George Soros: You Ain’t Seen Nothing YetPublishing musical chairs, bad news on the economy front, and gripes about law-school rankings — all in our daily roundup.
Naked Pictures of Gisele and Carla Bruni Sell for Big BucksWhich one of these models is worth nearly $100,000 more than the other naked? What recently divorced Romeo is already trying to get his new lady knocked up? And did the tabloids miss out of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s wedding because they couldn’t get pictures? Or are they racist? All this and more in our daily gossip roundup.
early and often
McCain He IsThe presidential candidate confuses Brooklyn residents by choosing an unlikely location in which to announce his new economic plan.
in other news
The Couric Countdown Has Already BegunAs we learn more about the meetings and discussions behind yesterday’s report that Couric may leave CBS in 2009, it seems like she’s already planning life after the evening news.
company town
Katie Couric and Sean McManus: Chipper at CBS in Spite of It AllMore troubles for Sam Zell, Heather Mills is coming to town, and half of Bear Stearns employees are facing the ax. Click through to read the rest of our news roundup from the fields of media, law, finance and real estate.
Barack Obama Runs But Can’t Hide From Reverend Wright
The good news for Barack Obama: The latest Democratic race-based scandal comes during a five-week lull between primaries, so it may not actually result in any tangible loss until the April 22 Pennsylvania contest. The bad news: It might be something people still remember on April 22. Obama is feeling the heat right now for several particularly inflammatory statements made by his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, which have recently received renewed scrutiny in the media. Obama has come out against Wright’s remarks and dropped him from the campaign, but questions surrounding the closeness of their relationship and Obama’s knowledge of Wright’s more provocative statements continue unabated. How damaging to Obama will this controversy become? And are we committing guilt by association, or guilt by … guilt?
intel
The ‘Times’ Notices Something Skinny About Male ModelsHey, guys, remember when we noticed that male models, starting with the fashion shows in Milan, were surprisingly skinny this year? Well, eventually Guy Trebay noticed, too! He has a whole story in the Times about it today. Now, to our eyes, the models in New York aren’t as coltish and sunken-cheeked as they were in Milan. But they are skinnier than usual. Take the normally buff boys of Duckie Brown, for example. Their silhouettes are much narrower this year. For more evidence, click through our slideshows from menswear (and mixed) shows like DKNY, Phillip Lim, and Thom Browne.
The Vanishing Point [NYT]
Related: The Skinny on Milan’s Male Models
21 questions
Model Man Scott Lipps Would Not Live in New York on $35,000Name: Scott Lipps
Job: President, One Management. Even though Lipps is a busy man during Fashion Week, he also just launched a pop-culture blog, The New Blog.
Neighborhood: Soho
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
Actually, he was a Londoner (I’m a bit of an Anglophile), but he lived in New York. Does that count? That would be the greatest songwriter of all time, Mr. John Lennon.
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
Its a toss-up between a beautiful romantic evening I just had at Danube and the all-time favorite Sushi Yasuda love that sushi .
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Manage, manage, manage actors, models, musicians; I’m managing as we speak.
intel
Natalia Vodianova’s Hips Do LieSo as you’ve probably guessed, we’re all in a tizzy getting ready for Fashion Week. We’ve started getting our invitations, we’re assigning photographers, and we’re going through the schedule and castings. As we looked at agency DNA’s list of models who are up for gigs starting next week, we spotted a familiar name: 25-year-old Natalia Vodianova. The beauty from a destitute Russian village turned British aristocrat’s wife is among the lovelies. It got us thinking about how Vodianova never seems to age. After nearly ten years of modeling, she still has the same baby face and baby hips. Like, not the kind that are made for the having of babies (even though she’s popped out three), but ones that a model for babyGap would take one look at and stop breast-feeding for a week out of sheer envy for them. Nothing she can do seems to shake that girlish figure. Vodianova gave birth to son Viktor on September 13, and while she sat out the New York shows in the fall, she hit the Paris runways less than three weeks later. This made us wonder about Vodianova’s other model-cum-mommy powers, so we went back and did the math on her past postpartum runway returns.
intel
Video: Backstage at Ford’s Supermodel of the Year Competition
Ford’s Supermodel of the World competition last year launched model Chanel Iman (who was a runner-up) into the freezing, barely breathable atmosphere of the modeling world. Since then she’s modeled for Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, and Derek Lam, among many others. She was also featured on the cover of Vogue last year in an homage to fashion’s new supermodels. So anyone who says the annual Ford contest isn’t a ticket to stardom is just plain wrong. Click above to view some backstage video of this year’s competition and model interviews with New York’s Jada Yuan.
