The Fifteen-Day Week
Wednesday, July 2nd
Jitney give you the jitters? Helicopter gas getting too expensive? Then why not stay in town this summer! Looking around at the women dressed in denim skirts that barely graze the crotch, and men in Capri pants and flip-flops, the city looks like a beach anyway! (Note to aforementioned women and men: Please, please don’t trust your instincts.) And by the way: Were wedding presents for people you barely like always this expensive? The artists at Chelsea’s Atlantic Gallery capture our emotional state in an exhibition, Catastrophe. Tonight a group of experts—i.e., “The Four Panelists of the Apocalypse”—convene to address the topic, among them Colin Beavan, that blogger doofus best known for writing about his year without toilet paper in The Times and getting a book deal out of it.The Transom
Hamptons Detox
A toxic mixture of dread, fear, panic, paranoia and self-doubt was brewing in my head on my way out to the Hamptons the last weekend in June.
On the train, I sat on a fold-up chair next to the bathroom and listened to the contents of the bowl swish and swirl around, like the economy and the Bush administration. From time to time, I looked up from my novel (about a sleazy opportunistic journalist in late-19th-century Paris), saw baseball caps, tall boys, tattoos, flip-flops, and shuddered.
I had been invited to stay at the large, elegant estate of the interior designer Tom Britt.
The New York World
The New Parent Trap: Have a Fling!
“You shouldn’t get too attached. Don’t you want to date around? I was with so many people in my 20s.”
My parents have been nervous about my relationship with my Ivy League-educated, hardworking, literary-minded boyfriend from the beginning. They’d always been intrigued by the idea of my having a serious romance, but once it happened about a year ago, when we met at college, it was a whole other story.
The legacy of the feminist movement has made my free-love-promoting, baby boomer parents excited about my promiscuity and nervous about long-term relationships. I remember the summer after my freshman year at college, their eyes glittering with delight around the kitchen table as I told them about my escapades post all-girls high school.
Men of Manhattan
He Could Stand the Heat, Now He’s in the Kitchen
Captain Stefan Barr said the scallops at the Gramercy Tavern could use a little more salt. He’s been back only a few months from his second tour in Iraq. For 10 years, he was one of the few, the proud, or, as he puts it, “the best”—a Marine. Now he lives in Soho.
Yes, there are soldiers walking among us, dining right next to you, tucking into those same $20 scallops. Some of them probably look just like you or me. Mr. Barr does not. He is 6 foot 5. He has a chest like a well-fed pterodactyl, with long, sinewy arms and giant hands that could easily reach across the table and pop my head off like a cork.
Style
Morning Memo: New Web Site For You! Plus, Catching Up on Mr. and Mrs. Rod
Former Radar editor Remy Stern's Web site chronicling New York's influentials has finally gone live with (exclusive!) pictures of Eliot Spitzer's daughter's prom and a handy survival guide for the city's trophy wives to get us going. Click through for more. [Cityfile]
Lazard Freres banking heir Justin Lazard is planning to sue the Caribbean hotel where he and his wife, former Project Runway contestant Shannon Fluet, were married in early June. Mr. Lazard claims that his then-pregnant wife was assaulted by the hotel's manager and security guards. [P6]
Alex Rodriguez' friends are reportedly accusing his estranged wife, Cynthia Rodriguez, of going on a spiteful spending spree amidst their public divorce. read more »
Citing Visa Problems, Boy George Cancels Concert for City's Sanitation
This morning Boy George announced that he's canceling his tour and will not be able to perform for New York City's Department of Sanitation workers as he had planned.
Last week his managers said that the singer was denied a visa to the States because he was awaiting trial in London on charges of falsely imprisoning a man. Boy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, reportedly pleaded not guilty to accusations made by a 28-year-old man who claimed he was imprisoned in the singer's home.
In a statement sent out to press outlets, Mr. read more »
'Exclusive' Hamptons Networking Site Open to All
Hamptons-vacationing New Yorkers have been getting emails in their inboxes inviting them to join a website called Hamptons Undercover.
According to the site, it is "an exclusive social networking website for jet-setters who summer in or visit the Hamptons."
Created by Danielle Scherman, founder and president of Sioree Events, Hamptons Undercover also pormises invitations to private events, "V.I.P. access," and discounts—an odd offering given its wealthy target audience—to clubs and restaurants. It even features something resembling a dating service. Think: Craig's List-meets-JDate for weekend sharers.
