Ivanka Wants to Bulldoze Into the Book WorldThe Trumpette wants to write a book and get a $2 million advance. Plus, gossip about faux-lesbians, Sean Avery, and Kevin Costner, in today’s gossip roundup.
company town
Circulation Report: ‘Vogue’ Down, ‘Ladies’ Home Journal’ UpPlus, Katie Couric takes control of CBS News’ political coverage, hotels keep cropping up in Gowanus, and KKR’s IPO doesn’t go as well as planned, all in our daily industry report.
gossipmonger
The Hamptons Get a Visit From LesbohanLindsay Lohan and her companion, Sam Ronson, had a fun weekend getaway. Plus, dish about Jeffrey Epstein, Alex Rodriguez, and Sean Avery, all in our daily column roundup.
Ex–Martha Stewart CEO Is Out and LunchingRecently freed Martha CEO Susan Lyne may have a gig lined up already, Realtors claim the ‘Sex and the City’ movie has done for property what the show did for shoes, and New York judges finally get a pay raise, in today’s roundup of media, real-estate, law, and finance news.
Amanda Peet OversharesThe ‘X-Files’ star talks about her sex life, Cindy Adams has a surreal experience on the way back from Kazakhstan, and Anthony Weiner and Hillary aide Huma Abedin have a dirty weekend in Puerto Rico.
Right Now, Sean Avery Is Getting Anna Wintour StarbucksThe injured Ranger begins his tour of duty at ‘Vogue,’ Carl Icahn’s battle with Yahoo heats up, and Donald Trump is in another fight … in today’s roundup of media, finance, real-estate and law news.
Dog Sculptor Jeff Koons Is in the DoghouseJeff Koons’s porn star ex-wife says he’s a deadbeat dad, protestors storm Bear Stearns ineffectively, and Vogue is in all kinds of trouble in our daily roundup of Law, Finance, and Media news.
ink-stained wretches
Vagilante Scott Galloway Crashes Onto ‘Times’ BoardHoly moly! We thought it would never happen. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has loosened his viselike grip on the Times and agreed to give Scott Galloway a seat on the board. In case you missed it, Galloway (shown in a picture we can not get enough of) is a former ZBT frat boy who reportedly refers to himself a “vagilante,” and the founder of Firebrand partners, a hedge fund that, along with Harbinger Partners, recently amassed a 12 percent stake in the Times. The two groups were leveraging said stake to get four seats on the Times board; however, Sulzberger gave them only two. Still, the Times itself points out, this is the first time the family given seats to people nominated by outsiders since 1967, so it’s nothing to sneeze at. Galloway will occupy one of the two seats; the other will be occupied by James Kohlberg, the chairman of Kohlberg & Company, who was also nominated by Firebrand/Harbinger. Harbinger’s Philip Falcone, who recently bought Bob Guccione’s mansion, was not invited. The hedge funds have said that their aim is to get the Times to sell off some of its smaller assets (shares in the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Globe and smaller newspapers, and buildings like maybe even their headquarters) and focus more on digital media. Presumably, they also think they should drop the bridge column, but we’re just guessing.
Times Co. To Give Seats to Hedge Funds [NYT]
Earlier: Intel’s coverage of Scott Galloway
gossipmonger
Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon Set a Bad ExampleJake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon texted on their BlackBerrys during the matinee show of August: Osage County before sneaking out at intermission. Criminal! Judith Regan is now suing the lawyers who are suing her for alleged unpaid fees. Anna Wintour sat courtside at the Knicks-Cavs game last night courtesy of LeBron James (she’s putting him on the cover of Vogue’s shape issue with Gisele in April). Jeremy Piven texted two separate models he met in New York to come meet him at the Mercer Hotel, though he didn’t know at the time that they knew each other. The Champagne Marilyn Monroe drank during her famous 1962 shoot was spiked with either drugs or vodka.
intel
The Spice Girls Set List, As Interpreted by Hamish BowlesSo last night we went to Newark to see the Spice Girls. It was, as you might imagine, bonkers. Before the show began, we found ourselves hanging out in the Belvedere Lounge, eating chicken fingers and drinking to prepare. As we looked around at all the girls and gays dressed up as their favorite Spice Girl, we were struck by the notion that, in the entire Prudential Arena, there might not be a single person we knew — mostly because nearly everyone there was in their teens (which means they must have been, like, 5 when the Spice Girls were in their heyday). And none of them were wearing any bottoms. But then, just as we were about to head down to our seats, whom do we see sidling up to order a Belvedere but Vogue European editor-at-large Hamish Bowles! By our rough estimate, he was the only celebrity (okay, near celebrity) in the audience in Newark last night. Why is Hamish Bowles at the Spice Girls concert?, we wondered. Is he friends with Posh? Did he want to check out the Roberto Cavalli costumes? Eh, who cares? We just wanted to see what he does when they play “Wannabe.” And we happened to be sitting with a great view of him, in all his suited glory! So, below, we present to you what Hamish Bowles did during the entire Spice Girls concert in Newark.
