Cuomo Follows in Spitzer’s A.G. Footsteps, Tackling the Big Issues
A press release issued yesterday afternoon by Andrew Cuomo’s Attorney General’s Office:
Department of Law, The State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224
Department of Law, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
Department of Law
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
News from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Press Office / 212-416-XXXX
ONTARIO COUNTY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER BANNED FOR FAILING TO DELIVER PHOTOS AND DECEIVING CONSUMERS
Prohibited from operating in New York State and must pay over $10,000 in restitution and penalties
neighborhood watch
Tour Kanye West’s New Apartment
Brooklyn Heights: It’s either a yoga center with an aggressive marketing plan or a cult. You decide. [Brooklyn Record]
Gowanus: Demolition starts on land owned by the Toll Brothers. What happened to that mixed-use development? [Food of the Future via Gowanus Lounge]
Greenpoint: Why should bodega phone cards be dull when they could be completely offensive? [Holla Back NYC via Newyorkshitty]
Midtown: Kanye West’s new apartment (above), designed by Claudio Silvestrin, is beautiful. But where’s the master bath? [dezeen via Curbed]
Nolita: Sheetrock shipment arrives at 11 Spring Street. Just in time to cover up all that nasty interior artwork so the place can go condo. [Curbed]
Sunset Park: Expect a major ruckus as this pretty nabe of three-story homes wakes up to a new ten-story, view-wrecking, context-snubbing leviathan. [Brownstoner]
in other news
Dubai? Duboughtit!Our real-estate market’s surprising refusal to cool down can be chalked up to a single, low-profile foreign player. The name Istithmar is still not exactly a mainstay of Manhattan conversation, but the Dubai-based firm’s purchases in the city make Trump look like an amateur apartment-flipper. In the past year alone, Istithmar, owned by the country’s royal family, set two major records in the field. It was the first to pay over $1,000 a foot for office space (on Park Avenue) as well as the first to pick up a hotel at over a million per room (W Union Square). The ease with which the firm parts with its funds has made some aristocratic jaws drop; best of all, though, Istithmar whose moves account for 12 percent of all office and hotel purchases in the city last year shows no signs of being done. They already found time to (unsuccessfully) bid on 5 Times Square, goosing up its price in the process.
Dubai Buyer Sets Records for Manhattan Purchases [Crain’s]
intel
Duck! That Decoy Costs $800,000!
More ways to spend your fat bonus this year, Wall Streeters: a very manly wooden duck. On January 19, the auctioneers at Christie’s are hoping to be the first to break the $1 million barrier in folksy duck decoys, hawking a cute, rare, and immaculately preserved white-bellied merganser. Carved from cedar and hand-painted shortly after the Civil War by a Massachusetts cemetery caretaker named Lothrop Holmes, the merganser decoy (used by hunters to attract waterfowl) is estimated by Christie’s to go for between $400,000 and $600,000. In November, an 1890s-era feeding plover fetched twice the presale estimate: $830,000. “Decoys are the new macho territory of folk collecting,” declares Margot Rosenberg, who runs Christie’s furniture, folk, and decorative-arts departments. “For hunter-gatherers on Wall Street, collecting is a sport unto itself.” Along with the hedge-funders, collectors from across the country will be bidding on 58 lots of decoys. Geoffrey Gray
intel
‘Top Chef’’s Marcel Doesn’t Love Joël Robuchon That MuchIn the magazine this week, Jada Yuan spoke to some of the contestants from Bravo’s Top Chef about host Padma Lakshmi, wife of Salman Rushdie. In her conversation with Ilan Hall, Sam Talbot, and Cliff Crooks, Jada also asked them about the show’s villain, Marcel Vigneron.
This season, everyone ganged up on one chef, Marcel, who had a penchant for putting foam on every dish. Was he really as annoying as he seemed?
Ilan: Much worse.
Sam: Much, much worse. The past couple of episodes they’ve made him seem like some sort of a sweetheart. Everyone was asking me why I had this outburst with him, but they didn’t show him accusing me of cheating for fifteen minutes. I mean, I hope he watches the show and picks up some social skills along the way.
Cliff: Everyone and their mother is beating up on the kid. You know, I saw him at the premiere party, and in a room of a couple hundred people, he’s okay.
