What Do You Tip a Rich Waiter?
Actors and otherwise-famous people returned to their humble roots on Monday by waiting tables at Sapa for the annual Project A.L.S. Celebrity Charity Dinner. Ted Allen recalled his fond days as a fry cook at Ponderosa. Rachel Dratch said she got her training at an ice-cream store with Amy Poehler. But few could match Bryant Gumbel’s hustle. The sportscaster sold five bottles of Dom Pèrignon, an event record. Watch the video to see Julianna Margulies, Rob Riggle, and others try to outsell him.
Party Lines: Project A.L.S. Dinner [Video]
On the Hunt for J-Vanka at the Whitney Party: Success!The world still wonders: Are Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump dating? And so New York’s Party Lines team remains on the case, tracking J-Vanka through high-profile parties, looking for signs. At last night’s Whitney Art Party in Tribeca, our reporter picked up the scent. What did he find? The short version: They were talking and standing near each other; they left together and were last seen hopping into a chauffeured car and speeding off. The long version, full of detective work, time stamps, evasions, and rediscoveries: It’s after the jump (and sort of pruriently delicious).
Another Buyer Interested in Dow JonesMEDIA
• Brian Tierney, the ad executive who bought the Philadelphia Inquirer, is interested in bidding on Dow Jones. [DealBook/NYT]
• Women’s Wear Daily is the latest paper to sell ads on its front page; the crass commercialism doesn’t seem to bother anyone these days. [NYT]
• The Newspaper Guild of New York (representing Time, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, Money, People, and Sports Illustrated) accuses Time Inc. of bargaining in bad faith. [Romenesko]
A Norma Desmond Is Still a Star
Species: The Norma Desmond
Etymology: Norma Desmonds are aging performers whose time and has come and gone. They’re still big; it’s the nightlife scene that got small!
Distinguishing characteristics: Normas are often surrounded by a crowd of older cougars — the comparison makes them look younger — and Viagra’d men who hang on their every word. They know how to play it up and show off their best assets — usually their legs, in a too-short dress. The hair is an unnatural hue that recalls Carrot Top. The first thing a Norma Desmond will tell you is that she’s in an upcoming film with a major star. IMDb will disagree.
Known locales: The Pen-Top bar at the Peninsula; the Stone Rose, mingling with other ladies past their prime.
Diet: Normas keep it old-school: Valium and Benzedrine.
How to approach: “Are you in movies?” is the best way. Normas love to be recognized; their lives depend on it. Without some attention, they wilt. But once you get them talking about themselves, they won’t stop. Run. Fast.
Endangerment status: Slim. You might end up face-down in the pool, but she’ll always be ready for her close-up. —Amina Akhtar
Gramercy Keeps Its Third Star; Randall Lane Trips But Likes Insieme AnywayFrank Bruni joins Adam Platt in giving Gramercy Tavern three stars, validating the efforts of new chef Michael Anthony and the usual Danny Meyer service level. [NYT]
Related: Gramercy Rehab [NYM]
Time Out’s Randall Lane likes Insieme a lot, to the tune of four (out of six) stars. Though he praises the food as most reviewers have, he also agrees with them that although it was beautifully executed, it didn’t make him swoon. Also, he tripped on the step coming in. [TONY]
The Sun’s Paul Adams comes down on Landmarc, “less a dining destination and more a hearty refueling station for ravenous shoppers and tourists.” But it’s affordable and competent, and what else do you want in a mall restaurant? [NYS]
Related: Will Landmarc’s Downtown Cool Play Alongside Its Ritzy New Neighbors? [Grub Street]
in other news
‘Times,’ Bloomberg Decree JFK Terror Plot Barely Fit to PrintIt’s good to see some old-fashioned New York spirit seep back into our dealings with the evil, evil evildoers. Yesterday, we happily listened to Mayor Bloomberg channel (for once!) an authentic fuggeddaboudit ‘tude: “You can’t sit there and worry about everything. Get a life. You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist.” Flippancy is the new vigilance! Today, the Times gets in on the act the way only the Times can — haughtily yet self-consciously. National editor Suzanne Daley, fielding readers’ questions, explained why the paper defiantly stuck the JFK pipeline plot into the Metro section: “Not all plots are the same,” she wrote. “The plotters had yet to lay out plans. They had no financing. Nor did they have any explosives.” Hear that, aspiring terrorists? No above-the-fold action unless you’re sitting on an A-bomb. Daley continued: “Some [editors] argued [the story] should have been fronted, regardless of the lameness of the plot, simply because it was what everyone was talking about.”
