Mayor Pats Christine Quinn on the BackAfter her help passing the congestion-pricing bill through City Council, Bloomberg is sharing an NRDC award with her.
intel
Parks Commish’s Dad Founds Greenmarket, Wins Award, Scolds SonIt’s no accident Parks commissioner Adrian Benepe grew up to be a leaf lover. His father, Barry Benepe, 79, co-founded the city’s greenmarket network more than 30 years ago, filling parks like Union Square with farmers’ goods at a time when they were better known for yielding dirty needles than heirloom tomatoes. (There are now 30-odd markets citywide.) Benepe père then helped found Transportation Alternatives, and for all this urban do-gooderism, the Rockefeller Foundation just awarded him one of its first Jane Jacobs medals, which come with a nice $100,000 prize. The now-retired Daddy Benepe (who lives, appropriately, on Jane Street in the Village with his wife, Judith) talked to New York about the greenmarkets’ gritty early days — and picked a few bones with his son.
party lines
Arts Club Honors Heatherette — But Why?
What was Heatherette duo Richie Rich and Traver Raines doing being honored by the stuffy old National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South last week? To be honest, no one was quite sure. “I was so taken aback when they called me,” Rich said, looking around him. “It’s like going to Naomi Campbell’s house. I was like, ‘Wow. I’m actually doing something with myself.’” Club president O. Aldon James Jr. explained the rationale: The club wants to be hipper. “They do not need this award,” James said. “Our award needs them.” But were the risqué fashion designers — Heatherette recently brought buttless pants to the runway — the best pick for an institution so unfashionable as to have an old-style dress code? “Oleg Cassini would protest that,” James indignantly replied. “He was a member for 40 years!”
party lines
Tina Fey Likes It When Soledad O’Brien Is MeanThe estrogen was flowing nearly as freely as the cocktails at the Marriott Marquis last night, where American Women in Radio and Television brought together lots of, well, women in radio and television for the 32nd annual Gracie Awards. The night’s biggest-name winner was 30 Rock creator Tina Fey, presented with the award for outstanding female lead in a comedy series. Fey told the crowd that she was thrilled to be honored along with her “favorite anchor,” Soledad O’Brien. “I loved Soledad because she always seems like the only other woman on TV who was as overworked and grouchy as I am,” she joked. “You could always see it in her eyes in her promos. She was like, ’American Morning, every day at 6 a.m. 6 a.m.”
vulture
This Week Is All About TonyNo, no, silly. Not Tony Soprano. (We’ll always have TiVo.) Antoinette Perry! In the sort of brilliant marketing move that could only come from the industry that thought a Bob Dylan dance play was a good idea, Broadway’s biggest honors will be presented Sunday night, opposite Tony Soprano’s final stroll through the tomato patch. While everyone else is desperately building excitement for the HBO juggernaut, the good folks are Vulture are looking ahead toward CBS’s annual ratings flop. They’ve got Tony-award news, Tony-award drawings, and, perhaps best of all, Tony-award picks from real-life Tony voters. It’s all at Vulture.
Tony-awards coverage [Vulture]
party lines
Bowie, Beasties — and, Oh, Some Actual Internet People — Win Webby Awards
The Webby Awards insist that acceptance speeches be only five words long. This proved something of a challenge last night for Lifetime Achievement winner David Bowie. “I only have five words — shit, that’s five,” quipped the Thin White Webmaster. “Four more … there, that’s three … two…” and then he was whisked away. The Beastie Boys, who won Artist of the Year, were more accessible, walking the red carpet (which is more than can be said for YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, Persons of the Year winners), sitting at a central table at Cipriani, and yukking it up onstage when accepting their award. “I’d like to apologize to David Bowie,” said Mike D. “I CC’d him on an e-mail that I sent to a lot of people, and he was really mad at me.” Third-time host Rob Corddry started the awards on a lowbrow note, asking fellow Soho Grand lodgers if they had used the hotel’s peppermint shampoo on their nether regions (“It tickles!”) and claiming that he had hit on 19-year-old Jessica Lee Rose, a.k.a. Lonelygirl15. Some speeches were quickly ridiculed. “Yelp is useful, funny, and cool,” said a rep for the site. “Except in their five-word speech,” amended Corddry.
