Tom Cruise Roasts Matt LauerThis afternoon at the Friars Club, Tom Cruise buried the hatchet by laying into Matt Lauer — and Matt responded by dropping a few F-bombs. Did we mention that it’s really weird to hear Matt curse?
Meet the New Guy: Tyler RiggsThe Florida native has made waves after just signing last year. Yes, that’s him with Kate Moss plastered all over the soon-to-be Topshop.
Lindsay Lohan to D.J. Naomi Campbell’s 38th-Birthday PartyDomenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana will throw Naomi Campbell’s 38th-birthday party in Cannes, luxury companies like Dior have shady manufacturing practices, and Bill Blass might be sold soon.
Kate Moss: ‘I Still Think I’m 17’In rare form Kate Moss grants an interview to the ‘Guardian’ and explains she hasn’t changed the way she dresses since she was 17.
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New Owners Could Prompt Barneys Chief to ResignHoward Socol reportedly plans to resign less than a year after new owners took over the luxury chain. Perhaps the crippled economy or Barneys’ new affinity for cheap merchandise is getting to him.
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Real, Live British Folk Will Work at the New York TopshopThe British are coming, and they’re working in the New York Topshop! They might drive some iconic London double-deckers around, too, in case you need a ride to the new store.
Dear Kate: Those Who Do Not Learn From a Topshop Line…When Kate Moss’s Topshop line first debuted last April, we made no secret of the fact that it wasn’t our cup of Earl Grey. Indeed, the words “crap” and “fashion myopia” may have been invoked. And the latest incarnation isn’t much better.
Kate Moss Spring Line: Not GreatWhen Topshop posted a preview of Kate Moss’s spring collection, we couldn’t help but get our hopes up. We love Topshop and still cling to memories of Moss circa her Johnny Depp years.
video look book
Dress Like an Art CollectorThe Look Book cameras came upon Nicola Vassel recently and learned that she “collects clothes like people collect art.” Her outfit splashed with color in anticipation of a museum visit come from a variety of sources: Topshop, agnès b., and American Apparel, among others.
loose threads
Nude Pics of Kate and Gisele Up for Auction; Posh Designs for Mouret?• Risque pictures of famous models like Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen are going up for auction at Christie’s on April 10. The entire collection of 135 prints shot by photographers like Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus ought to fetch about $3 million. [British Vogue]
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Barneys Sale Update: Kate Moss Plague Slowly Lifting?We stopped by the Barneys Warehouse Sale this weekend, and while there were certainly a few tumbleweeds rolling about the Kate Moss for Topshop aisle, we did notice an interesting new development: Customers were touching the merchandise. Could a purchase be far off?
loose threads
Oscar Fashion Bores — Now on to Paris!• The inane glories of the red carpet: Atonement’s 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan doesn’t care what people think about her outfit, George Clooney’s date seemed restless, and Steve Carell claimed to wear $14,000 Spanx. [WP]
• Most Oscar dresses were boring and many red-carpet walkers’ “behavior could have used a little refinement,” like Jessica Alba who chewed gum the whole walk down. [WWD]
Lessons Learned From ‘Elle’ Editor’s Derriere DiaryAnne Slowey is the fashion news and accessories editor at Elle. We base this on nothing more than looking at her pretty picture and reading what she’s written, but she strikes us as one of those women who’s a perfectly normal size but can’t help but strive to be thinner, because she — like everyone else in the world, ourselves included — can’t remember what a healthy woman looks like. Allow us to explain.
in other news
Adrienne Shelly’s Killer Sentenced to 25 Years in PrisonDiego Pillco, the construction worker who killed actress-director Adrienne Shelly in November 2006, pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier today. He confessed to strangling her while attempting to rob her (he later set up the crime scene to make it look like it was a suicide). Pillco will serve 25 years in prison. Adrienne is survived by her husband, Andrew, and their young daughter, Sophie. Not long after her death, Shelly’s award-winning film Waitress debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Her next screenplay, Serious Moonlight, is soon to be produced.
Related: Shelly Lives [NYM]
The New York Diet
Comic Patrice O’Neal Considers Himself a Big Buffet Dude
Patrice O’Neal became a comic after he decided he wasn’t really into football and has since gone on to host VH1’s Web Junk, as well as make appearances on HBO’s Def Jam Comedy Jam, Comedy Central, and The Office. If you catch his Valentine’s gig at Stand-Up NY tonight, you might hear him riff about his diabetes — “Why couldn’t the doctor tell me, ‘Patrice, you can never eat Brussels sprouts again’?” — and, sure enough, he’s taking measures to control his weight: “When you get close to 40, you start to feel those years of ham hocks.” Nevertheless, his eating philosophy flies in the face of Mireille Guiliano’s. He tells us, “I don’t go to any sexy places to eat where they give you half a lamb chop and one bean. I like going, ‘Uhhh, I’m done’ when I eat.” And where can a man find that experience?
developing
McCarren Park Pool to Be Commandeered by Children, Not Just Overgrown OnesSince the McCarren Park Pool was co-opted as an indie-rock venue, water sports there have been limited to hipsters spilling Brooklyn Lager and diving into that filthy Slip ‘N Slide. The most up-to-date plans to turn the site back into a place for actual swimming were presented, along with the image above and a tentative blueprint you’ll find after the jump, last night at Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 meeting: By summer 2011, the pool will reopen with a capacity of 1,400; come that winter, people will be able to ice-skate there, too. And in perhaps the greatest insult to the band-loving libertines who ruled the space last summer, there will also be a 5,800-square-foot gym installed. —Alec Appelbaum
Nina Ricci’s Spring 2008 Campaign Revealed!After months of anticipation, the spring Nina Ricci campaign pictures have leaked. Our pick for Fashion Week’s model of the week Karlie Kloss and one to watch Courtney Smerski are the lucky girls, wearing gorgeous metallic gowns and soft knits offset by splashy pink shadows.