It’s nice to know the days when John Ashcroft would hiss something about “chatter” and we’d all dash for duct tape are gone with, well, John Ashcroft. It’s equally nice that a story’s popularity apparently doesn’t even figure into the logic of the Times’ front-page meetings.
Talk to the Newsroom: National Editor Suzanne Daley [NYT]
Earlier: Bloomberg On JFK Plot: ‘Stop Worrying, Get a Life’ [WCBS]
You Can Find Brooklyn’s Toxic Sludge
A little freaked out about the 10 million gallons of toxic sludge lurking under Brooklyn and seeping toward the surface? Afraid it might be oozing toward you? You’ll be thankful, then, for the efforts of Michael Heimbinder, a Fort Greene resident and member of the Newtown Creek Alliance. He’s created an interactive map of Greenpoint, the most affected neighborhood, on which you can learn all about the occasionally escaping sewage and pinpoint known polluted spots. “I wanted to take the opportunity that the Internet offers to create the connection between what’s happening in the city — air pollution, water pollution — and what’s happening in New Yorkers’ apartments,” Heimbinder explained. Now you can know all too well. —Rebecca Ruiz
Explore Newtown Creek [HabitatMap.org]
The Ooze [NYM]
gossipmonger
Barron Hilton Was Not MuggedSecurity guards from Stereo thwarted a mugging of Paris Hilton’s brother, Barron Hilton. (And Barbara Walters will get Paris’s first post-prison interview.) Biographies of Dina Lohan state that she was a Rockette and Broadway actress, but she is neither. Porn star Savanna Samson backs Giuliani for president. Anna Quindlen is auctioning off naming rights to a character in her upcoming novel. Former Cosby Show star Phylicia Rashad often does not show up to parties she’s expected at. Bruce Willis was angry that Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore were dating until Will Smith gave him a talking-to. Bebe Neuwirth went to a chiropractor.
Lonelygirl15 Comes to Town, Wins Award, Meets Ninja
Prefer your awards galas a bit dorkier and more virtual than the glossy CFDA awards? You’re in luck: Last night was also the first-annual Webby Film and Video Awards, held at New World Stages. The big winners were apparently the Ninja from Ask a Ninja, who won Best Actor, and Jessica Lee Rose, a.k.a. Lonelygirl15, who won Best Actress. Virginia Heffernan is no doubt kvelling.
11th Annual Webby Awards Nominees and Winners [WebbyAwards.com]
Related: Hey There, Lonelygirl [NYM]
Isaac Mizrahi’s Not a Middle Man
A few years ago, Isaac Mizrahi’s Target collection became a “paradigm-shifting event,” the designer told New York’s fashion director Harriet Mays Powell. But between couture and clothes that retail for less than $30, what happened to the middle? “When you get old, you figure out you’d better do your own thing or you’re going to be miserable,” Mizrahi says. “That’s just a matter of being honest.” To preview some new looks and to find out how Mizrahi lives his high-low aesthetic at home, watch the video.
Fashion Studio: Isaac Mizrahi [Video]
Nutritious, Delicious Couture
What could be better than fashion and food? Yesterday we rushed to Vanderbilt Hall to catch Tim Gunn hosting the Wish-Bone Salad Show. Designers Richie Rich and Traver Rain compared the experience to summer camp, and the models looked bewildered. “There’s some lettuce going on there. Or maybe some other vegetables,” the Asian Salad said vaguely. Backstage, one model sported onion shorts while another counted the string beans on her dress. Gunn said he preferred to accessorize with food, but our favorite model embraced the whole aesthetic: “I am the carpaccio salad.”
Wish-Bone Salad Fashion Show by Heatherette [NYM]
When Hairstyles Are a Joke
The Video Look Book went to Union Square this week and found AV librarian Aliisa Lahti sporting a brand-new T-shirt. Her haircut “kind of just happened,” Lahti says, and then she started to grow the rat tail as a joke. “Lots of times people assume that I’m a lesbian or that I’m some crazy punk kid,” she says. “Neither of those things are true.”
