ABC announced last month that Diane Sawyer would depart Good Morning America at the end of the year to replace Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC's World News. Now we hear that the morning show's co-anchor, Chris Cuomo, is leaving the program as well. According to a well-placed source, Cuomo plans to move over to 20/20, taking over for John Stossel who left ABC in September to join Fox News and Fox Business.
Bungalow 8's demise has been rumored for a couple of years now—and years since it's been a serious hotspot—but the venue that helped revitalize the western edge of Chelsea (and turned it into a mob scene) is finally finished, a source tells us. Amy Sacco's lounge supposedly closed "for renovations" a couple of weeks ago. But after nearly nine years in business, we've been told that Sacco does not have any plans to reopen the club that served as celeb central in the early to mid-'00s. We contacted Sacco's publicist by phone and email for comment and have yet to hear back. But a call to Bungalow 8 confirms the obvious: The line has been disconnected.
NBC's legal team has one more headache on its hands. On Tuesday afternoon, the company was served with a lawsuit by the Font Bureau, one of the country's leading typographic design firms and the company responsible for crafting typefaces for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and the New York Times Co. What would prompt a company that designs fonts to wage a legal assault on the media conglomerate? It seems NBC didn't secure the rights to use a handful of Font Bureau's trademarked typefaces. The same ones, we should add, that have been used as part of NBC's fall marketing campaign to tout shows like The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Remember those reports last week that Marc Jacobs had decided to appear on a gay version of Real Housewives on Logo called Kept? The rumor got off the ground, it seems, when the Daily News noticed an item about the show on Gawker alongside a photo of Jacobs and boyfriend Lorenzo Martone. Despite the fact the piece didn't actually suggest Jacobs was involved in the show in any way, the mere presence of a photo of Jacobs on the same page as a story about a gay reality TV show led the Daily News to publish an item a couple of days later that the designer had "reportedly signed on to participate." Naturally, the story was soon picked up by dozens of gossip outlets as if it were a done deal. Too bad the News didn't bother to call anyone to check (or even reread the story on Gawker). Much to the dismay of many—gay and straight alike—we can confirm that Marc will not be on the show.
Hedge fund mogul Dan Loeb paid $45 million for one of the city's poshest apartments last year, a 10,000-square-foot penthouse at 15 Central Park West. His move-in, however, didn't go so smoothly, it seems. It's unclear what took place precisely, but the moving company that Loeb and his wife Margaret hired to help them settle in, Auer's Moving & Rigging, filed a lawsuit against the couple in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this year claiming breach of contract. (Panorama on the Park LLC, which is also listed as a defendant, is the company Loeb set up to acquire the property.) The high-end moving company is demanding that Loeb cough up the $98,689.07 which it says it's owed. Last week, though, an attorney for the Loebs responded to the suit by filing a motion to dismiss. So what went wrong? Was the prickly hedge fund manager's grand piano damaged by a faulty crane? Did a burly mover accidentally step on Biggie, the couple's miniature pinscher? The legal papers don't indicate why Loeb decided to withhold payment—let's hope that Biggie wasn't harmed—but you can review the documents for yourself below.
Simon van Kempen and wife Alex McCord of the Real Housewives of New York City spent much of Fashion Week attending parties for the free champagne and gift bags. One of his employees, however, clearly wasn't in the mood to party. Last week a maintenance worker at the crummy hotel that van Kempen manages, the Hotel Chandler, slapped the property with a lawsuit for refusing to pay workers for overtime, a violation of New York's labor laws. Does this mean Simon's chances of winning the award for "Hotel Manager of the Year" are now totally dashed? While you ponder that very real possibility, you can look at the full lawsuit after the jump.
Some of you may recall a little tape we ran last month featuring a largely naked romp between Eric Dane, his wife Rebecca Gayheart and beauty-queen-turned-Hollywood-madam Kari Ann Peniche. Today the Danes apparently registered their non-love of it in court.
In a letter that Phil Spector — currently serving 19-years-to-life for murdering Lana Clarkson — wrote to a pen pal, and exclusively obtained by Gawker, the music legend is convinced that he is the true victim of his crime.
Big news for golf aficionados who also happen to be closely following the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. As Reuters reported last week, ex-Lehman CEO Dick Fuld gave up his membership at the Blind Brook Country Club in Purchase following his fall from grace last year. Our trusted source for all mogul-related golf news now tells us that Blind Brook isn't the only club that no longer has the pleasure of Fuld's company. He's also abandoned his membership at the Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale. Clearly, the situation has gone from bad to much, much worse.
