How the Gas-Tax Pander Brought Clinton LowOver the past week, the headlines in Indiana turned to the split between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the idea of a gas-tax “holiday.” So did the political ads flooding Hoosier airwaves. And the result was last night’s nasty surprise for Clinton.
Conservative Pundits Seriously Bugging Out Over McCainJohn McCain, left for dead only a few months ago, has of course become the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Many Democrats are uneasy because he’s popular with independents and should pose a serious challenge in the general election. Republicans are uneasy because he’s popular with independents — that is, he hasn’t always been a team player. Lately, he’s been keeping the conservative bloggers and talk-radio folks up at night; when they finally get to sleep, they have nightmares of McCain making an illegal immigrant his secretary of defense and nominating Arianna Huffington to the Supreme Court.
cultural capital
Julian Schnabel’s Hands Would Like ‘GQ’ to Run a Correction
Julian Schnabel has a bone to pick with Andrew Corsello’s Schnabulous profile of him in GQ this month, one Boston Globe reporter found when he went to interview the director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Perhaps, you might say, Schnabel took issue with being called a “fat, famous, hairy, rich, name-dropping blowhard”? Not so much. What troubled him was something else.
“Look at these hands,” he urges, laying them flat on the table. In the profile, Andrew Corsello describes Schnabel’s hands as “thick, unpretty, blue-collar” and his fingers as “scratched, filthy with dirt and paint, medium-sized.”
“Do these look blue collar?”
Even after the Globe reporter assures him that Corsello was way off and honestly in the dark someone might mistake his fingers for those of Muffie Potter Aston, Schnabel is still clearly obsessing.
He puts out his hand for a shake, and then holds on. It’s actually not much of a handshake. In his grasp, Schnabel keeps the embrace for a good 10 seconds, making sure he’s able to show the softness of the skin.
“These are delicate hands,” he says.
Big Man on Canvas (screen, too) [Boston Globe]
Earlier:Julian Schnabel is Numero Uno!
gossipmonger
Donna Karan Accepts CougarhoodFifty-five-year-old Donna Karan’s boy toy is 30-year-old model J.J. Biasucci. Ethan Hawke allegedly started dating “secret” girlfriend (his former nanny!) Ryan Shawhughes before he was divorced from Uma Thurman. Steve Martin played the banjo and read funny poems at the Cutting Room. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin shared a happy dinner at BLT Fish. Eighty-eight-year-old Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau may step down from his post, which would allow Governor Spitzer to appoint Cyrus Vance Jr. Michael Kors served mini-cheeseburgers at his store opening in Soho. Madonna kicked 25 yoga students out of a studio at the Reebok Sports Club on Columbus so she could practice by herself. Howard Stern is annoyed at Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner for bringing paparazzi to his Upper West Side block.
in other news
A Beard for Every BoroughOver on Men’s Vogue’s Website, socialite/designer/whatever Amanda Brooks is agitating hard for the return of the “uptown beard.” Even after perusing the pictures, we personally can’t tell exactly what separates an uptown beard from the others — probably because we come from slightly different stock than Amanda and such subtleties are lost on us — but we’re guessing she means something like the fuzz George Clooney has been sporting lately. And we quite like the idea of regional beard styles. For instance, there could also be the downtown beard, dark and spirited, like Simon Hammerstein’s. Or the Williamsbeard, which would be pomaded with Miller Genuine Draft and sprinkled with panko bread crumbs (the East Williamsbeard would have side curls.) The Jerseybeard would be a soul patch. Other beard suggestions? Tell us in the comments!
Uptown Beards [Men’s Vogue]
intel
Gloria Steinem Remembers Norman MailerIt wasn’t lost on the activists at the National Women’s Conference at Hunter College that literary lion Norman Mailer, whose writing became a target of feminist wrath during the seventies, died in New York on the same day that their event began. The weekend-long program, which drew members of some 50 women’s and girls’ organizations, was planned by the late congresswoman Bella Abzug’s daughter Liz to mark the 30th anniversary of the first such gathering in Houston. And while the elder Abzug once told Mailer, “We think your views on women are full of s—,” she supported him in his losing 1969 campaign for mayor of New York, as did Gloria Steinem, who spoke Sunday morning to a cheering crowd of about 600 women from 21 states who had attended workshops with titles like “Smashing the Glass Ceiling.”
party lines
Are You Smarter Than a Goldman Banker?Great triumph mixed with crushing defeat the other night as highly competitive people with lots of disposable income gathered at the Gramercy Park Hotel Private Roof Club for a fancy quiz night to benefit Darna, an organization that feeds struggling women and children in Tangier. It was a strange mix of monied New York: socialites, models, fashion designers, and, of course, investment bankers, who felt a little out of place. “We’re investment-bank nerds, so we spent pretty much a month planning our outfits,” said a member of the Goldman Sachs team. “We had wardrobe consultations on conference calls.” The grand prize they were competing for? A trip to Morocco to stay in the family villa of model Jacquetta Wheeler, the host.