Jessica Simpson Has the Same Crummy Friends As the Rest of UsJessica Simpson got totally pissed at Eva Longoria for hanging out with her ex John Mayer at GoldBar. MSNBC pundit Lawrence O’Donnell, who plays a lawyer on Big Love, bashed Mormonism on The McLaughlin Group on Sunday. Richard Belzer says he’s “hurt” his role on Law & Order: SVU has been cut back. PETA has dubbed the Olsen twins the “Trollsen Twins” because of their affinity for fur. Among the items in J.Lo’s gift registry for her twins are a Balmoral enameled black carriage for a $3,495 and a $289 suede play mat.
in other news
Terence Koh, the ‘Naomi Campbell of the Art World,’ to RetireArtist Terence Koh, apparently unimpressed by the contemporary-ness of Art Basel this year, momentarily found a voice on the Times Website today. In an interview on their Moment blog, writer Alex Hawgood asked the lurid superstar whether the Miami festival is more about the art or the parties. Koh explained, “Art is a party. Why bother otherwise?” “I am the hostess with the mostest,” he added, describing a launch party for Daddy magazine that he threw at a strip joint. “We had three grand in one-dollar bills that we handed to our friends to give to the dancers. I didn’t remember anything the next day except for the stains.” Oh, Terry, still up to the same high jinks. Koh, who made his beginnings with the Website asianpunkboy.com and after four years of meteoric success now sells works all over the world, says he made more “filthy money” this year than last. Which was sure to assuage at least some of the chafing feeling left by the festival (which he described on his Website thusly: “MIAMI SUCKS LIKE A COCK IN AN ASS THAT HAS BEEN TURNED INSIDE OUT”), but may not be enough. Terence, who described himself to the Times as “the Naomi Campbell of the art world,” said that his post-Miami plans include “retiring from art.” Not that we believe him, but still. For a moment we were worried about where we were going to get our fix of gold-plated poop next year.
Basel Player: Terence Koh [NYT]
Related: Is Terence Koh’s Sperm Worth $100,000?
In Miami, Fashion Continues to Invade Art WorldSince half of creative New York has moved down to Miami this week for Art Basel, we sent reporter Alexandra Peers down with them to peek at the art, beauty, and elitism on the beach. She’s been filing reports to New York’s Vulture blog, but she sent us this dispatch for our very own.
The e-mail buzzes on my BlackBerry: “We would love to have you come by to pick up something — for the Miami dinner celebrating the Emilio Pucci house of design.” What? Sorry, fashionistas, snobby art-worlders don’t borrow clothes. My outrage is first personal — has someone dished my Bloomie’s little black dress? — then, political. It sounds Fascist.
gossipmonger
Steve Tisch, Billionaire Baller?Newly divorced billionaire and New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch might be dating women on both coasts. Martha Stewart created a special Christmas tree for Sirius Radio’s office, complete with Howard Stern cookie ornaments. Former NYSE head Dick Grasso left CNBC’s Charles Gasparino a creepy “merry Christmas” message on his answering machine, despite the fact that Gasparino’s new book takes Grasso to task for the $190 million kiss-off he took after leaving the Exchange. John Mayer has had a crush on Ricki Lake for two years (Ed. note: WTF?!), and actually got her digits at the wonderfully successful Sunshine Sachs Christmas party. Lance Armstrong picked up the tab for dinner with former flame Sheryl Crow. Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera hung out together at the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year party. Andy Samberg, Amy Poehler, and Seth Meyers had lunch together.
atlantic yards watch
Ratner, Lopez Do Business the Old-Fashioned Way
Major decisions and policy changes often seem to come out of nowhere in Albany, thrown together in the late-night rush to beat the close of a legislative session. But when it comes to Bruce Ratner and Atlantic Yards, the foundation for such maneuvers has been quietly in the works for years. And last night, the savvy stroking paid off for him yet again. It’ll cost you, though.
party lines
Rihanna the Only Must at ‘EW’ Event We’ve rarely seen product whoring as skillfully integrated with event design as it was at last night’s Entertainment Weekly “Must List” party. Some of the décor didn’t quite make sense, like the two lifeguard booths smack in the middle of Gotham Hall. There was a giant sculpture of the number 25, which we later discovered was made of Diet Coke bottles. (You’d think Coke was having an anniversary or something.) And Garnier Fructis was in charge of the margaritas, which not only looked like shampoo but kind of tasted like it, too.
