How Did the New York Post Get Away With That?Two former “Page Six” reporters, Frank DiGiacomo and Susan Mulcahy, on their 528-page oral history of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid, Paper of Wreckage.
‘Page Six’ Busts Lyin’ Lydia HearstShe doesn’t write her own columns, she DID say mean things about Hearst Corp., and that’s not even her real last name!
Jared Paul Stern’s Dirty Laundry Not Limited to Skull & Bones OverstockThe disgraced ‘Page Six’ writer is caught up in another scandal — but this time, he had nothing to do with sparking it. There’s a warrant out for his wife, who may have cheated on him with a man she may have later tried to defraud.
ByChris Rovzar
gossipmonger
Keith Olbermann Takes His News Corp. War to the People“Page Six” claims that the MSNBC host won’t work with “citizen journalists” from MySpace because the Website is owned by News Corp. Plus everything else that’s in today’s gossip columns!
Chaunce Hayden Could End Up Costing the ‘Post’ $10 MillionThe Smoking Gun has the details from the fiancée of Gregg ‘Opie’ Hughes against the ‘Post,’ Hayden, and Richard Johnson, and it lays much of the blame on the Jersey gossip columnist.
Ashley Alexandra Dupré Continues to Haunt New YorkReal celebrities are riled by sightings of Eliot’s lady friend; Simon Doonan gets his own TV show and pretty people buy expensive homes in our daily roundup of the news from New York’s best gossip columns.
it just happened
PageSix.com, We Hardly Knew YeWhy? Because people just weren’t going. Oh, and something about the economy. Damn you, subprime crisis! You took away our Bear Stearns, and now you’re taking away our Britney updates?
intel
‘Daily News’ to Start New Gossip Column on SundayAfter over a year without a weekend-only gossip column, the Daily News is going to launch “Full Disclosure With Jo Piazza” on Sunday, we hear.* Running a half-page once a week, the column will cover the same kind of dish and celebrity news as the tabloid’s current columns, “Rush & Molloy” and Ben Widdicombe’s “Gatecrasher.” Piazza, whom you may remember as the girl who got hit on by a married Nick Lachey at the Super Bowl in 2005, has been covering celebrities since her days as a legwoman for “Rush & Molloy” three years ago. She also has a Fashion Week blog and column. Previous weekend columnists for the tab, which has tested a handful out to compete with “Page Six“‘s seven-day coverage, have included Widdicombe and Michael Gross. We think this is good news, because it’s okay for you to not read us for your latest news and gossip on the weekends. After all, you need to read about Britney Spears sometime.
*We hear this because Jo has totally been besties with Daily Intel editor Chris since the day Jo body-slammed her way past a doorman at Bungalow 8 to get into Chris’s birthday party in 2004, earning his respect forever.
in other news
Jared Paul Stern Still ExistsEvery once in a while, when we see someone wearing clothes that have a skull-and-crossbones symbol on them (okay, so every day), we wonder whatever happened to Jared Paul Stern. He was the “Page Six” reporter who allegedly tried to extort Ron Burkle, and then got busted when Burkle turned tapes of their meetings over to authorities. JPS, who created the clothing line Skull and Bones (only to be outdone by everyone from Mark Ecko to Ralph Lauren), was fired from “Page Six,” and then wrote a book about the experience. Sadly, the book was never picked up, and we haven’t heard from him since. But today, WWD lets us know what he’s been up to. Since November, he’s been blogging for Kempt, a men’s fashion Website. He covers liquor, luxury, and famous dudes. Kind of like what he did at “Page Six,” except with even more freedom to glorify men and objectify women. Stern says that the lawsuit he filed against Burkle, which also included the Daily News and Bill and Hillary Clinton, is still pending. “It’s on autopilot,” he told WWD. “These things take a while to go through the courts system.” We can only assume the suit is hopelessly outdated. Silly Jared, don’t you know Burkle and the Clintons broke up?