The site has Marketplace, Rideshare, Events, Concierge, Accomodations, and Member services where users can find other "Hampton offerings—whether they be private tennis lessons, extra dinner reservations, or singles looking for a date. read more »
Report: Jolie in French Hospital to Birth Twins (For Real This Time, We Think)
According to an Associated Press report, Angelina Jolie is currently at a hospital in the South of France where she will give birth to her twins.
Unlike last month's falsified report, this one might actually be real as a Nadine Bauer, a spokeswoman for the Lenval Hospital in Nice was able to confirm Ms. Jolie's admittance to the hospital's maternity wing.
Ms. Bauer told AP that Ms. Jolie is doing fine and will remain in the hospital until she gives birth.
One More Reason for Hollywood to Support Obama
Stephen Baldwin, a born-again Christian and brother of Alec, whose most recent "role" was an apprearance on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice, told Fox News' Laura Ingraham that he will leave the country if Barack Obama becomes the next president (fingers crossed?), yet another reason for Hollywood to keep making campaign donations to the Senator.
Watch the clip to see Mr. Baldwin's rant against Hollywood's support of the Democratic candidate and the reasons why he's backing John McCain.
Vanity Fair's Young Hollywood Loves Guitar Hero, Obama, Shoes
In an effort to name promising newcomers so that they can later say, "We Told You So!" Vanity Fair has come out with its Bright Young Hollywood package for its August issue.
The spread of young men and women features their answers to a hard-hitting questionnaire about their lifestyle preferences: Levi's or J Brand? BlackBerry or iPhone? Jimmy Choo or Christian Louboutin?
And what do we learn?
They love shoes!
Seventeen year-old Emma "Julia's Niece" Roberts, tells the magazine that she owns a little under 50 pairs of shoes and hopes to imitate the Olsen twin look. read more »
Morning Memo: Madonna and A-Rod? Sir Sean Connery and Trump?
Amidst divorce rumors, Madonna may be having an affair with Yankee, Alex Rodriguez. [Us Weekly]
In a freak year at The Dalton School, not a single student got into Harvard and many are finding themselves attending non-Ivies like Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and Tulane. [Page Six Magazine via Daily Intel]
Gossip Girl's Blake Lively politely asks you not to compare her to Paris Hilton since she doesn't go to clubs, dance on tables, or like sex tapes, she says. [P6]
Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook's divorce hearings begin in open court tomorrow. The New York Daily News has a detailed round-up of their divorce proceedings thus far. [NY Daily News] read more »
Administrators at Will Smith's School Say It Doesn't Teach Scientology
Despite employing teachers who are members of the Church of Scientology and using teaching methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, administrators at Will Smith's new private school insist that it isn't a Scientology school.
Both Mr. Smith and Jada Pinckett Smith say they do not belong to the church and the New Village School's director, Jacqueline Olivier, told The Los Angeles Times' Carla Rivera that while some of its staff members are Scientologists, the school has no religious affiliation. Members of its staff are also Muslim, Christian, and Jewish.
"We are a secular school and just like all nonreligious independent schools, faculty and staff do not promote their own religions at school or pass on the beliefs of their particular faith to children," she said. read more »
Food Court: Clover Club Strives, A Little Too Hard, For Old-School Authenticity
The biggest problem with Clover Club, the new loungey bar on Smith Street in Boerum Hill, is that it gets Brooklyn pretension all wrong.
Everything looks like it came straight from the Jazz Age section of a Restoration Hardware catalog: tin ceiling, dark wood paneling, etched-glass light fixtures, black-and-white photos of indeterminate provenance of mustachioed men at a bar, leather-upholstered benches, and an overly descriptive menu of cocktails like the "Hemingway Cobbler" and the "Highland Smash."
In other words, it's all just a wee bit too contrived. Other new bars on Smith Street have managed to tread the fine line between overly precious and just precious enough to satisfy the finicky tastes of the intellectual-hipster crowd (see: Brooklyn Social, the JakeWalk, Gowanus Yacht Club). read more »
Steven Tyler Did Not Enter Rehab to Treat His Foot
When Steven Tyler released a statement last month, saying that he entered Las Encinas rehab center to recover from foot surgery, some in the press connected his treatment with that of Kirsten Dunst, who that same week said that she spent time at Cirque Lodge for depression.
Both clinics publicly stated that they don't offer post-operative care for foot surgeries or treat depression.
Now, the Aerosmith singer is clarifying that he entered rehab for his dependency on pain and sleep medication that he was prescribed after having the foot surgery, the result of injuries from years of active stage performances. read more »
