Two days after the Daily News revealed that ultra-loaded MTA board members are given free E-ZPasses, and one day after AG Andrew Cuomo threatened to sue the agency over the practice, the MTA has caved. Apparently it decided that saving some rich dudes a few hundred bucks annually wasn't worth a PR nightmare and a trip to court. Go figure.
Ricky Martin is officially living La Vida Pantsuit. Four days before the Puerto Rican primary, the has-been boricua pop star has announced his support of Hillary Clinton. Expressing gratitude, Hillary issued a press release commending the Gandhi-like Martin for his committment to "improving the world through his philanthropic work." It's safe to say this is the most politicized day of Martin's life, between endorsing Hillary and Gov. David Paterson's decision to recognize marriages between Ricky-type people in the Menudo alum's adopted home of New York.
Kevin Sheekey, the wunderkind deputy mayor and the shrillest, most relentless cheerleader for the abortive Bloomberg '08 campaign, had his dreams of riding Bloomberg's coattails to a more prestigious job dashed when the Mayor ultimately decided not to run. But now he's aggressively pursuing another course to get his foot in the White House: hyping Bloomberg as the ideal VP choice for both McCain and Obama. Sheekey has been fanning the Bloomberg veepstake flames "like some kind of meth-addled pyromaniac," as John Heilemann aptly put it in New York. His blunt argument for why Bloomberg is such a perfect pick for the candidates? Because he's loaded. Sheekey went on NY1 recently and proclaimed that Bloomberg would be able and willing to contribute as much as a billion bucks to any ticket he might end up on, a naked attempt to entice the McCain and Obama camps with Bloomberg's fortune. Sheekey learned his lesson from Bloomberg's called-off presidential campaign: while even the most incessant attempts at persuasion can fail, bribery's always a safe bet.
Things haven't been going all that well for Steve Forbes the past few years. There was the sale of a minority stake in the family business to a group of investors (including Bono). Then there were a number of major asset sales: Forbes sold its private island in Fiji to Dietrich Mateschitz, the inventor of Red Bull, and passed off the family's sprawling Colorado ranch to Louis Bacon. One thing they haven't sold is the Highlander, the garishly green Forbes-owned yacht that prowls the Hudson and East River on warm summer nights. Now that the season is underway, the Highlander is back to doing what it does best: serving as a handy tax deduction for the family. Forbes uses the yacht for pricey conferences and cocktail events aboard the ship are offered up as bait to get people to sign up for community groups and "roundtables" and such. Your chance to pretend your a "Visionaire" make awkward conversation with the former presidential candidate is below.
When you loathe someone, there's nothing more cathartic than scrawling ad-hominem invective over a portrait of that person! At least, that's the thought behind a new painting of disgraced Bear Stearns chair Jimmy Cayne by Geoffrey Raymond, the artist who's made a career out of painting controversy-tainted Wall Streeters. Raymond was standing outside Bear's headquarters at 383 Madison yesterday and offering Bear employees a red marker to express their black thoughts about Cayne on his painting, "The Annotated Bear." A few employees of the about-to-shutter bank—today was the last day in Bear Stearns' 85-year life—took up the offer, scribbling love notes like "Dear Jim, Up Yours" and "Now You Know What BS Stands For." Make yourself at home in the pillory, Jimmy, it's going to be a long time before these burned bankers tire of throwing rocks at you.
The 15 Central Park West flip parade has commenced! The first king-sized flip at the building has hit the market, and it could set a record for the most expensive apartment in New York. Last month venture capitalist Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald closed on a duplex at 15 CPW for $30 million; now, only a few weeks later, he's trying to flip it for three times that. The unit, 18/19A, features four bedrooms, six and a half baths, and a media room. What else will $90 million get you? A breath of fresh air: the apartment features 1,110 square feet of outdoor terraces.
Desperate real estate developers are willing to do anything to offload their condos, the Sun reports today. Fancy fitness centers, rooptop decks, and lobby refrigerators for FreshDirect packages just aren't cutting it anymore. If you're a developer and you want to make a splash, you need to offer up billiards room, access to last-minute tickets, Oktoberfest celebrations, sushi parties, and customized triathalon training, which is now available if you're willing to plunk down $1 million or more for a tiny one-bedroom at Izak Senbahar's Laurel on East 67th Street. The Atlas in Midtown is offering up weekly concerts for building residents. The singer who performed at the first installment of the series? That would be Lady GaGa (right), who we're quite sure was only selected for her musical abilities, not because she has a rep for stripping down to a bra and underwear in concert.
Michael Kors is temporarily unable to admire himself on Project Runway reruns: four teenagers broke into his house in the chichi Fire Island enclave of Water Island and walked away with his flat-screen TV, along with valuables from three neighboring homes. The hapless crooks dumped their booty into a bay when they found out the cops were on their tails, only to get caught anyway. It's been a bad year, theft-wise, for gay fashion tycoons on the East End. First the copper fixtures at Isaac Mizrahi's Bridgehampton house get snatched, now Kors' TV is jacked. These things tend to come in threes, so definitely keep close tabs on the home electronics in your Southampton estate, Calvin Klein.
