You now have a fabulous new excuse to offer up the next time one of your annoying friends gives you a hard time about all the money you've been spending on Botox injections and facelifts. It isn't because you're vain or anything. It's because you're looking for a cure for your migraines and you just want to God-awful pain to stop. Who could argue with that? [NYT]
Ashley Dupre is responding today to the (possibly made-up) reports that Eliot Spitzer is thinking about running for elected office: "I was happy to see that Mr. Spitzer is moving on with his life and considering getting back into politics," she writes on Global Grind, the website owned by her occasional yoga partner/mentor, Russell Simmons. "Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone deserves a second chance. Me too, right? Well, apparently not." She goes on to complain that people think she's making a fortune off her notoriety, but she really isn't, and that although she really wanted to write a book, publishers lost interest when she told them she wasn't willing to "sensationalize" the sensational details that made her famous in the first place. Oh, well. In any event, she finishes up the rant by directing readers to a "rough cut" of latest single, "Inside Out."
Russell Simmons and Tina Brown having lunch yesterday at Da Silvano ... Cynthia Nixon walking downtown ... Daniel Craig carrying boxes into a building in Midtown, and then bumping into Diddy, who was was standing outside ... Ashlee Simpson arriving at JFK ... Blake Lively carrying an American Eagle shopping bag ... Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard walking in SoHo ... Al Pacino filming scenes for You Don't Know Jack in Brooklyn ... actor David Eigenberg standing with his son and wife on the Sex and the City set ... Hilary Duff talking on her cell phone ... and Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan holding hands in SoHo.
Last week, banker and Democratic mega-fundraiser Hassan Nemazee was detained by FBI agents investigating whether Nemazee had used forged documents to get Citibank to provide him with a $74 million loan. The next day, though, Nemazee paid Citibank back the entire $74 million—presumably because he was hoping that if he returned the cash, he might be able to make the problem go away. But the move was a bit suspicious. If he had the $74 million sitting around, why would he have bothered carrying out the scheme in the first place?
• Tom Flexner, a former vice chairman of Bear Stearns who joined Citigroup in April of 2008 to oversee its global real estate investment banking business, has closed on the sale of his four-story townhouse at 136 East 80th Street. The three-bedroom home, which Flexner first listed for $12 million last July with broker Kirk Henckels, and which went into contract to sell in May, sold to one Regan Fitzpatrick for $8.3 million. [Cityfile]
• Real estate investor Michael Hirtenstein has paid $16.8 million for five units on three floors of the Enrique Norten-designed One York, which he's planning to combine and use as a place to host "philanthropic events." [NYP]
When you heard that someone had written a book with intimate details about Bernie Madoff's anatomy, you probably thought to yourself, I better get to the bookstore the first day it comes out or I'll miss my chance! Oh, you didn't? You weren't the only one. Only about 2,000 copies of Sheryl Weinstein's tell-all have sold since it was published a couple of weeks ago. And the three other Madoff-related books haven't fared well either. [AP]
New Yorker staff writer and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell turns 46 today. Writer/director Noah Baumbach is turning 40. Charlie Sheen is 44. Former Bear Stearns chairman Ace Greenberg is 82. Novelist Kiran Desai turns 38. Veteran book editor Gary Fisketjon is turning 55. Big-time commercial director Bryan Buckley turns 46. Entertainment exec Garth Ancier is turning 52. Olympic snowboarder Shaun White is 23. Michael Huffington, the former Republican congressman and ex-husband of Arianna, is turning 62. And Adam Curry, the former MTV VJ and now a podcaster, turns 45 today.