Ford Supermodel of the World [NYM Video]
intel
The Skinny on Milan’s Male ModelsRemember how, during the past few fashion weeks, there’s been such a to-do about the health of female models? In 2006 in Madrid, designers were ordered to select only runway models with a healthy body mass index and officially banned from using any that set an unhealthy example for young women. This was followed by political efforts in other cities, including New York, to institute the same kind of rule. Designers and buyers alike took sides in the debate. Well, it’s been a while since we’ve talked about the issue, but we’re wondering whether it might be coming up again this season. As many fashionistas are winging their way back to New York from the Milan shows today, we’re hearing that there’s buzz about the size of the models. The male models.In this week’s Italian menswear shows, as you can tell from scanning through New York’s extensive photo galleries, there was an emphasis on the super-skinny. “The models did look more like stick insects than usual,” texted one fashion guru while idling on an airport runway waiting to come home. “Even Dolce & Gabbana [who often favor overmuscled hunks] had slightly more slender models!” This is a city that made headlines for plastering itself with cautionary billboards of a naked anorexic woman before last fashion week, too. We’re not saying any of these guys are unhealthy (we’ll wait until the swimwear shows start to really start judging), but they’ve certainly gotten that “colt look” going. Kate Bosworth would kill for those legs!
European Menswear Shows [NYM Fashion]
early and often
The Final Bid: What the Candidates Had to Say Before Iowa Finally Stopped ListeningToday, Iowa is all about the last word. Encouraged by a recent favorable opinion poll in the state, McCain returned for a brief trip, along with Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sam Brownback of Kansas. All three were harping on McCain’s foreign-policy experience. “Call me old-fashioned, but I think foreign-policy experience matters,” Graham said. “And if it does matter, then the choice is easy.” “I know Pakistan, I know Israel,” explained McCain at a different event. “I know these countries, I know their leaders.” [NYO]
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton sent out talking points to surrogate speakers drumming up support across the state. They include bullet items like “Change isn’t something you just demand, or hope for, it is something you work for, and [Hillary] has been working for it all her life,” and “Hillary has stood up to the Republicans and beat them twice in landslides.” [Time]
ink-stained wretches
Low Temperatures, High Drama: Inside the Iowa Press Corps
As you know, everyone who’s anyone in politics is in Iowa right now. But so is everyone who’s no one! That’s right, we’re talking about the press, the unwashed mass following the candidates around, scribbling and taping and snap-snapping as Hillary, Obama, McCain et al spout platitudes, stuff themselves full of local cuisine and generally attempt to maintain a grip on the love handles of the elusive midwestern vote. That’s who we want to know about. We’ve had enough of Billary and FreJeri Thompson and KuciniHottie. What about the writers, anchors and bloggers who make them who they are?? (Or at least tell us who they want them to be?) For those of you with a lurid curiosity about these sick characters, we did some digging into what the Iowa press corps is up to. And not just the Dana Milbanks and the Adam Nagourneys. (Spotted! The NYT staff having dinner at Lucca, the Italian place in Des Moines’ “East Village” that Ad Nags raved about in the travel section a few weeks ago.) We mean everyone. Take Jodi Kantor from the Times, for example.
video look book
California Visitor Actually a Displaced New Yorker
California legal secretary Colleen Delee took a break from shopping on Rodeo Drive to wear her Fendi fur in New York, where it’s actually cold enough for animal skins. But is that the only difference between New York and Los Angeles? Of course not. Delee shares her insights (and her recommendations on custom shoes) in this week’s Video Look Book.