Stern Surfaces [WWD]
Related: Jared Paul Stern’s Lawyer Loves Suing the Clintons
Clinton to Burkle: It’s Not You, It’s Me
in other news
Anna Wintour’s Lips, Still Plump and JuicyWe’re so glad that “Page Six” ran an item today about Anna Wintour’s lips, because it allows us to run one of our favorite photo comparisons that we’ve ever done: La Anna before and during Milan Fashion Week this fall. It was during this most recent fashion-show season that fashionistas began sniping to us that there was something different about the iconic Vogue editor. Even though we still can’t really tell if anything’s changed, there’s something about her exposed face that’s just mesmerizing, huh? Anyway, if “Page Six” says there’s a story, it must be so. (You know, it’s polite to laugh when people make a joke ) Of course, today the Post also picked up on our October item about Gordon Brown and Bob Shrum, but those pictures aren’t nearly as fun to look at.
Airbrush Anna [NYP]
Earlier: Anna Wintour Has Lips Flapping in Milan
Bob Shrum Be-Labours Politics Once Again
ink-stained wretches
PageSix.com Launches With Glitter, Giddiness, Gobbledygook“Page Six” has made a new move in its aggressive push to take over the world and make it canoodley. They’ve launched the new version of PageSix.com! The site is slick, a little bit more glamorous, and a lot more bloggy. They’ve got feeds from other gossip sites, a running blog (which, so far, seems to have mostly party pictures and items from the print version of the column), and even Gawker Stalker Maps. So who are the people behind this massive effort? They’ve got bios! We’ve selected the most important lines from their personal pages, and it turns out they chose to announce themselves to the world in special, special ways:
• Jana Winter is a fiery reporter with a love of murder and mayhem (and dirty vodka martinis) and a knack for finding — then talking her way out of — trouble.
in other news
Lance Armstrong Backpedals Over All Our FunIn today’s “Page Six,” Lance Armstrong breaks his silence over his alleged Ashley Olsen romance, and tells the tabloid that “Ashley Olsen and I are strictly friends. We have hung out amongst other friends, and she strikes me as a nice, smart lady.” [Ed. note: Wait, Lance uses the word “amongst”?] The column also says that Lance’s ex, Sheryl Crow, is “hitting back at a Life & Style report about her supposedly being upset over Armstrong’s relationship with Olsen.” So she wasn’t at all hitting back at “Page Six,” who reprinted the Life & Style item yesterday with the headline “JUST TOO YOUNG”? It should be noted that she’s probably also hitting back at Daily Intel, because we linked to the “Page Six” story, too. But that’s because we are completely obsessed with the idea of Lance and Ashley together, and its awkward, lovely, skinny spectacle will still burn in our hearts. At least, until Mary-Kate starts dating Barry Bonds. Which we expect any minute now.
Lance Responds [NYP]
Earlier: Daily Intel’s brief, beautiful coverage of Asstrong
in other news
A Model Breaks Nello’s Heart, UmbrellaOh, Nello Balan. It’s almost as if you want to be in “Page Six” once a week. This time, the Upper East Side restaurateur/columnist briber is caught in a dramatic war of words and lawsuits with an unknown model named Le Call over an umbrella. That’s right, an umbrella. Granted, it’s a $1,000 limited-edition Jean Paul Gaultier leather number, but an umbrella nonetheless. “Stop behaving like a boulevardier [street person] and a petite voleuse [petty thief],” Balan (awesomely) told Le Call. “You don’t give me the umbrella, I sue you.” Balan indeed eventually hired a lawyer, at which point Le Call then returned the umbrella in question, but it was BROKEN. All hell then broke loose, “Page Six” was called, and Balan’s lawyer heads to court today to sue for “an act of disinterested malevolence, intentional infliction of mental distress, willful destruction of property, and whatever else [he] can think of.” All of which leads us to the obvious question: a leather umbrella? Really?
