The Rising Tide of Shoddy PollsNew online platforms make it cheaper and easier to conduct polls. Some are just fine, but others could begin to poison the well.
J.Lo and Marc Anthony’s Problems ContinueThe couple had trouble getting into one of the inaugural balls last night. Also, Sheryl Crow had an awkward interaction with an ex, and Russell Simmons got caught stealing!
ByTim Murphy
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Let Ashley Olsen Be a Little Girl and Lick Her FingersShe’s getting flack for not washing her hands after the movies, but maybe she likes to lick the butter taste like us! Related: We wish we could’ve soothed the Cuddle Guv’s stage fright. In the I’m-Fried Day gossip roundup.
Fans to Joe Torre: Did You Get a Haircut?’Joe Torre’s new look, Ashlee Simpson’s continued Saturday Night Live ban, and Rudy Giuliani’s black eye — read all about it in our daily roundup of the juice in New York’s gossip columns.
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Brooke Shields Shares the Love on ‘Lipstick’Lipstick Jungle may top Cashmere Mafia because Jungle star Brooke Shields is nicer to her castmates than Mafia star Lucy Liu is to hers. Details editor Dan Peres says he’s going crazy and putting on weight because wife Sarah Wynter is pregnant. Kid Rock paid a busboy at Southern Hospitality $1,000 after he returned a $200,000 watch found on the floor of the bathroom that belonged to a Rock posse member. Val Kilmer was spotted running around town with Chad Lowe’s girlfriend, Kim Painter. Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce refused to use his credit card at Tenjune and left to go find a club where he could use cash. Donald Trump is hosting a Celebrity Apprentice party at Tenjune during Fashion Week. Uma Thurman and boyfriend Arpad Busson were all over each other at lunch at Lever House.
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Kid Rock Proposes to ‘New York,’ Says He Would Convert to JudaismNew York reporter Shira Levine ran into Kid Rock, divorced and full of vim on New Year’s Eve, at the party he was hosting at the Gansevoort. “I’m a lot of fun at parties,” he announced. Shira tactfully did not mention that she wasn’t so sure about that; she had, after all, seen that video of him and Scott Stapp. They enjoyed a few moments of conversation, and he asked for her name. “Shira,” she said.
Then he made his indecent proposal. “Shira, will you marry me?”
“No,” she said. “I’m not marrying anybody who has been married as many times as you.” Shira’s mom raised her right, you see.
“I’ve only been married once!” Kid protested. “I got married to the same girl like five times. Does that count?”
Shira wasn’t sure. She sized Kid up. He was wearing a white tracksuit, a bowler hat, and a fur stole. “Would you convert to Judaism?” she asked.
Kid replied enthusiastically: “Yeah! If I can get lifted up on the chair at the wedding! I love Jewish people.”
Shira had heard this from men before. It usually meant they were after her money. “What do you love so much about Jewish people?” she asked warily.
“They just fucking got 50-caliber fucking guns in Israel. They don’t give a fuck. They’ll unload on anybody. ‘Fuck with us? We’ll fuck you up.’ That’s my motto in life. ‘Be nice to everybody, but if somebody fucks with you, FUUUUCK them up.’ We’re fucking saving your country basically.”
“Thanks, but I’m not Israeli, just Jewish,” Shira said.
“Same thing. You say tomato, I say fuck off!” Kid Rock let loose a big, raucous laugh.
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Sarah Jessica Parker Doesn’t Hate All of Her CastmatesJames Mackenroth, a contestant on the upcoming season of Project Runway, may have been voted off in part because of a staph infection made worse by his HIV. Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Hudson filmed a scene for the Sex and the City movie together at the Carlyle Hotel, and SJP gave JHud a CD! A-Rod and Martha Stewart posed for photos together at Nobu 57. Contrary to a previous “Page Six” report, attendees at the Rolling Stone reunion in San Francisco actually did drink the Champagne that Jann Wenner sent. James Gandolfini pulled out of appearing at a John McCain fund-raiser in New York because of “scheduling conflicts.” Anderson Cooper thinks Britney Spears is underreported on.
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Amy Sacco, Battling Love’s Velvet Rope?A Long Island woman Michael Lohan met in family court is pissed off because he has another girlfriend. An item claims there’s “trouble in paradise” between Amy Sacco and fiancé Luigi Di Carolis but doesn’t specify what it is. Bill Clinton threw Chelsea’s ex Ian Klaus a book party at Tabla. A number of people invited to the In Touch party at Tenjune never made it inside because the doormen let in their personal friends instead of invited guests. Denise Rich plans to take her 6,000-foot yacht, now docked at the Battery Park Marina, to the Caribbean for Thanksgiving. Gillian Hearst-Shaw and Christian Simonds are getting married tomorrow at the Pierre Hotel, with Lydia set to be her sister’s maid of honor.
