Si to Shutter ‘Teen Vogue’?Teen Vogue may be the next Condé Nast magazine to fold. Some 370 girls auditioned to be Rockettes recently; two were hired. Reggie Jackson took issue with the scene in The Bronx Is Burning in which he loses his temper. Usher and Tameka Foster may be married in the Hamptons this week. Kelly Clarkson apologized to Clive Davis after realizing that her album was as bad as he claimed it was. Diddy wrote a song and shot a video about ex-girlfriend Kim Porter. A 9-year-old girl cried after being rebuffed for an autograph by Hilary Duff. Flava Flav got the celebrity-roast treatment. Elle is throwing a party for August cover girl Sarah Jessica Parker in the Hamptons. John Legend shopped for BBQ fixings at the Houston Street Whole Foods.
the sports section
The Knicks Have Made Progress, EvidentlyCablevision honcho and Madison Square Garden chief Jim Dolan announced today that he’s giving Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas a multiyear contract extension based on the team’s “evident progress” — a term that seems destined to join “mission accomplished” in the Optimist’s Hall of Fame. Let’s review what’s evident, shall we? On the positive side, the Knicks have won 46 percent of their games this season (compared to just 28 percent last year) and are fighting for a playoff spot. On the negative, they’re still the highest-paid team in the NBA (for which Isiah is largely to blame), winning even 46 percent of their games still means the Knicks are losing more than half, and they’re playing mediocre ball against historically weak competition. In other words, the team’s progress seems roughly on pace with that of the Second Avenue subway or the Freedom Tower. So while it’s true they haven’t measurably regressed, Dolan’s use of the prefix “pro” strikes us as a bit much. If we were him, we might have played it safe and gone with “evident gress.” There are definitely clear signs of gress. —Sam Anderson
in other news
Public Life Means Having to Say You’re SorryInspired by Italy’s Veronica Lario — who in a front-page letter printed in yesterday’s La Repubblica requested a public apology from her husband, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, for flirting with and ogling various comely young women and then, even more remarkably, received one — we’d like to see if we, too, can elicit a public apology or two.
To everyone involved in ground-zero reconstruction:
It’s been five freaking years, and this is all that’s been accomplished? You should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you. (And, yes, at this point that includes you, too, sainted widows and family members.) We think you owe us — all of us, all New Yorkers — an apology.
Sincerely, Daily Intel
gossipmonger
Amy Sacco Is Still Probably Not Selling BungalowLindsay Lohan wrote a long and incoherent e-mail, which for some reason referenced Al Gore and Bill Clinton. Amy Sacco says she’s actually not selling Bungalow 8, the Observer’s reporting to the contrary notwithstanding. (Daily Intel readers already knew that.) Mary-Louise Parker may be dating her Weeds co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Pataki consigliere Charles Gargano says he’ll keep his seat on the Port Authority board, even with his man gone from Albany. Frustrated Knicks fans, here’s your chance to vent: Garden chief Jim Dolan is performing with his band tonight at B.B. King’s. (It is, however, a cancer benefit, so don’t be too mean.) Paramount/Dreamworks execs are pushing Beyoncé over Jennifer Hudson for a Best Actress Oscar nod, and Jennifer Hudson is okay with it. Lenny Kravitz went to the dermatologist. Anna Wintour found The Devil Wears Prada “entertaining” and has had the same haircut since she was 15, she tells Barbara Walters during her “10 Most Fascinating People” interview (in which Wintour actually does wear Prada). TomKat didn’t invite Oprah to their wedding, and they didn’t invite her to their post-honeymoon bash, either. Kevin Federline showed up at a book reading for the free booze. Jordan’s Queen Rania and King Abdullah are on the rocks. Damon Wayans was fined $320 for dropping the n-word sixteen times at L.A.’s Laugh Factory. Jessica Alba and the Duff sisters are hosting a New Year’s Eve party at a club in Miami and are doing it for free. Ellen Pompeo wants to gain five to ten pounds, because they’d go straight to her boobs, she told Playboy. Robert Evans is suing the electrical company that installed a screening room in his home that mysteriously burned down. Liz Smith cried at the end of Dakota Fanning’s Charlotte’s Web.
