The summer season will be over shortly. Beach communities will empty out, bathing suits will be stored away in the back of the closet, and bulky sweaters will reemerge. Depressing, huh? Donald Trump is going to cheer you up! As you can see here, just because summer is "officially" coming to a close doesn't mean you can't pretend otherwise. [TMZ]
Things appear to be looking up for the art market. After five months of consecutive falls, prices are finally beginning to rise again as buyers become more confident and auction houses get a bit more realistic about prices. The renewed confidence appears to be having a positive effect on the auction houses themselves: Shares of Sotheby's have nearly tripled over the last five months. And galleries seem to be more bullish, too. Earlier this week, it was reported that Larry Gagosian is planning to add to his chain of eight galleries with a location in Athens. But not every segment of the market is bouncing back. Experts say that areas that became over-inflated in recent years due to "speculative bidding" are still losing value. Steve Cohen isn't out of the woods just yet, in other words. [Wealth Bulletin]
Chace Crawford eating on a bench in the West Village ... Anne Hathaway walking with boyfriend Adam Shulman downtown ... Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell sitting with Jack Nicholson and Lorne Michaels at a Yankees game ... Beyoncé leaving Bar Pitti with Jay-Z ... Matt Lauer walking solo ... Tina Fey shooting scenes for 30 Rock in Rockefeller Plaza ... Blake Lively walking around on the set of Gossip Girl ... Jerry Springer arriving at his hotel ... Rihanna visiting a doctor's office on Long Island ... Britney Spears carrying her son around in Midtown ... and Whitney Port leaving Sant Ambroeus in the West Village after having lunch.
• Blackstone Group co-founder Steve Schwarzman and his wife Christine have put their East Hampton home on the market. The 2.1-acre property, which the couple purchased for $2.3 million in 1996, is listed for $7.2 million. The couple will hardly be homeless if and when they sell it. The Schwarzmans are finishing up construction work on the much larger estate in Water Mill they agreed to buy in 2005 for $34 million. [WSJ, BHS]
• Developer Bruce Ratner has sold his 4,500-square-foot home in Montauk to art dealer David Zwirner for $10 million. He's reportedly looking for a "less pricey" estate in Quogue. [NYP]
• Actress Molly Shannon has sold her apartment at 66 Ninth Avenue for $2.61 million. The three-bedroom pad, which Shannon bought for $1.6 million in 2003, had been listed most recently for $2.85 million. [Real Deal]
Jack Black turns 40 today. Jason Priestley of Beverly Hills 90210 fame is 40. Actor Ben Gazzara is turning 79. Country singers Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes are 44 and 27, respectively. Olympic figure skater (and Celebrity Apprentice contestant) Scott Hamilton is 51. Actress Jennifer Coolidge is turning 46. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald is 64. And one of the Osmonds (Wayne) is turning 58. Some of the people celebrating birthdays this weekend—including Warren Buffet, Lisa Ling, and John McCain—are below.
• Mischa Barton didn't get involuntarily committed to the psychiatric wing of Cedars-Sinai last month because she had a meltdown. Or a drug problem. She says it was because she had her wisdom teeth removed. Sounds plausible! [TONY]
• Speaking of lame excuses, remember how Jeremy Piven said he had to drop out of Speed the Plow because he had mercury poisoning? An arbitrator bought the story, apparently, because he ruled in his favor, dismissing charges filed against him by producers of the show. [NYP]
• Minka Kelly's rep is shooting down rumors that she's planning a fall wedding to Derek Jeter. [NYDN]
• When you first heard the Olsen twins were breaking into fashion, you had a good laugh, didn't you? Well, it's been a few years since then and now "their success in a field as competitive as fashion is impossible to deny," says an enthusiastic Cathy Horyn today. Of course, it hasn't hurt that they're super-famous and worth a gazillion dollars either. [NYT]
• Things you didn't know about Vogue's André Leon Talley: He's partial to Juice Couture shorts at home, loves Uggs ("it's a cozy shoe"), and says The Golden Girls is his fave show on TV. [TONY]
• Tonight is the last night for Elettaria on West 8th Street. [Eater, GS]
• La Goulue on Madison Ave. was dismantled and packed up yesterday. [P6]
• David Burke's eponymous restaurant reopened its doors last night. [GS]
• Due to the economy and not-so-spectacular weather, this hasn't turned out to be the best summer for restaurants in the Hamptons. [EH Star via Curbed]
• Charles on West 4th Street begins brunch service this weekend. [GS]
• Graydon Carter is collaborating with someone new at Monkey Bar. His 83-year-old mother's butter tart is now on the dessert menu. [P6]
Were you having difficulty keeping track of all the new hotels sprouting up around the city? Get ready to be even more confused. According to a study prepared by NYU's Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management (who knew?), 61 new hotels—with more than 10,000 rooms in total—will be added to the city's supply between the beginning of 2009 and the end of 2011. [HVS.com via Curbed]
