Macy’s Hosts Your Holiday After-partyMacy’s announced this week that they are going to keep eight of their locations, including the Herald Square flagship store, open at all hours of the day and night from December 21 to Christmas Eve. From the Staten Island Advance:
Shoppers will be greeted with the ongoing sales Macy’s has been holding since Black Friday, said spokeswoman Elina Kazan. “The most important thing about being open 24 hours is that it makes shopping convenient to people with different schedules,” she said. “This gives everyone a little extra time.” Company officials have been planning the shopping marathon for months to ensure there is enough manpower and merchandise.
Everyone is saying this is so nice of Macy’s to open the store so everyone, no matter what their time constraints, has a chance to shop. Now, once all the crowds have gone for the day, customers will be able to wade through the dunes of scattered merchandise in peace. What a great Christmas present. And just think of all the homeless people who will have a nice bed of jumbled merino V-neck sweaters!
At Macy’s, A Shopping Marathon [SI Advance]
gossipmonger
Spitzer Feels Good (Just Like He Knew That He Would, Yeah)Eliot Spitzer’s New Year’s Day inauguration will feature James Brown and Natalie Merchant but not Alan Hevesi. Yes, Beyoncé threw Jay-Z a big birthday party in St. Barts. No, they’re not getting married, at least according to Rush & Molloy. John Kerry threw a dinner party for Democratic donors at his Georgetown home, at which he may or may not have shilled for his party’s 2008 nomination. Paris Hilton may be engaged to “student” Stavros Niarchos. Tinsley Mortimer’s sister-in-law is getting married to the director of Syriana. The reigning Miss Universe, also Miss Puerto Rico, is dating a fellow Puerto Rican. Mandy Moore had dinner with former flame Wilmer Valderrama. The director of scary when-scuba-goes-bad flick Open Water is set to direct another movie about sharks. A lot of people went to go see Annie at Madison Square Garden, and not everyone got in on time. Celebs donate time, company to an auction run by Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest son. Colin Firth is a picky eater. Lindsay Lohan’s former assistant, now Jessica Biel’s assistant, was the subject of much of Lohan’s vitriol in the rambling e-mail she wrote two days ago. Eddie Murphy and his ex–Spice Girl ex-girlfriend continue to disagree over whether Eddie is the father of her baby, according to “Page Six.” (The News has this Murphy-Spice “exclusive,” too, worded the exact same way.) Britney Spears bought expensive lingerie, Dakota Fanning bought a dog, and Courtney Love is moving to London. Liz Smith claims John Stamos will be on an upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars, based on his affinity for tango. Molly Sims got stung by a bee in Hawaii.
intel
27th Street Shuffle: West Chelsea Nightlife Mogul Snatches Plagued MegaclubWhile Amy Sacco may or may not be selling Bungalow 8, Jon B, owner of cash cows Home and Guest House, is in contract to purchase another slot on the coke-dusted Monopoly board that is West Chelsea. Having convinced the yoga-loving owner of Spirit, Robbie Wootton, to abandon his fight to reopen since the club’s forcible closure in August, Jon B says he’ll take over its West 27th Street space and bring an upscale crowd to rock shows and big-name D.J. performances. “I intend to operate it totally differently,” he says of a space that has been under scrutiny since its days as Twilo.
Of course, Jennifer Moore, the New Jersey girl who was murdered in July after a night of clubbing, spent her last hours at Jon B’s Guest House, and the subsequent nightlife crackdown raises question about how easy it’ll be to transfer Spirit’s liquor license. After Wootton pays off the estimated $6,600 in State Liquor Authority fines, Jon B estimates it’ll be two or three months before a transfer is granted (a year-end freeze on new licenses in the area has caused a backlog of applications). After that, he says, it’ll take another few months to turn the place into something “very different than what everybody is used to.” And what’s a suitable name for this new club, something that outclasses even Jon B’s other venues, Home and Guest House? Alas, Mansion is already the hottest club in Miami. Daniel Maurer
in other news
Managing Traffic for Efficiency and Hilarity
We noted several weeks ago the city’s ambitious new plan to dedicate whole lanes of traffic to ultrafast buses with their own curbside turnstiles. And how would these buses battle unauthorized motorists slipping in and out of the lanes? By snapping pictures of them and ratting them out to the city. Nice. But not nearly as effective as a high-tech — yet awesomely brutal — solution implemented in Great Britain. Marvel at cars getting mauled by weight-sensing, automated retractable bollards.
Bollard Porn [StreetsBlog]
Earlier: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a … Bus!