Unless you're a writer. Then you're shit out of luck.
O'Brien was not involved with the invitation, but was president of the Lampoon, and devised a scheme to interfere.
We went dressed as security guards. I said, "Mr. Ward, I've been sent by the dean to safeguard the costume."
As if it were the Shroud of Turin. But the guy is humorless. "Yes, very good. That costume is very valuable," he says.
Midway through the speech, O'Brien and the rest of the Lampoon crew cut the lights. Bravin described the theft:
They burst into the lecture Burt was giving and a huge fat guy dressed as the Penguin said in a heavy Boston accent, "Mistah Wahwd, when is a
secyoo-it-ee gahd not a secyoo-it-ee gahd?" Then the student security guards, who I had thought were somewhat suspicious, grabbed the mannequin with Burt's costume and ran out the hallway. Peter tackled them outside the lecture hall, but they outnumbered him and got away with it.
Bravin handled "hostage negotiations" with O'Brien the next day, which ultimately proved successful, but not before O'Brien had his fun with the aging star.
PLAYBOY: How did Burt react?
O'BRIEN: Robinlike. He said, "Return it or you will feel my wrath!"
O'BRIEN: He may be delusional.
McCain did not duck the question of whether to add seniors and veterans to the economic stimulus bill, in fact he was present and voted in favor. Who did miss the vote? Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, actually! They also missed the vote on the full bill, even as McCain showed up to support and help pass it.
Even if McCain had missed the vote, extending the economic stimulus package to seniors and veterans was hardly controversial; that amendment passed 91-6.
McCain did miss one vote related to the stimulus bill, in which he would have decisively helped add money to the stimulus not only for seniors and veterans but also for "unemployment insurance, billions of dollars in energy tax credits and federally backed bonds for home construction," according to the Washington Post.
Needless to say, construction bonds and energy credits tend to be far less provocative on television then seniors and disabled veterans.
In any case, McCain openly admits he would have voted against the bonds and tax credits, so calling him a coward about it makes no sense.
Despite his chicanery, Cafferty is still fascinating to watch in the clip below. The best part is when, after spewing bile all over McCain, Cafferty encourages his readers to come share their unbiased thoughts on his Internet Blog.
For background, here's Miscavige's quick, violent overview of Scientology's latest campaign against psychiatry. The video includes a computer-generated hand grenade and smart bomb and depictions of government buildings blowing up. (38 seconds)
Another segment of the video details Scientology's overall media campaign against psychiatry, allegedly planting stories in newspapers and TV newscasts. (1:55)
[YouTube]From our degrading point of view, we did spy clammy, self-satisfied director Brett Ratner sitting with his arm resting casually (by which we mean, douchily) on Russell Simmons' right shoulder. Ioan Gruffudd — whom we later saw cheerfully signing autographs for some kids — gently stroked the shoulder of his wife, actress Alice Evans, who herself perched next to an unusually well-coiffed Maggie Gyllenhaal. This fashion week, we've heard many a rumor about people being paid to appear at fashion shows, but Maggie G. just screams Tommy Hilfiger, don't you think? Right. Totally there for the clothes. Just like the lady in the front row prominently displaying a Hilfiger coat, which event staffers claimed had been handed to her a mere day earlier; the recipient was either Evans or the woman to Gruffudd's left, whom the peanut gallery hovering over our pathetic crouched bodies thought may have been Dixie Chick Emily Robison. But maybe the giant high-heel in front of our faces clouded our celebrity-spotting radar. It did not, however, block us from spying Evans reapplying her lipstick while the models did their final group walk. Apparently, her lips wait for no one.
