Erykah Badu turns 38 today. Billionaire philanthropist and political powerbroker Ron Lauder is 65. Right-wing commentator Bob Novak is turning 78. Town & Country editor-in-chief Pamela Fiori is 65. WABC anchorman Bill Ritter is 59. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is 51. Stylist Mark Garrison is 58. Ally Hilfiger, the "designer" and daughter of Tommy, is turning 24. And Michael Bolton turns 56 today.
Rachel Bilson shopping on the Lower East Side ... Kate Beckinsale talking to David Spade outside her hotel ... Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen shopping at Barneys ... Katie Holmes carrying coffee on a walk downtown ... William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman walking on Madison after leaving lunch at Nello's ... Kirsten Dunst hailing a cab ... Justin Timberlake leaving an office building ... Nicole Richie carrying her baby Harlow around Chelsea Piers ... Claire Danes holding hands with Selma Blair on Bank Street ... Agyness Deyn walking with a friend downtown ... Angelina Jolie waving to photographers outside an apartment building ... Paris Hilton going to dinner at La Esquina ... and Ally and Tommy Hilfiger leaving the Waverly Inn.
• Unsurprisingly, Jason Wu's show was a big hit today, and Anna herself made an appearance. [WSJ, NYM, WWD]
• Reports from Charlotte Ronson's show. [WWD, WWD, NYM, Racked]
• Reports from Yigal Azrouël's show. [WWD, NYM, Fashionologie]
• Fashion Week's official coffee, brought to you by McDonald's, is "actually not that bad." [Racked]
• Photos from Rachel Roy's fall collection. [Pipeline]
• Topshop has been delayed again; it's now scheduled for April. [WWD]
• Ally Hilfiger is planning to launch her own line. [NYO]
• Christian Siriano is covering Fashion Week for Time. [Time]
• Shoshanna will appear in the Judith Ripka's new ad campaign. [FWD]
• Diesel's Fifth Ave flagship opens next week. [FWD, Racked]
GQ held its second annual "Best New Menswear Designer in America" competition last night in conjunction witht he CFDA. Finalists like Andre "3000" Benjamin, David Mullen, Alex Carleton, Robert Geller, Sam Shipley, Jeff Halmos, and Yigal Azrouel were joined by guests like Tommy Hilfiger, Fern Mallis (left), Thom Browne, Jim Nelson, Kelly Cutrone, Phillip Lim, Derek Lam, Peter Som, Rory Tahari, Chase Crawford, Steven Kolb, Ally Hilfiger, Fonzworth Bentley, David Chu, Ryan Leslie, David Lauren, Katie Lee Joel, Glenn O'Brien, Steven Alan, Calvin Klein mens creative director Italo Zucchelli, GQ publisher Peter Hunsinger, and last year's winner, Daiki Suzuki. [PMc, NYO, FWD]
• Kate Moss has been telling friends that she wants to branch out into acting so she can become a "Hollywood star," and that she's already lined up an agent in New York. [Showbiz Spy]
• Michael Phelps has issued an apology after photos appeared this weekend in the News of the World showing him smoking weed. [NYP, NOTW]
• Bernie Madoff's grandkids are considering changing their last names. [P6]
• John Thain was hardly the first or the last: Clive Davis, Martin Bandier, and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz have all spent obscene amounts in recent years to redecorate their offices, too. [R&M]
• Despite the fact her magazine is losing millions and has laid off dozens, Portfolio's Joanne Lipman insisted on flying first class to Davos. [P6]
The Tribeca Film Institute hosted a benefit screening for the Quantum of Solace last night, which was followed by an afterparty at Tavern on the Green. Attendees included Daniel Craig, Becki Newton, Chris Diamantopoulos, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal, Julia Stiles, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Jeffrey Wright, Debra Messing, Andre Balazs, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Hoda Kotb, Jill Stuart, John Sykes, Judy McGrath, Howard Stringer, Rob Wiesenthal, Liya Kebede, Stewart Rahr, Molly Sims, and Serena Altschul. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG]
♦ Now that she doesn't have Guy Ritchie to boss around, Madonna is finding more time to control everyone else: She's supposedly been "begging" Gwyneth Paltrow to leave her London home so they can spend more time together in New York. She's also busy orchestrating a reunion between Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears: All three will be performing together at Madge's concert in LA tonight. [The Sun, E!]
♦ Padma Lakshmi is apparently on a "man-search" for a filthy rich boyfriend now that her flings with Ted Forstmann and Russell Simmons are over. [P6]
♦ Now that the election is over, Tina Fey says she will be officially retiring her Sarah Palin impression. [Extra]
Heiress and TV starlet Ally Hilfiger, you will recall, is part of an exciting new generation of multimedia artists and as such likes to "have all my creative outlets exposed." Lately, Hilfiger seems to be most interested in having her painting outlet exposed, but her work was only formally exhibited this one time as part of a weird music video type thing. All that is about to change. After the jump, details on the Tuesday event that will mark a new dawn for the art world, and a sampling of the paintings involved. Hint: the number 8 plays a big role.
The latest dish on Tommy Hilfiger's daughter, Ally, begs the question: is the Underminer actually based on her? Check it out: she splits her time between Manhattan and Berlin, has a "multimedia installation" showing at the Chelsea Art Museum, and she paints. (Mostly she paints the number 8, because it's lucky—as Jennifer 8. Lee already knows). "I like to have all my creative outlets exposed," she tells the Daily Intelligencer.