photo op
Lonelygirl15 Comes to Town, Wins Award, Meets Ninja
Prefer your awards galas a bit dorkier and more virtual than the glossy CFDA awards? You’re in luck: Last night was also the first-annual Webby Film and Video Awards, held at New World Stages. The big winners were apparently the Ninja from Ask a Ninja, who won Best Actor, and Jessica Lee Rose, a.k.a. Lonelygirl15, who won Best Actress. Virginia Heffernan is no doubt kvelling.
11th Annual Webby Awards Nominees and Winners [WebbyAwards.com]
Related: Hey There, Lonelygirl [NYM]
party lines
Spike Lee Mourns Christopher Moltisanti, New Orleans
All the death and destruction on this final season of The Sopranos is taking even Spike Lee by surprise. “It shook me up,” he said today after accepting a Peabody award for his HBO documentary about New Orleans, When the Levees Broke. “Michael Imperioli and I, we’re friends. And when he went out, I was not good for two days after that. In fact, I had to call him up. I said, ‘You still alive?’” Turns out Imperioli is just fine. Lee says the actor seemed more worried about a casting crisis at the Off Broadway theater he owns with his wife than about Christopher’s demise. Lee, meanwhile, says he’s already thinking about two new documentary projects for HBO. One would be a follow-up to Levees, which he likes to tell people is still a work-in-progress. “The misconception is, ‘Oh, they had Mardi Gras. Oh, the French Quarter’s open. Oh, women are flashing their breasts on the rails with the beads. Everything’s okay,’” he says. “But it’s not okay. Half the population is still not there, and a lot of them can’t come back because they don’t have jobs and the rents have been doubled and tripled. It’s crazy.” —Jada Yuan
show and talk
An Accessories Grudge Match at CFDA Awards
Every June, the CFDA awards bring the fashion world to a screeching halt. Who’ll win? Will there be catfights? Whom is Anna Wintour voting for? This year, the answer to every question: Who cares? Though top designers will win on Monday — Oscar de la Renta battles Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler for “Womenswear Designer of the Year,” while Phillip Lim, Thakoon, and Rodarte compete for the Swarovski Womenswear Award (for “emerging new talent”) — there’ll be no big shocking upset.
party lines
The Horror! Stephen King Considers HarlemNo bucket of pig’s blood dropped as Stephen King was named Grand Master at the Mystery Writers of America ‘s 61st annual Edgar Awards Banquet last night, but, still, the horror master suggested something mysterious might be afoot in Manhattan: He’s been inspired to write a horror novel set in Harlem, he said, in which the crimes come courtesy of some old-school voodoo. “I’d have to live four years in Harlem to write it,” he told us. “I’m a country kid, and this is the city. I’m a white kid, and it’s a black neighborhood. So I’d have to do some research.” The Edgar Award itself, a pale ceramic effigy of its namesake, is the ugliest but most cherished prize in the mystery world, presented for outstanding achievements in crime fiction. William Monahan won Best Motion Picture Screenplay last night for The Departed, and The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin was named Best Novel. Al Roker, the evening’s master of ceremonies, confided that he identifies with King’s Christine, the 1958 Plymouth Fury with a taste for blood. “Because it’s a big, hulking guzzler,” he said, explaining the affinity. If only it could have had gastric bypass. —Nicole K. Sia
party lines
Lance Armstrong Can Dress HimselfAt the Spirit of Jimmy V Awards last night, a very dapper and very tan Lance Armstrong strolled onto Pier 60 in a spiffy suit and a repp tie, and with no USPS or Discovery Channel logo in sight. He was there, as was the U.S. Army women’s basketball team, to receive the Jimmy V award for raising money for cancer research. We buttonholed him on his way in to get some advice about biking — and about fashion.