8:25 p.m.: During the preshow D.J. set, Hamish bobs his head ever so slightly during 50 Cent’s “It’s Your Birthday.”
8:40 p.m.: The Spice Girls rise up through the stage! The crowd goes insane, with every single girl and boy screaming at the exact same pitch (we think it was a high C). They begin “Spice Up Your Life.” Hamish stands with his arms folded.
8:43 p.m.: Hamish claps twice.
gossipmonger
Bloomie and McCain: A Ticket Made in Independent Heaven?John McCain may or may not ask Mike Bloomberg to be his running mate. Harvey Weinstein belted out “New York, New York” at his daughter’s 10th-birthday party at Spotlight Live. Recently married Vogue editor and socialite Lauren Davis wants to find a “gestational carrier” for her baby. First daughter Barbara Bush watched the Giants win at the Village Pourhouse with 40 friends. Josh Hartnett went to Freemans and the Beatrice Inn on Thursday, while Helena Christensen just went to Freemans. Andy Samberg went to BAM to watch harpist girlfriend Joanna Newsome perform.
early and often
Bill Clinton Takes a Break From Being Nasty to Get Condé Nast-y Spotted! Yesterday afternoon, Bill Clinton and a team of Secret Service agents hanging around the lobby of 4 Times Square, the headquarters of Condé Nast Publications. What were they doing there? WWD, which reported the sighting, doesn’t know. Could Hillary have been making a mea culpa to Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, for backing out of a photo shoot for the magazine (and appearing several months later in Harper’s Bazaar)? Or was Bill, who leveraged access to himself to force GQ into killing a Hillary profile a few months back, just there to bully Jim Nelson some more? Personally, Intel suspects that they were making arrangements to appear in Golf Digest. Now that’s how you get the Florida vote.
Memo Pad [WWD]
Update: A reader points out that he was probably visiting his lawyers at Skadden, Arps, whose headquarters are in the Condé building. Duh! Also: Snooze. We were digging the image of Bill and Hill posing in plaid trousers.
gossipmonger
Breaking: Someone Fancy Went to Mohegan Sun!Vanity Fair style arbiter Amy Fine Collins went to the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. Central Park carriage owners responded to Pink’s animal-cruelty charges by deriding them as the “ignorant comments of a B-list pop star.” Nets chairman and real-estate developer Bruce Ratner is getting married to plastic surgeon Pamela Lipkin. At Sundance, Paris Hilton gave a lap dance to Jared Leto, David Katzenberg took pictures of his privates for girlfriend Nicky Hilton, Cisco Adler got into a shoving match, Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian made out, and Adrian Grenier lost his drumsticks. John Legend says he doesn’t get caught up with dating models and that he’s “more concerned with (his) happiness.”
company town
Hillary Clinton Dismays Anna WintourMEDIA
• Anna Wintour took Hillary Clinton to task for backing out of her Vogue photo shoot because she feared looking “too feminine.” Wintour: “The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying.” Ouch. [WWD]
• The Directors Guild showed up the writers in striking, heh, fashion: After just one week of negotiations, the directors struck a deal with the studios that includes the all-important online-video money. The writers are cautious, though, since the last time they followed the directors’ lead they got screwed on the home-video market. [WP]
• Wal-Mart, responsible for 20 percent of all “newsstand” magazine sales, announced it would dump more than 1,000 titles from its shelves. Shocking twist: The New Yorker stays, but Boar Hunter Magazine is out! [NYP]
gossipmonger
George Clooney Thinks Cindy Adams Is Awkwardly NosyGeorge Clooney’s response to a question asking whether he planned on marrying Sarah Lawson: “What kind of question is that to ask in front of her? Let’s just say I’m fine the way I am right now, thank you.” Four Seasons owner Julian Niccolini is selling his own Sauvignon Blanc, available at Dean & DeLuca. After falling ill in Israel (perhaps with dysentery), Maureen Dowd got medical attention from White House doc Richard Tubb and hitched a ride home on Air Force One. Some pro-life bloggers are angry that Vogue did a fashion shoot with a woman who got an abortion 22 weeks into her pregnancy. Diddy is hiring both a personal and an executive assistant. (One responsibility: acting as a “liaison” between the chairman and his family.) Diane Keaton ate at Michael Jordan’s The Steak House in Grand Central Terminal.