Video Look Book: Colleen Delee
new york fugging city
The Fug Girls’ Official Celebrity-Style Mandates for 2008Yes, it was the year of downward spirals, DUIs, and prison terms, but 2007 was also chockablock with stylistically challenged celebrities digging deep into their pocketbooks and shelling out for some new clothes and coifs — and as a result, of course, positive pro-makeover press. But now that the likes of Katie Holmes, Rihanna, and even — gasp — Fergie are all squared away, we’re turning an eye toward celebs who could use a similar style overhaul in 2008.
Take Heath Ledger, for instance. He’s freshly single, starring in the newest Batman film, and generally young and hot. So it’s beyond us why he insists on slumping around Brooklyn unshaven and wearing a porkpie hat. Wouldn’t his career and personal life continue their upward trajectory with more oomph if he put on a sharp suit occasionally, instead of dressing like he’s gone Method to play the Joker?
Juno star Ellen Page is poised to collect a lot of Hollywood hardware for her mantel/garage shelf/toilet lid. Yet so far she’s rarely worn anything but black or gray on the red carpet, often with an awkwardness evoking a kid eating her first meal at the adults’ table. With the spotlight headed her way, there’s no time like the present to go a bit more glam: Throw in some color, funk up the accessories, and turn the Everygirl into a woman. Done right, no one will remember who actually wins the damn awards.
company town
Richard Arens Is Having His MomentFINANCE
• Trader Richard Arens, who runs a brokerage named ABS, made a vanity trade in order to push oil past the $100/barrel milestone. We’re sure the girls at the bar will be real impressed. [MarketBeat/WSJ]
• Citigroup will likely start laying off between 5 and 10 percent of its workforce next week, cutting as many as 32,000 jobs. Merrill Lynch plans to cut around 1,600. [CNBC]
• Former E*Trade CEO Mitch Caplan, who helped load the company with the subprime loans, made off with a $11 million golden parachute. Compare that with former H&R Block chief Mark Ernst, responsible for his own big subprime losses, who took home a paltry $2.5 million. [Deal Journal/WSJ, DealBook/NYT]
early and often
Bill Clinton Pulls a Karl RoveLate yesterday, Bill Clinton made an interesting statement while stumping for Hillary in Iowa. He predicted Mike Huckabee (who, like Clinton, hails from Hope, Arkansas) would win the Republican caucus today and even gave him a sort of hedging endorsement. From the Sun:
“Governor Huckabee has got a little hometown pride going because it looks like the Iowa republicans are going to give him the caucus.”
“He looks to me like the only one who can tell a joke. It’s a pretty dark crowd.”
“You know he was underestimated. He’s got on well here and it doesn’t surprise me.”
That’s weird, huh? Especially since in some polls (like one in Arkansas, for example), Huckabee is the only candidate who poses a threat to Clinton’s wife, Hillary. It’s odd that Bubba would add his weight to Huckabee’s momentum. Except, wait a minute, isn’t this familiar? Didn’t Karl Rove and President Bush sort of tout Hillary herself as an inevitable Democratic choice, thus playing into her “de facto nominee” primary strategy? Rove and Bush did it because they assume Hillary’s negatives will take her down in the general election, so they felt safe encouraging her. Does former president Clinton feel that Huckabee is already flawed enough that he can’t win in a national election? Or does he know something we don’t (other than, you know, how to run a country) that might come up later? We’re not sure. All we can tell you is you’re lucky we’re not drinking already.
President Clinton Predicts Huckabee Win in Iowa [NYS]
photo op
Where Lou Reed Peed: Remembering the CBGB Toilet
At the end of today’s Times feature on the “punk house” — those big, cavernous sticker-encrusted warehouses, in which punks from Brooklyn to Nebraska hold shows and bake and digest soy casseroles — is a small but touching paean to an underappreciated facet of now-defunct club CBGB: The toilet. “The be-stickered, be-fliered and graffiti-emblazoned black hole” was a modern icon, the Times says, and none other than Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore agreed. “That’s the one thing that sears itself into your memory,” he told the paper. “It’s that toilet.” Shudder. Something tells us the contractors working on the John Varvatos store would agree.
