Veronica Hearst is using her Fifth Avenue apartment and a property in upstate New York as collateral in case the auction for her 52-room mansion in Palm Beach doesn’t hit $40 million. Meanwhile, her step-granddaughter Lydia Hearst just bought a $1.49 million apartment in the Sheffield 57 on West 57th. Damon Dash got freaked out by the lunar eclipse. CNBC’s Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, has joined the board at her alma mater, NYU. Cindy Adams thinks Ellen Page is, uh, “a young, white, female Obama.”
A producer at Oak Films, a children’s movie and TV production house, is suing her employer for sexual harassment. George Clooney tried to fix the carbon monoxide detector of Time’s Joel Stein during an interview at Stein’s house. Prince is throwing a post-Oscar shindig at his new house in Benedict Canyon, and Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Penelope Cruz, and, uh, Levin Rambin are among those who’ve been invited. Pure nightclub in Vegas is being investigated by the IRS. Former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton says he’s happy he’s black and not white. Model Miranda Kerr says she practices Nichiren Buddhism, maybe even with rumored boyfriend Orlando Bloom. Dennis Quaid says his twins, which were given an accidental overdose of medicine in a hospital, are now doing fine. Mr. Chow and Serafina are opening outposts in the W South Beach Hotel in Miami. K-Fed bought his kids some organic blankets. Palm Beach’s exclusive Everglade’s Club, which has previously been accused of discrimination against blacks and Jews, is now being accused of refusing to let Hispanic workers wear name tags.