Today we have a model dissed for her cultish religions, a gallant actor who cleaned up his lady friend's puke, and a reality star who has time has just about come to an end.
Graydon Carter appeared as a witness yesterday at the trial of Anthony Marshall, the son of Brooke Astor who stands accused of swindling his mother when she was suffering from Alzheimer's. The Vanity Fair editor recalled the three articles he asked her to write for the magazine in the late '90s (she was paid $1,000 for her efforts). And he described their regular lunches at the Knickerbocker Club and the Four Seasons, and the time when he even managed to convince her to travel downtown to dine at Da Silvano.
• Carlos Alejandro Pérez Dávila, an heir to one of the richest families in Latin America (his cousin is Andrès Santo Domingo, husband of Lauren) has sold his four-story townhouse at 176 East 75th Street. The 5,800-square-foot mansion, which had been listed for $10.9 million, was purchased by Keith Meister, the son of tycoon Robert Meister, for $8.6 million. (Keith's brother is Todd Meister, Nicky Hilton's ex.) As for Dávila, he's already found a new home. He paid $19 million for 47 East 68th Street in 2007. [Cityfile]
• Ian Schrager has put his 3,630-square-foot penthouse duplex at 285 Lafayette Street up for sale for $12.5 million. Neighbors in the building include Iman, David Bowie, and Janice Min. [NYP, BHS]
• Lee Neibart, CEO of Apollo's AREA Property Partners, has gone into contract to sell his 16th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West. The three-bedroom apartment, which Neibart and his wife Joyce bought for $7 million in January and re-listed a few weeks later, had been priced at $8.2 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
Author/New Yorker writer/CNN pundit Jeffrey Toobin turns 49 today. Duly elected United States Senator Al Franken is turning 58. Actress Fairuza Balk is 35. Lisa Edelstein from the TV show House turns 43. Judge Reinhold is 52. Ron Isley of the Isley Brothers is 68. Hairstylist Ed Tricomi turns 57. Manhattan Media CEO Tom Allon is 47. Porn star Briana Banks is turning 31. And Laurence Tureaud (better known as Mr. T) celebrates his 57th birthday today.
• Last week Bette Midler was handing out dating tips to Jennifer Aniston. This week she's rolling with 50 Cent. Not only have the two become "unlikely best friends," but Bette says 50 has "really made my life worth living," and has been by her side "through thick and thin." She'd even like to sing backup on one of his new songs, too. Also? She's totally lost it, clearly. [NYDN]
• Speaking of Aniston, she's supposedly taking a little break right now due to "exhaustion." [Sun]
• The woman accused of having an affair with Bruce Springsteen says her ex made the whole thing up so he'd get "big money" from the singer to stay quiet. [People]
• Hilary Rhoda is reportedly dating Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. [P6]
• Amy Winehouse was reportedly hospitalized for the third time in as many months on Tuesday, although she's since been released. [Mirror]
An Atlanta man has offered to buy Bernie Madoff's investment firm. And he's willing to pay a pretty penny for it, too. Ade Ogunjobi, who runs a company called Toks Inc.—and just so happens to have been born in Nigeria—has proposed to acquire the defunct firm in an "all stock tax free transaction involving $100 trillion in stock or 400 million shares" of his company.
• New jobless claims are down, but a record number of people are collecting unemployment, which won't be good news for the markets today. [BN, WSJ]
• Bank of America is hoping to pay back the $45 billion in bailout money by the end of the year. And it looks like they might actually be able to do it. [DB, WSJ]
• Speaking of taxpayer money, GMAC is getting $7 billion of it. [WSJ]
• Hedge funds are back: They raked in $15.4 billion in April. [BN]
• The Justice Dep't is looking into shady behavior at Lehman circa '07. [WSJ]
• Britain's Serious Fraud Office is building a "warning system to help it spot hedge fund fraud." But only serious hedge fund fraud, obviously. [Reuters]
Spencer Pratt's hot new rap single drops on iTunes, Britney sports a two-piece, Hayden Panettiere's tattoo artist can't spell and fucked up her new ink, some crazed Idol fan attempted to strangle Simon Cowell's ex-girlfriend outside the show's studio after the finale, and Amy Winehouse in in the hospital AGAIN!
Are Barack Obama's liberal supporters turning against him? One couldn't escape sensing that watching Rachel Maddow's show last night. Not only did Maddow express her own grievances, but Newsweek's venerable gumshoe Michael Isikoff reported on a meeting between Obama and liberal supporters that went completely off the rails.
Yesterday it was announced that Daphne Barak, a bleach-blonde Israeli-American "interviewer" whose kooky website touts her "exclusive interviews with A-list celebs, Hollywood stars, royals and heads-of-state," is doing a documentary featuring Amy Winehouse and her family, "a truthful and revealing look at her complicated life." This is just sad.
• Kate Moss's latest collection for Topshop hits stores (and the web) tomorrow. [Fashionologie]
• Anna, Oscar, Vera, and Carolina—among others—joined Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall this afternoon to announce Fashion's Night Out, which is scheduled for Sept. 10. [NYM]
• A former assistant to Karl Lagerfeld (and the author of a tell-all about the designer) is making waves once again with his descriptions of life inside the house of the Kaiser. [Fashionologie]
• A chat with French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. [Guardian]
• Halston's new creative director is Marios Schwab. [Vogue UK]
• Nordstrom be eyeing the Virgin Megastore space in Union Square. [WWD]
• It's Fleet Week! Why not get dressed up for the occasion? [Pipeline]
Glenn Beck, Fox News' resident Barnumesque dildo, was a guest on The View today, and, predictably, things became contentious on set, even more so because of a bullshit story about an encounter with Whoopi and Babs that Beck recently peddled on his radio show, so Whoopi went off on him.
Today was graduation at the Columbia Journalism School, and the ceremonies were tinged with regret. Not just because the news media is imploding, either: there's a mysterious flap involving a non-graduating student and a professor who supposedly breached "standards of communication."
