cityfile

The Santo Domingos Know What They Like

cityfile · 08/25/09 03:15PM

Andrès and Alejandro Santo Domingo aren't just brothers and heirs to one of the largest fortunes in Latin America. They also seem to share the same taste in women.

A Jackson Reality TV Show, Elle Combats Homelessness

cityfile · 08/25/09 01:47PM

• Just when you think members of the Jackson family can't possibly stoop any lower comes confirmation they've agreed to do a reality TV show for A&E. It's going to be "genuine," says the show's producer. Clearly. [THR]
• Because the public has been clamoring for 24/7 access to fake wrestling matches, the WWF is now hoping to start up its own cable network. [NYP]
• More on what went down when Vogue editor Anna Wintour sat down to chat with David Letterman on his show last night. [WWD]
• Sony unveiled its electronic reading gizmo/Kindle competitor today. [NYT]
• The Observer's Jason Horowitz is leaving for the Washington Post. [NYO]
• A homeless woman has scored a four-month internship at Elle. Just wait until Elle "employee" Olivia Palermo gets her hands on her on the next season of The City. Homelessness, we presume, will never have looked so good. [Gawker]

A Gift For Bernie

cityfile · 08/25/09 01:15PM

Bernie Madoff's former mistress, Sheryl Weinstein, tells the AP that she plans to mail a copy of her disturbingly graphic new book to Madoff in prison. How thoughtful! "If the prison bubble has so far shielded him from realizing that the whole world is mocking his penis, that will end soon." [NYM/Daily Intel]

Memories of a Real Estate Bubble

cityfile · 08/25/09 12:53PM

Remember the good ol' days of 2006 when people were plunking down millions of dollars for penthouse apartments at the Plaza sight unseen? Those days have long since passed, of course. Fortunately, there's always the continued litigation to keep the memory alive. [NYS Supreme Court]

David Paterson Finds Acceptance In the Hamptons

cityfile · 08/25/09 11:58AM

Last Friday, David Paterson insinuated that he was the victim of racial bias, suggesting that a racially motivated campaign had been organized to keep him from running for governor this fall. A good deal of criticism immediately followed (and today Paterson attempted to back away from his remarks). But if Paterson had been planning to stick with that line of attack over the weekend and possibly coordinate a march on Albany with Al Sharpton, well, that doesn't appear to have been on his agenda. A few hours after raising the race issue on Friday, he cruised out to Water Mill to attend a country western-themed fundraiser at the home of author Jay McInerney and heiress Anne Hearst, where he had an opportunity to play a little charity blackjack with the likes of Kathy Hilton and Countess Luann de Lesseps. And you were thinking that the Hamptons tended to be exclusionary! A few more photos of Gov. Paterson's fun-filled Friday night below.

Things Are Looking Up!

cityfile · 08/25/09 11:14AM

The real estate market has recovered, clearly: Home prices in 20 American cities only declined 15.4 percent during the month of June as compared to a year earlier. But that's a slight improvement from the month of May, so we must be headed in the right direction. Right? Hello? [Daily Finance]

Another Dem Fundraiser Goes Down

cityfile · 08/25/09 10:36AM

Steve Rattner has some company today: One more prominent Upper East Side financier and Democratic mega-fundraiser is now facing an embarrassing financial scandal. Hassan Nemazee, who served as the New York finance chairman for John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hillary Clinton and, later, Barack Obama, was arrested on charges he "tricked" Citigroup into lending him as much as $74 million using phony documents. Nemazee was charged with one count of bank fraud and is expected to appear in federal court this afternoon. Although judging by some of Nemazee's shady political tactics over the years, it's possible that this wasn't first time he's forged a document or two. [Bloomberg]