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Scores Stripper Not So Sure About Drag De La HoyaThe Scores stripper who had the photos of Oscar De La Hoya in drag is now saying she cannot “personally verify the authenticity of the images,” likely because she was threatened by De La Hoya’s lawyer. Lever House owner and real-estate mogul Abe Rosen is forcing tenants (including art collector Robert Wilson) out of his nine-story building on 67 Vestry Street to turn it into a luxury condo building. Miss USA Rachel Smith says she wants to be taken seriously as a TV reporter and not “end up like Katie Couric.” Donald Trump denied having once punched his second-grade music teacher, despite having written about the story in a book. Bruce Willis and his eight-person entourage were denied entry to Socialista at 3 a.m. Ivanka Trump’s jewelry line predictably does not include diamond grills. Dates with some hot firefighters are being auctioned off for charity at Turtle Bay Lounge tonight.
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Judith Regan Says Murdoch’s Wife Smacks Him AroundA diner at the Waverly Inn overheard Judith Regan claiming that Rupert Murdoch is regularly hit by wife Wendi. Marilyn Manson may or may not have been asking for coke and Adderall in the bathroom of Bette last week. Helena Christensen’s 7-year-old son, Mingus, is a chess genius. Howard Stern thinks Beth Ostrosky has invited too many people to their wedding. Lance Armstrong chatted with Blackstone’s Pete Peterson at the Four Seasons. Cindy Adams claims that Colin Powell told friends that he sympathizes with General Petraeus but that he’s “digging his own foxhole” (or some approximation thereof).
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Fashionistas Mad Wintour Likes Federer BetterAlice + Olivia designer Stacey Bendet took offense to Molly Sims’s comment that the label was “lower end” by claiming that Sims begged for free pants and a plane ticket to the show when she modeled for her last February. Tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova claim to be just friends, but they were out singing karaoke together till 5 a.m. the night after Djokovic lost in the finals. In other tennis news: Some designers were annoyed that Anna Wintour spent more time with Roger Federer at the U.S. Open than at Fashion Week shows. Details editor Dan Peres is expecting his first child with Aussie wife Sarah Wynter. Walmart competitor the Wholesale Department Store Union bought out a showing of Off Broadway show Walmartopia. Chef Todd English, of Olives fame, may open up a new place on 98 Kenmare Street. Liz Smith’s sources tell her that Rudy Giuliani is “a bad man and an erratic personality” but would make a good chief executive.
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Roddick Calls Federer a ‘Robot’Nicole Kidman may be playing Vanity Fair–style arbiter Amy Fine Collins in the film adaptation of her memoir. Rupert Murdoch may be trying to lure CNBC “Money Honey” Maria Bartiromo to his new Fox Business Channel, though the Post isn’t making matters easy by writing negative items about her. The Suffolk County D.A. has seized over 45,000 pages of legal papers in its investigation of the Fire Island double voting scandal. Mischa Barton may or may not have had a wardrobe malfunction at a Save the Children event at Lincoln Center. Andy Roddick referred to Roger Federer as a “robot.” Authors of a book about Doris Duke are claiming that Bob Balaban, director of an upcoming movie about the tobacco heiress, may have committed copyright infringement. Rudy Giuliani played golf — though presumably not well — sans Secret Service at the Noyac Golf Club in Sag Harbor.
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iGreedySony chairman Howard Stringer called Steve Jobs “greedy” at the Allen & Co. conference. The main character of Doug Stumpf’s Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy may be based on pervy billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise went to the Biography Bookstore in the West Village and then to Magnolia. Joe DiMaggio’s brother Dom is not pleased the Yankee Clipper’s diaries are for sale. Stone Phillips is leaving Dateline, and he bought his longtime assistant an Audi as a parting gift. Matt Damon wants Al Gore to run for president. Ashlee Simpson helped beau Pete Wentz conquer his fear of flying so Wentz could get to the Hamptons via seaplane. Democratic Leadership Council Chairman Harold Ford Jr. hung out with Jay-Z, Nas, and Kid Rock in Southampton. Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany brought their 4-year-old to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.
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Fighting ‘Times’A fight in the New York Times Style department between fashion editor Anita LeClerc and deputy editor Mary Ann Giordano got physical when LeClerc actually shoved Giordano. Lindsay Lohan still doesn’t get along with her (recently released from prison) father. Elton John capped his 60th-birthday weekend in New York by spending time at Roseland with a leather-clad, muscular African-American man. “Page Six” resurrects its vendetta against Keith Olbermann, this time claiming he once asked out a porn star and was rejected. Inventive Spanish chef Dr. Miguel Sanchez Romera is looking for a Village townhouse in which to open up a Manhattan branch of his Barcelona eatery, L’Esguard. Anna Nicole Smith wanted to play Marilyn Monroe in a Joe DiMaggio biopic but was turned down for the role.