"Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company, and his wife, Gail Gregg, have decided to separate, they said in a statement issued Friday. Mr. Sulzberger, 56, who is also publisher of The Times, and Ms. Gregg, also 56 and a painter and writer, said the decision to end their marriage was amicable."
Obama just went on TV to basically THROW HIS PASTOR UNDER A BUS. A remarkable press conference. One that is maybe a terrible idea? We don't even know anymore. Obama says he complained before that "sound bytes" turned a complicated man into a caricature. This weekend, according to Obama, Reverend Wright became that caricature. Jeez. This is a pretty unequivocal rebuke. Maybe it will please Mickey Kaus. (Though it does seem quite apparent that Obama's doing this because he's fucking pissed and not necessarily just to please the pundit assholes who'll be thrilled that he caved to them.) More later if it warrants it. (First question to Chris Matthews: "did he do enough to separate himself from Reverend Wright?" Ugh.) [AP]
Tricia Walsh-Smith, the soon-to be-ex of Shubert Organization prez Philip Smith, posted a rambling YouTube video about how the old man never sexed her a couple weeks back (Oh, here's that other story about it). She has returned as a self-proclaimed "YouTube Superstar" and she's still as batty and frighteningly hypnotic as ever. Fear her!
The wife of a Broadway exec (she's 25 years younger than him, about as old as his daughter) tours the flat he's kicking her out of and calls his office to ask about the porn, condoms and Viagra she found despite never having sex with him. Tricia Walsh-Smith, soon-to-be-ex-wife of Philip Smith, chokes up while she tells how he's divorcing her with "no grounds." This is like the lovechild of that old soap star with the embarrassing house tour and those girls who striptease on Megarotic.com and talk dirty to their ex-boyfriends.
Socialite/playwright Trisha Walsh-Smith is the soon-to-be ex-wife of Philip Smith, president of the Schubert Organization-which means he's super rich because Schubert owns all those theaters and produces all those fabulous Broadway plays. But the silly blonde went ahead and signed a pre-nup with the old man, who's 25 years her senior, and now she's all in a fuss. In some kind of whacky bid for leverage, Walsh-Smith is hitting YouTube to air her fears that the old man and his daughters are out to destroy her-trying to kick her out of her swank Miami pad, stealing her $500k annual pension in the event of Smith's demise, and leaving her with all sorts of dirty sex paraphernalia that Smith certainly never used on her.
Who's had it better after the breakup? If you can't tell from the photo, our stalker and a delivery guy can explain it to you, after the jump.
William Krasnansky, 51, is currently divorcing his wife of ten years. He's also "posted what he calls a fictionalized account of the marriage on his blog." What that means is that he's posted excerpts from a terrible "novel" about how his wife is basically a bitch on his livejournal. His livejournal about his adorable pugs. Now a judge has ordered him to stop blogging about his terrible wife, and it could become a major free speech case. A major free speech case about a livejournal called "Look at my Pugs." Krasnansky's post responding to the judge's order—in adorable cartoon letters with backwards letter 's's, as if written by a pug—may be found after the jump.
Affairs of the heart are never easy for outsiders to understand. But when they stray into the office, they, alas, become everyone's business. Which is why we asked, a while back, which Googler had put his marriage at risk over an affair with a coworker. As commenter notelling correctly guessed after we ran a blind item, it's Omid Kordestani, Google's top sales executive. Kordestani's no mere sales guy, however. For one, he's worth $2.2 billion, thanks to his Google shares. And inside the Googleplex, he's referred to as the company's "business founder," responsible for the fabulously successful money machine that is AdWords. With his stunningly beautiful and intelligent wife, Bita, shown above to the left, Kordestani might seem to have it all. But all was not enough.
A recent mass-emailed divorce announcement made Salon's Nora Zelevansky and her boyfriend "feel like intruders, as if we were guests at a wedding for anyone other than our dearest friends and family." But these emails, and the attendant divorce parties and ceremonies, are becoming de rigeur. "Some divorcees embrace announcements and parties as a way to put the word out on their own terms and with their own public spin," Nora writes, explaining that "Christine Gallagher, the Los Angeles author of 'The Divorce Party Planner,' agrees that 'The tone of the announcement can speak volumes about what happened, so that others don't feel it's an unmentionable subject.' Perhaps Robert Olen Butler, the recently-jilted author of a Pulitzer-winning book and also the craziest email we've ever seen, could have benefited from Christine's book! She also "believes a theme party is key to salving the soul."