• Madonna's trip to Israel is over. And it sounds like it was quite the party. Her entourage occupied a total of 11 suites and 25 hotel rooms; she brought her Italian chef with her as well as all her own exercise equipment aboard her private jet; and she received the sort of reception typically reserved for visiting presidents. Fun! [NYP]
• Michael Jackson's burial is finally scheduled to take placed today in Glendale, Calif. [MSNBC]
• DJ AM's burial took place in LA yesterday. Travis Barker, Scott Caan, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and members of Crazy Town turned up for the small service. In related news, although Goldstein didn't leave a will, he left behind about $1 million in assets. [Us, TMZ, People]
• The filming of the Sex and the City sequel has been getting a little chaotic, since fans have been turning up in droves at the locations. Fortunately, Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth remain unarmed. And extra security has supposedly been hired. [NYDN]
• Today it's the New York Times' turn to preview what's on tap this fall. [NYT]
• It's been a rough few months for restaurant owners on account of the recession, although a fair number are figuring out how to make it work. [NYT]
• The sour economy hasn't put a damper on Richard Caring's plans. The Brit restaurateur and owner of Soho House is spending $7 million to revamp the former Cafe Pierre and turn it into NYC outpost of Le Caprice. Meanwhile, Tony May is gearing up for the opening of his big new Italian restaurant, SD26, which may be "one of the more theatrical debuts of the fall." [NYT, NYT]
• What should you make of the new crop of resto-clubs, like Hotel Griffou, The Gates, and LevantEast? Not much, reports Time Out's Jay Cheshes. [TONY]
• The 10 "big deal" restaurants to keep an eye on this season. [Eater]
• The new Oceana finally has its liquor license. So it's now celebrating. [Zagat]
• Su Casa, a bar/lounge/speakeasy in the Village, opens this weekend. [GS]
This just in: Wall Street CEOs make a lot more than average Americans! "The top five executives at each of the 20 banks that accepted the most federal bailout dollars averaged $32 million a piece in personal compensation from 2006 through 2008, according to the findings of the 16th annual Institute for Policy Studies' 'Executive Excess' report. The institute calculated that 100 average U.S. workers would have to labor over 1,000 years to make as much as these 100 executives." [Daily Finance]
• Charlie Gibson is retiring as anchor of ABC's World News Tonight at the end of the year; he'll be replaced by Diane Sawyer, who is stepping down as anchor of Good Morning America to take the job. And now Brian Williams will soon be the only man anchoring a nightly network newscast. [NYP]
• The 66th installment of the Venice Film Festival kicked off today. [THR]
• Thanks to the success of Royal Pains and Burn Notice, USA has scored the highest summer ratings in the history of cable television. [B&C]
• Current TV's Laura Ling and Euna Lee have broken their silence and are now describing some of what happened when they were captured in North Korea. Not all it, though. You'll have to buy their book to read the rest. [LAT]
• Is Jared Kushner looking to unload the Observer? That's the rumor. [Gawker]
The best way to get out of jury duty? Use the recession as an excuse! Kindly explain to the judge that you're already having difficulty making ends meet and if you're forced to take off any additional time, you may very well lose your home. (Mentioning you also happen to be a single parent and you take care of your sick aunt isn't such a bad idea either.) You may just find yourself in front of a judge like the one interviewed in today's Times, who says he's doing his best to "be sensitive to the economic times" and has been dismissing prospective jurors who can't afford to be there. If you're unemployed, however, it's a whole different story.
Courtney Love eating and walking ... Sarah Jessica Parker dressed up in '80s clothing and Chris Noth standing around on the set of Sex and the City ... Jon Gosselin leaving JFK with his mom ... Irv Gotti and Adrienne Bailon going to lunch at Da Silvano ... Christie Brinkley posing for pictures at the US Open in Queens ... Kelly Rutherford carrying her daughter Helena ... Aubrey O'Day arriving at the studios of WPIX with an iced coffee ... Taylor Momsen walking downtown ... and Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick shooting scenes on the set of Gossip Girl.
The world's most unfortunate husband, Ron Weinstein, has a few thoughts on the book his wife Sheryl decided to write about having an affair with Bernie Madoff. Yes, he says, he tried to talk his wife out of writing it. And yes, detailing Bernie's penile dimensions "was trashy." But "affairs are commonplace," he says, and really "shouldn't be such a big deal," although in this case he concedes it's a bit complicated since the man she happened to have an affair with is also "the biggest crook in the world" and stole all of Weinstein's money.
It's been a few weeks since downtown artist Dash Snow died of a heroin overdose. But photographer Ryan McGinley is now speaking out about the death of his close friend. In the new issue of Vice, he recounts some of the great times they shared over the years, like "sniffing coke off toilet seats [and] doing bumps off each other's fists" in "the bathroom of every bar below 14th Street." Oh, and how Snow and one of his other friends would get wasted and have fun at the expense of homeless people:
The city budget may prevent Mayor Bloomberg from paying his employees what he'd really like to give them for their service and dedication. But he has other ways to make up the difference. According to today's Times, the mayor recently made a $1 million donation to Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania—to stamp the name of his deputy mayor, Patti Harris, on the front of a new academic center.