NewsFeed
Secret LES Party Pad or Just a Recording Studio?Gawker has footage of what videographer Alex Goldberg claims is a secret venue operating out of an abandoned vaudeville theater [Update: The post has now been removed]. Don’t get too excited, though: A commenter says it’s a theater operated by the music consortium the Rumor Mill, and we’ve confirmed it’s a recording studio that has private functions every now and then. But is there more to it? If you can tell us anything about what goes on at the place, do let us know — the photos on its Website make us want to get in on the action.
Update: The great site Cinema Treasures has the exact address of the venue, a little bit of history, and some advice on gaining access. If you dare!
Drunk Gawker Contributer Stumbles Upon Awesome Secret New York Venue You’ve Never Been To [Gawker]
VideoFeed
Our Valentine’s Day Present to You: Balthazar Chefs in Their Bathrobes
We’ve always dreamed of scoring one of the très elegant jackets that Balthazar waiters wear (hint, hint, guys), but on a recent Martha Stewart Show, Balth chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr modeled an even more stylish item — Balthazar bathrobes! (“We were going to wear teddies, but it would not have been good for ratings,” a handlebar-mustached Lee Hanson quips.) If you want to make your V-Day date a pretty mean breakfast in bed tomorrow, check out the clip in which the boys demonstrate “the French take on breakfast burritos.” Just pretend not to notice the amount of butter that goes into this dish.
party lines
Socialites Pinch Pennies (and Bums!) in the Face of Global RecessionIt’s not just common folk tightening the belt in anticipation of the Great Recession of 2008. Socialites, those airy creatures who are thin and rich and go to parties for a living, are also starting to (gasp!) budget. At a party to benefit the East Side Settlement show last night at Mallet Antiques, Melissa Berkelhammer vowed to take the subway more often. “I’m also buying less frivolous things,” she said. “I’m not paying $300 for a haircut.” Berkelhammer’s neighbor, Tana Dye, had a more extreme money-saving strategy: Don’t leave the house. “I live in midtown, so I have to stay in my apartment. I walk out my door, and I’m in Bergdorf or Barneys.”
’Wichcraft Asks, ‘How You Like Them Heirloom Tomatoes?’
Last week ’wichcraft jumped on the know-where-your-food-comes-from bandwagon by replacing the plain ol’ numbers on its “table cards” (doled out to customers so servers can locate them) with semi-campy descriptions of how its food is sourced. We’re glad we can now bite into a BLT (served only during “BLT season”) knowing that the applewood-smoked bacon was custom-made by D’Artagnan and the Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative, and the heirloom tomatoes come from Eckerton Hill Farm in Pennsylvania. As you can see by reading the cards, there are other fun facts: The pastrami comes from the West Coast (via David’s Old World), the jelly is made from “greenmarket fruit that [our chef] just can’t resist,” and the tuna comes from our own Primizie Foods (hence mercury levels “so low they’re often untraceable”). One quibble: What’s up with referring to “soda” as “pop”? Did Jersey boy Colicchio pick this up from Danny Meyer when he was at Gramercy Tavern?
’wichcraft table cards [PDF]
neighborhood watch
Take a Walk Down Tin Pan Alley, Er, 28th StreetEast Village: Right across from its iconic 1859 building, Cooper Union wants to build a corrugated, spiky new thing by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. Um…yeah, we’ll skip the stupid, vaguely racist sushi joke. [NYO]
Flatiron: The next time you walk down nondescript 28th between Broadway and Sixth, sing out “Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey?” or “In the Good Old Summertime” to commemorate that the block was once the famed Tin Pan Alley. There’s no plaque or anything that denotes as much. And that’s a sad song. [Lost NYC]
Gowanus: Take a look at the residential-retail complex the Toll Brothers would like to build along the canal. Nothing like mixed-use magic alongside the miasma! [Gowanus Lounge]
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Barneys Opening Store in Meatpacking DistrictCupid must have aimed his arrow directly at Barneys’ publicity-loving rear — and we’re shamelessly hot for it, which is why, hot on the heels of our warehouse-sale live blog, we’re writing about the damn place again. Racked reports the chain is opening a store in the scary retail megaplex that is the meatpacking district.
Neighborhood Watch
Soul Food Comes to Bed-Stuy!; 2nd Avenue Deli’s Not Really KosherBedford-Stuyvesant: A “family-run seafood/soul food take-out spot” called 71.Ate has opened at 417 Nostrand Avenue, and while the fried whiting is tasty, the house-made banana pudding will definitely make you want to come back. [Eat for Victory/VV]
East Village: Ruhlman’s hosting a nose-to-tail dinner with “gut man” Chris Cosentino on Tuesday, March 4, at Astor Center. [Ruhlman]
Murray Hill/Kips Bay: Can the 2nd Avenue Deli really be called kosher if it’s open on the Sabbath? Many observant Jews, whom Frank Bruni has chatted with, say no. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Tribeca: Bouley has been denied a liquor license for his proposed Japanese restaurant and cooking school, Brushstrokes, “based on the history of the owner, having problems with the community in the past, and the way he runs his establishments.” [Eater]
Upper East Side: Mia Dona is currently BYOB until the liquor license comes through next week. [Eater]
Basso & Brooke, Gareth Pugh Keep London’s Freak Flag FlyingLacking the big names of New York, Milan, and Paris, London Fashion Week is always about creativity. Once designers make a name there, they can move on to New York, as Preen and Jonathan Saunders have recently done. But aside from spotting future stars, the fun of the week really lies in the fact that “creativity” is often just another word for “freak show.”
