Area zombie Padma Lakshmi was spotted berating a hostess at Schiller's last night. You'd think she'd be a more agreeable restaurant guest, considering she hosts Top Chef and all. Read about her loveless double date:
Lindsay Lohan's Valentine's Day got off to an awesome start at 1 AM Saturday: A fight on the streets of Nolita, trailed by paparazzi and a reporter for the New York Post.
A tipster writes: "Okay WTF. This is upstairs at Barnes and Noble Union Square, before the [Neil deGrasse] Tyson reading. It is MOBBED. Who the hell is this dude? What gives????" Good questions!
We received a celeb-stalker sighting this morning: "Ivanka Trump—5th avenue and 57th street - Her hair was a mess. Didn't bother to dry it before leaving her place. Other than that, she looked great." Wet hair? We've got news for for 26-year-old Ivanka, whose job with her dad comes with a fancy title (Vice President of Real Estate Development and Acquisitions) and an assistant: According to Megan Hustad's newish book, How to Be Useful: A Beginner's Guide to Not Hating Work, she's just broken a cardinal rule for young twentysomethings in the workplace.
I see transgressive fashionart photographer Terry Richardson everywhere around Nolita! Practically every other day. I see him walking his dog, and standing outside the deli talking on his cellphone, and in front of the bookstore. I see him on the weekend at that Szechuan restaurant on St. Mark's. Once I saw him coming out of that building with the fancy door on Bowery, and figured that's where he lived. I saw him this morning. Because of all these run-ins, and because I have always enjoyed his work, I feel that we should be friends. I mean, how can you see somebody every day and not not.... love.... this:
Here's author and knight Salman Rushdie—or as our tipster put it, "Padma [Lakshmi's] ex"—on the uptown 6 train, clinging to the pole. What is he thinking about? No one knows. Click for the larger image of the distinguished Satanic Verses author.
Friday, 3 a.m. The Carnegie Deli on Seventh Avenue. Just finished: half a chicken, insultingly overpriced. They charge you $3 extra to "share." Bastards. Friend to waiter, upon being informed that they don't accept credit cards: "I wish this place would just... stop existing." In wanders an unusually tall man, peroxided hair, flanked by two very short white guys. Oh, no: it's former Chicago Bulls forward and Celebrity Mole winner Dennis Rodman.Rodman's a little drunk; then again so are we. He's laughing while his friends egg him on. They appear to have just met him, and you can sort of see their thoughts scrolling across their heads like a ticker: "Whoa, we were just drinking at Jimmy's five minutes ago, and now we're hanging out with Dennis Rodman!" Outside on the sidewalk, we gape silently, respectfully through the plate-glass window, for what we were witnessing up-close is the degraded version of a former celebrity lifestyle. Instead of Tao, it's the Carnegie Deli at three in the morning. Instead of an entourage of strippers and Madonna, it's two hicks that he met at the bar down the street. Suddenly, we both understand what happens after you stop being famous. This is end-stage fame. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Move over, Kirsten Dunst. Whitney Port is the new queen of New York! Or, at least, of New York "celebrity" gawking. A back-up player on MTV's reality soap The Hills, Port works for fearsome fashion PR maven Kelly Cutrone and is filming her own New York-set reality soap show called The City, also starring socialite (I think?) Olivia Palermo! There have been lots of paparazzi photos of the cow-eyed blonde floating around photo agencies lately, and we've received several you are there Stalker sightings in the past few weeks. Though, I guess, some of those "sightings" may be carefully planted PR mumbojumbo. Cause, you know, PR folks tend to do that. Read and decide for yourself after the jump. Oct. 1 "Just saw Whitney from the Hills at Delicatessen on Prince & Lafayette. Looked like she was filming her new "reality" show as the film crew took over an hour to set up." Sept. 27 "Saw her at the corner of 17th & 5th, I was on my cell asking where City Bakery was. She stopped to tell me it was one block up and said, 'Sorry, I overheard you asking, and it's just one block up.' She was super sweet and much shorter and tinier in