Alicia Keys turns 29 today. Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz is turning 39. Paul Nurse, the Nobel Prize-winning head of Rockefeller University, turns 61. Architect Bernard Tschumi is 66. Kim Gandy, the feminist leader and former NOW president, is turning 56. Actress Mia Kirshner (The L Word) is turning 35. Socialite Carroll Petrie is 82. And legendary singer Etta James turns 72 today.
• Theodore Friedman, a former negligence lawyer who was disbarred in 1994, and his wife, former New York Surrogate's Court judge Eve Preminger, have sold their three-bedroom penthouse at 25 Central Park West for $10.05 million. The couple first listed the 2,767-square-foot apartment, which features 900 square feet of outdoor space and 360-degree views, for $13.5 million in January of 2009. [Cityfile, Stribling]
• Are Alicia Keys and boyfriend Swizz Beatz planning to buy a duplex penthouse at 170 East End Avenue? That's the rumor, as the couple has reportedly toured the apartment several times recently. [NYP]
Ashley Dupre leaving WB11's studios on East 42nd Street looking very business-like ... Ashley Olsen smoking a cigarette outside Sant Ambroeus with a friend ... Alicia Keys exiting the Christian Louboutin store on Horatio Street with Swizz Beatz and her bodyguard ... Kate Hudson leaving her townhouse ... Famke Janssen taking her dog for a walk ... Robert Downey Jr. arriving at ABC's Times Square studios ... Hugh Jackman walking on Canal Street ... Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz leaving a grocery store yesterday ... Amanda Seyfried filming scenes for Letters to Juliet near Battery Park ... and Sarah Jessica Parker getting into a car outside Morandi after having lunch there yesterday.
• Lindsay Lohan may be into boys again, at least according to the Sun, since she supposedly spent the night with a male model who she'd been seen making out with the night before and later posted a picture of her new conquest on Twitter. Whether this is a make-Sam-jealous ploy or true love is hard to say, but rest assured her dad will probably weigh in on the matter by the end of the day. [Sun]
• A brazen jewelry thief busted into Amanda Peet's Tribeca loft on Wednesday and said, "What up, bitch? I live here" to Peet's assistant when she happened to walk in on the guy. He quickly fled, but let's hope she got out a "What up, mo fo?" before he was out of earshot. [P6]
• Jessica Simpson likes "spiritual," "artistic" and "intellectual" men because she "can bore out pretty easily." And now it's totally clear why her relationship with Tony Romo didn't work out. [Extra, People]
• CNN's Lou Dobbs says he's been receiving threatening phone calls and his house was shot at due to his views on immigration. But police don't have any any record that he's reported threats in the past and they think the shot was fired by a hunter. So, per usual, Dobbs is probably just full of crap. [P6]
• Michael Jackson's dad says his son is "worth more dead than when he was alive." The world already knew that was the way he felt, of course. But no one was expecting him to come right out and say it. [NYP]
Whitney Port walking home from the gym ... Famke Janssen walking downtown ... Beyonce leaving dinner at Nello on Madison Avenue ... Rihanna going shopping at Barneys ... Mischa Barton filming scenes for The Beautiful Life in SoHo, right before Elle Macpherson showed up to shoot her scenes, too ... Ed Westwick arriving at JFK ... Alessandra Ambrosio arriving at MTV Studios in Times Square ... Kate Hudson sitting with CC Sabathia's wife, Amber, at a Yankee game ... Ashton Kutcher holding hands with Demi Moore while walking in the East Village ... Kate Gosselin leaving her hotel en route to ABC Studios ... Taylor Momsen and Connor Paolo eating lunch on the Gossip Girl set ... and Oprah leaving Phillippe with Gayle King and Alicia Keys.
• Cynthia Nixon and longtime girlfriend Christine Marinoni have gotten engaged. The couple announced the news at the Love, Peace and Marriage Equality rally over the weekend. [OK!, ET]
• Mariah Carey reportedly threw a fit in Cannes on Friday evening when the director of her new movie had the audacity to show up late to the premiere, thus denying her precious time on the red carpet. [NYDN]
• Also in Cannes: Giuseppe Cipriani was seen making out with Tara Reid; and Kirsten Dunst missed the party she was supposed to be hosting because she missed her flight. [NYDN, Mirror]
• Kelly Bensimon is telling friends she regrets joining the Real Housewives cast since appearing on the show has "ruined her socially." [P6]
• Brooke Shields says her mother was checked out of her nursing home last week by a National Enquirer reporter looking for a scoop. [People]
Shia LaBeouf codifies a Jewish stereotype, Broadway still hates Jeremy Piven, Larry King lives on despite being 132 and not having Carrie Prejean on his show, and Alicia Keys is dating some rapper guy.