The Bear Stearns name will be relegated to the dustbin of history today when shareholders meet to approve the deal with JP Morgan. Former employees won't have to worry about losing touch with their ex-colleagues: bearalumni.com has been set up so "former Bear staffers can locate their brethren." Which should insure that for every Bear employee who does find a new job, there will be three others hassling him for a foot in the door.
New York mag weighs in on the silly promotions tied to the SATC release: "It seems anyone trying to sell a dress, bag, or cocktail in this town believes the best way to do that is to tell you their goods are exactly what Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, or Samantha would wear, carry, or drink, even though many (if not most) of these items are not what said characters would wear, carry, or drink at all."
Model-turned "wellness expert" and "spiritual counselor" Kathy Freston credits yoga and veganism with helping her gain self confidence, quit smoking, and find her soulmate—who just so happens to be exceedingly rich former CEO of Viacom, Tom Freston. She's been peddling her self-help books to socialites on the Upper East Side for years, although she now appears to have bagged her biggest convert yet—Oprah! The daytime queen is on week two of Freston's 21-day cleanse, and she even started a blog about her experience. No meat, no sugar, no gluten, no alcohol, no caffeine—21 days has probably never seemed so long. A video of Oprah admiring a falafel ball after the jump.
And you thought Rachael Ray's greatest crime was inundating the airwaves with cheesy catchphrases and popularizing mediocre recipes. According to some conservative wackos, she might be a terrorist sympathizer, too: After the daytime star was spotted wearing a keffiyeh-style scarf in a recent Dunkin' Donuts ad, right-wing squawkers like Michelle Malkin immediately proposed a boycott of the chain, claiming the garb was "a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos." The coffee giant blamed the fashion faux pas on a stylist today and announced it was halting the campaign effective immediately. But Ray is hardly the first famous person to be seen wearing the trademark Arab garb. Keffiyehs have been worn by downtown hipsters and celebs for years now. And Malkin conveniently failed to point out that the trend seems to have caught on with some of George W. Bush's closest family members, too.
So you've got the G-V and the Maybach. You own an estate in the Hamptons, a co-op on Fifth, and a ski house in Aspen. What could possibly be missing? Your own country, of course! Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, the gazillionaire co-founder of PayPal who now runs the hedge fund Clarium Capital, recentl invested in the Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to "creating experimental ocean communities with diverse social, political, and legal systems." Yes, the group's mission is to permit billionaire moguls like Thiel to establish their own sovereign man-made islands. (Presumably they'll be a bit more attractive than the oil platform that you see to the right.) Why not just, say, buy an regular ol' island in the tropics, you ask?
Last night was the social event of the year for the finance community: It was the annual gala of the Robin Hood Foundation, the poverty-battling non-profit backed by banking heavyweights. The usual suspects from the worlds of hedge funds and private equity were in attendance, as were a smattering of celebs too classy for the Sex and the City premiere, including Jay-Z, Conan O'Brien, Russell Simmons, Tom Brokaw, David Byrne, and Cindy Sherman. Performances by Shakira, Sheryl Crow, and John Legend had noted hoofers like Henry Kravis, Steve Cohen, and Art Samberg tapping their feet underneath their tables.
Simon Hammerstein, the hipster founder of the LES hotspot The Box, paid $1.27 million for a Financial District loft, according to property documents posted this morning. The fourth floor pad—located at 265 Water Street—features two bedrooms and 1,650 square feet of open living space. Check it our for yourself after the jump.
Every summer the Hamptons plays host to any number of absurd feuds between extremely moneyed and extremely territorial neighbors. Christopher Clark, heir to the W.G. Clark Construction Co. fortune, inaugurated the bickering season on Saturday when he called the East Hampton Village Police to complain about all the cars illegally parked outside the mansion of his neighbor, Jana Partners hedge-funder and Forbes 400 listee Barry Rosenstein, who was throwing a birthday party for his 9 year-old daughter. After the po-po showed up, party attendees including Allure editor Linda Wells and designer Nicole Miller had to rush to re-park their cars in the Rosensteins' driveway so they wouldn't be ticketed. Adman Jerry Della Femina had a supporting role in this farce, too, because Crane's wife, Samantha, called the cops on him the night of the parking incident because his son was having an overly rowdy party. So the final tally for the evening: two calls to the cops, three sets of livid neighbors, untold numbers of modestly inconvenienced party guests, and zero offenses legitimately worthy of indignation or police intervention.
A year ago, Rudy Giuliani was celebrating his birthday—he'll be 64 today—with a whirlwind of fundraising events, including one on Staten Island hosted by none other than Vito Fossella. What a difference a year makes, huh? Giuliani will have to make do with a much quieter celebration tonight with Judy (Le Cirque perhaps?), and although Vito will undoubtedly be raising a glass (or six) this eve, it certainly won't be in Rudy's company.