Anarchy Rules, the Dishes Stay Dirty [NYT]
early and often
It’s Twelve Degrees and You Have to Deal With the Iowa Caucus. There’s Only One Way to Survive Today.You know what the Iowa caucus makes us want to do? Other than throttle every single smug, pie-eating, overpolled, overfriendly “I’s real folks y’all” person who lives in that state? It makes us want to drink. Unluckily for us, we have to follow the caucus all day long for work. But luckily for us, we can drink and follow the action in the Corn Belt. It turns out that Drinking Liberally, the progressively soused political group, will be partying at Rudy’s this afternoon. “As long as the Iowans are going to be deciding the fate of the free world out in the freezing Midwest, at least I can be watching it with friends,” DL co-founder Justin Krebs told Metro. They’ll even be playing drinking games, like chugging every time Fred Thompson licks his lips. Those liberals: so wacky!. Meanwhile, the young Republicans will be gathering at O’Lunney’s, alongside a different Democratic group. They’ll be serving drinks in red and blue Solo cups, so you can tell who is supporting whom. Which is all well and good, but we’re going to need some serious drinking by the end of the day. We can already tell. If we’re going to go through all this anxiety and just come out with an indecisive result, we’re going to need to be mainlining Smirnoff by 8 p.m. So, exasperated moderates, meet us at Tompkins Square Park after work to drink yourselves to death. We’ll bring the Pong Along. We hear Bloomberg has a mean Beirut drop shot.
It’s Party Time As Iowa’s Set to Caucus [Metro NY]
A-Rod Hires Guy Oseary, in Order to Better Entertain UsThere’s a new boss in the house of A-Rod, and sadly it’s not Cynthia Rodriguez. The Yankee third-baseman, who famously just renegotiated a $275 million contract with the Steinbrenners without the help of his longtime agent Scott Boras, has hired talent manager Guy Oseary to help steer his career. “He’s focusing on baseball and needs someone whose interests are aligned,” Oseary told Variety, seeming to imply that he will be A-Rod’s only management. “This is to help him have more control of his image and brand.” Now, we watched 60 Minutes on Saturday and A-Rod definitely said that he would keep Scott Boras onboard (Boras is getting $15 million from the A-Rod’s new contract, even though it was A-Rod’s wife, Cynthia, who coached him through it). “There hasn’t been a lot of talking back and forth” between Boras and A-Rod, the Yankee explained, but it seems like they’re still working together. Which is confusing, considering that Variety says they’re not. But it’s not as confusing as the fact that A-Rod hired Oseary in the first place. Oseary, who co-founded Maverick Records in the eighties, only has entertainment clients like Madonna, Lenny Kravitz, David Blaine, and the show Last Call With Carson Daly. Which we can only guess means that television, music, or magic is somewhere in A-Rod’s near future. We’re hoping for all three.
A-Rod Bats for Oseary’s Team [Variety]
Earlier: Scott Boras Out, Cynthia Rodriguez In?
vu.
Live Like a Supermodel, But With a Better ApartmentComely wannabes looking to launch their modeling careers usually bunk up in tiny apartments to make ends meet until they land that elusive cover. But not apparently the contestants for Make Me a Supermodel, Bravo’s upcoming reality series. A tipster says scouts for the show, slated to hit the air early next year and hosted by the easy-on-the-eyes Tyson Beckford, recently checked out a luxe (read camera-ready) 4500-square-foot penthouse on West 20th Street with five bedrooms, four and a half baths, and a roof deck. It’s currently on the market for $8.2 million, though apparently also available for rent for somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 a month. Listing broker Darren Sukenik of Prudential Douglas Elliman declined to comment. Needless to say, it’s not your average apartment, for models or otherwise. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
129 West 20th Street [Prudential Douglas Elliman]
intel
Intel Road Tests World’s Most Expensive Perfume: How Do We Smell?“The message was brutally simplistic: Don’t care about the cost,” said Clive Christian at Saks Fifth Avenue this past Saturday afternoon. He was at the department store to celebrate getting into the Guinness World Records book for his fragrance, called No. 1, the world’s most expensive perfume. Back in 1999, when he took over Britain’s Crown Perfumery, the company’s noses instructed him to disregard the sustainability of ingredients and the expense in creating the No. 1 scent. He wound up creating a perfume of Indian jasmine, mandarin, and sandalwood that costs $865 for 10ml and is favored by Katie Holmes, Elton John, the Beckhams, and assorted royalty. We doused ourselves in No. 1 and asked midtown holiday shoppers how classy we smelled.