Spotted

cityfile · 08/25/09 09:46AM

Sienna Miller walking with Jonny Lee Miller after having lunch at Cafe Gitane on Mott Street ... Rihanna arriving at the Bowery Hotel ... Drew Barrymore on the set of Going The Distance ... Philip Seymour Hoffman riding his bike downtown ... Tom DeLonge pushing a stroller in SoHo ... Christina Milian arriving at her hotel ... Leighton Meester filming scenes for Gossip Girl near Gramercy Park ... Britney Spears riding in a pedicab in Central Park, and later taking a CitySights tour with her dancers ... Jennifer Aniston leaving her trailer on the set of The Bounty in Queens ... Stephanie Pratt going to MTV studios in Times Square ... Hugh Jackman talking on his cell phone while driving with daughter Ava ... Hilary Duff going to the Britney Spears concert ... Gael Garcia Bernal and Amanda Seyfried shooting scenes for Letters to Juliet in SoHo ... and Sarah Jessica Parker leaving her West Village townhouse.

Rudy Forced to Decide Between Greed and Ego

cityfile · 08/25/09 09:16AM

Is Rudy Giuliani planning to run for governor? He still hasn't announced his candidacy officially, but it's looking more and more like he's a contender. Last week, he "encouraged" the chairman of the New York State Republican Committee, Joseph Mondello, to step down from his post, and Mondello dutifully did what he was told yesterday, resigning from the job to allow the former mayor to push for a more Rudy-friendly replacement. He's been crisscrossing the state over the last few weeks to drum up support with state Republicans. And he met with Mayor Bloomberg recently to discuss his chances.

Sheryl Weinstein Can't Stop Oversharing

cityfile · 08/25/09 08:43AM

Just when you were hoping that you'd be spared any more detail about Bernie Madoff's anatomy, comes, yes, more uncomfortable info about the fraudster's bedroom behavior courtesy of his former mistress, Sheryl Weinstein. Yesterday, we heard that Madoff's penis "would fit easily inside the opening of a single-serving honey jar that sits on a hotel room service breakfast tray." Today, Weinstein appeared on Good Morning America to tell Chris Cuomo that Madoff was a good kisser. ("Just what I wanted to know about him," responds Cuomo.) She also explains why she felt the need to write the humiliating memoir. She says she did it to "make things up" to her family. A simple "I'm sorry" greeting card wouldn't do? [Dealbreaker]

Two Sizeable Sales at 15 CPW

cityfile · 08/25/09 08:08AM

• Beny Alagem, the founder of Packard Bell Electronics and now the owner of the Beverly Hills Hilton, has found a buyer for his three-bedroom condo at 15 CPW. The 15th-floor apartment, which Alagem and his wife Adele bought for $15.4 million in April 2008 and put up for sale three months ago for $24 million, went into contract this week. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Gotham Makker, an investor and former portfolio manager at Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group, has taken a loss at 15 CPW. Makker and and his wife Vicky paid $18.8 million for NASCAR chairman Brian France's 34th-floor apartment at 15 CPW in September 2008. Their old apartment in the building, however, which they acquired for $13.3 million in March '08, sold to a buyer listed in property records as Garnet 15CPW for $12.5 million. [Cityfile]
• Jonathan Zrihen, the president and CEO of the cosmetics company Clarins Group USA, and his wife Laetitia have paid $2.075 million for a three-bedroom condo at the Belaire at 524 East 72nd Street. [Cityfile]

Happy Birthday

cityfile · 08/25/09 07:09AM

Gossip Girl's Blake Lively turns 22 today. Rachael Ray is turning 41. Regis Philbin is 78. Rachel Bilson is turning 28. Supermodel Claudia Schiffer turns 39. Sean Connery is turning 79. Director Tim Burton is 51. Rock star-turned-reality TV character Gene Simmons is 60. Actor Blair Underwood is turning 45. Theater producer Marc Routh turns 47. Disgraced media mogul Conrad Black will celebrate his 65th birthday behind bars today. And country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who may be better known these days as the father of Miley Cyrus, is turning 48.

