Gisele and Tom Brady Made Out in PublicMere mortals were forced to cover their eyes as the golden couple “sucked face” at a party at the Gramercy Park Hotel. And more, in our gossip roundup.
Nobody Messes With Karl LagerfeldKarl Lagerfeld’s bodyguard protects him and Jay-Z from a pesky pap, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will get $10 million for their baby pictures, Spencer Morgan and Alexis Bryan probably will not, and more in today’s compilation of greatest hits from New York’s gossip columns!
company town
‘Blender’ Gives Britney Spears a New BodyMEDIA
• Britney Spears looks great on the new cover of Blender — too bad it’s not her body. [Radar]
• Stephen Chao, the former News Corp. exec who lost his job after hiring a male stripper for a company party and almost drowning Rupert Murdoch’s dog, announced a new Website for how-to videos. First video: how to get fired in two easy steps. [NYT]
• Now that Judith Regan’s settled her suit with Murdoch, will she give her winnings — likely north of $6.5 million — to charity like she once promised? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
company town
Thay It Ain’t So! Merrill Chief Loses Part of BonusFINANCE
• The falling market has shaved off a big chunk of Wall Street hottie John Thain’s compensation. Don’t worry, Thainie-boy, we still love you. [DealBook/NYT]
• Wondering what the hell’s happening in the markets? Watch one trader lose his life savings in a single day. (NSFW) [Crossing Wall Street]
• Ex–Goldman banker becomes underwater gravedigger. Say what? [NYT]
in other news
Gossip Girl Revealed?Today’s Daily News gossip columnist has a very, very upsetting Gossip Girl item. First, he reports that there are tensions on the set between Blair and Serena (Leighton Meister and Blake Lively, to those of you who insist upon dealing with this show in a world of reality). “Chace Crawford tends to stick close to Leighton, while Penn Badgley hangs on- and off-screen with Blake,” a source tells the saucy Aussie. “The crew will snag Blake for a scene just moments before it is shot so they can avoid any awkwardness with Leighton.” Not that a catfight between the show’s two female stars surprises us, but, come on, isn’t it a little clichéd? That’s not all Widdicombe has for us, though. He claims he knows the identity of Gossip Girl herself, the snarky Upper East Sider who narrates the show (using the voice of Kristin Bell). We’d tell you to stop reading right now in order to avoid spoiling your fun, but we find the candidate too unbelievable to be true. According to an on-set source, Gossip Girl is none other than Eric van der Woodsen!
company town
CNBC to Roger Ailes: ‘Nanny Nanny Boo Boo’MEDIA
• Despite Roger Ailes’s declaration that Fox Business Channel would start a “revolution” against rival business channel CNBC, this war appears to have petered out after a skirmish: Only about 6,300 people a day, on average, watch the babes of FBN, compared to the 283,000 who tune in to CNBC for that dreamy hunk Charlie Gasparino. [NYT]
• Let the stunts begin! David Letterman plans to shave off his beard on the air next Monday: “Can we get a guy in here Monday to shave me? Now, a good guy, because the last time we did this, I looked like—when he was done, I looked like I’d been in a knife fight.” No word yet on whether Conan O’Brien, who’s writers unlike Letterman’s are still on strike, will lose his whiskers. Meanwhile, Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel turned down Colbert’s invite to appear on his show, showing solidarity with the strikers. [NYDN, NYO]