company town
Rupert’s Fingers Already Closing Around the Heart of the ‘Journal’MEDIA
• Rupert Murdoch won’t officially take over the Journal until tomorrow, but he’s already dipped his tentacles deep into the paper. Rumor has it the Journal will dismiss two or three dozen people, to be replaced with Rupe’s cronies, and then go on a hiring spree. Oh, and apparently Murdoch briefly considered dropping “Wall Street” from the title. Tells you something about where the paper’s headed. [NYT]
• Sadly, Jane Pratt won’t actually be starring in a reality-TV show titled American Ugly, as we reported yesterday. C’mon Jane, don’t you love us? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• New York Post “Metro” editor Dan Colarusso, whom Col Allan praised as “a quintessential New Yorker,” walked out of the newsroom and quit yesterday. No word on why, but seems pretty quintessential to us. [Runnin’ Scared/VV]
white men with money
Merry Christmas, Richard Fuld!It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to a regulatory filing, Lehman CEO and chairman Richard Fuld, possessor of what is probably the most villainous face on Wall Street, received a nice little present this year: a stock grant valued at $35 million. This is way up from the $10 mil he made last year, basically because Lehman’s losses from underwriting of mortgage-backed bonds were not as bad as analysts expected. You’d think he’d at least smile.
Lehman CEO Recieves Stock Grant of $35 Million [WSJ]
intel
This Week, Give Cab Drivers a Little CreditIf you’ve ridden in New York taxis for a long time, you’re probably already wary of the credit-card machines that have been installed in many of them. The ones that have been in cabs for a couple of years now never really worked, and not handing over cash just feels weird. The Post reveals today that cab drivers are also suspicious of the devices. In fact, many of them would do anything to prevent you from swiping. According to the tabloid, they’d rather just grab your cold, hard cash and will lie about broken machines or fake policies to make sure that’s how you pay. The Post doesn’t specifically explain why some drivers would rather have you pay them in cash, but the implication that most cabbies are cheats is pretty heavy throughout the piece. The problem is so bad that the head of the Taxi and Limousine Commission himself was once prevented from using a credit card by a deceitful cabbie. The cabbies’ union claims that the problem is the equipment, not the drivers. After the jump, some technical advice on what to do to avoid this problem.
video look book
Nicole Poree-Zayas Has the Hookup
Fashion-design student Nicole Poree-Zayas gets bored and then dyes her hair. It was blue, but now there’s some purple in it, which matches her striped shirt and skinny jeans. Poree-Zayas is also sporting some Supreme X Nike Blazers, but it’s not like she had to camp out to get them. No she knows some people. See what else she knows by watching this week’s Video Look Book.
Video Look Book: Nicole Poree-Zayas
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.
early and often
Giuliani and the Manhattan Institute: The New George Bush and Straussianism?Today’s Observer story on Rudy Giuliani peeks into his intimate relationship with the conservative Manhattan Institute. Last year, they report, at an Institute award ceremony, Giuliani credited them with masterminding a huge portion of his platform.
“If there was kind of like a charge of plagiarism for political programs, I’d probably be in a lot of trouble because I think we plagiarized most of them, if not all of them, from the pages of the [Institute publication] City Journal and from the thinking and analysis of the Manhattan Institute.”
