Would you pay $25,000 to sit in the front row at next month's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? Because you could if you wanted to. And it's entirely possible the stars could align and and a little stray supermodel body glitter could fly off the runway and land in your lap, and that alone would be well worth $25K, wouldn't it? Thought so! [ALZ.org]
All those pop-up stores opening up in unexpected locations around town aren't designed to amuse you. They're part of a devious plot to trigger certain chemicals in your brain so that you'll open your wallet and mindlessly hand over every penny you have in your wallet to the person standing behind the register. Really.
Not planning to attend Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's wedding this Sunday but still want to send along your very best wishes on the momentous occasion? We're here to help. Just print out this pre-made postcard, pen a few inspirational words, cut along the lines, and you'll be good to go. (You can download the full-size version here. You're welcome!
Evolution isn't just something that took place a million years ago. Human beings continue to evolve, although that seems to be both good and bad news based on new research by Dr. Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist at Yale. On the plus side, women in the future will have healthier hearts, lower cholesterol levels, and an easier time reproducing. The not-so-good news: According to Stearns, your great-great-great granddaughter will probably be shorter and chubbier, too, although if it's any consolation, your great-great-great grandson will be a lot wimpier, since men seem to be growing progressively weaker over time. As one expert puts it, "An average Neanderthal woman could have whupped Arnold Schwarzenegger at his muscular peak in an arm-wrestling match." [Daily Mail, Time]
This has been an absolutely awful year for the fashion industry thanks to the economic downturn. But you needn't be concerned that the financial crisis has forced Diane von Furstenberg to pick up a part-time job as a cab driver. She only slipped behind the wheel of a cab yesterday to film "a project" for her new line of eyewear. So let's all exhale now, shall we? [DVF]
The Post reports that Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire close to sealing a deal to buy the Nets, stopped off at Nello's on Wednesday and dropped $19,000 on lunch. What did he spend all that cash on? Miraculously, a crack reporter at the paper managed to obtain the bill:
Rachel Weisz and Darren Aronofsky in Noho pushing their son Henry in a stroller ... Karolina Kurkova shopping in SoHo ... Hamish Bowles walking uptown ... Shia LaBeouf walking to the set of Wall Street 2 ... Terrence Howard leaving the Gramercy Park Hotel ... Naomi Watts carrying her son in SoHo ... Times photographer Bill Cunningham taking pictures on the UES ... socialite Genevieve Jones walking her dog in SoHo ... Taylor Momsen shooting scenes for Gossip Girl in Queens ... Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony posing for photos outside the Pierre Hotel ... and David Blaine riding a motorcycle in SoHo.
According to today's Times, mayoral candidate Bill Thompson is "starved for publicity." We have a feeling that the article in which that tidbit appears wasn't the sort of publicity he had in mind, unfortunately:
• The buyer who plunked down $9.41 million on Bernie and Ruth Madoff's oceanfront home in Montauk home has been revealed: It's billionaire real estate mogul Steve Roth and his wife, Broadway producer Daryl Roth. [WSJ]
• Alexander Navab, a partner at KKR and co-head of the firm's private equity business in North America, has paid $4.9 million for a two-bedroom co-op at the River House on East 52nd Street. Meanwhile, his four-bedroom spread just a few floors up remains on the market for $24.5 million. [Cityfile]
• The Minetta Lane townhouse owned by late party planner Robert Isabell has been reduced in price since first going on the market for $3.95 million. The 2,813-square-foot building, which features a "basement hand-chipped by Tibetan-born sherpas from Brooklyn," is now $3.45 million. [Curbed, MK]
The most terrifying woman on cable news, Nancy Grace, turns 50 today. Director Sam Raimi and "Weird Al" Yankovic are both turning 50 today, too. Actor Ryan Reynolds is 33. Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is 55. Writer Augusten Burroughs is turning 44. ABC News correspondent Brian Ross turns 61. Jessica Stroup of 90210 is 23. Retired soccer legend Pelé is turning 69. Andy Warhol muse Jane Holzer is 69. And Meghan McCain turns 25 today. A list of people celebrating their birthdays this weekend is below.
