TV Socialite Gets Stomped in the HamptonsBrittny Gastineau gives some East End girls a piece of her mind. Plus, gossip on Demi Moore, Adam Yauch, and Barack Obama in today’s roundup.
Isaac Mizrahi Loves Mayor Bloomberg and Alex Trebek
Name: Isaac Mizrahi
Job: Designer, personality, bon vivant, narrator of ths past weekend’s production of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf .
Age: 47
Neighborhood: West Village
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
Greta Garbo and Mayor Bloomberg.
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
Le Bernardin.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Work my ass off.
company town
Air America Host Randi Rhodes Mugged?MEDIA
• Air America talk-show host Randi Rhodes was assaulted on Park Avenue last night while walking her dog? [Gawker]
• Jack Shafer investigates the billionaires behind ProPublica, the newly established New York–based investigative-journalism nonprofit led by former Journal managing editor Paul Steiger. Surprise, they’re big Democratic donors. [Slate]
• Howard Kurtz took the nonstop promotion of his gossipy new book to its logical conclusion, interviewing himself on his own CNN show. [HuffPo]
in other news
Vox Populi: The Boerum Hill BreakupAs the end of the day nears, it’s time we assessed the people’s reaction to New York’s biggest news of the holiday weekend, the breakup of Brooklyn Über-couple Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams. We have our own opinions on the matter (read a couple that never, ever looks happy might actually not be), but on this we’ll turn to the experts – the commenters on the Us Weekly blog, which broke the news. Their words of wisdom after the jump, God bless ‘em.
party lines
At ‘Diana’ Party, Tina Brown Talks About Small Mags, and Bloomberg Won’t Talk About Tony Soprano
These days, Tina Brown is into small magazines. We learned this at the party celebrating her new Diana Chronicles at the sky-high Sony Club last night. “The magazine I like most is this German magazine called WorldWatch,” she told us. “It’s a combination of The American Lawyer and a hip picture magazine. It’s a terrific, smart-looking magazine. It’s the only magazine I long to edit, but it’s so small that I wouldn’t want to invest the time.” Many of the boldfaced guests — Harvey Weinstein, Barry Diller, Liz Smith, and Judy Miller, to name a few — were talking about Diana’s life and death, and about Tony Soprano’s.
show and talk
Isaac Mizrahi’s Not a Middle Man
A few years ago, Isaac Mizrahi’s Target collection became a “paradigm-shifting event,” the designer told New York’s fashion director Harriet Mays Powell. But between couture and clothes that retail for less than $30, what happened to the middle? “When you get old, you figure out you’d better do your own thing or you’re going to be miserable,” Mizrahi says. “That’s just a matter of being honest.” To preview some new looks and to find out how Mizrahi lives his high-low aesthetic at home, watch the video.
Fashion Studio: Isaac Mizrahi [Video]
gossipmonger
It’s Not All Sunshine and Happiness for Marilyn MansonDita Von Teese is divorcing shock-rocker Marilyn Manson after just a year of marriage, and it looks like it was his fault. Russell Crowe won’t smoke in front of his wife, but he will berate airline stewardesses about the food on a private jet when she’s not in earshot. Lindsay Lohan is having her appendix removed; she’s also back on the sauce, as long as cameras aren’t around. “Page Six” confirms Cindy Adams’s report that Jive Records will soon drop Britney Spears, but a Jive spokesman denies it. Cindy also says that Halle Berry may or may not be pregnant. So does the Daily News. Sportscaster Jim Lampley threw his girlfriend against a wall in a booze-and-pot-fueled fury over, uh, deciding what movie to see. Justin Timberlake has had no problem in the love department since breaking up with Cameron Diaz. Richard Gere has a table named after him at an Indian restaurant because he used to bring ladies there back in his bachelor days. Not surprisingly, Alan Hevesi’s assemblyman son was not a fan of Eliot Spitzer’s State of the State address. Scarlett Johansson might have banned crew members on a music-video shoot from eating in front of her. A former Penthouse Pet turned “real estate agent” was arrested for running a brothel out of her home. Paris Hilton has been dropped from promo duties at the two Club Paris locations in Florida because of truant behavior. Shanna Moakler’s new boyfriend is Jenna Jameson’s ex. DJ AM has put on twenty pounds since his breakup with Nicole Richie, may get more gastric bypass surgery. Isaac Mizrahi got his nails painted.
neighborhood watch
Dear God, Not the McSweeney’s!Clinton Hill: Living in a storefront means big windows and your very own pull-down gate. [ClintonHillBlog]
Dyker Heights: You’ve never heard of this neighborhood, but you’ve gotta see the Christmas lights. [Gowanus Lounge]
Harlem: Finally, white people have a place to turn for answers about neighborhood real estate. [Bagel in Harlem]
Park Slope: Mail carriers no longer making it to the top of brownstone steps; issues of McSweeney’s lost to the elements. [Brooklyn Record]