Katy Perry pontificates on Google Alert addictions. Laurence Fishburne isn't speaking to his porn star daughter. George Clooney's girlfriend knows you're jealous of her, and she will rub her happiness in your face. Wednesday gossip indulges bad habits.
• Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch has closed on the purchase of an apartment on the 46th-floor of One Beacon Court. It's located next door to the apartment he already owns. And the legendary exec—who just got out of the hospital a couple of weeks ago—scored a pretty good deal, too: Welch paid $8.3 million for the apartment, or nearly $1 million less than what it was first listed for back in February. [Cityfile, previously]
• Kimora Lee Simmons has dropped the price of her blingtastic mansion in Saddle River, NJ. The four-acre estate, which first went on the market for $23 million last year, is now listed for just $16.5 million. [NYP, Sotheby's]
• Restaurant mega-publicist and Iron Chef America judge Karine Bakhoum has put her co-op at 205 East 69th Street on the market. The three-bedroom pad with fireplace and chef's kitchen is listed for $2.35 million. [NYP, Halstead]
In one way, Marc Ecko's a role model: He started with style and a dream and made it to the top of pop fashion. In a more accurate way, Marc Ecko is a walking "What Not to Do" guide.
"Urbanwear" designer Marc Ecko has been on the brink of ruin for many months now. He had to sell off parts of his company to stay afloat, he put his ridiculously over-the-top office/gymnasium in Chelsea up for lease, and his 30,000-square-foot castle in New Jersey was hit with several liens after he had trouble coming up with the cash to finish $21 million worth of renovations. But Ecko has been tossed a life preserver. The apparel company Iconix has announced it's taking a majority stake in Ecko's company. He won't have to worry about going bust any longer, and his line of streetwear will finally be united with its spiritual cousin, Rocawear. Everyone wins! [Crain's]
• Tom Ford is expanding. (Or hoping to, at least.) The designer is reportedly looking to raise $50 million in financing to expand into womenswear. [Reuters]
• Rents along Fifth Avenue have been falling, of course. But the situation appears to be particularly bleak at the empty shopping mall (or "retail collection") at the Plaza Hotel. [Bloomberg, NYP]
• The downside of diffusion: According to a new survey, consumers say luxury products are too accessible these days and have become a commodity. [WWD]
• Marc Jacobs' wedding to Lorenzo Martone, which the designer says will happen "soon," is going to have a ridiculously exclusive guest list. Not a single friend or family member will be getting an invite, since it's just going to be the two of them. [Cut]
• Project Runway finally returns to the air on Thursday evening. So will the Lifetime iteration be the same show you remember from its run on Bravo? Not so much, it seems. [NYDN]
• Meanwhile, Nina Garcia will be making an appearance this fall on the new CW series, The Beautiful Life. [FWD]
• The website and schedule for Fashion's Night Out is now online. The retail pep rally, which goes down on Sept. 10, will include Anna Wintour and Michael Kors signing t-shirts at a Macy's in Queens, believe it or not.
Your favorite art-collecting, Greenwich-living, publicity-shunning hedge fund billionaire, Steve Cohen (left), turns 53 today. New York's most famous drag queen, Lady Bunny (right), is turning 47. Marcia Gay Harden is 50. Photographer Terry Richardson is turning 44. Halle Berry turns 43. Steve Martin is 64. Oscar-winning composer James Horner is turning 56. Tony-winning playwright Thomas Meehan turns 80. Magic Johnson is 50. Actress Mila Kunis is 26. Susan Saint James, the actress and wife of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, is turning 63. Musician David Crosby is 68. E! host and Top Model regular Jay Manuel is turning 37. And romance novelist Danielle Steel is celebrating her 62nd birthday today. Weekend birthdays are below.
Marc Ecko's financial troubles are nothing new. Back in March, it was reported that the hip hop designer was looking to refinance more than $170 million in debt, but was having so trouble doing so that it was looking increasingly likely that his empire would have to be dismantled to pay back in creditors; a month later, his publicist confirmed that Ecko was looking to get out of the blingtastic office he's occupied for the last few years, a 280,000-square-foot space on West 23rd Street that comes with a half-size basketball court. It seems things haven't improved much since then. Ecko's office, which apparently costs him a stunning $9 million a year to lease, is now officially on the market. But Ecko's pain may be your gain. The listing on the website of commercial leasing firm FirstService Williams says the "price is negotiable." If you're looking for new office space and you think having an in-house basketball court would be perfect for some of those "team-building" exercises the people in human resources keep talking about, you'll find a few photos of the space after the jump.