Aliisa Lahti [Video Look Book]
cultural capital
Too Bad ‘Star Search’ Got Canceled
From the nymag.com video team, a double bill for the ages. Both feature hungry showbiz strivers ready to duke it out for a shot at the big time but in only one are the contenders clutching dressed-up dolls. That’s right: Up at Harlem’s Hip Hop Culture Center, a hundred M.C.’s took turns at the mike for 24 hours straight in the first-ever “rapathon” while a gaggle of mostly blonde preteen divas laid siege to the American Girl Place for a film audition. The former is decidedly PG (“No curses, no n-word, no b-word”); the latter, which features a girl saying “I don’t want to sound conceited, but people tell me I’m talented,” somewhat obscene.
American Girls Audition [NYM]
24-Hour Rapathon [NYM]
Breaches of Etiquette
• In another proof that post-9/11 airport security is a lot like pre-9/11 airport security, except with more badges, a passenger van was discovered driving on a JFK runway. The guards apparently simply waved it past the gates. [WNBC]
• We’ve gone a full three weeks without being properly outraged by something someone said on the radio. How about a homeless man goaded by “Opie and Anthony” into saying he’d like to rape Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush, and Queen Elizabeth? Will that do? [NYDN]
• The Times serves up another “something cool’s about to happen to NYC transit, unless it won’t” item. The tortured peg: Tomorrow, parts of a giant drill will arrive in Newark, which, once assembled, will be used (next year) to dig a tunnel that will connect LIRR to Grand Central. Yay drill! [NYT]
• Finally, an animal-torture scandal with Anna Wintour at the center! Apparently, the live peacocks used as decorations at the Met’s Costume Institute gala were “fearing for their lives.” As were half the guests. [NYP]
• And, since the very idea of protest is hilarious, hope you enjoyed not one but two “Free Paris Hilton” rallies in Manhattan yesterday. There were eight actual mock-picketers, but “the media turnout was out of control” and “the online support has been tremendous.” We’re sure. [amNY]
show and talk
Video: ‘Poiret: King of Fashion’ at the Met
A special exhibit of clothing by self-crowned “King of Fashion” Paul Poiret just opened at the Met, and our cameras took a tour. In the early twentieth-century, the Frenchman liberated women from the corset, introduced a vivid color palette, and was the first designer to socialize with his clients. His “naïve and spontaneous” approach continues today through designers like Proenza Schouler, says Andrew Bolton, associate curator of the Costume Institute. “Poiret believed that women should dress in the way that suited them most, not just following trends.”
Poiret: King of Fashion Video [NYM]
party lines
Undercover Socialite: Fabiola Beracasa at the American Patrons of Tate Gala
After her detailed correspondence from Fashion Week, socialite and CIRCA creative director Fabiola Beracasa picked up New York’s mantle again and led us into the depths of last night’s American Patrons of Tate gala. This rare video footage brings you inside a cocktail hour at a society fund-raiser. See Valentino Garavani squirm as he is forced to choose between the Tate and the MoMA! Find Jeff Koons’s lost voice! Feel Chuck Close’s excitement when he talks about London! Catch a kiss from Fab herself!
Video: American Patrons of Tate Dinner [NYM]
Fashion Video Archive [NYM]
video look book
Sandy Krasnow’s Beautiful Life
Artist Sandy Krasnow tells the Video Look Book that she has given up buying new clothes and now shops exclusively from her closet. “I have a beautiful collection of clothes,” she says, showing off her “safe-keepers” vest made of fabrics collected from all over the world. When she’s not shopping, Krasnow works hard at manipulating her own environment: “To me, there is no more beautiful work than creating a beautiful life for myself.”
Sandy Krasnow [Video Look Book]
show and talk
Video Report: Mingling With Celebs at the Costume Institute Red Carpet
If you didn’t make it to the red carpet for last night’s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, boy, do we have some good news for you. New York’s intrepid party reporter Jada Yuan was there, and we’ve got her on video admiring the outfits, chatting with celebs, and learning that Harry Connick Jr. knows little about fashion and Christina Ricci knows even less about her date. Watch Jada’s report; it’s almost like being there — but with no need to get dressed up.
