James Frey Presses Our ButtonsMichael Moore’s 9/11 sequel, a battle at NBC about Angelina Jolie’s pregnancy, and Michelle Trachtenberg’s mid-party fainting — all in our daily gossip roundup!
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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]
in other news
Staten Island Wants You
Ladies and gentlemen, Staten Island is burning. Well, not quite yet; but a new report from the Center for Urban Future extrapolates the mysterious borough’s stats into 2020, and comes up with a less-than-pretty picture. According to the prognosis, “without a change in direction,” Staten Island is in for “an economic decline and a significant deterioration in its quality of life.” The doomsday scenario is this: The population will grow, but the young people will keep skipping the island for trendier addresses. As a result, the borough’s makeup will soon begin to resemble a kind of lower-middle-class retirement community. This, in turn, will attract a certain kinds of businesses: day care, social services, ESL courses, and downscale retail – “low-skilled” and “low-paying” jobs all (the report’s words, not ours). What’s the Center’s solution? Artists! Hip, happening, broke-ass artists!
cultural capital
Auction Season Breaks $1 Billion; New Stars Anointed on Insider Info
New York’s big annual art-auction season broke $1 billion for the first time in history last night, and nearly two dozen artist’s records have been set in just the past two days. Amid the skyrocketing prices, new stars are being anointed left and right. New geniuses suddenly discovered? Hardly. The artists hitting record prices are often either backed by a network of powerhouse alliances or their buyers are betting on the art world’s version of insider information.
The sales crossed into ten-figure mark late last night at Christie’s, where the main sales room featured every major art-world player from Jeffrey Deitch to Aby Rosen to artist and Louis Vuitton handbag designer Takashi Murakami. (The auctions are something like the Oscars of the art world: There’s campaigning and backroom deals, and everyone in the room has gotten a new haircut for the event.) The waiting list for seats, the auction house said, numbered more than 1,000.
