Chic Happenswhere the "weekly" bit of "updated weekly" is some nebulous subjective reality meaning "quarterly" or "annually" or "ohhhh, whenever the fuck we feel like it"reports that Michael Gross's recent interview with the NY Post isn't running. Gross, the author of the NY Daily News' weekly gossip column "The Word," recently authored the not-so-flattering book about Ralph Lauren, Genuine Authentic, which is being published by Harper Collins. Rupert Murdoch owns both the Post and Harper Collins, which means that run-the-interview or don't-run-the-interview, he's shooting himself in the foot. Which is sort of entertaining.
Short attention span [Chic Happens]

The NYT's Cathy Horyn reviews two recently released books about Ralph LaurenGenuine Authentic (HarperCollins), by Michael Gross, and Ralph Lauren: The Man, the Vision, the Style (Rizzoli), by Colin McDowell. McDowell's book, a not-so-sophisticated exercise in literary brownnosing, portrays Lauren as a Bronx-born Horatio Algier who "mesmerizes the American public." (I don't recall ever being mesmerized by a Polo shirt, but I'm not saying it can't happen.) Gross's book is much less flattering. The Ralph Lauren portrayed in Genuine Authentic is a cranky narcissist followed by hordes of "Poloroids" who exacerbate his moodiness by failing to sufficiently praise him. Both books evoke an image of Lauren as Jay Gatsby. For McDowell, it's the glamorous, charming, and charismatic Gatsby. For Gross, it's the delusional, asocial, and reckless Gatsby.
Chasing the threads in the life of Ralph Lauren [NYT]

Michael Gross's new book, Genuine Authentic: The Real Life of Ralph Lauren, reveals that Lauren had a long-running affair with model Kim Nye, even going to so far as to put her up in an apartment around the corner from his own. The book details the relationship and its repercussions as well as Lauren's personal history. Gross also explores Lauren's controversial decision to change his surname from Lifshitz (proving thereby that in America, even Jewish immigrants can grow up to be Connecticut WASPs.)
Ralph's odorous secret [NY Daily News]