• Madonna is taking a quick trip over to Malawi this weekend "to lay the foundation stone" at the new "multi-million dollar girls school she's building." That's funny. We could swear we heard about another celebrity doing almost exact same thing not too long ago. Oh, yes, her! Hopefully this time around there's a little less controversy. And let's also hope Malawian schoolchildren are ready to study Kabbalah from dawn till dusk. [Reuters]
• In related news, Madonna's ex, Alex Rodriguez, now appears to be taking an interest in Buddhism thanks to girlfriend Kate Hudson. Or at least he's pretending to be interested in it to make her happy. You decide! [NYDN]
• Ashlee Simpson-Wentz—sister of Jessica, wife of Pete, and the character Violet on The CW's Melrose Place—is now unemployed. Melrose's producers are taking a "It's not you, it's me" approach and saying the decision to cut her out of the show had nothing to do with the fact she can't act, but was because that had been their plan for the character from the beginning. [EW, People]
• Star chef Alain Ducasse weighs in on New York's best french fries. [GS]
• Daniel Boulud is planning to open an outpost in Singapore next year. [NYDN]
• More on the city's lawsuit against Tavern on the Green. [NYT, Crain's]
• Ninth Street Espresso serves NYC's best coffee, according to GQ. [GS]
• A couple of roundups of food-related events this weekend. [SE, Zagat]
• Media mogul hangout Michael's has been tweeting who comes in for lunch each day. Let it be known that Vogue editrix Anna Wintour does not approve: "It's not something I was aware of but it is probably ill-advised." [NYT]
It wasn't long ago that Louis Vuitton was scrapping plans to open glitzy new stores around the world. But times have changed! The French luxury giant opened its latest outpost this week. And it just so happens to be located in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. (If you're headed in that direction and you'd like to stop by, ask your taxi driver to take you to Sukhbaatar Square. You can't miss it. Really.) To pay tribute to Mongolia's "strong horse riding culture," the company says it's putting some Louis Vuitton equestrian gear on sale. Does this mean residents of Beirut will finally get the LV-emblazoned falafel fryer they've been waiting for when the company descends on the Lebanese capital for the first time later this year? We will soon find out!
• The New York Times Co. reported a $35.6 million loss for the third quarter as ad revenue plunged 30 percent. But it was better than what Wall Street analysts were predicting, so the stock shot up 22 percent today. [NYT]
• New York magazine's chief says there are no plans to sell the magazine following last week's death of owner Bruce Wasserstein. [AdAge]
• Newsday plans to charge $5 a week to access to its website. [NYT, [E&P]
• Fortune is cutting back on the number of issues it publishes. And Time Inc., Fortune's publisher, is planning another round of job cuts. [WSJ]
• On the same day Sarah Palin's memoir is published, the Nation will release Going Rouge, an identical-looking book that mocks the ex-governor. [Politico]
• As if losing billions of family money wasn't enough of a punishment, France says it plans to put Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. on trial for insider trading in connection with the 2000 merger of Vivendi and Seagram. [NYP]
Bill Thompson now trails Mayor Bloomberg by 16 percentage points in the polls, which is a bit of a setback for Thompson since he'd narrowed the lead to 9 percentage points back in September. But shouldn't Bloomberg's lead be bigger right now, especially given how much cash he's spent on his wildly overpriced campaign?
Last week, the home accessories company Rosenthal USA teamed up with the salon Warren-Tricomi to open a "pop-up concept store" at the Plaza Hotel. To celebrate the occasion, last Wednesday designers Geoffrey Bradfield, Campion Platt and Antony Todd hosted a party in the hotel's Terrace Foyer. Party correspondent Douglas Marshall took a few minutes to chat with style maven Patrick McDonald, one of the most recognizable figures on the fashion scene (and someone you'll be seeing a lot more of when Bravo's new fashion-centric reality show, Launch My Line, debuts in December). On tap for discussion: men's fashion, shopping during a recession, and Barack Obama's wardrobe.
If the city really wants to crack down on people who chat on their cellphones while driving, why does it announce in advance when it plans to enforce the law? Who knows, but the "24-hour citywide effort" to stamp out the bad habit will continue up until midnight as the NYPD hands ten times as many tickets for the offense as usual (and the city collects an extra $1 million or so). But if your cab driver got pulled over today and you had to sit in the back seat for five minutes while a cop wrote him a ticket, you now know why you were inconvenienced. [NYT]
It seems the Florida Department of Law Enforcement updated its headshot of Jeffrey Epstein in its database of sexual offenders and didn't bother to tell us! This photo was taken in August, so it's possible the pervy money manager's appearance has changed since then. But what's with the pale skin? We may have to send him a bottle of self-tanner if he keeps this up. [Previously]