New York turned out to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the historic Apollo Theater on Monday night. Prince, Mariah Carey, Steve Harvey, Bill Cosby, Fantasia Barrino, and Chanj all took turns on the stage; Jamie Foxx introduced Quincy Jones, who was inducted into the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame; and the crowd included Michael Bloomberg and Diana Taylor, New York First Lady Michelle Patterson, Patti LaBelle, Dick Parsons, Al Sharpton, Gayle King, Sherri Shepard, Phylicia Rashad, Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman Jr., Ruby Dee, Ron Perelman and daughter Samantha Perelman, Sade Baderinwa, Devyn Simone, Kevin Liles, Jonelle Procope, Susan Magrino, Robin Roberts, Doug E. Fresh, Bryant and Hilary Gumbel, Bethenny Frankel, Denise Rich, and designer (and secret soul music fan) Roberto Cavalli. [PMc, Wireimage, VF]
• Versace CEO Giancarlo di Risio is expected to hand in his resignation tomorrow. He's leaving after reportedly clashing with Donatella Versace "over her lavish lifestyle," not surprisingly. [NYT]
• The second season of The City has started filming inside Elle's offices. [WWD]
• Rosa Cha has launched a line of bathing suits that sell for as much as $3,200 apiece. And you can't even get them wet. But that isn't stopping women from buying them, supposedly. [NYP]
• If that bathing suit sounds appealing, you're probably the sort of person who'd also be interested in buying these $340 Hermès cotton boxer shorts for your husband. [FWD]
• Karl Lagerfeld is hitting the big screen. Or his voice is, at least. He'll be playing a villain in an animated French movie. [Fashionista]
• One of the biggest sources of inspiration for designers in 2009 thus far: mid-20th century space-traveling superheroes. Naturally. [NYT]
• Thom Browne is denying media reports that his line is on the verge of going bust. [NYM]
• Speaking of financial trouble, Marc Ecko seems to be knee-deep in it: He may be forced to turn over his company to creditors if he doesn't fix things fast. [NYP]
• As expected, Fabrizio Freda is taking over for William Lauder as Estée Lauder's CEO. [BN]
• Jason Wu is not doing a reality show, sorry. [Fashionologie]
• Project Runway contestant Kenley Collins says she never assaulted her boyfriend with their cat. She just "plopped him" on the bed. Righto. [NYDN]
• Matthew Williamson's H&M line debuts in less than a month. [Vogue UK]
• Just in time for Easter, Giorgio Armani-branded chocolate eggs! [FWD]
• Interested in a $30 million diamond-encrusted dress? Perhaps not. [NYM]
• Richard Fuld's daughter Christine and her husband Aaron Packles, a managing director at Merrill Lynch, have dropped the price of their co-op at 79 East 79th Street by more than $3 million. The five-bedroom, full-floor apartment is now listed for $9.8 million, which is just $50,000 more than they paid for the home in 2007. [NYT, ELC]
• Marc Ecko and his wife Allison—who are currently facing $2.1 million in liens in connection with the Bernardsville, New Jersey castle they've been renovating for close to three years now—are now selling the colonial home next door for $1.229 million. [NYP, CB]
• Former UBS exec Ramesh Singh has sold his 4,225-square-foot co-op at 860 Park Avenue, which he first put on the market for $13.4 million in 2007 and went into contract to sell in December '08, for $7 million. [NYT]
• Writer/director James Toback is putting his late mother's 15th-floor co-op at the Majestic on Central Park West up for auction. The 2,200-square-foot apartment, which first went on the market for $3.75 million in November, will be available for a minimum asking price of $1.999 million. [NYT]
♦ Jennifer Aniston is finally speaking out about her breakup with Brad Pitt. In the December issue of Vogue, she says what Angelina Jolie did was "really uncool," and that she had no idea that Brad had cheated on her until she read about it afterwards. [MSNBC, NYP]
♦ The security guard who roughed-up Brad Pitt at the premiere of his own movie on Monday night says he was only trying to protect Brad by helping him get away from a pack of aggressive photographers. [ET, NYP]
♦ Madonna is supposedly considering a career as a movie director so she can "rival" her ex, Guy Ritchie, at least according to her nutty brother Christopher Ciccone. She should have more time to pursue a directing career if she chooses to: Officials in Malawi have said she can "forget" about adopting another baby as long as she plans to bring it into a "broken home." [The Sun, MSNBC]
♦ Billy Ray Cyrus says he is trying to get Malia and Sasha Obama to appear in an episode of Hannah Montana. [NYDN]
♦ Kate Moss is joining honorary chair Marc Jacobs as co-chair of the next Costume Institute Gala Benefit at the Met, along with Anna Wintour and Justin Timberlake. [Telegraph]
♦ Jacobs will also be hosting Housing Works Fashion for Action auction on November 13th. And it's not just his karma bank that's overflowing: He just signed a five year deal with Staff International SpA to produce a men's collection. [Fashionista, WWD]
♦ Mark your calendars: On November 25th, Sarah Jessica Parker's familiar voice will be the one you hear when you take the audio tour of the "Costume: The Art of Dress" exhibit at the Costume Institute. [The Pipeline]
Thompson LES, the latest addition to Jason Pomeranc’s hotel franchise, recently opened its shiny doors. (Well, prematurely half-opened: Before you book a room or head over for a drink, bear in mind that the pool, outdoor bar, and restaurant are still under construction.) The luxe lodge's rooms are equipped with mini-bars stocked by Dean and Deluca, Sferra linens, and Frette robes. But most importantly, guests won't be offended by badly-dressed staff, thanks to their Rogan Gregory-designed uniforms. But Gregory, who collaborated with Bono on the eco-friendly clothing line Edun, is far from the first designer to cash in by dressing the help. Employees at other swanky hotels, waitstaff at restaurants, athletes, and even the Boy Scouts can boast of high-end names on their uniforms' labels. For example:
Julianne Moore playing with her kids, Caleb and Liv, on the sidewalk outside Bar Pitti ... Chris Brown walking with his bodyguard in midtown ... Maroon 5's Adam Levine hopping out of his tour bus in SoHo ... Ed Westwick showing off some shiny purple pants on the set of Gossip Girl ... Matt Lauer walking home from work ... Jennifer Esposito riding her bike through the meatpacking district ... Marc Ecko checking out an art exhibition in SoHo ... Chris Noth filming an episode of Law & Order ... and James Franco and Pamela Anderson arriving at The Late Show.
Complex, the Marc Ecko-owned urban shopping magazine, has figured out how to boost traffic to its website among those coveted digital influencers: by spending $1 million on TV ads. Why yes, that does seem like the most cost-effective strategy, assuming you are, as one tipster put it, a "blind leading the blind media organization." Click to watch the first full ad, and marvel at how little of Will Ferrell's time a million bucks gets you these days. [Folio]