party lines
GLAAD Media Awards: A Night of Confusion
Cynthia Nixon showed up at last night’s GLAAD Media Awards as an out-and-proud lesbian — a big step, given her involuntary outing by gossip columns a few years back — but her showy $50,000 donation to the LGBT cause, announced by GLAAD president Neil Giuliano in front of a capacity crowd at the Marriot Marquis, came as an even bigger surprise. Particularly, as it turns out, to Nixon herself. “I don’t know if it was a joke or a case of mistaken identity,” she said when we bumped into her later. “I donated $1,000.” (This morning we were greeted with a voice message from a GLAAD flack setting the record straight, as it were.)
the follow-up
New Yorkers Know BestNew York’s annual “Best of New York” issue came out this week, and, this being New York, everyone’s got an opinion on it. Of the hundred-plus honors distributed — this still being New York — most of the discussion was about food, with readers dissecting everything from — literally — dollars to doughnuts. After the jump, a sample of blogland’s ongoing, subjective debates.
the oscars
Pigging Out With Oscar
New York film critic David Edelstein and Hollywood producer Lynda Obst have been discussing the Oscar race since the nominations were announced. Today, their final thoughts.
To: Lynda Obst
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 1:38 PM
From: David Edelstein
Re: Last Year’s News
Hi Lynda:
The Oscars are such old news. Really, I went out for a hamburger last night and took a little walk (well, a half walk, half stumble) in the beautiful falling snow, and tens of thousands of bloggers filled the Internet with their musings. I wrote you last night that I had absolutely nothing to say and you didn’t think I had LITERALLY nothing to say, so I gather you were late for your post-Oscar party waiting for me and I’m so sorry.
new york fugging city
Fugging the OscarsFor most of the red-carpet dog-and-pony show, we were perplexed by Jennifer Hudson’s froofy gold bolero made of alligator skin (or croc? snake? whatever — the point is, it was fashioned after the hide of something that would eat us if we gave it the chance). That is, until the ABC broadcast began, and deliciously flamboyant Vogue man-about-town André Leon Talley introduced a montage of his efforts at helping Hudson get a custom-made Oscar de la Renta. We should have known. From his fetish for reptilian textures to his recent penchant for tacky coats, Hudson’s hella-shiny jacket does scream A.L.T. more than anyone. Too bad for her that the Supporting Actor/Actress awards were moved to later in the ceremony; now she has to wait until much nearer to the end to exhale and get drunk.
Still, there’s plenty for us to write about, even if the early awards are probably the more boring ones. Without further ado, allow us bitches to bring you the blogged-up 79th Annual Academy Awards.
new york fugging city
The Fug Girls Live-Blog the Oscars
We can’t think of a better way to kick off our new weekly column for the Daily Intelligencer than by starting on the night of the Celebrity Superbowl. On Sunday we’ll be live-blogging the entire Oscar telecast, from the opening credits at 8 p.m. to the orchestra playing off the Best Picture winners because the show’s run over and the limo lines outside are starting to break traffic laws. So go load up your cooler with Cheetos and Red Bull — we’ve all got a lot of snarking ahead of us.
the oscars
America Loves Competitions, Wacky Acceptance Speeches
As Oscar night approaches, New York film critic David Edelstein and Hollywood producer Lynda Obst are discussing the race. Check back through the weekend for more.
From: Lynda Obst
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 2:18 PM
To: David Edelstein
Subject: RE: Overcoming Obamamania
Dear David:
We spend all this time brooding over what’s the best performance, the best movie — because we love to. We pick the purest vodka, the finest wine, our favorite football team, the most marbled steak, the fattest tomato; we love to root, to choose and then to triumph or be deflated, to be right or to be angry. This is a way that we participate in the global Zeitgeist and map the undercurrents of the culture and how we individually track with it. Are we Crash or Brokeback people? But it doesn’t mean our obsession with the winner diminishes other performances. It’s true that it’s an honor to be nominated and the greatest ride of your life, yadda yadda. But without winners, there would be no wacky speeches, no cheering, no betting pools, no fun.