Anna Wintour lives in a lovely townhouse in the Village. But it doesn't come anywhere close to the new home that one her underlings, Vogue contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo, is moving into with her husband Andrés Santo Domingo. And while the blonde Voguette and the Latin American heir didn't end up snagging the big discount that had been reported in the press, the house they're moving into is quite a sight.
Just when you thought another person couldn't get in on all the Gossip Girl action, designer Anna Sui unveiled a line for Target inspired by none other than Gossip Girl. On Wednesday evening, Target previewed the collection at a Soho townhouse-turned-pop-up shop for a group of Anna's friends, GG cast members like Blake Lively, Taylor Momsen, Michelle Trachtenberg, Penn Badgley and Jessica Szohr, members of the press, and assorted boldfaced names. Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall caught up with Real Housewives of New York City star Kelly Killoren Bensimon to chat about Gossip Girl and other important stuff like preparing for Fashion Week and achieving the perfect tan.
If you watched Bravo's NYC Prep this summer, you undoubtedly remember Camille Hughes, the prim, SAT-obsessed Nightingale student dead set on joining Harvard's class of 2014. It looks like there's been a change of plan: Hughes will not be returning to Nightingale-Bamford for the new school year. So was she kicked out of the posh Upper East Side institution, or did she decide on her own to finish out her high school career elsewhere?
On Tuesday evening, the Sundance Channel hosted a screening and cocktail party at the private club Norwood for Loic Prigent's new documentary series, The Day Before. Hosting the event were Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez and Nathalie Rykiel of Sonia Rykiel, who are featured in Full Frontal Fashion-branded series. On hand for the occasion: Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester, Vogue's Lauren Santo Domingo, fashion darling Julia Restoin Roitfeld, and stylist/Bravo star Rachel Zoe, who was accompanied by her husband (Rodger) and right-hand man (Brad Goreski). Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall caught up with Lorenzo Martone, advertising exec and fiancé of Marc Jacobs, and his date for the evening, model Julie Henderson, to talk Fashion Week strategy.
A woman who claims her life was ruined after she stopped off at Bliss for a Brazilian wax is going to have her day in court. Somer Graham filed a lawsuit against the chain after a waxing session in 2006 left with "serious injuries to her genitalia," which, she says, has since left her with unending pain, made it impossible to go to work, and ruined her sex life. This week, an attempt by Bliss' lawyers to settle the case and avoid a trial was denied by a judge. Presumably that's good news for Graham, who is seeking a large settlement from Bliss for her misery. But it also means she's going to have to spend a couple of weeks sitting in a courtroom as opposing medical experts debate whether this is simply a case of a little "vulvar irritation" or a more serious incidence of "labia trauma." Awkward, no? The ruling is below.
Hassan Nemazee, the banker and Democratic mega-fundraiser who was charged yesterday with forging financial documents to get Citibank to give him a $74 million loan, got to leave prison today. And just like Marc Dreier and Bernie Madoff before him, he'll be under house arrest from now on, confined to a $20 million, 14th floor co-op at 770 Park Avenue. The terms of Nemazee's release are pretty strict: The $25 million bail package requires him to pledge his Park Avenue apartment and house in Katonah as collateral; he'll be monitored round the click via electronic bracelet; and the judge also banned him from using computers, the Internet, or getting a new cell phone. (What's he going to do all day? God only knows.) Prosecutors argued for the tough terms because they said Nemazee is a flight risk, and by the looks of it, the judge was inclined to agree. But that's where you come in! The apartment next door to Nemazee's is up for sale. Maybe you want to move in and keep an eye on him? We can't say so for sure, but prosecutors might be willing to cut you a break the next time jury duty rolls around if you step up and perform the valuable service. A couple of pics and a floor plan of Apt. 14B are below.
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.
Andrés Piedrahita may have canceled his summer cruise down the Dalmatian coast aboard his $22 million yacht, but other members of the family are still getting outside for some fun in the sun. A source tells us—and we've since confirmed—that Walter Noel, the founder of the Fairfield Greenwich Group, Piedrahita's father-in-law, and the man who "lost" $7 billion of his investors' money to Bernie Madoff's epic scam, is golfing once again. After taking a year-long hiatus, Noel returned to the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton last week for the first time since August 2008. And he's been back two times since then. It's hard to blame him. Once he's indicted this fall, he probably won't have much time to practice his swing, now will he? You'll find Noel's score history—which indicates his golf game hasn't suffered much since he hit the links last summer—below.