MODEL RAINS ON NELLO UMBRELLA [NYP]
Related: Le Call and Ciara Christensen, Models [NYM]
ink-stained wretches
Meet Your ‘Six in the City’ Columnist, Faran KrentcilWe’ve been following the action behind the search for a writer of Page Six the Magazine’s “Six in the City” column for a couple of months, and were interested to see their final choice of scribe was Faran Krentcil, writer of the Fashionista.com blog. Faran has been running around fashion parties for years now, ever since she started working at Fashion Week Daily, and we’ve always suspected she had a little something of a Carrie Bradshaw complex. And lo and behold, witness her introductory column:
The problem with clichés is they’re usually true. Case in point: Me, the blonde, curly-haired girl writing tales of my “fabulous” life. You know what to expect – I breakfast at Tiffany’s sans carbs, I meet devils in Prada, and then I report back to you. Except, of course, it’s not that easy. Celebrities aren’t just like us. And socialites are sometimes just girls who get high in high heels. But there’s some gorgeousness, too, the kind that makes you live in NYC in the first place. It’s my job to find it and serve it up to you.
Oh dear. You can just hear Sarah Jessica Parker’s voice slowly reading that out loud, straining to make it sound wise, or at least world-weary. (Disclosure, Krentcil has contributed to nohib.com’s Best Bets feature.) Since the column isn’t available online, we’ve reproduced the rest of it for you after the jump. It only gets punnier.
gossipmonger
Neal Boulton Wants, Doesn’t Want AttentionFormer Men’s Fitness editor and Jann Wenner paramour Neal Boulton calls up “Page Six” to tell them that he is getting harassed for being “too straight.” Harvey Weinstein said he uses Vogue and Anna Wintour to help style his films. The Box is about to implement a security system designed by Safir Rosetti, which is run by former police commissioner Howard Safir. 50 Cent may perform at Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Salman Rushdie dressed up as Darth Vader on Halloween and had to fend off chicks with his light saber. Fox News correspondent Chris Wallace complained that only 39 American soldiers died in Iraq in October 2007, the fewest deaths in a month since 2004.
gossipmonger
J.Lo’s Pregnancy SpoilerJennifer Lopez will supposedly announce that she’s pregnant during her show at MSG on Saturday night. Jessica Simpson’s people say she didn’t drink and dash at the Box — her friend just accidentally took the receipt slip with him. Rosie O’Donnell did an impromptu ten-minute stand-up set during a show by Roseanne Barr at Comix. (Rita Crosby was there, despite having been served a subpoena earlier in the day.) Mariah Carey doesn’t know how many bathrooms are in her Tribeca penthouse. Howard Stein, the nightlife honcho behind eighties hangouts Xenon and Rock Lounge, died at 62. The Port Authority says the quality of its toilet paper is much improved, contrary to what Larry David said on last week’s episode of Curb. GLAAD forced “Page Six” to apologize for calling the pre-op transsexual who has a reality show on Fox a “she-male.”
intel
‘Page Six’ Starts World-Domination Quest With a Scribe and a Song?Looking through “Page Six” this morning, we were a little jarred by this sighting: “MAXIM Deputy Editor Chris Wilson howling out a Monkees song with N.Y. Observer writer George Gurley, followed by fellow Observer scribe Spencer Morgan and his girlfriend, Vanity Fair fashion editrix Alexis Stewart, belting out Heart’s ‘Magic Man’ at Sing Sing.” Hm, we thought – this must be the first time they’ve done an item about a former “Page Six”–er and his writer friends singing karaoke. We would chalk it up to August gossip fatigue, if we didn’t remember this item, from June 10: ” MAXIM deputy editor Chris Wilson and New York Observer scribe Spencer Morgan belting out Kenny Rogers’ and Dolly Parton’s infamous duet ‘Islands in the Stream’ at the karaoke joint Sing Sing. Morgan was the Dolly to Wilson’s Kenny.” Wow – two items about Wilson and Morgan at Sing Sing? We hope somebody’s getting some free tunes out of this, because otherwise, “Page Six“‘s quest to be the new TMZ.com is off to a rocky, rocky start.