• The Writers Guild is facing its own little labor problem: The East Coast branch’s internal staff claims that the contract they signed back in October was later changed without their permission. Let’s see, what’s that word … something writers always love. Oh, right, irony. [NYP]
company town
Gucci Would Prefer a More Flattering CutFASHION
• The Gucci family is up in arms over Ridley Scott’s biopic. They fear he’ll focus on the family scandals. You know, instead of making a movie about all the boring stuff. [British Vogue]
• Helmut Lang is opening a pop-up shop in the meatpacking district. Just what we need, another fabulous place to spend our money while we are drunk. [Fashion Informer]
• Kaiser Karl rocked the U.K. with a Chanel fashion show. [WWD]
company town
For Viacom Freelancers, Neither Happiness Nor Health for ChristmasMEDIA
• Viacom screws over its army of freelancers by rolling back benefit programs drastically. Merry Christmas! [MixedMedia/Portfolio]
• The Washington Post is sending veteran reporter and inveterate partier Keith Richburg to town to take over the paper’s New York bureau. He’s well known for throwing parties with, get this, as many as 30 people! Will Manhattan will be able to handle it? [NYO]
• No holiday party at Time Inc. or the New York Times. Suckas! [Radar]
in other news
Fashion’s Favorite Twink to Head UngaroFrench design-house Emanuel Ungaro is expected to announce today that they’ve appointed New York design whiz kid Esteban Cortazar as womenswear chief. The choice of Cortazar, who says he’s 23 years old, is sure to surprise many in the fashion world because of his relative inexperience (though he’s been showing in New York since he was 18) and the fact that he’s been taking a break from fashion lately. He didn’t show last season, and you’re more likely to see him posing for pictures on the red carpet than one of his designs. (Or see him on Top Chef!) “Ungaro chief executive officer Mounir Moufarrige has a knack for making surprising designer choices,” reports WWD. “As president of Chloé, he picked the then 25-year-old Stella McCartney to succeed Karl Lagerfeld in 1997.” Ugh: young, cute, talented, and given opportunities beyond his years? We’re so resentful. He didn’t even have to date Harvey Weinstein!
Ungaro Taps Cortazar [WWD]
company town
Ben Bradlee Believes in Rupert MurdochMEDIA
• Legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee on Rupe’s play for the Journal: “I think Murdoch is a better journalist than the rest of you do. Well, I think because he’s smart, and he’s not going to fill it up with pussy stories. And he’s going to get good reporters. I think he does not want to fail on this.” [Radar]
• Ted Kennedy sold his memoir to Grand Central Publishing for $8 million, but the deal first has to be cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee. Something tells us the chapter on Chappaquiddick won’t be too long. [NYT]
• The Times bagged their first refugee from the Journal, though it’s not a very big catch: John Harwood, the veteran CNBC Washington correspondent and occasional contributor to the Journal, will now take his part-time work to the Gray Lady. [NYO]
new york fugging city
The Fug Girls: Taking a Peek Inside Karl Lagerfeld’s Mind of SteelEven in an industry full of eccentrics, Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld is an icon: those omnipresent shades, the man-jewelry, and, of course, the leather glove, which lends his style that special “ringmaster at a Michael Jackson–themed circus” feel. So when filmmaker Rodolphe Marconi touted his new documentary Lagerfeld Confidential as a profound peek behind The Kaiser’s sunglasses, we had to investigate — after all, this is the man who once told Elle, “It’s too easy to forgive. I love revenge.” What could be better than an hour and a half of that?