Mags was earning her cash — er, MAYBE she was — sitting between Julianne Moore and a violently be-hatted Kelly Rowland, just down the row from Helena Christensen. From our view through two girls' calves and one big purse, the four of them watched the show in interested silence but only grudgingly stood up for Hilfiger's bow (with, we swear, a "Great, here we go…" eye-roll from Gyllenhaal, in Moore's direction). Once the show ended and we cracked our sad knees on our way to a fully upright position, we peered down and saw the departing figures of Pharrell Williams; AMC'S Leven Rambin, squeezed in next to Kat DeLuna, whom we still wouldn't recognize outside of Fashion Week if she hit us with a pie in the face; the irritatingly twee (and, for the first time since we started coming to this show a year ago, supportive of her dad) Ally Hilfiger and her idiotic Ray Ban-style spectacles; an insanely tan and skinny Nicky Hilton, who tried her hardest to run out without giving an interview and ultimately failed; and Richie Rich, who must have loads of free time since Heatherette isn't showing. Presumably he attends Hilfiger each season for inspiration, since the two lines have so much in common. Like how they both make clothes out of fabric.
In all, it was the most embarrassed we've ever been at a fashion show, although we're sure we'll eclipse that the day we fly ass-over-teakettle into Anna Wintour's lap and try to salvage the moment by offering her a Polo mint. Fortunately for our shattered dignity, though, we were not the only people peering through legs to see who was attending the show, not by a long shot. Half of the standing crowd could have been rightly calling their positions "crouching." At one point, we locked eyes with the women who were prostrate next to us, and we all laughed. "This is humiliating," we noted. "Yeah, why I am I getting on my knees for Hilfiger?" one of the women responded. "I should only kneel for Prada." Seriously. Can we get that on a t-shirt? —The Fug Girls
Give us prosecco, and we'll tell her we love her.Photo: Getty Images
Lindsay Price, best known as the woman who made an honest dude out of Steve Sanders on Beverly Hills, 90210, was on hand to promote her new series Lipstick Jungle — er, we mean, to absorb the wonders of Rowley's Fall 2008 line — and the bubbly practically forced us toward her at the end of the show so we could let her know just how seminal her work has been in our lives. "Excuse me," one of us said. "But we just wrote a book while watching the entire run of 90210 on cable, and we just have to say, we love you." The other waved alarmingly nerdily — one of those really awful, awkward finger-waggling gestures — and said, "No, for real, we love you! We do!" We didn't even know we felt that strongly. "Wow," Lindsay said, laughing with a mixture of disbelief, amusement, and eagerness to escape The Crazy. "That's...so sweet. That's...yeah." We had assumed she'd enjoy knowing she's appreciated, but perhaps she was just startled because no one's ever lavished this particular compliment on her before. Sounds impossible to us, but then again, Steve Sanders was the only character on that show who wasn't a self-righteous ass by the end, so perhaps we were just overly invested. Perhaps.
Price sat next to castmate Kim Raver, who brought her husband to the show but seemed sort of annoyed every time he tried to engage her. Early in the presentation he broke from rubbing her to point at a model; she smacked down his hand. He immediately did it again, and she slapped his finger down again. Not to be deterred, he tried a third time and she allowed that to be the charm, but seemed tight-lipped and unamused when he occasionally whispered commentary into her ear. Maybe she just didn't want to hear a discourse on the mighty nipple, which felt like Rowley's most-used accessory on the runway.
Nearby sat Tatum O'Neal, whom we almost didn't recognize, and Aisha Tyler — sans both gum and hot date. Rowley mainstay Karen Duffy enjoyed a front-row spot at the end of the runway, and actress Amy Smart — who admitted to having met Rowley only yesterday — appeared in a too-long black satin shift that made her look like a bridesmaid at a necrophiliac wedding. She should've done a little more bonding before choosing her wardrobe. Alan Cumming, clad in glasses eerily reminiscent of Harry Potter, spent almost the entire pre-show in intimate conversation with Martha Plimpton, who is both more pixielike and more attractive than anyone's ever given her credit for in recent years.