intel
Food Network Moves Feast for Catherine Zeta-JonesLess than a month before the Food Network Awards Show — when plans have been made, florists scheduled, hotel rooms booked — the Food Network is rescheduling the big event, pushing it up a day. Why? Because Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart have a conflict. Zeta-Jones, who plays a chef in the summer movie No Reservations, and co-star Eckhart were scheduled to be presenters at the show. But then Eckhart got an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and that ceremony is on the same day. And Zeta-Jones declined to do the gig without Eckhart. But the foodies are flexible. “We’d change the world for Catherine Zeta-Jones. She’s a star,” says Lee Brian Schrager, organizer of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, which hosts the awards. Among the big New York names who will have to change their plans: Gotham Bar and Grill’s Alfred Portale, Momofuku’s David Chang, and Aquavit’s Marcus Samuelsson. Even Laurent Tourondel, who was scheduled to cook a Champagne barbecue at the Miami festival that now conflicts with the Food Awards, says he doesn’t mind. But then Zeta-Jones probably needs no reservation at BLT Prime, either. —Alexandra Peers
Feeding Frenzy [NYP]
the oscars
Wherein Obst Stands Up for Miranda
From: Lynda Obst
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 4:55 PM
To: David Edelstein
Subject: RE: Powerful Female Executives
David,
Touché. If you get my drift. I suppose women who have broken glass ceilings in the same era as Miranda identified with her, sorry. I had many, many identification points with her character, the least memorable of which were terrorizing past assistants, though there are certainly a few of those who will sign on to the Website and cheerily dredge up incidents I have long since forgotten! But a hit the proportion of Prada does not owe to power-suite feminists alone. In fact, I seem to recall talking to dozens of older men who loved this movie, which surprised me at the time. No, I think the charms of Miranda cross the gender barrier. I agree that Emily Blunt was terrific, as clearly Meryl did in her cooler-than-cool acceptance speech at the Globes. Enough of this squabbling though — it is not a political movie, and these struggles are long over. Except for the numbers of power-suit Hollywood women fired this year. It is not, David, an easy road. Glamorous maybe, from the outside. But never easy.
the oscars
If We’re Reading This Right, We Think Edelstein Just Called Obst Miranda PriestlyFrom: David Edelstein
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 4:47 PM
To: Lynda Obst
Subject: Powerful Female Executives
Dear Lynda,
Too bad you rolled your eyes at another Greatest Generation movie, because Flags of Our Fathers was a bitter, bitter film in which America’s defining image of heroism — well, it’s side by side with Washington crossing the Delaware — was shown to be at least partly a lie. Too bad the structure was so clunky and that Eastwood didn’t help the young actors shape their performances. There’s this myth that Eastwood is a great actor’s director, but what he’s best at is leaving them alone, forcing them to sink or swim. (How Republican.) Some rise to the challenge, others — the ones in Flags — thrash valiantly.
Re: Meryl. I forgot that women producers and studio execs would be the likeliest to appreciate both Streep’s exquisite bitchery and her vulnerability.
the oscars
Obst (and Everybody Else) Loves Meryl Streep
From: Lynda Obst
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 4:10 PM
To: David Edelstein
Subject: RE: Deaf Jam
Dear David,
With such a trenchant understanding of why Iwo worked, I’m surprised you didn’t like it more, and particularly surprised you didn’t see that that is exactly why I think Flags was a nonstarter. Seeing a movie based upon the experiences of heroic WWII GIs — a movie that necessarily calls to mind Saving Private Ryan and the attendant celebration at Normandy that brought together the French, President Bush, and Steven Spielberg — not only do I not know what else there is to say, I can’t separate the clichés from the profundities. Also, the acting was much better in Iwo.