Video From the Costume Institute Gala [NYM]
What to Pack for Your Spiritual Journey
Noho Star server and visual artist Richard Bruke just returned from a trip to Thailand, and that’s where he got his shirt and his little bag. The trip was a “spiritual journey, hanging out with Buddhist monks and stuff,” Bruke says, undertaken for “inspiration and to see a bunch of things.” An upstate native whose sentences resolve up, Bruke works in watercolor and photography. Find out what the smell of flowers reminds him of by watching this week’s Video Look Book.
Richard Bruke [Video Look Book]
Sing Along With Of Montreal
Actor and comedian Michael Showalter hosted the inaugural New York by New York event, Indie Rock Karaoke, Saturday night at Studio B. A sold-out crowd turned out to see Of Montreal, who played an original set before turning the mikes over to the amateurs. Surprise guests Paul Rudd and David Wain turned out a lively performance of Boston’s “More Than a Feeling,” and Showalter tried his hand at the brutally repetitive INXS hit “Need You Tonight.” Selections from the crowd included Cheap Trick’s “Surrender,” the Guns N’ Roses classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. Between numbers, Showalter’s Alan Shemper character emceed and told Soterios Johnson jokes. And everyone in attendance got a subscription to the magazine. More New York by New York events are coming. Until then, watch the video.
Karaoke With Of Montreal [NYM]
Events [New York by New York]
intel
Kicking Cop, Caught on Video, Was Always Known to Play Rough
The city’s Law Department yesterday agreed to pay $150,000 to an activist who was kneed in the head by a senior police officer, assistant chief Bruce Smolka, during an antiwar rally in 2003. One reason for the eager settlement appears to be the video of the beating, available on the IWitness site; the victim planned to introduce it as evidence. As it happens, Smolka was also the subject of a 2004 profile by New York’s own Janelle Nanos, then an NYU j-school student.
in other news
RIP Rudy’s Gun-Control Plan, 1980–2006
One of the unpleasant side effects of the Virginia Tech tragedy is that every presidential candidate is scrambling to reiterate his stance on gun control. In Rudy Giuliani’s eyes, per the ex-mayor’s campaign statement, the massacre “does not alter the Second Amendment.” Funny thing, though: As the Politico’s Jonathan Martin notes today, with a YouTube clip to back him up, Old Rudy used to argue for federal firearm regulation. Giuliani’s big idea — one he’s been pushing, in his own words, “since at least 1980” — is to treat gun licenses like driver’s licenses: to institute a written test and a physical test (for marksmanship?) under a federal law, with state-specific tweaks here and there. Leave it to Rudy to sidle up to the my-cold-dead-hands base at the moment when even some gun-loving Virginians are doubting their beliefs in the wake of a senseless bloodbath. Oh, Rudy: They still won’t like you, and now you’ll hate yourself too.
Rudy No Longer Interested in Federal Mandate on Handguns [Politico]
video look book
We See London, We See France
Keilana Decker is an actress with a hint of a Madonna-esque vocal affectation and a penchant for short skirts. But she’s a “practical undergarments kind of girl,” so when the wind blows, you’ll see she’s wearing spandex men’s bicycle shorts and 50-cent motorcycle boots. She says she buys everything at the thrift store, but we forgot to ask if that includes the undergarments. Find out by watching Decker in the Video Look Book.
Keilana Decker [VLB]
tube junkie
Will Ferrell Outed as GrupCourtesy of FunnyOrDie.com
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s new user-supplied video site, FunnyOrDie.com, made a splashy debut this week with a feature in the Hollywood Reporter and a reported 2 million streams for the site’s showcase video, “The Landlord.” The short consists mostly of Ferrell’s sad-sack character facing off against his angry landlord. The gimmick is that the landlord is played by McKay’s toddler daughter, Pearl. How funny you find it will depend on how funny you find a 3-year-old screaming, “Give me my money, bitch!”