But the most amusing attendee was Parker Posey, who — let's be honest — looked way too haggard for a woman we overheard stating she's off work until April. (In the Ex-Girlfriends of Ryan Adams Stakes, Posey so far is losing to resplendent redhead Jessica Joffe, who might be more pompous but also looks fantastic.) "I've GOT to sit down before I start sweating," Parker whined after a five-minute conversation with a pal. But she was waylaid by an eager videographer desperate for an interview. "We can talk about anything. What do you want to talk about?" he asked. Pause. "Nothing," she yawned. Undaunted, he tried to get her to handicap the Best Actress race for Oscar. "Who's even nominated?" she frowned. "Cate Blanchett," he replied. "Just say 'Cate Blanchett.' It's always a safe guess." Parker rolled her eyes and then brightened. "You know who was amazing?" she gushed. "Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart, but she was TOTALLY SNUBBED!" Then she drifted back to her seat next on Cumming's other side, where we can only imagine what divine insanity transpired. We hope it was a conversation about how awesome Lindsay Price was on 90210, but that's probably unlikely, right? —The Fug Girls
Watch a slideshow of the Cynthia Rowley collection.
No one's losing his shirt over this one.
Onetime "America's Next Top Model" finalist Jael Strauss has settled her invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against her former talent agent...In the end, the fool in this stunt was the Lampoon, whose staff, according to the Boston Globe, took Paris clubbing and to a private party and whose crowd shouted "marry me!" at Hilton while lapping up her repeated, robotic pronouncements that "Harvard is hot."
Cocooning chic, courtesy of Costa.Photo: Getty Images
One of these women is a bitch.Photo: Getty Images
On the other hand was Liv Tyler, who looked gorgeous in a winter-white coat layered over a black silk shirt dress, and who seemed totally friendly and sweet, even giving extensive interviews after the show.
And it seems we weren't the only ones not particularly impressed with Larter. Filing out of the show, we found ourselves stuck in front of two photographers. One said, "Ali Larter," and, in unison, they blew disapproving raspberries. "Ali Larter, meh," the other photog editorialized. Frankly, we couldn't have put it better ourselves. —The Fug Girls
That's the word in the tents right now, anyhow. Apparently he wants to lose the flash factor and have tonight be about the clothes. Now that's just crazy talk.
The show's supposed to start at 8 p.m. (or, y'know, 8:45). More as we know it.
Update 8:21 p.m.: Our correspondent slipped in early enough to catch the run-through; chatter among the headsetted classes is that the only A-listers will be Diddy (an investor), Patti Lupone (who's already there), and Joy Bryant. But what of Sophia Bush?!?!
From left, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Marchesa, Rodarte.Photo: imaxtree.com
Perhaps giddy from the unseasonable weather, critics were warm to Michael Kors and Rodarte and practically red-hot with lust for Marchesa and Marc by Marc Jacobs. Consider these adjectives (used in reviews) in order of increasing positivity: “almost camp,” “high-polish,” and “exuberant.” Find out which designer drove critics to the thesaurus in our review roundup.
Rodarte
The Rodarte sisters have a knack for making dreamy, light dresses that are beautiful and wearable. And, perhaps, more important, they make dresses the critics love. Cathy Horyn loved their collection of knits and chiffon, saying, “Their clothes got better and lighter. And the shattered lace tights were cool.” Though this season continued spring’s Japanese theme, this collection focused more on Asian horror flicks mixed with ballerinas. “The gothic knitwear had a torn-web quality, and the torturous, sadomachistic shoes (a reworking of last season's) wrung winces from the audience,” Style.com observed. But, British Vogue pointed out, “the clothes we saw today are made for fantasy, not reality. From the aforementioned sweaters to sparkly chiffon frocks to a Woolly Mammoth shredded yarn coat … these are what used to be called ‘special occasion’ clothes.” WWD observed that the girlishness of the ballerinas was mollified by the right combination of dark and light. “It all made for a delightful tale of fashion enchantment,” they said.
Watch a slideshow and video of the Rodarte collection.
