Earlier this month Joan Rivers put her Upper East Side duplex penthouse on the market for $25 million. Now she's looking to sell her Connecticut home, too. She's currently asking for $6.5 million for the New Milford property. Judging by recent photos of her, that might be just enough to begin to put a dent in her plastic surgery bills. [Real Estalker]
Living on Park Avenue has its perks, and existing in a paparazzi free-zone is supposed to be one of them. Alas, life is full of disappointments, and so certain Park Avenue residents have spent the past three years contending with photographers, limos, traffic, and noise thanks to a catering company that has taken to throwing fabulous parties in the hood, including Oscar de la Renta's Resort show this month. That event was the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between residents and The Rose Group, the caterers who lease the Christian Science church on the corner of 63rd Street and have turned the locale into a successful party space that hosts multiple society events a week.
Oh, phew! The hole-in-the-head gang at Fox & Friends finally had a lucid and credible debate about an important topic. Abortion? No. Iran? Nah. The earth-shattering divorce of Jon & Kate Gosselin? Why yes, of course.
There's a gay Perfect Storm afoot that oughta be a rabble rouser. Also in news: the Friends kids keep on truckin', a live-action sorta Clone High is kicking into gear, and Jessica Simpson has terrible news.
Ira Sorkin, Bernie Madoff's lawyer, has asked a federal judge to sentence the admitted fraudster to as little as 12 years in prison and no more than 20: "Sorkin said that a 12-year sentence would be appropriate because Madoff's life expectancy is now 13 years. As an alternative, he said that a 15-to-20 year term would 'effectively achieve' the goals of sentencing 'without disproportionately punishing Mr. Madoff.'" And we wouldn't want to do that, clearly. [Bloomberg]
Lou Reed eating breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien in the Village ... Whitney Port eating lunch with Olivia Palermo at Philip Marie, and later having dinner with a friend at Nobu ... Luke Wilson walking with a friend in Soho ... Anne Hathaway wearing a wig while having lunch with her boyfriend, Adam Shulman ... Tracy Morgan dressed up on the set of A Couple of Dicks in Brooklyn ... Julianna Margulies leaving a gym downtown ... Beyonce and Jay-Z walking into Avenue Bar ... Miss Universe Diana Mendoza shooting a comercial in the West Village ... Robert Pattinson walking downtown with a group of handlers ... Courtney Love leaving a bank in Midtown ... and Jane Krakowski getting in a cab in the Village.
Last month the CIA revealed it was looking for laid-off Wall Streeters to join its ranks, part of an effort to find people with backgrounds in "economics and financial services to help assess overseas economies and to track down illicit money used to finance terrorist activities." Investment Dealers' Digest has a long article on the subject and has interviews with a bunch of people who made the jump. The good news: It turns out the hours are much better compared to Wall Street. The bad? With salaries ranging from $48,682 to $95,026 a year, even first-year investment banking analysts take home more. Of course they can't claim they're defending America and saving the world from evil, so you'll have to factor that into the equation somehow. [IDD via Dealbook]
Today we have an attractive young fellow who is, to the sadness of many, a terrible kisser, an actor involved in the porn film HIV outbreak, and an athlete with some gambling-related money problems.
How much does Mike Bloomberg pay his dog walker? This is the pertinent piece of information missing from today's Daily News profile of Eloise Cucui, the Hunter high school senior who walks Mayor Bloomberg's two golden Labrador retrievers, Bonnie and Clyde. (The News may also oversell her position a smidge, too, calling hers "one of the city's most important jobs.")
• Retired investment banker E. Stephen Benson has sold his penthouse at 885 Park Avenue, albeit for about $5 million less than what he was hoping to sell it for last year. The two-bedroom co-op with wrap-around terrace (left), which was originally listed for $13 million before Benson sliced the price four times, sold for $7.65 million to Capstone Advisory Group exec Robert Manzo and his wife Cynthia. [Cityfile]
• Gordon Pattee, the CEO of Map Capital and a trustee of the New York City Ballet, and his wife, Dailey, have lowered the price of their penthouse triplex at 812 Park Avenue for the second time since listing it for $36.5 million in 2007. The five-bedroom apartment, which was dropped down to $29.75 million in 2008, is now priced at $22 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Curtis Bashaw, a developer in New Jersey and the man behind the Chelsea, Atlantic City's first non-casino hotel, has sold his two-bedroom loft at 695 Washington Street for $1.675 million. [Cityfile]