• A&E has agreed to acquire Lifetime, which means it's not entirely out of the realm of synergistic possibility that Duane Chapman of Dog the Bounty Hunter will make a cameo on Project Runway sometime next season. Yay. [THR, NYT]
• The Daily News has dropped its restaurant critic, Danyelle Freeman, and doesn't appear to be making any plans to replace her. [P6, NYT]
• Another luxury magazine is coming! The Financial Times plans to bring its quarterly glossy, FT Wealth, to American shores this October. [Crain's]
• It's been nearly two years since Oprah announced plans to launch a cable channel, and the venture's been riddled with problems ever since. [LAT]
• Italian officials are now investigating Google for its "lack of transparency." Yes, the same Italy that's governed by a man named Silvio Berlusconi. [NYT]
• Larry David will be bringing the cast of Seinfeld together for a multi-episode appearance on the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Which makes sense considering it's not like Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, or Michael Richards have anything better to do, now do they? [EW, LAT]
Mayor Bloomberg said today that he isn't really running against anyone else in this year's mayoral election, all the other candidates are pretty much irrelevant, and that he didn't bother to tune into the Democratic debate last night because he doesn't really care what any of them had to say. If that's the case, could he at least do us a favor make the commercials stop? [NYP]
Today is not a good day for Hassan Nemazee, the banker and Democratic heavyweight who served as finance co-chairman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He's now out on bail following his indictment on bank fraud charges, which is nice. And the terms of his release allow him to remain in his Park Avenue apartment under house arrest, which is good, too. But he can't do very much. He's not allowed to watch TV or use a computer. And making ends meet may be tough for Nemazee now that he's had to put his apartment and weekend home up as collateral, and the judge also prohibited him from applying for any new bank loans or credit cards. But have no fear, Hassan! We have a little workaround for you.
How many star photographers who regularly shoot for Vanity Fair now find themselves in the middle of financial scandal? Two! There's Annie Leibovitz, of course, who was sued last month over a $24 million loan. Then there's François-Marie Banier, the photographer responsible for Vanity Fair's July 2009 cover featuring Johnny Depp, who goes on trial next month in France for allegedly exploiting Liliane Bettencourt, the 86-year-old heiress to the L'Oréal cosmetics fortune, who has handed Banier some $1.3 billion in cash, stock, and art in recent years. Naturally, these things usually come in threes. Watch your step, Patrick Demarchelier!
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Why did we all get together and agree to stop drinking water? Who knows, really, but we must have at some point because sales of bottled water have been falling fast over the past few months. Which explains why beverage companies are now in the process of coming up with all sorts of crazy new drinks to make up the difference.
Steven Spielberg walking in SoHo ... Sarah Jessica Parker leaving her West Village townhouse ... Alec Baldwin filming scenes for 30 Rock at Tao ... Michael Kors walking near Bryant Park ... Hugh Grant having dinner last night at the Standard Grill ... Rihanna eating lunch at Da Silvano with her assistant ... Taylor Momsen hailing a cab with her mom in the West Village ... Blake Lively and Chace Crawford filming scenes for Gossip Girl in the meatpacking district and Hilary Duff exiting her trailer nearby ... Kevin Federline leaving lunch at Cafe Metro with girlfriend Victoria Prince ... Jamie Spears walking in Midtown ... Nia Long talking on her phone outside her hotel ... America Ferrera shooting scenes for Ugly Betty in Times Square ... and Courtney Love shopping with a friend in SoHo.
• Nicolas Cage may have found a buyer for his 48th-floor apartment at the Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue. Cage has reportedly received two offers on the 3,550-square-feet pad, which was most recently listed for $9.75 million. [NYP, BHS]
• Investment banker Tom Whalen and his wife Dana English have closed on the sale of their 8,000-square-foot townhouse at 34 West 10th Street. The 19th-century manse, which was rumored to be selling to an unidentified Texas banker for $15 million earlier this summer, sold for $15.4 million to an entity called Go Yard LLC. [Cityfile]
• Arvind and Shilpa Sanger have paid $11.98 million for a penthouse at 170 East End Avenue. Arvind, who founded Geosphere Capital in 2007, previously worked for Steve Cohen's Connecticut-based SAC Capital. [Cityfile]
Designer Tom Ford turns 48 today. Disgraced media columnist Michael Wolff is turning 56. Gary Cohn, the No. 2 man at embattled Goldman Sachs, is 49. Bob Kerrey, the embattled president of the New School, is 66. Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan is turning 40. Actress Sarah Chalke is 33. Grey's Anatomy star Chandra Wilson turns 40. The R&B singer Mario turns 23. Imprisoned telecom CEO Bernie Ebbers is 68. The rapper Mase is turning 31. Olympic ski champ Jonny Moseley is 34. Former MTV VJ Downtown Julie Brown is turning 50. And Pee-wee Herman celebrates his 57th birthday today.
