or Monkey Bar's email reservations system—she'd be in serious trouble. WWD asked her if Lebowitz if she spent any time using Twitter or Facebook and this is what she had to say:
As the public focuses on the lucky bankers at Goldman Sachs who are on track to make more money than ever this year, let's not forget about hedge fund managers. They're doing pretty well, too, you know! According to a new report by Hedge Fund Research, the average fund was up more than nine percent during the quarter, the best quarterly return since the fourth quarter of 1999. So if you see a cocky finance type out and about and he's buying bottles of champagne like the last year never happened—or waving a wad of cash—he could work at Goldman. But he could just as well be employed by a hedge fund. It still remains highly unlikely, however, that he works at Citigroup. [Dealbook]
We know you've got two engagement parties, three Big Meetings, a bris, and a third date coming up. And, really, what the hell are you going to wear? Get your gladrags together with help from Ted Baker London. Sale on everything from the Vyper suit to the Galacto T-shirt starts this afternoon! Join Gilt Groupe today to get in on the deals.
Today we have a creeper who loves herself some Alice in Wonderland, a lonely sad actor who thinks he is very funny but he isn't, and an actor with some sort of serious bear thing.
See, this lady says Barack Obama is "a citizen of Kenya," and wants to know what her Representative plans to do about the fact that a Kenyan has become the president. So Castle says: "Well I don't know what comment that invites. If you're referring to the president, then he is a citizen of the United States."
If you were worried it was too late to secure a spectacular rental in the Hamptons for the month of August—just 10 days left!—rest assured there is plenty of inventory to choose from. Curbed Hamptons has a roundup of the ten most expensive Hamptons rentals still available for the month, a list that includes Philip Johnson's Farney House in Sagaponack (above), which is available for $450,000 for the month. You may have some difficulty sleeping as you obsess over the fact it's costing you $604.84 an hour to stay there. But your insomnia should be eased a bit by the truly stunning ocean views. [Curbed Hamptons]
Cityfile has partnered with Dr. Helen Fisher to bring you the latest insight into love and romantic attraction. A renowned biological anthropologist, Dr. Fisher has conducted extensive research in the fields of human sexuality, love and marriage. She serves as Chief Scientific Advisor for the internet dating site Chemistry.com.
Kate Hudson taking in a game at Yankee Stadium ... Matt Damon leaving his apartment on Lafayette Street ... Jennifer Lopez leaving her trailer on the set of The Back-Up Plan ... Alex Rodriguez signing autographs outside ABC ... Stephanie Pratt shopping with her boyfriend and friends in SoHo ... Russell Brand standing outside his hotel downtown ... Jessica Szohr walking to the Gossip Girl set on the Lower East Side ... Rachel McAdams shooting scenes for Morning Glory ... Regis Philbin walking on the Upper West Side ... and Jon Gosselin walking by himself on the Upper West Side, smoking outside P.D. O'Hurley’s Pub on West 72nd Street, and later buying a hot dog in Central Park.
New York State Assemblyman Jim Tedisco introduced a "Madoff" bill on Monday, which would require rich New Yorkers convicted of crimes to pay state and federal governments for the estimated $80-$90 it costs to keep them behind bars. Despite the name, Tedisco's proposed law wouldn't have even applied to Madoff, since the government stripped him of his assets. But had it been on the books a few years ago? The most humiliating period in Martha Stewart's life would have come with a $13,500 bill, too. [Reuters]