What is there to say about Meryl that hasn’t been said? Forget Raymond — everybody loves Meryl. The Devil Wears Prada rode on her performance.
the oscars
Eastwood Turns Antiwar, and Edelstein Sees a Seismic Shift
From: David Edelstein
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 2:11 PM
To: Lynda Obst
Subject: Deaf Jam
I wasn’t surprised by the Letters From Iwo Jima nomination. The L.A. critics dug it. And with two major films this year, Eastwood had to be nominated for something. Odd that Flags of Our Fathers was such a nonstarter. In some ways, it’s stronger than Iwo Jima, which suffers from a bland humanism that has little to do with the warrior codes (and collective insanity) of the Japanese military at the time. And yet its strongest scenes are wrenching — tragic with a touch of farce. When an old Republican like Clint Eastwood is bent on deconstructing the myths that drive nations to war, you know you’re in for a seismic shift in the culture.
the oscars
Obst Weighs In, Fond of ‘Sunshine’ and Pushing for ‘Babel’From: Lynda Obst
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:48 PM
To: David Edelstein
Subject: RE: ‘Girls’ Gone Bye-Bye
Dear David,
Amazing, isn’t it, when the Academy defies the odds and seems to be saying something controversial? But what is it they’re saying, exactly? Remember, we voted before the Golden Globes (not that the Academy would have been influenced by those 92 voters, who are themselves influenced by the charms of the various movie stars swept in front of them all season). The Academy seems to be saying, Dreamgirls is not Chicago — and there are some movies we like more.
the oscars
Waiting for Obst, Edelstein Disclaims and Explains
From: David Edelstein
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:25 PM
To: Lynda Obst
Subject: I forgot to say I am so above this
Dear Lynda,
As I wait for your response, I want to mention that several friends and one lively Website have let me know they think I sound altogether too gushy (even “queeny”) on the subject of this year’s Academy Awards, merely because I decided to get into the spirit of the thing and to spare you my standard disclaimer. (From 2005: “As longtime readers are probably sick of hearing, the Oscars are worthless as a measure of artistic merit, but fascinating as a measure of how Establishment Hollywood hopes to present itself to the world …” Blah blah blah).
the oscars
Oscar Snubs ‘Dreamgirls,’ Astonishes Edelstein
New York film critic David Edelstein and Hollywood producer Lynda Obst discuss the Oscar nominations by e-mail each year. This year, Daily Intel gets to host their thoughts. Check back throughout the day for updates.
From: David Edelstein
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:28 AM
To: Lynda Obst
Subject: ‘Girls’ Gone Bye-Bye
Bella Lynda,
Unbelievable! Incredible! Astonishing! The absolute shoo-in, Dreamgirls, has been dealt a devastating blow. Nothing for Best Picture, nothing for Best Director (Bill Condon) — not even that consolation nom, Adapted Screenplay! (The unkindest cut?) I thought Dreamgirls was thoroughly mediocre (with one song, “We Are Family,” among the most eardrum-lacerating things I’ve ever heard), but the dis is stunning. Did anyone see this coming?
Whew. Deep breath.
party lines
AARP Winners Hate Retirement
The American Association of Retired Persons changed its official name to just AARP in 1999, thereby eliminating that gauche r-word from the middle of its moniker. And it’s a good thing, too, considering how honorees at the AARP Impact Awards luncheon this afternoon reacted when asked how they plan to spend their retirements:
Valerie Harper: “Oh, not to retire! I don’t see myself retiring in the near future — I want to be just like Ethel Barrymore, never retiring!”
Marlo Thomas: “I’m never going to retire. I love to go to Barbados to water-ski and swim and sit in the sun with a lot of sunscreen on. But I only like that because I work before and after; I couldn’t do it otherwise.”
David Hyde Pierce: “My ideal retirement would be to not retire.”
Remind us not to hire them as our spokespeople. — Jocelyn Guest
it just happened
National Book Finalists Announced; Apple SnubbedThe National Book Award finalists were announced just moments ago in San Francisco. The list itself leans Californian, too; only a few New Yorkers are among the honorees this year — Bronx-born globe-trotter Ken Kalfus (who lives in Philly), ex-Brooklynite Mark Z. Danielewski (California), and children’s author Patricia McCormick. After the jump, the full slate of finalists.