Earlier: Page Six to Try to Take Over World, Make it Canoodley
intel
‘Page Six’ Gone WildDon’t quite see why Joe Francis being angry at Hugh Hefner is somehow the lead item in “Page Six” today? Don’t understand what the news is, with Francis having been in jail since April on these charges of taping underage girls for a Girls Gone Wild video? Perhaps you’ve forgotten this, then: That $50,000 Mexican bachelor party for “Page Six” editor Richard Johnson? Joe Francis threw it.
Jailed Joe Not Wild Over Hef [NYP]
in other news
Hillary Buys ‘Post’ Endorsement — for a QuarterOnce upon a time, there was little doubt as to the Post’s opinion of Hillary Clinton. But questions arose when the Clintons reached their détente with Rupert Murdoch last year, and now, well, things are clear. This morning, the tabloid learned that Mrs. Clinton is a reader — and, better yet, a nonreader of the Daily News. “Like hundreds of thousands of other discerning New Yorkers,” gushed “Page Six” in reporting the news, “White House front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton buys The Post.” It’s not just the gleeful promotion of Hillary to the front-runner status that made us smile. And it’s not just the item’s headline (“The Right Choice,” which, placed over a decent photo, pretty much makes a free campaign poster). It’s mostly this: Can you believe they’re finally calling her a New Yorker?
The Right Choice [NYP]
company town
GE Wants In on the Dow Jones ActionMEDIA
• GE and Pearson, the parents of NBC and the Financial Times, are considering a rival bid for Dow Jones. [NYT]
• Quadrangle Group bought Dennis Publishing for $240 million and is courting editorial talent. [WWD]
• Demand for ad space pushes Page Six up to three pages. [NYT]
company town
Happy Eccentric Executive Day!FINANCE
• Steve Schwarzman’s chef spends $3,000 each weekend on food; Schwarzman makes his employees wear non-squeaky shoes, and at five-foot-six, he attributes his success to “little man” complex. [WSJ]
• “Page Six” is on the trail of an investment banker who wears kimonos and eyeliner. [NYP]
• If you’re a CEO, you may well be a lousy father. [Fortune via CNNMoney]
cultural capital
Sharon Stone, Fake Candidate
“Page Six” reported this morning that Sharon Stone and Bernard-Henri Lévy star in a set of mock political ads that will debut next week at the Venice Biennale. The two “appear separately in 60-second spots as ‘Patricia Hill and Patrick Hill,’ each seeking the White House,” the “Six”-ers reported. Indeed. We’ve got stills from the spots, and Monday the magazine will feature an interview with Levy, the rakish French philosopher. Enjoy the pics — there are more after the jump — but sorry, guys, Stone’s all buttoned up.
gossipmonger
Special NeedsParis Hilton will spend her 23 days in jail in a “special needs housing unit.” Steve Martin is not pleased at being portrayed as a killer in the satire Who’s Killing the Great Writers of America. Ian Spiegelman says the Post’s Richard Johnson accepted cash from a frequent “Page Six” subject. Filmmaker Michael Moore anonymously paid a critic’s medical bills.
gossipmonger
Whose Interviews These AreThe New Yorker confuses Robert Frost and David Frost (whoops!), much to the amusement of both “Page Six” and the Gatecrasher. Porn star Jenna Jameson has lost a lot of weight and has started acting unprofessionally since her divorce. Real-estate developer Harry Macklowe gets preferential treatment at all Icon parking garages in Manhattan. Ben Widdicombe got an earful from Pauly Shore. The Russian Tea Room uses out-of-context quotes to give the impression that it has been well reviewed. Tom Wolfe will give a speech in Miami about art and architecture. A number of J.P. Morgan bankers are expected to attend Dana Vachon’s book party tomorrow night, despite the treatment the firm (or, rather, the fictitious firm based on Morgan) gets in the book.