The Observer suggests that this is a unique scenario, where a candidate’s “policy dossier is built nearly from scratch on the theories of academics.” “I can’t imagine any other instance or any on the horizon where a think tank has that direct an influence,” author Tom Wolfe told the Observer. He may be right about a think tank in specific terms, but in general this story looks familiar. We can’t help but recall a time not long after our last president was elected when journalists began pointing out how strongly George Bush and his team were influenced by the thinking of German Jewish political philosopher Leo Strauss.
today in astor-ia
Is Charlene Marshall Getting Her Groove Back?Oh, no, she didn’t! Charlene Marshall, the wife of Brooke Astor’s son Anthony Marshall, who was recently indicted for looting his late mother’s estate, showed up all huffy at an Upper West Side Barnes & Noble Monday night, where author Frances Keirnan, was reading from her book The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story, a biography about the grande dame’s life and philanthropy that touches on the recent scandal. During the Q&A session, a witness told “Page Six,” Marshall caused a scene by confronting the author about her reporting. She was “waving her hand furiously,” the witness said. “It was such bad form on her part.” Still, the source notes, “She looked good. She’s lost weight and had her hair done.” There’s nothing like having your entire world fall apart to bring a flush to your cheeks and help you lose that extra five pounds!
it just happened
Vikram Pandit Is the New CEO of Citigroup!Poor Vikram Pandit! He’s been on the Citigroup throne for only a few hours, and already everyone is raining on his parade. “There was some hope that somebody with a bigger name would be chosen, so maybe from that perspective there is some disappointment,” Lee Delaporte, director of research at Dreman Value Management, told Reuters. Business Week, along with everyone else, took it upon themselves to elucidate just how much this job sucks, and CNN called his résumé “flimsy.” Well, at the very least, they know he’s not going to pull a Jimmy Cayne. “I don’t play golf. Period,” Pandit told New York in 2002. “I’m sure I’d enjoy it, but I just never got good at it.” But what do we really know about Vikram Pandit? After the jump, the salient facts of the 50-year-old CEO’s life.
intel
Find the Perfect Man With Our Male-Model Manual
If the delicious cornucopia pictured above didn’t already get your attention, allow us to direct you to our latest offering: men! More specifically, those newly featured in our ever-handy Model Manual, to which we’ve just added 41 male specimens. Don’t know your dreamboat’s name? No worries — he doesn’t necessarily need one, right? Plus, we’ve taken the time to organize them all by their distinctive traits, from Brazilian boys to sugar daddies. After the jump, please do enjoy a solid afternoon’s worth of lusty procrastination.
it just happened
Breaking: Man With Bomb Takes Hostages at Clinton’s N.H. HQ
Remember how we told you two hours ago that Clinton’s camp is “circling the wagons” around New Hampshire, because, unlike Iowa, the state is a safe bet for Hill? Yeah, pretty much — except for the maniac with a bomb. A man allegedly holding an explosive device has taken hostages at Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters in Rochester, New Hampshire. The candidate herself is not there, but the bomb threat is apparently credible; a nearby school has been evacuated and negotiators are being brought in — along with a group of officers with guns drawn. CNN says two people are inside, although it’s unclear whether this means two hostages or a hostage and the perp. Stay tuned, obviously. —Michael Idov
Update: CNN is reporting that the suspect is asking to speak to Senator Clinton; security has been tightened at Obama and Edwards’s HQs.
Update, 3:34 PM: There are no more hostages inside, but the suspect is still in the building with a bomb-like device strapped to his chest. The Clinton campaign has released a terse statement (“We are in close contact with state and local authorities”). SWAT members have been able to contact the perp and “calm him down,” although he remains inside.
Police responding to incident at Clinton campaign office [CNN]
sex diaries
The Sexed-Up Comedian With a Boss CrushOnce a week, Daily Intel takes a peek at what your friends and neighbors are doing behind doors left slightly ajar. Today, the Sexed-Up Comedian With a Boss Crush: 26, female, Upper West Side, bisexual, in a relationship.
DAY ONE
6 a.m.: Awaken to sensation of boyfriend’s boner pushed against my ass. Not sure if I’m in the mood. Decide to fuck him in an effort to find out.
6:15 a.m.: About to come, and then dog bursts into room and licks my face. Ironic, as we’re doing it doggy style. Incapable of coming with dog staring at me. Boyfriend comes anyway. Perv.
