Lady Gaga Gives Herself Pep Talks“Bitch, you’re Lady Gaga, you get up and walk the walk today.” And more celebrity coping techniques, in our daily gossip roundup.
Ryan O’Neal Hit On His Daughter at His Girlfriend’s FuneralPlus, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are still making out all over the place, Billy Joel wants Katie Lee back, and more dysfunctional celebrity relationships in our daily gossip roundup.
Johnny Depp Is a Really Good TipperPlus, Seth Rogen is back on carbs, Katy Perry really loves pizza, and more need-to-know celebrity information for waiters (and everyone else), in our daily gossip roundup.
Billy Joel Self-Pops Cherry for ObamaDid he REALLY have to put it that way? Plus, Tom and Gisele are probs getting married — awesome, you guys! In Monday’s gaggle o’ gossip.
ByTim Murphy
gossipmonger
Leighton Meester Is a Text AddictThe ‘Gossip Girl’ star spent a party in her honor on her BlackBerry, and more bad behavior in our daily gossip roundup.
ByTim Murphy
gossipmonger
A-Rod Indulges in Retail TherapyBecause we don’t count Kabbalah as actual therapy. Plus, gossip on Brad Pitt, Heath Ledger, John Edwards, and Billy Joel in our daily column roundup.
summering
Regis Philbin Wears a SpeedoThat’s right. The Rege fancies a banana hammock. Reflect on that for a moment, then click through to read about all of the other things the rich and famous did in the Hamptons this past weekend.
Jay-Z ‘Took Rihanna Aside’ to Talk About Rumors of Their AffairRihanna said she used to feel self-conscious about the rumors that she hooked up with Jay-Z, but now just ignores them. Observer prepmaster general David Foxley will now be the person to call to get reservations at the Waverly Inn. Billion-heiress Anna Anisimova slept at her mother’s place on Tuesday, which is a good thing because a 400-pound Venetian chandelier collapsed and fell fifteen feet onto the bed at her own place. Rapper 50 Cent has to pay an undisclosed sum to a Post photographer for knocking him down after he tried to take a photo of him. MSNBC accidentally flashed a graphic of Osama bin Laden as host Chris Matthews was discussing Barack Obama. Robert John Burck, a.k.a. the Naked Cowboy, says he has high-profile investments. DJ AM has invited ex-girlfriend Mandy Moore to hear him spin at Room Service on Friday.
gossipmonger
Chris Rock Has a Good Question About Giuliani“Everyone says Giuliani was great on 9/11,” said Chris Rock during his show at MSG on New Year’s Eve. “What about on 9/10?” Joshua Jackson refused to let anyone sit with him and girlfriend Diane Kruger at the Soho Grand’s New Year’s Eve party. ABC anchor Bob Woodruff has made a full recovery from his Iraq injuries and recently went skiing. Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife Nicole Murphy hung out at the Plumm with New York Giant Michael Strahan while Murphy was getting ready to marry Tracey Edmonds on an island in the South Pacific. Britney Spears’s latest team of lawyers dumped her after a “breakdown in communication.”
gossipmonger
Padma Leaves a Bad Taste in Fiamma’s MouthManhattan Moms, an East Coast equivalent of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County, will premiere early next year. A lot of the city’s foremost graffiti artists congregated for a book party at Auto in the meatpacking district. Billy Joel is in talks with the Mets to perform a bunch of gigs at Shea Stadium. George Steinbrenner will have a high school named after him in Tampa. Padma Lakshmi was rude to the staff at Soho eatery Fiamma, but Martha Stewart overtipped and was nice. CNN gave out an award to someone for forcing “one of the world’s largest oil corporations to pay more than $6 billion to clean up toxic waste in the Amazon rain forest,” but didn’t name Chevron as the company because they are an advertiser.
