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When People Stop Buying Art at the Art Party, All That's Left Is the Party

Richard Lawson · 12/08/08 12:48PM

Art Basel Miami Beach, the super-chic Swiss-imported Important Art fair, still teeters along, the ruined economy denting its sales but not its woozy party atmosphere. ''All the sellers think it's 2007, and all the buyers think it's Miami Beach real estate," a dealer told the Miami Herald. So... even though nothing's actually getting sold (Herald reports that over half of the vendors have seen sales declines from last year), everyone is still pretending that artsy optimism is de rigeur. And they're getting some big help from mushy celebrities like Mary-Kate Olsen and the mostly-forgotten Pamela Anderson!

Rubenstein Flacks Extend Their Empire To 'New York Observer'

Choire · 11/01/07 10:20AM

Last year, Jared Kushner, the New York Observer publisher and real estate mogul and lover of Ivanka Trump, was represented by publicist Steven Rubenstein—but his weekly pink paper wasn't. (Just last December, one Observer editor (uh, me!) was assigned a short profile of the Rubenstein family, and disclaimed that "Both the Kushner Companies and Jared Kushner, who is the owner and publisher of The New York Observer, are clients of Rubenstein Associates. The Observer is not.") But ever since the paper's physical and web redesigns (the paper went tabloid back in February) took place and the business side was built up, two Rubenstein account reps have been doing "proactive" work on behalf of the paper, according to Steven Rubenstein. (The paper has also recently hired their own first director of marketing, Alexandra Mitchell.) Being represented by Rubenstein is going to make their reporters' jobs fun—look for the sure-to-be-weekly disclaimer in the paper's media and real estate columns, which regularly cover Rubenstein clients.