neighborhood watch
Video Stores Diversify in Carroll Gardens
Brooklyn Heights: Who’s that portly older gent who snaps at folks when they step around his little bichon? [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Carroll Gardens: Video stores (above) are dropping like flies — or repurposing to stay alive. [423smith]
Chelsea: Boho hotel residents receive belated, nagging New Year’s message from Patti Smith. [Hotel Chelsea Blog]
Clinton Hill:The nabe’s Myrtle Avenue gets its own event-listing blog, marking edgy, can’t-miss moments like a Bank of America opening. [Myrtle Minutes via Clinton Hill Blog]
East Village: Luxury-tower sales offices face off on lower Broadway. [Curbed]
Park Slope: Slopers worry that old-school sports bar Snooky’s may be history. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Williamsburg: Former Old Dutch Mustard building owner makes nostalgic site visit. [Gowanus Lounge]
in other news
Roman à RosieFollowing the Rosie O’Donnell–Donald Trump kerfuffle, what better time for a Rosie tell-all? Little Pink Slips is a “novel” written by Sally Koslow, who just happened to be shoved out of her editor-in-chief position at McCall’s when O’Donnell improbably took over the magazine after a six-year stint as a talk-show host. In the book, according to early chapters obtained by Radar Online, Koslow harps on boss Bebe Blake’s “well-fed face,” “lady-wrestler legs,” and predilection for spandex. After the success of The Devil Wears Prada and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the publicist for Putnam can sit right back and plan her upcoming trip to Bermuda. The rest of us will hope for the movie, something to cleanse our minds of Rosie’s performance in Riding the Bus With My Sister.
Axed Editor Takes Revenge on Rosie [Radar Online]
intel
All Jack Bauer’s Pretty Horses
At Thursday’s Men’s Vouge screening of the season premiere of 24, Kiefer Sutherland took time out from dinner to smoke a cigarette on the deck. After offering us his custom-tailored jacket, and then complimenting us on how nice we looked in it, the charming star opened up about Jack Bauer’s highly plausible cell phone and his Kiefer’s, not Jack’s love of horse-riding.
Where can I get Jack Bauer’s cell phone?
It’s pretty good, isn’t it? We try to make it realistic. In a blocking situation, if I need to get from one part of a set to another and the dialogue doesn’t actually fit that situation, I’ll say, “Chloe, hold on. I can’t hear you.” And then I’ll move to that spot. We do try to answer those questions, like does the cell phone always have reception?
What’s the deal with the 24 movie?
We were going to make it in the break this year, but it’s just too much to ask the writers to do. We are going to do it. It’s just a question of when.
gossipmonger
JFK, LBJ, TRLThe CIA official who organized the Watergate break-in claims that Lyndon B. Johnson might have been behind the Kennedy assassination. MTV’s TRL may be on the way out. Mark Wahlberg doesn’t like being famous. Gwen Stefani is a character in an upcoming novel. Madonna and ex-husband Carlos Leon are still friends. Paris Hilton pal Kim Kardashian may be making some money off her sex tape. Alec Baldwin’s directorial debut is, after much financial wheeling and dealing, finally getting released. Howard Stern lackey Artie Lange might be leaving the program for Fox. Andy Warhol’s former house in Montauk sold for half its asking price. Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar hung out at Cipriani Downtown.
photo op
The Half-Naked City
Improv Everywhere invited New Yorkers to ride the 6 train on Saturday sans pants. The partly dressed gathered at Foley Square and rode the train uptown, completing their ride with an impromptu dance party at 125th Street. Participants read or listened to music, but none of them mentioned that they weren’t wearing pants. Even improv has its rules.
the morning line
Pay Dirt
• With impeccable timing he would likely disavow, Governor Spitzer made his first judicial appointment yesterday — picking Theodore T. Jones Jr., an African-American judge from Brooklyn, for the Court of Appeals (the highest in our state’s counterintuitive hierarchy). Jones, by the way, is the guy who threw Roger Toussaint in jail after the transit strike. [NYT]
• We knew that if we stuck with the story of the Joseph Bruno probe, it would eventually get interesting. Pay dirt! The state GOP leader had hung out at Rachel’s, a West Palm Beach strip club, on his businessman friend’s dime. Dear Feds: More of this and less murky real-estate deals, please. [NYDN]
• Speaking of: Real-estate data is infinitely malleable, but here’s an upbeat nugget that’s hard to misinterpret — property values in New York City rose 19 percent in 2006. That, if you still want to talk about a “cooldown,” is double the gain of 2005. The bad news: Taxes will jump in July. [Newsday]
• Scientists are struggling to rescue dolphins stranded in shallow waters near East Hampton; four cetaceans have died and fifth was “euthanized.” Long Island has been reporting bizarre dolphin behavior all month long, triggered by the freakishly mild winter (coming, by the way, to a bitter end with tomorrow’s cold snap). [amNY]
• And, not so fast, Jay-Z: While Beyoncé’s mom is already sewing Nets’ uniforms, the team may first end up in Newark. Mayor Cory Booker is making a play for the franchise, offering to house it temporarily until its New Jersey contract runs out. In other news, Frank Gehry unveiled plans for “Miss Newark.” [NYP]
intel
Maid Hits Naomi Campbell — With a Civil SuitWhile her criminal complaint against supermodel Naomi Campbell awaits a verdict this month — last we checked in, Campbell was considering a plea deal but unwilling to do community service — alleged cell phone victim Ana Scolavino is bracing for round two of JeanGate. In an 8-page civil complaint filed today in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Scolavino seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for the alleged March 30, 2006, incident at Campbell’s Park Avenue pad, in which Campbell is accused of chucking a cell phone at Scolavino’s head when a pair of jeans turned up missing.