party lines
At ‘The Good Night’ Screening, Celebs Share Their DreamsAt the Cinema Society’s screening of The Good Night, in East Hampton on Saturday, celebrities had dreams on their minds. That’s because Jake Paltrow’s film is all about them; the hero even falls in love with a girl who exists solely in his sleep. The part of said lass is played by Paltrow’s sister, Gwyneth, who showed up at the party and mingled with East End A-listers like Bob Balaban, Billy Joel, Stella McCartney, Donna Karan, and Ed Burns. “I actually keep a dream diary,” Christie Brinkley told Daily Intel. “I actually created a dream club, where we’d all get together and tell each other out dreams.” Wait, really? “Oh, it was way back in the day when I used to be on tour with Billy [Joel]’s band, so we would all get together for dream clubs.” Mm. Touring with a rock band doesn’t sound quite like we imagined it. —Alex Gartenfeld
Bonus Party Lines: Read more about what goes on in celebrities’ heads in our coverage of The Good Night screening.
gossipmonger
Tinz and Olivia Hate Each Other More Than They Hate GenocideTinsley Mortimer and Olivia Palermo hate each other so much they couldn’t jointly host a benefit for Darfur. John Mayer took Mandy Moore to lunch (at La Esquina) and Cameron Diaz to dinner (at Indochine) on the same day. New School president Bob Kerrey, a former governor and senator from Nebraska, might move back to run Chuck Hagel’s senate seat. Ivanka Trump instituted a “no midriff, no bikini bottom” rule for her October Stuff magazine cover. Former Jets QB Joe Namath is now a grandfather, though his daughter is only 16. Billy Joel thinks his Hamptons benefit concert was overpriced — and not that good. A Mr. Chow is opening in Vegas. Giants safety Will Demps is done with groupies. A Maxim writer thinks Sanjaya and Adrian Grenier are doppelgängers.
party lines
At Billy Joel Hamptons Gig, David Blaine Steals the Show
The $3,000-a-ticket Billy Joel show in the Hamptons Saturday was billed as “the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll fantasy,” and it was — if your idea of rock and roll begins and ends with wretched excess. Upon arrival, guests were whisked to a quasi-secret location in a fleet of chartered buses that came so often they practically formed a train; once inside the perimeter, they had to contend with troupes of caterers, candy girls, cigar-toting Davidoff reps, and the like. We weren’t too surprised to find megamagician David Blaine, bulkier than we remembered him, moodily walking around, but our hearts sank a bit once we realized the guy had been hired as pre-show entertainment. Because Blaine is mostly famous for very public acts of endurance, we inquired how long, in his estimation, he’d be able to continuously listen to Billy Joel. “Ha-ha,” said the magician. “Seriously, he’s awesome.” (Actually, later, Billy Joel would prove to be, well, Billy Joel.)
party lines
Celebs Go to Hamptons, See Concerts, Check OutCelebrities are typically eager to tell you what they think about nearly any news event — except when it’s summer, and they’re on vacation, and they’ve stopped paying attention to the news. We bumped into Sopranos gals Edie Falco and Aida Turturro at the Dave Matthews concert for the Ross School, held in East Hampton Saturday night, and we asked whether Lindsay Lohan would ever work again. “I don’t know what goes on,” Falco said. What about you, Aida? “I don’t know what happened,” Turturro seconded. “I’m out in Montauk; I don’t even know.” Shifting gears, we asked Joan Allen about Eliot Spitzer’s recent troubles. “I’ve been gone a lot,” she said, begging off. “I was in Greece with my daughter, and I just kind of got back. I’m out of the loop with what’s going on.” Billy Joel, who’s playing the next Ross concert was at least able to answer a question. What did he have on tap for next week? “For this kind of gig? I’m going to keep it hit heavy,” he said. “I don’t think you want to go too obscure for these prices.” No, no, you don’t: Tickets to the five-show series cost $15,000. —Lillien Nathan
gossipmonger
Free Alfred TaubmanFormer Sotheby’s head Alfred Taubman claims he had no part in the price-fixing scandal that put him in jail in 2002. A cabbie claims Terrence Howard asked a blonde lady friend to engage in a rather disgusting grooming procedure, though Howard’s rep denies it was he. Bono took a private tour of Harvard, perhaps for one of his kids. Tina Brown and Harold Evans threw a dinner party for Helen Mirren. Judith Miller had lunch with Mort Zuckerman. Lindsay Lohan left one club for another because she thought her dad, recently released from prison, was about to show up. More firings may be imminent in CBS’ news division. Natalia McLennan, once dubbed the No. 1 call girl in the city by New York Magazine, is back working as a prostitute.