Marc by Marc Jacobs
After a season in London, Marc Jacobs brought his diffusion line back to New York. “Gone were the Seventies uniform-inspired looks” of spring, British Vogue said, impressed with Jacobs’s mash-up of eighties new wave and fifties beatniks: “We were struck by how fresh and energetic the collection felt, despite the vintage references.” WWD called the collection “punk with ample parts pretty.” Style.com, while looking for clues for Jacobs’s eponymous collection bowing on Friday, was thrilled with the coats. “Also in the mix was some great outerwear — everything from a belted, boxy man's single-breasted jacket to a black trapeze coat with a checkerboard of patent leather below the waist.” Fashion Week Daily called it “a fun, exuberant extravaganza.” If this collection foreshadows the Friday show, look for nothing but love letters addressed to Marc Jacobs.
Look at a video and slideshow of the Marc by Marc Jacobs collection.
Marchesa
Fresh off the heels of her honeymoon with Harvey Weinstein, designer Georgina Chapman and her partner-in-design Keren Craig showed a collection that won raves from critics and audience alike. It was “filled with lavish dresses that were as breathtaking in their execution as in their embellishment,” WWD gushed. Style.com swooned over the presentation, saying it “had glamour in spades.” Glam.com noted that the duo “opted to tone down several of their Oscar-worthy gowns, replacing last season’s opulent stunners with armor-like bustier dresses studded with rosettes.” Inspired by Queen Elizabeth I, Chapman and Craig showed plenty of red-carpet-worthy dresses, but still had “chic smoking offerings and gorgeous short dresses,” WWD said. Style.com’s favorite was a black gown with plunging neckline, “so sculpturally defiant, it evoked armor. Anybody who wore it would be paparazzi-proof.” That sound you hear is the rush of starlets to Marchesa’s studio.
Browse a slideshow of the Marchesa collection.
Video: Fabiola Beracasa at the Marchesa presentation.
Michael Kors
Can you combine the styles of Kim Novak and Amy Winehouse? Michael Kors seems to think so. His fall collection combined the two icons for a result that was all Hollywood glamour. Kors looked to the late fifties and early sixties for inspiration, but that didn’t make it old-fashioned. “Was it retro?” Style.com asked. “Well, yes. And it looked familiar, too: The era has been plumbed to its depths. But it never felt too costumey.” WWD agreed. “It had nothing to do with the Prada-instigated vintagey, granny’s attic aura of yore thanks to gorgeous pristine fabrics and a distinct, high-polish attitude.” Even Cathy Horyn offered up a compliment: “It was almost camp, on the edge of camp, but not, thankfully, camp.” Well, that was close.
See a slideshow and video of the Michael Kors collection.
Video: Studio Visit With Michael Kors.
Britney Spears is still daddy's little girl, as far as the courts are concerned.
No changes were made to Jamie Spears' conservatorship status during an emergency hearing Thursday that...
The other team has come up empty so far, but Leonardo DiCaprio wants yet another opponent to get in the game.
The 33-year-old actor has filed suit against the contractor that built the basketball...The Sultan of Brunei: Hello, Hathaello.
Raffaello: Hello, your majesty. Er, your Sultan-ity?
The Sultan of Brunei: No need to be so formal! Please, call me Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah. And how are you, today, Hathaello.
Raffaello: Um, I'm fine. And, by the way, it's not a big deal, but my name is Raffaello. Hathaello is this name that some people gave to me and my girlfriend, together.
The Sultan of Brunei: What? You mean Anne Hathaway isn't coming to this lunch? I have been watching that scene from Brokeback Mountain when she and Jake are in the backseat of the car, on repeat, all week just to prepare myself.
Raffaello: Oh, wow.
The Sultan of Brunei: I also loved her in The Princess Diaries. Very poised.
Raffaello: Yes, she is.
The Sultan of Brunei: So why did you want to meet me today, over lunch at the Dorchester in London, if not just to dash my dreams of meeting the star of the Devil Wears Prada? And how did you get here so quickly? I just read that you were at the Miss Sixty show. I love the fringed mukluks they're doing this year.