Kate Middleton's Move, The 'Most Dangerous Celebrity'

cityfile · 08/25/09 06:25AM

• Is Kate Middleton, Prince William's girlfriend, planning to move to New York? Possibly! [DM]
• A coroner has ruled Michael Jackson's death was due to lethal levels of the anesthetic Propofol in his body, which may very well pave the way for prosecutors to file manslaughter charges against Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray. [MSNBC, People, NYDN]
• In other Jackson family news, Barbara Walters has landed the first interview with LaToya Jackson, which will air on September 11. Exciting, huh? [ABC]
• Jessica Biel is the most dangerous celebrity on earth—at least when it comes to computer viruses. People who seek out info on Biel online stand a one-in-five chance of visiting a site "designed to damage their computer." [Us]

Eating & Drinking: Monday Edition

cityfile · 08/24/09 04:01PM

• In its fall preview issue, New York surveys the nine spots opening soon in the meatpacking district, four of which happen to be at the Standard. [NYM]
• Related: Metromix's fall restaurant preview is now online. [Metromix]
Amy Sacco is on the move: She's opening a Bungalow 8 in Amsterdam. [P6]
• A sneak peek at Yerba Buena Perry, which opens later this week. [Eater]
• Musical chairs: Ryan Bartlow, formerly of Sam Mason's Tailor, is now running the kitchen at Bar Carrera, the sister restaurant to Bar Veloce; and Shlomo Kashy is the new executive chef at Cafe at Country. [TSB, NYT]
Danny Meyer finally tackles the questions that have been on your mind forever: He prefers flat water to sparkling and pancakes over waffles. [YaH]
• Speaking of Meyer, a few new details on his upcoming Maialino. [Zagat]

Glamping Your Way Through a Recession

cityfile · 08/24/09 03:25PM

You've heard of the "staycation." One more travel trend that is now benefiting from the recession, at least according to spin doctor Mark Penn: glamping. For people who don't have any interest in going camping and actually roughing in, but can't really afford to stay in a $650 a night hotel room in Europe for a week, glamping—or glamorous camping—is all the rage, Penn says.

The Weinsteins Dodge a Bullet

cityfile · 08/24/09 01:44PM

Harvey and Bob Weinstein are breathing a sigh of relief today. Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds did better than expected at the box office this weekend, raking in $37.6 million in sales. Not that one good weekend will be enough to lift the studio out of the financial mess it is in. [NYT, THR, WSJ]
• Related: In what may be a first for a movie opening, Inglourious Basterds seems to have benefited by a "crest of tweeting goodwill." [THR]
• Some 48 years after it was first published, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is now No. 1 on the New York Times' best-seller list. [NYT]
• Has the Glenn Beck brouhaha made advertisers skittish about buying commercial time during political shows in general? [AdAge, Politico]
Jared Kushner's New York Observer is launching a new paper called The Commercial Observer. It's about commercial real estate, naturally. [NYT]
• Magazine newsstand sales continue to suffer, not surprisingly. [AdAge]

Apple: No. 1 on Fifth

cityfile · 08/24/09 01:27PM

The highest grossing retailer on Fifth Avenue? The Apple store on 59th Street, the only one of the company's locations that is open 24/7, which generates sales of more than $350 million a year, according to real estate experts. [Bloomberg]

Liskula Cohen's Courtroom Battles Continue

cityfile · 08/24/09 12:27PM

Liskula Cohen won her case last week to force Google to reveal the identity of the person who had set up a blog to call the ex-model a "skank" and "ho." And although Cohen initially responded to the news by filing a $3 million defamation lawsuit against the blogger involved, Rosemary Port, she later decided against pursuing the case, saying she was all "about forgiveness" and just wished Port "happiness." (For her part, Port now says she plans to sue Google for $15 million for outing her.) So you may be assuming Cohen can now focus her attention on non-legal matters, right? Not so much. Cohen has another lawsuit pending in State Supreme Court. And, coincidentally, a judge issued a ruling in that case last week, as well.