company town
GE Still Hearts NBC … For NowMEDIA
• General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt said he’d postpone any decision on selling NBC until after the 2008 Olympics. Let’s just hope 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights last that long. [FT]
• Doris Lessing beat out Philip Roth, who was rumored as a top candidate, for this year’s Nobel Prize in literature. It probably helps that Lessing’s most recent novel doesn’t involve an old geezer fucking a “luckless goy chick” in the face. [NYT, Hitchens/Atlantic]
• FSG dominated this year’s National Book Award finalists, with five out of ten in fiction and nonfiction coming from the tweedy publisher’s lists. [NYT]
company town
Former Cravath Associate Pleads Guilty to Sex CrimesLAW
• James Colliton, the former Cravath associate embroiled in a sex-crimes suit, got a lighter sentence after he admitted to paying a mother for sex with her two teenage girls. [Law Blog/WSJ]
• Debevoise and Plimpton’s marquee new hire, the former attorney general of the U.K., has a few scuffs on his highly polished shoes: He carried on an affair while in office with a leading woman barrister. [Above the Law]
• When $1,000 an hour isn’t enough, premium billing — a kind of law-firm tip for a job well done — is the best way to really start raking in the profits. [DealBook/NYT]
company town
Topshop Signs a Lease in NYC?FASHION
• Breaking rumor alert: After months of hinting, Topshop has possibly, maybe signed a New York lease. Anglophiles and Kate Moss–ophiles, rejoice! [Fashionista]
• First he’s out as the designer of Dior Homme. Now, Hedi Slimane’s been replaced by none other than BFF Karl Lagerfeld as the photographer of the ad campaigns. Oh, cruel fashion world! [WWD]
• Giorgio Armani’s raking in the dough. The designer sold back a 5 percent stake in his company to Giorgio Armani SpA for about $110 million. [British Vogue]
company town
Introducing Goldman CFO David ‘Bones’ ViniarFINANCE
• Meet David “Bones” Viniar, the reclusive Goldman CFO who’s quadrupled profits in the last eight years. A graduate of Bronx Science, he sits at the top, surveying his domain, as CEOs come and go. [Financial News via DealBook/NYT]
• Stephen Feinberg’s Cerberus is clearly the hedge fund’s hedge fund: to help finance the firm’s acquisition of Chrysler, Feinberg roped in $100 million from at least four other top firms — and made them pay for the privilege. [Deal Journal/WSJ] • Another sign that we’re in the wrong business: Henry Kravis managed to ink an $8 billion buy-out, later back out of the deal, and then even got his bankers to step up and pay the penalties. [MarketBeat/WSJ]
company town
Jeb’s JobFINANCE
• Lehman landed former Florida governor Jeb Bush as an adviser. Makes you wonder which bank will get the honor of hiring W. when the “first MBA president” finally steps down. [Deal Journal/WSJ]
• Does Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis’s move to save Countrywide, the largest mortgage lender in the United States, make him a modern-day J.P. Morgan? [MarketWatch]
• John Dyment, the global head of Deutsche Bank’s hedge-fund unit, jumped ship for Shumway Capital Partners, a hedge fund based in Greenwich. [TheStreet.com]
company town
Suri Cruise Experiments With Child Stardom, Wall Streeters Do Same With HonestyFINANCE
• A new poll shows more than half of Wall Street traders would commit a felony for a $10 million profit. Now our trust in these guys is really shaken. [NYP]
• The Times outlines which funds are suffering the most — not that you should panic or anything. [NYT]
• Round two in the housing meltdown: Get foreclosed on a $100,000 mortgage, and you owe the IRS $33,000 for the “forgiven” debt. Fortunately, the Manhattan market is still red-hot. So no, you still can’t buy an apartment. [NYT, NYT]
show and talk
Fabiola on Fashion: Dispatches From the European Couture Shows
With the European couture collections almost finished — Valentino will wind things up tomorrow with a show in Rome — fashion correspondent Fabiola Beracasa checked in with Daily Intel via BlackBerry last night. What follows are highlights from Beracasa’s lengthy account of fabulousness — we’re holding the rest back because we don’t want to blind readers with too much of the lavish excess. So what did Fab learn this year? That even when you pack 28 dresses, you still forget the right one; that military outfits are hot; and that the power of Karl Lagerfeld’s genius extends even to the weather. After the jump, her lessons from this season’s runways.
gossipmonger
Enquiring Minds Want CashThe wife and son of deceased National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr. are suing each other for the remainder of his $418 million fortune. Barbaro was the focus groups’ choice for August’s Vanity Fair cover, but Graydon Carter nixed him for Shia LaBeouf. CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo will soon have her own show titled Money Honey. The Giulianis like golf, bargains, The Tudors. Chris Noth tried to poach talent for his club from Hawaiian Tropic Zone but failed. Tinsley Mortimer and Lydia Hearst are attending a dinner thrown by Pete Wentz in the Hamptons. Jon Anderson of Yes canceled a benefit show for a bunch of kids because his spiritual adviser told him to.