Raffaello: I took a private jet, which I paid for with my World Missions Visa credit card. One percent of net purchases go to … the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
The Sultan of Brunei: Is that like the Human Fund?
Raffaello: Kinda. Anyway, you see, I'm looking to expand my business, and I need backers. I just ended my financial relationship with Ron Burkle —
The Sultan of Brunei: Oh! I know him! We met through our mutual friend, Blanket. You might know of his dad, Michael Jackson.
Raffaello: Oh, yes.
The Sultan of Brunei: He's a strange man, Blanket's dad. He sort of ditched me for the Sultan of Bahrain, which is awkward.
Rafaello: Yes, that is awkward.
The Sultan of Brunei: Completely unexpected. Also, it's not clear on whether Blanket's dad actually knows that we are two different Sultans. But, anyway, what type of business are you in?
Raffaello: I buy dilapidated churches from archdiocese and sell them as luxury real estate.
The Sultan of Brunei: [Laughs for a long, long time.]
Raffaello: What's so funny?
The Sultan of Brunei: Dude, I'm from Brunei. Everybody's Muslim or Buddhist. A half-percent of our population is Catholic. They don't even have a cathedral.
Raffaello: But I can't work in America anymore! No one there understands my relaxed European attitude toward work, and Bill Clinton is mad at me. Do you know he's running to be president again?
The Sultan of Brunei: Did you know that I own this hotel?
Raffaello: Oh, no. I didn't.
The Sultan of Brunei: I do. Get out.
Raffaello: What?
The Sultan of Brunei: Get out! [Follieri runs for the door. The Sultan addresses a lackey] Elaine, get me Blanket on the phone. I've just been reminded of a score I've wanted to settle for a long time…
Sightings [NYP]
A winning evening dress sparkles in paillettes.Photo: Imaxtree
Today's collection was not Wang's strongest: Her typically light hand was somehow heavy. Fabric appliqués were bulky, and a yellow brocade that ran through the collection was harsh. The collection was inspired by the Dutch painter Kess van Dongen, but his colors are far more appealing on canvas than on clothes, where they came off as dark and sometimes dour.
Taken apart, there are great pieces, particularly a short and short-sleeved broadtail jacket put cleverly atop a navy coat. The sheer, layered evening dresses were also worth noting, particularly one covered in this season's answer to after-dark, shiny silver paillettes.
—Amy Larocca
Browse a slideshow of the Vera Wang collection.
Jack Black just can't stop kidding around.
The "School of Rock" star has signed on for a second stint as emcee of Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards, which celebrates child-friendly...
It's time to let loose your inner Sanjaya.
Disney's Hollywood Studios, located at the Walt Disney World resort in Florida, has announced plans to construct an "American Idol"...
From left, Marc by Marc, Preen, Proenza Schouler.Photo: Imaxtree
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1. The Beatles, "Rishikesh No. 9"
In 1968, the Beatles flew to India, quit LSD, and studied transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This scratch recording — of traditionals like "Jingle Bells" and "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain" — is a horrifying taste of what they sounded like while not under the influence of mind-expanding psychedelic drugs. [Captain's Dead]
2. John Lennon, "Happy Rishikesh Song"
Lennon parodies George Harrison's "Blow Away," mocking hippies, meditation, and the maharishi in one cruel swipe. It's pretty catchy. [Across the Universe]
3. The Beatles, "Child of Nature"
Before Lennon scrapped it (and later reshaped it into "Jealous Guy"), this gorgeous acoustic ballad — about being stoned in India, as far as we can tell — was in the running for inclusion on "The White Album." Surely it would've been a better choice than either of Ringo's songs. [Captain's Dead]
4. The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"
As a birthday present to Mike Love, also a student of the maharishi, the Beatles recorded a song about meditation in the style of the Beach Boys. Man, the sixties were hilarious. [Captain's Dead]
5. John Lennon, "India, India"
Lennon wrote this track in the seventies for a later-canceled stage musical on his and Yoko's lives. It was resurrected in 2005 for Broadway's Lennon, which was, regrettably, a huge flaming stinker. Song's not bad, though. [YouTube]
Related: Meditation on the Man Who Saved the Beatles [NYT]
Donna Karan hides her nerves at the Gucci benefit.Photo: WireImage
Sam Lutfi may not yet have received the papers informing him of his temporary restraining order, but another member of Britney Spears' circle, in a completely different sort of way, just got served.