company town
Hedge Funds Open to Petty CommonersFINANCE
• Steve Schwarzman’s company may be public, but the Blackstone head retreated and declined to ring the opening bell at the NYSE this morning. [NYP]
• The Supreme Court made it harder for investors to sue companies and executives for suspected fraud. [NYT]
• The Wharton School hired a marketing guy as its next dean. Rich alums, hold on to your wallets. [DealBook/NYT]
party lines
Liz Smith Gets Grabby at ‘Manny’ Celebration “My father suggested we do it here,” explained Holly Peterson, and the Four Seasons Grill Room erupted in every possible variation on the worldly guffaw: Peterson’s knack for self-promotion was apparently a well-established meme here. The party celebrated Peterson’s first foray into literature, The Manny a book that gently gender-flips the babysitter-diddling scenario (and incidentally makes Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him read like Madame Bovary).
gossipmonger
High TimesDuring his Van Halen days, David Lee Roth used to pay staffers to bring him girls backstage. Pete Doherty writes in his new memoir that he and Kate Moss will get married if he stays away from the drugs. Newly minted NBC chief and notorious party boy Ben Silverman finally took, and passed, his company drug test. Not one of the Republicans Michael Moore invited to the D.C. premiere of Sicko showed up.
the morning line
Interpretations
• Bill Clinton chimes in on the Bloomberg party switch, and he’s all smiles about it: “I suppose he just couldn’t bear to be in the Republican Party anymore,” and he won’t affect Hillary’s margins. [NYP]
• The grad student who drove journalist David Halberstam to his death in a car crash will be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter: The accident happened when he made an illegal turn. [amNY]
• Jason Giambi finally admitted to steroid use. He will now meet with MLB steroid czar George Mitchell, thus becoming the only current player to cooperate with the probe. [NYDN]
• The Haywards — a wealthy Native American family, who built the Foxwoods casino — say they’re being “shunned” and “pushed out” of the 800-person Connecticut tribe. Which makes them the Trumps of the Pequot. [NYT]
• And the city credits its “hard-hitting” TV ads (starring Ronaldo the Hole-in-the-Throat Guy) with reducing the local smoking rates to a historic low. Could be that. Or could be the fact that you can’t smoke anywhere. [NY Metro]
basel blog
As Art Fair Ends, It Becomes Clear: Girls Ruled
Amid the dense and hedonistic five-day spree of partying at Art Basel Miami Beach, it’s easy to forget that millions of dollars of art changed hands, too. And when the rhinestones had settled, the surprises went far beyond the no-shirt dress code (for men, at least) at the Visionaire party Saturday. Art dealers at the fair, which drew a record 40,000 attendees, had braced for Russian buyers, hedge-fund spending, and buzzy interest in the new new things. Instead, Latin Americans went on a binge, artists from the seventies outdrew emerging stars, and there was furious — even competitive — buying by a suite of New York–based real-estate developers.
So who bought what?
basel blog
At Art Basel’s Weekend Parties, a Literal Social Whirl
It was a social whirl — quite literally — over the weekend at Art Basel Miami Beach, as weathered partygoers plotted their overflowing dance cards while the wind picked up, the rain beat down, and it felt like a hurricane was going to sweep away all the art and all the money and Steve Martin, who had arrived at the fair and was giving Keanu Reeves some competition for most Hollywood-celebrity sightings.
Friday was the weekend’s busy night.
basel blog
Russell Simmons, Star of Art Basel
MIAMI BEACH — You don’t tend to find guys in baseball caps at art fairs. So when you spot one at Art Basel Miami Beach, it’s a good bet who’s underneath it: Russell Simmons. The Def Jams founder has been holding court this week at the Delano, the festival’s headquarters. His high-profile presence at Art Basel — he’s often seen chatting on the hotel’s front porch or just walking down the street in cap and jeans — has been a boon to fair organizers, some of whom have fretted privately that the otherwise hugely successful event has been a little low on non-art-world star wattage. Simmons — an Art Basel vet — is here to host a variety of events, most for his arts-education charity, Rush Philanthropic. But he’s also art shopping.