intel
Christie Brinkley Backs OutChristie Brinkley hasn’t been out in public much since the messy breakup of her marriage, but she planned to reappear tonight, hosting a dinner at Schiller’s Liquor Bar for her daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, before her performance at Mercury Lounge. But now it looks like Brinkley’s debut is going to have to wait. Last night, she underwent emergency back surgery to correct a herniated disc she’d aggravated during an Aspen ski trip over Christmas. (The injury had rapidly worsened over the past few days.) And so she scrambled to find a replacement host. Alexa Ray’s dad, Billy Joel, was on tour and couldn’t make it on time, but Ron Delsener, the legendary promoter who’s Alexa Ray’s godfather, agreed at the last minute to fill in. Brinkley’s Hamptons-set friends are still showing up in force, but the former model won’t be there herself. “I said I would break my back to help my daughter,” she said in a statement, “but I didn’t mean it literally.” —Jada Yuan
gossipmonger
The Greatest Love of All Is Buying Someone’s UnderwearLove Whitney Houston? Then head to Livingston, New Jersey, next week, when an auction of Whitney memorabilia — undergarments and all — will take place. Tommy Lee and Kid Rock might come to blows now that Tommy is hooking up with Pamela Anderson. (They almost did on New Year’s Eve, but Kid showed up at the wrong room.) Bob Dylan would do well not to sue Harvey Weinstein over Factory Girl, as Dylan was threatening, now that the Weinstein Co. has acquired the rights to the singer’s biopic. If you spent $250 to hang out at Stereo on New Year’s Eve, you probably felt pretty dumb when you were kicked out of the club to make room for John Mayer and Jessica Simpson. (Simpson also took a little spill earlier in the evening, but so did her ex-boyfriend’s current squeeze, Vanessa Minnillo.) Celebrity “starvicist” (the Post’s nickname, not ours) Rachel Zoe is, fittingly, hawking a new, “slimmer” Samsung cell phone. (However, it’s our scoop, not the Post’s.) Producer Scott Storch gave Lindsay Lohan $1 million in diamond jewelry, though some say “he just wants to do her music.” Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz call it quits, but J-Timbs already has another lady on the go. Jimmy Fallon was a major dud as host of Eliot Spitzer’s inaugural concert. Mira Sorvino partied at a club with her 2-year-old and 6-month-old on New Year’s Eve. Denzel Washington turned down a love scene with Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief out of loyalty to his female black fans. Coming soon to a theater (or, more likely, DVD, or YouTube) near you: Brian De Palma’s first-ever film, which had a fairly limited release (one theater!) in 1968. The Giulianis, James Wood, and Jessica Alba all vacationed at the same Bahamas resort. Is Britney Spears in danger of being dropped by Jive Records? Cindy Adams thinks that’s why she “fainted” in Vegas. Billy Joel has recently recorded his first song since 1993’s “River of Dreams.”
cultural capital
Liz Smith Drives the Downeaster Alexa
One of the Post’s antique gossipers is suddenly giving Pitchfork Media a run for its money. In today’s column, Liz Smith breaks an obscure new singer who’s just had her first show at Pianos. Who’s this up-and-comer? Well, it’s 20-year-old Alexa Ray Joel, spawn of Billy, and her first CD was personally fed to the columnist by her mom, Christie Brinkley — but otherwise Liz’s excitement over discovering a hot unsigned artist is palpably bloggerlike. “Her voice is big, beautiful and perhaps even more impressive than her impressive dad’s,” Smith writes. But there’s a problem: “She doesn’t have a label yet.”
Poor, unsigned girl. But wait! Somewhat unlike your typical self-released debut EP, however, young Joel’s has already been picked up for exclusive nationwide distribution at Target stores. She is also paying her dues on the road, “slowly building her career,” as Liz puts it. A jog over to Alexa’s MySpace page does reveal a full touring schedule, albeit one filled with Northeastern dates marked PRIVATE; her next gig after Pianos is something called the Princess Grace Awards. Wasn’t that TV on the Radio’s big breakout moment?
Young Lady Is Hot! [NYP]
Alexa Joel [AlexJoel.com]
Alexa Ray Joel [MySpace.com]