Adam...The previous volume in this series was the most critically acclaimed mixtape ever. Vol. 3’s not about to change that. But once you get past the unnecessary spots from second-string Re-Up Gang members and a less than stellar selection of borrowed beats (“Roc Boys” just feels wrong for their bum-out sound), you’re still left with the work of the best rap group grinding, and Pusha T and Malice are as cool-going-on-cold as ever delivering their impeccably crisp punch lines.
Photo: Patrick McMullan
*We hear this because Jo has totally been besties with Daily Intel editor Chris since the day Jo body-slammed her way past a doorman at Bungalow 8 to get into Chris's birthday party in 2004, earning his respect forever.
Photo: Getty Images
Winehouse Must Stay Clean for Bond: The producers of the stupidly titled new James Bond movie have told Amy Winehouse that she can perform the credits song for the film if and only if she stays clean through April. We think the only way to write a song called "Quantum of Solace" is to get really, really drunk. [The Sun]
Mose Schrute's Baseball Blog: Turns out one of the pseudonymous bloggers of the exemplary baseball site Fire Joe Morgan is The Office writer Michael Schur, best known for his majestic appearances as Mose Schrute. [FJM via Deadspin]
VF Taunts Gamers: Too tired to read all 4,000 of Vanity Fair's words about this summer's video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed? Let us boil it down for you into four un-VF-ish words: This game sounds awesome. [VF]
The Sound of Silence: This post about the Oscar-nominated sound in No Country for Old Men is boring yet enthralling, just like the movie itself. [In Contention]
We Are Old: Hayden Panettierre's next movie is a teen comedy co-starring Kieran Culkin titled, no joke, Daydream Nation. [Variety]
Photo Illustration: Patrick McMullan, iStockphoto
Prosecutors Question Former Bear Stearns Exec: Report [Reuters]
Rich Marin Questioned: Will Bear Stearns Be Indicted? [DealBreaker]
Heath Ledger's family plans to bid a final farewell to the actor at a spot he cherished, according to reports.
Per the "West Australian" newspaper, the family will hold a private...
Kirsten Dunst has gotten herself caught in quite the gossipy web.
While reports are running rampant that the "Spider-Man" heroine has checked into the Cirque Lodge treatment center...
Amy Winehouse won't be taking her "Rehab" act to the Grammys.
The big-piped Brit, who's up for six trophies at this weekend's award ceremony, has gotten a big thumbs down...
Photo: Getty Images
"Johan Santana. I love him. I think it was a wonderful move for the Mets. I love all this great energy that's happening in New York, with the Giants winning the championship, with the best pitcher going to the Mets, and the Yankees keeping all their great, young, wonderful players. It's going to be a great year."
Young players are wonderful, aren't they? Man, and you thought good sportsmanship in baseball was dead. —Jada Yuan
Gus Powell's Putti (2000–present).Photo: Image courtesy of the photographer.
Though it’s always good to have confidence in your work, this shot — part of Gus Powell’s “Manhattan Noon” show currently up at the Museum of the City of New York — makes us a little uneasy. As all of Powell’s tableaux were taken at noon in midtown, it’s possible a leggy passerby may have been throwing these boys a bit off course. We’re particularly worried about the big guy on the right. —Rachel Wolff
Photo Illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos: Getty Images, Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
Video-game blogs Gamespot and Joystiq are reporting today that $100 million teen-pregnancy comedy Juno could soon be making its way to your Nintendo Wii. While common sense tells us that the developers will eventually realize they've made a terrible mistake and call the whole thing off, we'd like to, for a moment, imagine the awful possibilities of such a game. Will it be the world's easiest Guitar Hero knockoff, in which players try to hit only off-key notes in Moldy Peaches songs? An action game that challenges you to fend off Jason Bateman's advances by throwing hamburger phones and calling people "homeskillet"? Or will gamers be asked to drink a gallon of Sunny Delight, then use their Wiimotes as a home pregnancy test? Man, we hope we never have to find out.