10 a.m.: Lady-boss tells me that I did a great job on the last project. She’s younger and hotter than I am. I contemplate ramifications of making out with her at the Christmas party in two months. If both my boyfriend and the CEO were watching, would it still be cheating/gross professional misconduct?
Noon: Lady-boss tells me I really need to speed things up on the next project. Hate criticism. Hate lady-boss. No office-party make-out for her.
ByArianne Cohen
intel
William Unroch and Maximilia Cordero Take On the ‘Post,’ AustraliaBack in October, we delighted in the rococo law filings filed by William J. Unroch, Esq., on behalf of his client and maybe-girlfriend, Maximilia “Ava” Cordero, a self-described model who claimed that at 16, she was molested by billionaire finance guy Jeffrey Epstein. (“Epstein suddenly went into the bathroom and came out several minutes later wearing red lipstick and wearing a matted red wig,” read a portion of her suit. “He said to plaintiff ‘Call me Janice.’”) Then the Post discovered that Maximilia was actually very probably a dude, which made everything even more interesting. “Gender-Bend Shocker!” they said. “Kinky-Sex Suit Gal Is a Man!” But apparently Unroch was not as amused as we are, because now he and Maximilia are suing News Corp., the Post’s parent company, for $100 million dollars. The complaint, which paints a picture of a fragile girl-man, besieged by a billionaire, an “unsuccessful dominatrix,” a publicist, and a conspiratorial news organization headed by a gang of reporters, names a number of Post writers and editors, reserving particular ire for Post reporter Lucy Carne, who according to Unroch, refused to print a retraction to a detail she knew to be false, reportedly telling him: “My father is the biggest lawyer in Brisbane, Australia.” “While perhaps your boss the Australian Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is impressed with your dad’s legal skills and perhaps uses him as an attorney,” Unroch sniped back, he says. “It is irrelevant to this matter unless I am missing something.”
Earlier: Daily Intel’s coverage of William J. Unroch and Maximilia Cordero
company town
Hillary Tries to Have It Both Ways With RupertMEDIA
• Today’s negotiations between the Hollywood writers and producers, who some say have already struck a deal, reportedly will be held in an “undisclosed location.” We always knew Cheney would come to the rescue! [HR]
• German Vanity Fair is being sued for an interview with an infamous neo-Nazi who denied the Holocaust. [Jerusalem Post via HuffPo]
• Rift in the house of Murdoch? Rupe complains that his son James can’t dumb down the news to his father’s tough standards. Meanwhile, a savvy voter in Iowa pressed Clinton on her Murdoch connections, and the senator, no surprise, tried to have it both ways. [FT via Mixed Media/Portfolio, The Caucus/NYT]
the sports section
Scott Boras Out, Cynthia Rodriguez In?As we all know, living in the world, hubris never bites people in the ass the way we want it to. Karl Rove left the White House before anything brought him down, people still read Perez Hilton, and Donald Trump still retains the power of speech. But could it possibly be that Scott Boras, the man who thought he was bigger than the World Series, is finally getting thrown from his high horse? Since it was announced last night that A-Rod went back to the negotiating table with the Yankees — alone — everyone’s been speculating on what this means for Boras. L.A. Times columnist Bill Shalkin even calls today “Schadenfreude Day” (which is funny, because we thought every day was Schadenfreude Day).
announcements
‘New York Look’ on Newsstands, En VogueListen up, everybody, we have an administrative announcement. (This is a little like that fire-safety director who randomly comes over the loudspeakers in your building to interrupt your day — except it’s a fashion alert, so you should listen this time.) The fashion department at New York has been doing a little work on the side lately, and the result is a brand-spanking-new magazine, New York Look. If our Fashion Week coverage at nohib.com is practically live, intended to convey the excitement of the shows as they happen, then Look is the fully digested, carefully thought-through, and gorgeously photographed follow-up — the distilled essence, we hope, of everything that happened this spring season in New York, London, Milan, and Paris.