This morning, some commenters had a great idea: Divorce magazine! Good news: it exists. You can purchase either a two-issue subscription for $13.95, or, if you're pretty sure the custody hearings and bitter rage are going to drag on a bit, you can commit to a four-issue union for $25.95. Still not sure whether it's a good idea? You might want to sample a few of Divorce's offerings online. For example, in an article about how cherishing "the gifts of your marriage" could help "heal your heart," Spiritual Divorce author Debbie Ford offers some very good advice.
What, did you think "floppy toboggan" was some kind of sexual euphemism? Sicko. Observe: Three days in New York, and three (at least) instances of Britney Spears wearing the floppy toboggan of triumph. Kevin Federline may be the master of the Homburg (if not the Trilby), but his days of romping with this toboggan are finally over.
Our long national nightmare is over. Cue the dancing in the streets! We're being serious here, actually — we are sincerely thrilled for our favorite down home girl/woman right now. TMZ is reporting that Britney has finally pulled the plug on her leechy husband, citing irreconcilable diffs and asking for full legal and physical custody of Sean Preston and Jaeden Blu or whatever. "Sources tell TMZ there was no single reason for Britney pulling the plug, rather, it was 'a string of events.'" Yeah, noooo shit.
• Actress Kate Hudson didn't separate from Black Crowe husband Chris Robinson because he's a crunchy dirtman and she's, well, Kate Hudson. Us Weekly reports that Hudson's affair with Owen Wilson led to the split — once you climb on the Stallion, there's no climbing off. [Us Weekly]
• Damn the man: the IRS pushes to tax celebrity swag bags. [TMZ]
• Africa is hot! Rapper Eve ends her relationship with the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, where citizens live on $1 a day, at the urging of Sunday Styles. [R&M]
• Blind item guessing game: "Which major magazine executive probably isn't hungry when he goes home to his wife, since he's having Chinese at the office??" Send in your guesses if you've got 'em. [Gatecrasher (last item)]
• 57-year-old actor Bruno Kirby died yesterday. He had been recently diagnosed with leukemia. Honor him tonight by ordering the Shrek doll episode of Entourage on HBO On Demand. [People]
• After 63 years of ongoing renevations to her W. 71st Street townhouse, Ann Curry's neighbors are suing her for over $900,000 because of the constant noise and disruption. Does that mean we can sue NBC? Because whenever Curry is on the screen, we feel a little disrupted, too. [Page Six]
• Justin Timberlake isn't signing up for the Soul Patrol anytime soon. [Scoop]
• Joey Buttafuoco shops a book proposal. Written in crayon. [Page Six]
• After six years of awkward, head-scratching marriage, Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson finally seperate. That's what happens once the baby weight comes off. [TMZ]
• WTC Commemorative coins "clad in 24 KT gold and .999 Pure Silver recovered from Ground Zero!" The best part? The twin towers actually pop up from the coin — so if you're a terrorist, you can buy it to watch the towers go down over and over again. [National Collector's Mint]
• The most damning assessment of them all: "The buzz around Radar is totally unrelated to reality." [New York Business]
• The real tragedy of Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll's ordeal as a hostage in Iraq? That she's now running free with that hair. [CBS]
• Jaqueline Passey has "a *lot*" of options when it comes to dating. But because she's an arrogant twit, she'll remain single. [Jaqueline Passey]
• ABC's Dancing With the Stars hits a new low for its upcoming season: not content to merely feature the waltzing skills of Tucker Carlson, they've also cast Emmitt Smith and Jerry Springer as contestants. [B&C]
• Hipster girls don't respond well to the banker boys of Craigslist. [CL]
• Simon Dumenco has seen the future of the Today show, and it involves Jell-o wrestling. Hallelujah! [AdAge]