What does he collect?
basel blog
Last Night, Morocco Came to Miami
MIAMI BEACH — The celebrities at Art Basel Miami Beach are rich collectors and powerful gallerists, for the most part, which means the sightings are usually less than glamorous. (Look, there’s Tony Shafrazi in orange swim trunks!) But one bit of Hollywood celebrity hanging around has been Keanu Reeves, who was spotted last night by the bar at the Standard and quickly ushered into the dinner there hosted by Yvonne Force Villareal and Mark Fletcher. When a photog tried to snap his picture, Reeves begged to share a smoke instead, offering up a menthol cigarette as a consolation prize. It worked.
Inside, the art stars were lounging on $50 beach towels designed by Richard Phillips, Marilyn Minter, Rob Pruitt, and Alex Katz that are sold through Target to benefit Force’s Art Production Fund. It was very Morocco meets Miami, and everyone looked good in the low candlelight.
basel blog
Doing Good at Ralph Lauren; Eating Late With David Bouley
MIAMI BEACH — Fashion met art at Art Basel Miami beach last night, and this was not necessarily a good thing. The worlds collided in David Bouley’s place — specifically, his gorgeous new South Beach restaurant, Evolution, where Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon was throwing a fête for the Whitney. The problem: There were other, nearly as important places to be, and stops at those other events made everyone very late for this one. What were the rivals? A Russell Simmons dinner at the Delano penthouse, and a lush UBS-sponsored dinner, where billionaires were as common as palm trees. At the packed and chaotic Ralph Lauren party to benefit RxArt, which was one of the rare and welcome charity events at the otherwise largely venal Art Basel, the wife of a hedgie, bearing an invitation, was initially denied entrance — to a store, she noted, annoyed — because she hadn’t RSVP’d. (Once she got inside, she’d find Andrew Shriver, Nikki Haskell, Gene Pressman, Bob Colacello, the lovely mom of Ralph Lauren exec David Calle, and some nice clothes.)
But what about back at swanky Evolution?
basel blog
Paying for Drinks, Partying With Deitch
MIAMI BEACH — South Beach started to resemble spring break last night — but with much more money, and with Europeans. There was a preview of the actual art at Art Basel from 6 to 8, which gave everyone a chance to check out the maze of work from galleries all over the world. A VIP collectors’ suite was actually for collectors of other expensive things, like jets and beachside condos. Cipriani, Related, Netjets, and Bulgari had outposts to offer consolation prizes if you couldn’t get the art you wanted because it had already been bought or, more likely, because the gallery wanted to sell it to someone better than you. Unlike New York corporate parties, however, there were no free drinks flowing to impair inhibitions. These companies may have had enough marketing cash to be in a classy place, but there was a cash register set up on the bar. Not classy at all.
But later things got classier.
basel blog
At This Year’s Art Basel, Not All VIPs Are Created Equal
MIAMI BEACH — Money walks. And strides. And even pushes, as it did when the huge metal doors swung open at Art Basel Miami Beach today and several thousand collectors poured into the art fair. Soon enough, developer Aby Rosen was chatting with Larry Gagosian by a Lichtenstein nude, Benedikt Taschen was inquiring about prices for most of the Zwirner booth’s works, and Keanu Reeves was drawing a small, neck-turning crowd as he shopped. The Miami Beach Convention Center was so crowded that some dealers from rival fairs closed their booths for the afternoon. “Everybody’s here,” said Robert Goff, of the buzzy NADA fair, where Steve Cohen and Charles Saatchi are usual shoppers.
Art Basel is expected to attract 40,000 shoppers over five days, and a quick look at its wares shows how radically the art market has changed since last year’s event.
basel blog
Welcome to MiamiArt Basel Miami Beach — the major art show that brings together 200 galleries, selling the works of more than 1,500 artists, and puts them all in front of the international coterie of rich people who might buy something — kicks off Thursday. The art world is already making its way down to sunny Florida, and New York will be there to chronicle the whole thing, from art market to meat market. Check out the Art Basel preview from this week’s magazine, and come back all week for Daily Intel’s reports from Ocean Drive.
Manhattan Beach [NYM]
