New York’s Greatest Divorces: Your Handy GuideChristie Brinkley and Peter Cook’s divorce will be messy, sure — but they’ve got nothing on Donald, Ron, and Rudy. Let’s talk about legends, people.
intel
The Mayor, His Wife, His Press Secretary, and His ‘Very Good Friend’
We’ve been reading a lot about Rudy Giuliani lately. There was that Voice piece yesterday on why his kids are right to hate him. There’s the New Yorker profile we finally got around to reading last night (and which seemed only to provide a Steinbergian New Yorker’s View of Rudy to the rest of the country — was there anything in it, other than that his father, in addition to being a small-time gangster, was also a mean disciplinarian, that you didn’t already know?). And there’s the Harper’s cover we’ve been looking at on our coffee table for a week or so now, though we can’t quite bring ourselves to crack it.
in other news
Rudy and Donna: The Way They Were
Today’s Times reminds us that Rudy Giuliani, America’s Mayor, used to be and likely still is a “mean-spirited,” cross-dressing, twice-divorced guy who used to call his old gay roommate “mother” as he left for work each day. But that’s not all there is to Rudy. He’s also “strong, and at the same time gentle,” according to a testimonial Ben Smith reports today on the Politico. Who’d that endorsement come from? His then-wife, Donna Hanover, in a 1993 TV commercial that featured the whole Giuliani family. It’s a misty, water-colored campaign ad, about the way the Giulianis were.
RudyTube 1993: Rudy and Donna [Politico]
New York Label May Not Fit All in Giuliani Run [NYT]