Fat Joe Faces Off Against Daddy Yankee Over McCain SupportCould we have our first reggaeton political debate? And how early is too early for news about Michael Jackson’s dirty underwear? It’s all in your coffee-and-croissant gossip roundup!
Naked Pictures of Gisele and Carla Bruni Sell for Big BucksWhich one of these models is worth nearly $100,000 more than the other naked? What recently divorced Romeo is already trying to get his new lady knocked up? And did the tabloids miss out of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s wedding because they couldn’t get pictures? Or are they racist? All this and more in our daily gossip roundup.
gossipmonger
Rudy Daughter Caroline Drops the ‘Giuliani’Plus, Joan Rivers and Barbara Corcoran bite at each other, Pat O’Brien only has one more chance at ‘The Insider,’ and Blake Lively is surprisingly normal — in our daily gossip roundup.
gossipmonger
Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick Are Just Roommates, Okay?!Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick says he and co-star Chace Crawford aren’t gay; they just live together. Oprah BFF Gayle King moved into a $7.1 million penthouse on East 57th Street that was purchased in name of Oprah’s dead dog, Sophie. A nude portrait of France’s current First Lady Carla Bruni taken back in 1993 will go up for sale at Christie’s next month.
gossipmonger
PETA Causes a Ruckus in the House of Donna KaranA PETA protester accosted designer Donna Karan inside her Central Park West apartment after an assistant mistakenly let her in. Kyle MacLachlan and his wife are expecting a child. Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Demi Moore, and a host of other stars all turned out for Madonna’s “Raising Malawi” (Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did not, however, after learning that the event was sponsored by Gucci). Rachel Zoe came to Fashion Week with eight suitcases, two of which were for accessories. R.E.M. played a series of impromptu shows on the Lower East Side earlier this week.
company town
Finance Types Split Over Hillary and RomneyFINANCE
• Wall Street hopes Hillary has a super Super Tuesday, but private equity is standing by one of its own. Fourth-quarter campaign-financing reports show Senator Clinton taking in the lion’s share of donations from the Street’s top ten financial firms. Meanwhile, Bain Capital co-founder Mitt Romney is still tops among the PE crowd. [NYT/Dealbook]
• So, what’s it gonna be, boy? Stuck between Microsoft’s rock and Google’s hard place, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang has limited options for saving his company at his disposal. [NYP]
• If you believe the latest hype, Citadel is paving the way for an IPO after all. Ken Griffin’s asset-management firm has split its proprietary hedge-fund business from its client-based options-making business. “Legally, it makes it cleaner,” said Josh Galper in an interview. [Bloomberg]
party town
Movies and Galas• Venus premiere. Celeste Bartos Theater, MoMA, 4 W. 54th St., nr. Sixth Ave., 6:30 p.m. Expected attendees include Natasha Richardson, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dan Hedaya, Arianna Huffington, and Damian Loeb. Dan Hedaya isn’t in Venus. But he was in Swimfan. Once again, point Hedaya.
it just happened
Bloomberg’s Agenda Anything But Lame Duck
Proving that six years of prosperity can get a mayor thinking of posterity, Mayor Bloomberg announced ambitious environmental goals this morning in a speech at Flushing Meadow. Gone is the Bloomberg of December 2001, who chased quick economic fixes, like football stadiums and Olympics. Today Bloomberg wants to balance rising population against rising sea levels. He noted that city planners expect 900,000 more residents here by 2030. “With our administration not beholden to special interests, we now have the freedom to take on obstacles looming and to begin clearing them away,” he fairly gloated.
Bloomberg’s goals would pursue indisputably good things: get everybody within a ten-minute walk of a park, cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent, make 90 percent of the city’s waterways clean enough for recreation, improve all sewers, and invest in regional mass transit to keep travel times stable. As parsed, these goals have less stick than a can of Crisco in City Council chambers. They seem flexible enough to make good business sense, but what will happen in post-Bloomberg New York? Will potential Mayor Dick Parsons funnel them into a big bond package?
grub street
It’s a Beautiful Day in Gordon Ramsay’s Neighborhood
So let’s say a superstar British chef comes to New York, and let’s say he opens up a new restaurant right around the corner from your apartment. That’d be a good thing for you, right? Wrong, if you live behind Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant at the London NYC. Residents of the building backing up against the hotel have been complaining about incessant noise and unpleasant odors from the restaurant’s exhaust fans. Today Grub Street investigated, and the results aren’t pretty. Some view, eh?
We Spot-Check Gordon Ramsay’s Stink [Grub Street]
neighborhood watch
Fake Beach Comes to Red HookChelsea: See NYC-themed gingerbread creations (CBGB, Empire State Building) at Chelsea Market. [NYC Stories]
Clinton Hill: No. 70 Lefferts Place was designated today by the Landmark Preservation Commission. Hooray! [Brownstoner]
Dumbo: Hey D.J.’s, there’s a holiday sale at Halcyon on Wednesday. For everyone else: free beer! [A Brooklyn Life]
Long Island City: Cops love it when artists put up unauthorized installations. No, really, they do. [SuckaPants via Razor Apple]
Park Slope: What’s with all the yellow signs that say “Sit Here”? More public art? [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Red Hook: No need to be jealous of Long Island City. You can have your own fake beach. [Curbed]