Juno getting game treatment? [Gamespot]
Quirky indie hit 'Juno' to birth a game [Joystiq]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: Guess which dark lord lives in this sleekly hideous black fortress? It's your dad, Luke Skywalker! [Newyorkshitty]
East Village: Big-time developer Ben Shaoul thinks the East Village will always be "gritty and inexpensive and arty," even though he's renting $7,500 marble-bedecked apartments here. [NYO]
Flatbush: Look for some major redevelopment on shabby Flatbush Avenue, where the Pintchik family, long the owners of the local hardware store, own about $100 million in property and are readying to class it up to the level of Park Slope or Cobble Hill. [NYS]
Gowanus: A skateboarders' park? A boutique that gives sewing lessons? A four-story hotel? Sounds like Third Avenue, long the poor relation of the more advanced Fourth, is gonna start gettin' pretty fancy. [Brownstoner]
Harlem: Spike Lee blasted black pols here as "fuddy-duddies" for voting for Hillary, but said it kinda didn't matter because Obama-leaning Brooklyn was the city's new Black Power epicenter, anyway. [Brooklyn Ron]
Long Island City: Parents of a middle school here aren't thrilled at the prospect of their kids having to share the building with a proposed new high school of TV and film. The school would nurture internships with nearby Silvercup Studios, shooting ground for current Daily Intel unhealthy preoccupation Gossip Girl. [NYS]
Times Square: Some folks want to turn Eighth Avenue around 42nd Street from a corridor of skank to a place where fussy types will eat and shop rather than decamping west to Ninth Avenue. Today, halal holes-in-the-wall. Tomorrow, Two Boots? We'll see. [NYT]
Courtesy of Work Architecture
Dan Wood and Amale Andraos, the married founders of Work Architecture, are the sort of activist architects who like to improve the world, one construction site at a time. (Fortunately, it seems there are enough museums, schools, grants, and enlightened private clients to protect these critical thinkers from having to rename themselves Out-of-Work Architecture.) In a bold new bout of do-gooder design, the couple has convinced P.S. 1 to let them fill the museum’s courtyard with … um, crops. Wood and Andraos have won the institution’s Young Architects Program competition, which means that by summer, they will have stood dozens of giant cardboard tubes on one end, filled them with dirt, and used them as planters for cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes, and herbs.
The idea of turning a patch of asphalt into farmland is a throwback to the days of Victory Gardens, and, even earlier, to new immigrants growing tomatoes out behind their tenements. More recently, the locavore movement — which promotes the idea of reducing the distance from harvest to plate in order to avoid the industrial food apparatus — has yielded at least one valiant attempt at agricultural self-sufficiency in Brooklyn.