Giorgio Armani celebrated the opening of his new Fifth Avenue flagship last night with a party at the store. The designer was accompanied by his niece Roberta Armani; guests on hand included Leonardo DiCaprio (left), Carine Roitfeld, Victoria Beckham, Martin Scorsese, Michael Bloomberg, Caroline Kennedy, Joel Klein, Cindi Leive, Fern Mallis, Andre Leon Talley, Ricky Martin, Rachel Zoe, Nina Garcia, John Mayer, Mario Testino, Josh Hartnett, Liam Neeson, Richard Meier, Alicia Keys, Chace Crawford, Milla Jovovich, Thom Browne, Kevin Liles, Molly Sims, Mira Sorvino and Christopher Backus, Sally Singer, David Hershkovits, Jim Moore, Hal Rubenstein, Patrick McCarthy, Emile Hirsch, Natalia Vodianova, Zani Gugelmann, Kate Lanphear, Horacio Silva, January Jones, Elsa Pataky, Zoe Saldana, Solange Knowles, Marcus Schenkenberg, and Olivia Palermo. [PMc, Wireimage, Vogue UK, FWD, NYM]
Law & Order's Mariska Hargitay turns 45 today. Developer Bruce Ratner is turning 64. Broadway heir James L. Nederlander Jr. is 49. Citigroup investment banking chief (and Obama BFF) Raymond McGuire turns 52. Tiffani-Amber Thiessen is 35. Legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau is 81. And Princess Caroline of Monaco is turning 52. Weekend birthdays after the jump!
Today should be a busy day for thieves who earn a living robbing the homes of the rich and famous: Hundreds of celebs and corporate titans have been in Washington today for the inauguration and are expected to put in appearances at one of the many official and unofficial balls scheduled for this evening. Barack and Michelle will make their first stop this evening at the Neighborhood Ball, where the lineup includes Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, will.i.am, Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill, Shakira, and Mary J. Blige. The Equality Ball at the Mayflower Hotel will feature entertainment by Cyndi Lauper, Melissa Etheridge and Rufus Wainwright. Lou Gossett Jr. will serve as host at the Purple Ball, where performances by Il Divo and Peter Cincotti will entertain the likes of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, John Cusack, Ed Harris, Ashley Judd, Patricia Arquette, Brendan Fraser, and Josh Lucas.
VitaminWater, the drinks with names like "defense," "energy," and "endurance" that Alicia Keys is currently getting $25 million to promote, is basically just sugar and water, according to a nutrition advocacy group bringing a class-action lawsuit against the brand's owner CocaCola. (The "inventor" of VitaminWater, J. Darius Bikoff, sold it to Coke in 2007 for $4 billion.) Consumers are being outrageously misled by the "nonsense" claim that VitaminWater is good for your health, says the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, pointing out that one bottle contains around 33 grams of sugar. "I had no idea," laments lead plaintiff James Koh, "that I was actually getting almost a Coke's worth of sugar and calories." Somewhere, recent spokesmodel Jennifer Aniston is dying of shock while speed dialing her personal trainer.
At last night's opening night party for the New York City Ballet's David H. Koch Theater, guest of honor David Koch and wife Julia mingled with Candace Bushnell, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Keys, Al Roker, Debbie Bancroft, Lisa Falcone, Mary Alice Stephenson, Alexandra Lebenthal, Zani Gugelmann, Annie Churchill, Peter Martins, Veronica Webb, Mark Indelicato, Blythe Danner, Valentino, Rachel Roy, Derek Lam, Peter Som, and Vanessa Williams, who all ate, drank, and danced to inaugurate the new Lincoln Center venue. [Wireimage, PMc, Style.com]
Vito Schnabel (son of Julian) and Olivier Sarkozy (half-brother of Nicolas) hosted Terence Koh's "Flowers for Baudelaire" exhibition on Wednesday night at Richard Avedon's former studio, where the unusual art was admired by the likes of Anna Wintour, Simon de Pury, Jeffrey Deitch, Allison Sarofim, Stella Schnabel, Olmo Schnabel, Lola Schnabel, Jacqueline Schnabel, Zac Posen, Ann Dexter-Jones, Nadine Johnson, Theodora Richards, Alexandra Richards, Byrdie Bell, Benjamin Cho, Cynthia Rowley, Salman Rushie, Lyor Cohen, Todd Eberle, Derek Blasberg, Genevieve Jones, Yvonne Force Villareal, Drena De Niro, Lisa Anastos, and Gilles Bensimon. [PMc, NYM, GoaG]
Kate Bosworth checking in for a flight at JFK with boyfriend James Rousseau ... Natalie Portman eating soup on the set of her new movie ... Hugh Jackman leaving the studios of GMA ... Sarah Jessica Parker walking with son James in the West Village ... Frank Gifford leaving ABC studios ... Kate Winslet shopping at YSL ... Alicia Keys standing outside the Letterman show ... Katie Holmes leaving her East Village apartment ... Seth Green, Enrique Iglesias, and David Archuleta posing for pics outside MTV studios in Times Square ... and Fergie sitting in the backseat of a cab.