company town
Bad Times for the ‘Times’MEDIA
• In a show of symbolic disapproval, New York Times shareholders withhold 42 percent of the vote for the company’s directors. [AP via Yahoo]
• Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and prolific author David Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash on his way to an interview. [NYT]
• Are Marie Claire’s video podcasts too commercial to be called editorial? [WWD]
show and talk
Will Dior Homme Designer Hedi Slimane Head Out on His Own?Hedi Slimane, the hollow-eyed waif designer for whom Karl Lagerfeld lost 90 pounds, is out at Dior Homme, according to WWD’s redoubtable Paris bureau chief, Miles Socha. Even though Slimane is an international superstar who single-handedly made a moribund label into the hottest thing on the planet his ultraskinny black suits changed the way men dress he’s reportedly getting tossed from the LVMH-owned company for diva-ish behavior and protracted contract negotiations. (His contract was left unsigned for nearly a year, as reported yesterday.)
gossipmonger
Mama Don’t PreachMadonna won’t let her daughter dress like, well, Madonna. The U.N. campus has a pretty serious rodent-and-eel problem. Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Building owner Jerry Speyer is proficient with a yo-yo. Oscar presenter Jerry Seinfeld has been asked to host the Oscars next year but can’t because of a movie obligation. “The Secret” is Hollywood’s new Scientology/Kabbalah. Martha Stewart just bought an unfinished apartment in the West Village for $16 million. Someone stole one of Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel dresses and sent it to Courtney Love to wear. Kathie Lee Gifford has as soft spot for Britney Spears, though her son fancies Paris. Mark Ruffalo is far nicer to the press than he needs to be.
company town
Goldman Bonuses Depress AllFINANCE
• Goldman lieutenants score $52.5 million bonuses, take home more than most Wall Street CEOs. [NYT]
• Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman calls making a $36 billion real-estate deal “an out-of-body experience.” [Knowledge@Wharton via DealBreaker]
• Are public companies going private just so the CEO can make more money? [DealBook/NYT]
the morning line
There Either Will or Will Not Be Six More Weeks of Winter
• We can all agree it’s Groundhog Day, but there’s little agreement beyond that. Contradictory early-morning behavior from local groundhogs Staten Island Chuck, Holtsville Hal, and Malverne Phil casts uncertainty on the duration of winter. [Newsday]
• Hillary Clinton has announced that her presidential fund-raisers must pony up a record-breaking $1 million apiece to make her BFF inner circle. (By comparison, Dubya’s BFF benchmark in 2000 was a trifling $100,000.) The burning question: Should the HRC BFFs be called “Pathfinders” or the naughtier “Hillraisers”? [NYT]
• Just in time for Black History Month, and egged on by rap legend Kurtis Blow, the City Council ponders a resolution to urge all New Yorkers to stop using the N-word. And even when you end it with an a, dawg. [amNY]
• In the political equivalent of wearing the same dress to the dance, ‘08 rivals Giuliani and McCain learned they’d be sharing top billing in May at a big New York State GOP fund-raiser — and some party insiders are calling it a major dis to Rudy. [NYP]
• One day after he suggested that Barack Obama was the first black presidential candidate to master both English and personal hygiene, Senator Joe Biden hit Al Sharpton’s radio show to insist he had the highest regard for the Rev’s syntax. [NYDN]
company town
Lindsay Lohan, DumbstruckThe big news today in the city’s big businesses.
FASHION
• Lindsay Lohan’s Miu Miu ads keep coming — now she’s a vibrant, dumbstruck dolly. [Fashionologie]
• There’s a bimbo logjam at the top of Mr. Blackwell’s annual worst-dressed list. [Downtown Darling]
• A Paris court dismissed Karl Lagerfeld’s claim against journalist Alicia Drake. He sued her for invasion of privacy — but really, people say, because she called him middle class. [WWD]