intel
Happy Tax Day
So it’s finally tax day.* To mark the occasion, we herewith present a YouTube video of Steven Zelin, who calls himself the Singing CPA. The 31-year-old Brooklyn native is for the third consecutive year performing his accountant-themed compositions (including “Dear I.R.S.” and “Stealing From the Company”) to last-minute filers at the James A. Farley Post Office at Eighth Avenue and West 33rd Street. He performed Sunday at noon, and he’ll be there again at 10 p.m. tonight. If you want to see him, don’t be late — you can’t file for an extension. Ha! —Andrew Adam Newman
* And why is today tax day? Well, April 15 was a Sunday, and when that happens, the filing deadline gets pushed back to Monday, April 16. But, as it happens, April 16 is apparently Emancipation Day, which has recently become a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. Longstanding federal law says that D.C. holidays “have nationwide impact on tax issues,” according to the IRS. Hence April 17.
Tax Rap [YouTube]
video look book
What the Auteurs Are Wearing These Days
Amy Larocca discovered NYU film student Hunter Shaw sitting on a stoop mulling over his latest screenplay. Though he couldn’t seem to make the script work, he was pleased to share his fashion muse Frank Booth from Blue Velvet and his favorite store with us: “Trash & Vaudeville that’s where I buy all my pants.” Will Shaw find creative relief from a neighbor in pink bottoms? Find out in this week’s Video Look Book.
Hunter Shaw [Video Look Book]
vu.
Inside a West Village Townhouse
The West Village townhouse at 727 Washington Street features three bedrooms, a gallery, and its own reflecting pool. Join New York’s S. Jhoanna Robledo on a video tour of this $15.9 million home, owned by fashion designer Richard Tyler and his wife, Lisa Trafficante. The couple likes to switch locations every five years, but why abandon a retractable glass roof that almost lets the garden into the house? It’s worth sticking around, even when people wander in off the street for a closer look.
Watch the video. [NYM]
in other news
We Remain in Awe of John F. Burns
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Our favorite thing about swashbuckling Times foreign correspondent John F. Burns is neither his countless tours in Baghdad for the Times nor the difficult and exemplary work he’s done elsewhere around the world through three decades at the paper. No, our favorite thing about John F. Burns, as we were freshly reminded by the video offered throughout the weekend on the Times homepage, is his hair. His awesome, awesome hair. Behold.
The Battle for Baghdad [NYT]
video look book
From the Mall to Midtown
Liam James sells jewelry when he’s not aspiring to be a male model. A native of the small city of Port Angeles, Washington, James was pointed toward modeling by a stranger who suggested it to him in the mall. So now James and his 26-inch waist are strolling through the city, struggling to make clothes fit by stapling H&M shirts. “I’m one of those people who likes to use bronzer to make things look alive,” he says. See what other beauty aids James employs in this week’s Video Look Book.
Liam James [Video Look Book]
in other news
Grand Theft, Gotham Style
If you thought Spiderman 3 would be the most realistic rendering of New York to hit the gaming market this year, think again: Rockstar Games broke its silence yesterday about Grand Theft Auto IV, on sale in October, and dropped the first trailer. Set in “Liberty City,” it depicts shots of Times Square (complete with billboard for America’s Next Top Hooker), the MetLife building (now the “GetaLife” building), the Cyclone, the Chrysler and Flatiron buildings, and other landmarks, while a seemingly Eastern European man narrates over Philip Glass’s Koyaanisqatsi score. “I killed people,” he says. “Smuggled people. Sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different.” This is clearly the most minutely detailed Grand Theft Auto yet — who knows, we may even be able to see rats crawling up restaurant chairs. —Daniel Maurer
video look book
East Villager Yearns for Pre-Giuliani Quality of Life
In this week’s Video Look Book, Crif Dogs manager Peggy Punch recalls the East Village of old, when the Cro-Mags thrashed the Continental and Tompkins Square Park was a thriving tent city. Ah, don’t you just love the smell of someone else’s urine in the morning? “I’m really actually bummed out on the East Village right now. It’s not gritty,” says Punch. “It’s not what New York City used to be for me when I was 15 coming here and being a little bit scared.” Today, Punch slings some of the city’s finest hot dogs and considers single-handedly upping the neighborhood’s grit factor by getting another tattoo. Watch the video.
Archives [Video Look Book]