An online version of Look will appear in the coming weeks, but we venture to say that you really should pick up the print version on a newsstand today, because it’s rather beautiful. On the cover and at the heart of the magazine are over 40 superb images by Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin, who shot backstage at every major show around the world — that’s his photo of Agyness Deyn at Missoni in Milan above this text (her skin is even more loathsomely flawless in print, trust us). We’ll have an expanded edit of Paolo’s work online soon, but these pictures do demand to be seen at large sizes on glossy paper.
On top of that, our editors break down the essential spring trends for both men and women via a voluminous series of runway shots. There’s Amy Larocca on Marc Jacobs. Vanessa Grigoriadis on Roberto Cavalli. The Fug Girls on Anna Wintour and Roger Federer. Plus party coverage, model reports and … okay, we’ll shut up now. Look costs $5.99 on newsstands, and it’s available in New York at most Barnes & Noble stores, Whole Foods, Eastern News, Hudson News, Universal News, and too many smaller outlets to list here (out of town, Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and Atlanta has it). Or you can order it online at nohib.com/look (where it costs, um, more … the cost of shipping is crazy!). Check it out. Really.
in other news
You Should See Pataki Do That Bow Wow Song After a Couple of Sam AdamsA significant portion of New York’s wealthy and powerful will migrate north this weekend for the Yale-Harvard football game. The notoriously competitive teams are both undefeated, making this one of the most important games in history. And a good excuse for getting toasted! Among the revelers will be Governor Pataki, who graduated from Yale in 1967, and who plans to booze it up at his house in Garrison, New York, before taking his party up to New Haven to tailgate. Whoooo! “We’ve got everything ready — great food, good wine and beer,” he told the Sun, adding that drinking the brewski is how he spent a large percentage of his undergraduate years. He’ll mingle with Harvard friends before the game, he says, but when the game starts, it’s all business. “None of us are particularly good losers,” he said. Now that’s a shocker.
Harvard-Yale Game Is Hottest Ticket in Years [NYS]
company town
The Union Club Is Like an Adult Frat, But Not in a Fun, ‘Old-School’ WayMEDIA
• Yesterday at the Union Club, reporters specifically invited by the Manhattan Institute to hear Mayor Bloomberg and Jeb Bush speak were instructed to leave the room before the speeches began. “The police are right outside,” one club worker told them. “If you don’t leave, we’re going to call them in.” You have to wonder if this was merely an administrative fumble, or the old-guy version of that frat-party game where dudes invite fat chicks to parties so they can make fun of them. [NYS, NYO]
• However! The Manhattan Institute has since apologized to the press for the Union Club’s behavior, and they put Bush’s remarks online. It’s only audio, though, we wonder why? We can only assume it’s because at the Union Club, all speeches are done naked. [Manhattan Institute via NYO]
• Janice Min: “It’s off-putting when a junior employee tells you they want to be editor in chief.” Instead, just try to make yourself indispensable: “I was the easy solution. Make yourself the easy solution.” Or just make yourself easy. [WWD]
party lines
Revealed: Marc Jacobs’s Recipe for Tuna SaladMarc Jacobs’s svelte physique is not the result of his skills in the kitchen. We asked the designer about his cooking repertoire at the Out 100 awards gala on Friday, and it turns out it’s, well, fashionably slim. “Cook?” he asked. “I make tuna salad. It’s not really cooking, but I chop the spring onions and the celery very, very well, and I put it with tuna fish and mayonnaise and pepper. And that I do extremely well. More than that, I can’t do.” Marc attended the party on the arm of his on-again-off-again boyfriend, Jason Preston. We asked what Preston contributes, and the Louis Vuitton creative director just guffawed. “Jason? Do you cook?” he asked, turning to Preston who shook his head. “No, he doesn’t cook,” Jacobs told us, laughing harder. “We eat out a lot, and we have room service a lot.” Oh, silly us. We thought Jason was the room service! —Bennett Marcus
Related: Tan, Trim & Rehabbed Marc Mark II [NYM]
More Party Lines photos and quotes from the Out 100 party: Kelly Rowland digs gay people, and Tori Spelling on being a married gay icon.