person, but still really pretty even without make-up." Sept. 14 "Gold Bar / Sunday night (1am monday morning), Whitney and Lauren from The Hills." Sept. 13 "Saw Whitney Port of 'The Hills' at La Esquina on Kenmare last night around 10pm. She was eating with friends, all very normal looking and there were no cameras, bodyguards or anything. She was super sweet and friendly as I said approached her when I was leaving. Told her she was the only redeeming character on the show and she repeatedly said 'thank you'" Sept. 10 "Whitney Port from The Hills at the W Hotel on Lexington and 49th street at 2pm. dont know if your care about this chick, but she is staying here." Sept. 5 "I saw Whitney from the Hills at Mercer Kitchen today (9/5) around 1pm. She was wearing leopard print SHORT-shorts that you could see straight up when she walked up the stairs to leave. I ran into her in the bathroom as well where we had a short convo. She is much thinner in person than I imagined. And prettier. Amazing skin. She said she was going to be in NYC for a while. Hills spoiler??" Real or fake, the lady is suddenly everywhere. And yet we've managed to completely miss her. Maybe it has something with our never leaving the house. Hiiiiiii Whittles!!!! Images: Left & top right via Bauer-Griffin, bottom right via Splash
We've received three sightings of magician/fake stuntman David Blaine today, and all seem legit. Here's the best one: "5pm: Walking East on 11th b/w 5th & University talking on his cell phone insisting 'No, you have to tell them that I'm not going to perform that!'" Heh.
We've received a few Sarah Palin sightings during her jaunt to New York, but none as overwhelmingly positive as the following. This encounter suggests that Palin has beatific, Virgin Mary-like powers.44th St. between 6th & Broadway 6 p.m. Wednesday Saw Sarah Palin exiting her hotel with a massive security detail. Hate to say it but she was gorgeous, long-legged, very tall. She looked at me and sorta, kinda smiled. Absolutely striking, but I’m still not voting for her. "Sorta, kinda smiled..." The power of Sarah Palin's Mona Lisa smile can melt even the most jaded of urban hearts. God help this country.
John McCain's motorcade snapped by a passerby on 57th St. at 9th Ave. in Manhattan yesterday at 5.30pm—just about the time he was supposed to be recording an interview for the Late Show with David Letterman or else saving the country from financial ruin.
It's the most unfightable news story of the day. Last night, at a Kings of Leon concert, actress Drew Barrymore got into some down 'n dirty tonsil hockey with Gossip Girl fop Ed Westwick. They were sucking face like mad, for all the world to see. And see the world did, if our tips inbox is any indication. Several breathless emails arrived in the early morn, keening to us about this sex explosion that will surely ruin the world with its blinding hotness. Or something. Read some accounts of the events after the jump.
What? We'd expect to find a slew of celebs at at a hip downtown concert for, say, the Citizen's Band or something—but mediocre granola college-rockers Dave Matthews? The Stalker sightings are coming in from last night's show at Madison Square Garden, and it seemed to have attracted the celebrity dregs. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen were backstage, "dressed like it's January," one tipster said. And aging cougar-fameball Dina Lohan, mom of LiLo? Allegedly drunk:
Not sure what you did this lovely Labor Day weekend—saw your family, or headed off to the beach, or maybe just wandered the temporarily-empty city—but I can bet that you were not having as nearly as much wonderfully disgusting fun as our tipster. He managed to catch glimpses of the terrifying Alex McCord, from Bravo's Real Housewives of New York City reality horror, and her dopey (and apparently well-endowed) husband Simon in the nude while on, of course, the topical tropical island of St. Barth's. With, ew, their children. (To be fair, Alex is often naked, but this sighting was in the flesh!) Read the effusive report after the jump.
MTV's Real World has begun filming in Red Hook, unfortunately, and so we had already steeled ourselves for tips like these: "Sitting next to guy and girl having lunch at Mizu, and girl is telling the man about how the Real World guys tried to get her to come home with them to deflower the Mormon..."
