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.
Ryan Seacrest Is Casting for BoysThe ‘American Idol’ and E! host has yet another job, Ethan Hawke gets one step closer to making his nanny his second wife, plus new ‘Gossip Girl’ gossip, all in our daily roundup of the day’s gossip columns.
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Beyoncé’s Reps Are Kind of AwesomeIs Beyoncé pregnant? “We’ll perform an ultrasound and get back to you,” her reps say sassily. That and the results of other probing in our daily roundup of the city’s juiciest gossip.
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Lydia Hearst and Posse Turn Against Justin BarthaAll of today’s gossip, including dish about Chace Crawford, Ashley Olsen, Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, and Steve Wozniak. Because, you know, they all go together.
in other news
In Which Ethan Hawke Tells Us All About How He Is SO Not Over UmaAt first, when the sound equipment failed and random musicians began taking the stage for impromptu sets between the 24-Hour Plays being performed at the Atlantic Theater, it was grim. Between the first two plays, a person who may or may not have been a stagehand came out and performed an Ani DiFranco song. (We knew it was that, because we went to college.) Later, she sang an Irish ditty, it being Saint Patrick’s Day. We looked around. What torture would come next? Then something inexplicable and magical happened. Out of nowhere, actor Ethan Hawke hopped up onstage, strapped on an acoustic guitar and bared his soul to the audience. “Someone I know wrote this song while shooting a movie in Paris during his divorce,” he said. We, along with the rest of the audience, gasped. He was totally talking about himself, and more important, Uma Thurman!
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Donna Karan Accepts CougarhoodFifty-five-year-old Donna Karan’s boy toy is 30-year-old model J.J. Biasucci. Ethan Hawke allegedly started dating “secret” girlfriend (his former nanny!) Ryan Shawhughes before he was divorced from Uma Thurman. Steve Martin played the banjo and read funny poems at the Cutting Room. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin shared a happy dinner at BLT Fish. Eighty-eight-year-old Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau may step down from his post, which would allow Governor Spitzer to appoint Cyrus Vance Jr. Michael Kors served mini-cheeseburgers at his store opening in Soho. Madonna kicked 25 yoga students out of a studio at the Reebok Sports Club on Columbus so she could practice by herself. Howard Stern is annoyed at Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner for bringing paparazzi to his Upper West Side block.
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Ethan Hawke Pulls a Jude LawEthan Hawke is dating the woman who used to be his kids’ nanny. Mayor Bloomberg hit Joey Pantoliano with his car. Former Condé Nast chairman Steve Florio is still in the hospital despite having suffered a stroke two weeks ago. Former Sopranos star Aida Turturro left Stereo the other night after finding out that the stagehands’ strike was over. Fergie took the stage twenty minutes late at a Wilhelmina party because of a wardrobe malfunction. A fourteen-acre property in Southampton is going on sale for $59 million.
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Catherine Z-J Gets the ‘No Way’ From Rob MarshallCatherine Zeta-Jones won’t star in the movie adaptation of Broadway musical Nine because the director wouldn’t beef up her role. Eight staffers have left CBS’ The Early Show because they can’t stand working with hotheaded senior exec producer Shelley Ross. Paris Hilton thinks the guys in New York are “so much better” than the ones in L.A. Since divorcing his wife, George Soros has been hanging out with young girls in their twenties at his home in Southampton. Sportscaster Ahmad Rashad and ex-socialite (and ex-wife of Jets owner Woody Johnson) Sale Johnson may be getting married today. Anna Wintour controlled the seating arrangements at the $50,000-a-table 7th on Sale event at the Lexington Armory. (Speaking of Anna, Tim Burton says that Johnny Depp based the haircut of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on hers.)
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Mr. Big Almost Gets Beat UpChris Noth was accosted by an angry trucker in the Bronx who wanted to know when he was going to marry Carrie. People were afraid to talk to Javier Bardem at the New York premiere of No Country for Old Men because he was so crazy in the movie. Dr. Ruth gave a copy of Sex for Dummies to Ivana Trump and fiancé Rossano Rubicondi while eating lunch at Michael’s. Anna Wintour had a meeting yesterday with Mayor Bloomberg. Ethan Hawke wowed the crowd at Off Broadway play Jump by breaking out a Karate Kid kick during an audience-participation bit. Zac Posen’s mom claims that her son can remember every outfit he’s worn to every party over the past 27 years.
ink-stained wretches
When Journalists Attack … Other JournalistsRemember Alive? The book/early–Ethan Hawke movie where the plane crashes and everyone’s starving so they become cannibals? Okay, whatever we are old. The point is, we’re kind of reminded of that whenever a journalist covers another journalist’s missteps in that over-the-top holier-than-thou tone. Times are tough, and so they’re eating their own in order to save themselves. We thought about this last week when Katie Couric clamped down on Dan Rather’s “sloppy reporting” with her little white teeth, and today, the smell of media blood is in the air again. Over at the New York Press, Matt Elzweig feasted on the flesh of the Times Magazine’s Deborah Solomon in a deeply self-serious “examination of the questionable ethical choices one very prominent reporter made on behalf of the nation’s top newspaper” blah blah blah blah Jayson Blair blah blah.
party lines
Even Movie Stars Can’t Get iPhones
There was a screening and after-party for Ethan Hawke’s second directorial feature, The Hottest State, at the Tribeca Film Center last night, and the movie’s director and stars and friends — Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Sonia Braga, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and newcomer Mark Webber, around whom the movie revolves — were all there. It’s a romantic, slightly disturbing — and slightly familiar — look at obsessive love and elusive objects of desire. And so we asked Webber, who plays the slacker-actor who falls crazy-in-love with a sweet singer, if he has a current obsessive love. “iPhone is a problem,” he admitted, the comely lady at his side notwithstanding. “It’s an issue.”