ink-stained wretches
‘Portfolio’ Still Looking Elsewhere for InspirationHave you noticed that all of the news about the Great Condé Nast Reshuffling of 2008 has emerged from Women’s Wear Daily? It’s becoming the mouthpiece of the company’s HR department. (Or maybe the news is all a little too boring for anyone else to care about.) After a week of updates about shifts and firings on the business side at Condé titles Vogue, Golf Digest, Lucky, Teen Vogue, and The New Yorker, WWD today tells us about Portfolio (this month’s cover pictured here). Apparently the business mag’s editor, Joanne Lipman, tapped recently departed Post metro editor, Dan Colarusso, to run its growing Website. Also, to fill new Portfolio publisher William Li’s absence at Men’s Vogue, Condé looked within its walls to Details associate publisher, Marc Berger. We’d walk you through all of the changes that came last week, but the most telling detail is already above: While the rest of Condé Nast continues to recruit talent only from inside the company, Portfolio continues to look outside for fresh ideas!
New Titles All Around [WWD]
company town
Imus Sucker Punches BrokawMEDIA
• Don Imus on Tom Brokaw: “He is not the most courageous person I’ve ever met in my life. He’s not the guy I’d want to be in a foxhole with.” You see, Brokaw didn’t defend Imus when he was down-and-out because of the whole “nappy-headed-hos” incident. Resentment, now that takes courage! [NYP]
• Shocker: CNBC is actually scared shitless of Fox Business News. They’re now asking guests to choose sides, threatening to drop them if they dare to appear on Murdoch’s new down-home network. [Silicon Alley Insider]
• Veteran literary agent Lynn Nesbit wants a new publishing madman: “Even [former Simon & Schuster CEO] Dick Synder is a lot more colorful than [newly departed Simon & Schuster CEO] Jack Romanos, who is now gone. I mean, they had passion, they cared about literature. Even Dick, who’s not an intellectual. He cared. He was a madman … . Who is a madman now in publishing? … It was just different then.” Hi, Lynn, allow us to introduce you to our favorite publishing madwoman, Judith Regan. [Media Mob/NYO]
gossipmonger
Brooke Astor’s Dogs Were in Danger!Not only did Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, allegedly steal $132 million from his mom’s estate, but he also wanted to kill her dogs. The latest issue of Vanity Fair chronicles Governor Spitzer’s “troubling, tantrum-filled” first year in office. A week after her kidney infection, Mary-Kate Olsen is back to partying around town. Tony Bennett is giving a “special performance” on behalf of Hillary Clinton in New Jersey in December. Jenna Jameson and Richie Rich are opening a bar together in Chinatown. Chelsea Clinton ate at Veritas with a “very handsome, dark, Indian male companion.” David Mamet is a fan of the New York Post.
company town
Rove, Regan and Rather: Crazy? Or Crazy Like Foxes?MEDIA
• How did Judith Regan’s high-level lawyers let her bat-shit-crazy legal complaint get through? Oh that’s right, she’s Judith Regan. [Legal Pad/Fortune]
• CBS finally got around to filing their motion to dismiss Dan Rather’s suit. The network claims they are “mystified” by Rather’s “bizarre allegations,” and that the lawsuit amounts to a “regrettable attempt by plaintiff Dan Rather to remain in the public eye, and to settle old scores and perceived slights, based on an array of far-fetched allegations.” [NYO]
• Karl Rove signed on to become a regular contributor to Newsweek. Maybe they should consider changing their slogan to “fair and balanced”? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
gossipmonger
Kelly Klein Finally Nabs That BabyGisele Bündchen showed up at the haunted house on Suffolk Street sans costume and cut the line. Hunter S. Thompson’s widow is pissed at Jann Wenner because he portrayed Hunter in his book as an “awful beast of a man” after he left Rolling Stone . Calvin Klein’s ex, Kelly, finally has a daughter, via surrogate mother. David Brooks, a.k.a. the guy who was recently busted for using company cash to fund his daughter’s $10 million bat mitzvah, also used his employees’ pension funds to pay for his son’s bar mitzvah. Hillary Clinton backed out of a Vogue photo shoot being shot by Annie Leibovitz because she felt it would be “too glamorous.” Sting and some buddies went to Scores. Bono and Damien Hirst dined at Lever House. Law & Order’s Richard Belzer had to get his driver to walk his poodle during a screening at Core Club because he wasn’t allowed to bring it in.
