Steve Schwarzman Is Friends With Jamie Dimon and Dick Fuld AgainHey, did you hear? Steve Schwarzman was in a fight with Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan and Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehmann Brothers, after the banks refused to help Blackstone purchase-mortgage lender and vehicle fleet manager PHH, after they’d promised to. What really got Schwarzman’s goat was the fact that they did help finance Sam Zell’s purchase of the Tribune because, according to the Post, Zell is a “nice guy.” So actually it’s kind of like that part in Mean Girls, when Gretchen and Karen tell Regina she can’t sit with them at lunch because she’s wearing sweatpants, but really it’s because she’s a bitch. Anyway, Schwarzman must have realized that the rest of his high school Wall Street career would be hell if he didn’t make up with Dimon and Fuld, so he went to see them and apologized in person, not even just over e-mail. Now everything is okay. “It seems we are friends again,” a source told the Post. “It was in nobody’s interest to carry on this p***ing contest and Stephen graciously recognized that.” Yeah, but wait till the pages of his burn book get leaked.
Steve’s Sorry [NYP]
vu.
Celebrities Hot for One Brooklyn Bridge ParkWhat is it with One Brooklyn Bridge Park? A tipster says three celebrities are checking out the luxe 449-unit condo project, whose former incarnation was headquarters for the decidedly un-luxe Watchtower, a magazine published by the Jehovah’s Witness. Model Bridget Hall was recently spotted at the building, presumably for a tour, as has another catwalker, now turned reality-TV-and-talk-show host Tyra Banks. Hilary Swank is said to be interested in the property, too, and is apparently expected for a look-see soon. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the building’s transformation has piqued such interest that its waiting list of potential buyers was 3000 strong earlier this year. Real-estate doyenne Elizabeth Stribling bought two units there, and now her posh brokerage firm, Stribling & Associates, helps market the project. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
intel
We’re Back!Welcome back to us, that is. Like many of you, we spent most of the last ten days or so in the isolation tank that is our homes, eating butter and sugar by the fistful, drinking, and willfully ignoring the outside world; the only newspaper headline that passed in front of our bleary eyes was one that said, “War Hero Harry Bailey Returns to Bedford Falls.” We were happy, and all was right with the world. That is, until this morning, when we were cruelly deposited back into the cold, cookie-less world we lived in before, blinking, five pounds fatter, and approximately ten times stupider. We thought some of you might be in the same position, so we’ve quickly pulled together a list of what we think might have happened last week while we were napping.
•Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup all got foreign money in their Christmas stockings.
•Serena and Dan started dating in real life, sending our Gossip Girl Reality Index numbers flying off the charts.
•Benazir Bhutto was killed.
early and often
George Bush Is a Little Mad About DadWhen President Bush’s press conference came on this morning, we were frankly a little grateful for the interruption during the fourth hour of the Today show. The vague chipper bitterness of those last few cooking segments has really begun to wear on us. Our favorite moment of the press conference was when a reporter asked Bush about Bill Clinton’s Monday statement that the first thing Hillary would do as president would be to send Clinton and the former President Bush (“41”) around the world “to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again.” So, what did the current President Bush think of that?
“41 didn’t think it was necessary,” he laughed coldly. “Sounds like it would be a one-man trip.”
Wait, it’s like we’re back watching Today again! Everybody’s smiling, but why is the air crackling with bitterness? We suspect we know: Ever since the uncomfortable lovefest between Bush 41 and Bill Clinton began, Bush the younger has been totally jealous. And then Bill tried to steal the president’s dad for his own team! Such melodrama. We can’t wait until Showtime makes this into a historical mini-series.
Bill Clinton: George H.W. Bush Will Help Hillary [CNN]
buy low
When No Views Are No Problem Near Columbus CircleSay you want three bedrooms and three baths on the Upper West Side. And say you’ll pay $1,000 per square foot but not much more. Seem impossible? Not entirely. At 10 West End Avenue, the Sunshine Group is offering 7H and 7J — a total of 1,974 square feet — for just over $2 million. That’s a deal in a new 33-story building, with occupancy scheduled for this spring, where average active prices run $1,146 a foot. “It’s a very easy combination and a functional layout,” says sales director Loretta Bradbury. And it includes unlimited dips into the building’s pool, gym, and Children’s Museum of Manhattan–designed playroom. But you’ll need to spend lots of time in the common space or outdoors (gasp!) to enjoy the surroundings. You get no terraces on the seventh floor, and your windows offer, um, “city views.” On one side you face the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. And across West End Avenue, you’re looking at a vacant lot that won’t stay vacant. Bradbury won’t comment on when a new building will cast its shadow. But, hey, you might be able to afford boarding school by then. —Alec Appelbaum
in other news
More U.S. Women Are Single Than Married: Discuss
A record-setting 51 percent of U.S. women are now living without a spouse, according to a report in today’s Times — up from 35 percent in 1950. How do New York women feel about that spike? We asked them in front of that temple of matrimony, the Kleinfeld bridal megashop in Chelsea. —Tim Murphy