Media Take Out is reporting that Star Jones' bearded husband Al Reynolds allegedly saw a divorce lawyer. And are we surprised? No one will come within 20 feet of Star's stomach staples. She's facing a dramatic income drop, and a lower tax bracket isn't going to support Al's banana hammock collection nor cover whatever fees he charges to appear smiling by Star's side. As the story goes:
• Has anyone ever looked quite so miserable while receiving an on-camera blowjob from Lindsay Lohan? He must know of the bacteria that's to come. [Yeeeah]
• Speaking of Miss Lohan: her new beau, Harry Morton, woefully underperforms in his first paparazzi getaway. [TMZ]
• Socialite/designer Tory Burch is splitting from her husband. Tragic — this is really going to throw a wrench in the Hamptons party schedule. [Page Six]
• How does Lauren Weisberger come up with dialogue? By secretly writing down her friends' conversations during social outings and sending them to herself on her BlackBerry. We love the method: if she continues to do this, she'll soon have no friends left, and thus no material. And then maybe she'll go away. [Lowdown (3rd item)]
• The National Enquirer confirms that Star Jones did have gastric bypass surgery at Lenox Hill hospital, having her stomach stapled in two places. Obviously, hers wasn't a single-staple job. [Gatecrasher (4th item)]
• Alas, a retraction: Natalie Portman does not appear nude in Goya's Ghost; it's a body double. On the bright side, the footage is a nude torture scene, so you can still spank away. [Egotastic]
• CNBC anchor Joe Kernan loved Aquaman and can't wait to see Springtime for Hitler. [Page Six]
• Try and follow: At an impromptu Prince performance at Butter, Lindsay Lohan follows her mortal enemy Paris Hilton into the bathroom. They have a big fight, because bathroom activities make you edgy and angry. Lohan returns to the main room to find Diddy sitting at her table, and jokingly asks what he's doing there. Diddy doesn't see the humor and yells at her to get out. There's a scuffle with his bodyguards, and Lohan is removed from the table. Later, at Bungalow 8, Lohan and Hilton sit at separate tables and compete to see who can stay at the club the longest. This item has been brought to you by D.A.R.E. [R&M]
• After having Cristal removed from his 40/40 clubs, Jay-Z continues his revenge on the champagne company, whose executives don't exactly love the hip-hop community's loyalty to the brand. At his performance on Sunday, Jigga will change the lyrics in his many songs that mention Cristal. Keep an eye out for creative pronunciations of "pistol." [Page Six]
• Incoming Today show host Meredith Vieira deems Dan Rather's ill-executed exit from CBS as "tacky." She's talking to you, Katie. [Lowdown]
• 75-year-old Robert Evans tallies up his seventh divorce. If he can stay alive long enough, maybe the eight marriage will be the charm. [MSNBC]
• Nicole Kidman may move to Keith Urban's rural Tennessee home, where she'll be free to get pregnant without fear of divorce. [Fox411]
• Because in the end, gay means quality, Superman gets decent reviews. [IMDb]
• Oil heir Brandon Davis claims to have called Lindsay Lohan and apologized for calling her firecrotch no less than ten times in a video aired last week on TMZ.com. Of course, this development comes via Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, so the only thing we believe thus far is that this whole story reads like a dealer's address book. [Page Six]
• Incoming View-ette Rosie O'Donnell isn't tip-toeing around fading co-host Star Jones. Here's hoping the two share at least one tense, bitchy episode together before Jones is shown the door. [Lowdown (2nd item)]
• Welcome to the twilight zone: Brian Grazer makes out with Bai Ling; Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Laguna Beach's Talan Torriero. [Gatecrasher]
• Former ER star Alex Kingston claims she was turned down for Felicity Huffman's role on Desperate Housewives because she was too "curvy." And this is shocking because? [Scoop]
• Ivanka Trump blind item? [R&M (last item)]
• In his divorce from Heather Mills, Paul McCartney is determined to get custody of his 2-year-old daughter Beatrice, if only so he can prove to himself that he can raise at least one daughter who doesn't hate him. [Page Six]