The project is also a reminder that New York City has quite a lot of arable land lying wastefully fallow. Instead of importing all our produce from Kansas, Chile, and far upstate, we could grow pumpkins on the roof of every Manhattan apartment building, turn the sun-filled corners of executive suites into mini-greenhouses, plant wheat on the Park Avenue median and kale on every condo balcony. Every spring, co-op boards deck out sidewalk planters with nourishment-free pansies; shouldn’t they have to use that public real estate to supply a local pantry? The Bloomberg Administration aims to plant a million trees within the five boroughs; why not require them to fructify? For now, P.S. 1's cabbages will have to do. —Justin Davidson
Betting a Farm Would Work in Queens [NYT]
Photo: Getty Images
Little Gold Men [VF via Carpetbagger/NYT]
Photo: Kate Glicksberg
But as the night went on — through a rushed first half and a powerful, more leisurely second half — it began to seem more like she was simply holding the microphone, a possible source of the feedback that had her peppering lyrics with curses, at arm's length. And so emerged shades of the old Cat Power, the one bedeviled by soundmen, prone to mid-show shutdowns, and endlessly characterized as some kind of beautiful freak. At one point, she lay on her back and announced, despairingly, “This is pissing me off.” But her voice (once the soundman turned up her vocals, no doubt risking more feedback — which wasn't, by the way, all that terrible) sounded gorgeous. And once in the swing of things, her backup, the Dirty Delta Blues Band, cooked. In the end, a fine show that nonetheless called to mind antidepressants more than booze could have used the tension, right? —Nick Catucci
Left: Melania Trump yesterday at the tents. Right: Jocelyn Wildenstein.Photo: Getty Images, WireImage
Photo: Getty Images
"I've had one or two disappointments in my life. Like lunch with Peter Ustinov. You wouldn't believe how disappointing that was." —John Cleese [A.V. Club]
"There will be something sort of liberating about ordering Chinese food and watching the Oscars in bed." —Graydon Carter on canceling the Vanity Fair Oscars party [NYT]
"Mozart was not worried about making money off of music, you know. Money and bling-bling and Benjamins and all that stuff ain't about nothing. When we came up, we couldn't care, 'cause our idols were the raggediest dudes in the world." —Quincy Jones [EW]
''At some point I'll have the longest career of anyone and they'll have to give me an award. And hey, I'll have the clips all edited and done and scored. I'll get the little gold man if it's the last thing I do.'' —television actress Brooke Shields, who isn't too familiar with how Academy Awards are won [EW]
"My opinion of him is, it's kind of like just eating a random sandwich. It's just there." —Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste on listening to M. Ward [A.V. Club]
Photo: Getty Images
Romney to Quit Race [Time]
Update: Snippets from his speech just now, in which he said he was stepping aside so that McCain could begin a national campaign:
"Today, we are a nation at war. And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. The consequences of that would be devastating.… Frankly, in this time of war I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.… This isn't an easy decision; I hate to lose.… If this were only about me, I'd go on. But it's never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America. And because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I now have to stand aside for our party and our country."
Photo: Getty Images
Life After Ledger [NYP via TMZ]
Ask photographer Arlene Gottfried if she thinks the New York characters she’s shot for 40 years from Coney Island to Times Square and Harlem are freaks, and she bristles. "I don’t think they’re freaks, because then I’d be a freak, too." With her little-girl Coney brogue (she and her brother, manic comic Gilbert, grew up there), old-soul eyes, and longtime avid membership in the Jerriese Johnson East Village Choir (she occasionally solos, she boasts), she’s a quiet defender of the grimily vibrant denizens of an older New York that’s disappearing daily. Now she’s their enshriner, too: Due out this week from powerHouse Books, Sometimes Overwhelming compiles images Gottfried took of the city in the seventies and eighties. An exhibit of Gottfried’s later work is also opening March 5 at the Alice Austen House Museum on Staten Island.
We interviewed Gottfried about some of her most striking images. An exclusive preview of photos from her book, and her memories of taking them, after the jump.
Luke Silverman, 1977 (top image)
"He was the son of someone I worked with. He came to visit the office and had that costume on. He was very sweet and smart and acting out a TV show I think the costume was based on. We went outside to take the picture. 59th and Fifth at the GM Building."
Woman With Dogs, in Central Park New York, 1980
"I remember she was pretty crazy, not just looking but the way she was acting."
Isabel Croft Jumping Rope, Brooklyn, New York, 1972
"I was still at FIT in a work-study program run by this man named Barry Cohen, and he was involved in the Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association. He asked me to come and take stills. Isabel was there, and she started jumping rope so I took a picture of it. She was a youthful spirit and a photographer herself."
All photos courtesy of Arlene Gottfried and powerHouse Books.
FINANCE
• High fuel prices and a soft economy have sent Delta and Northwest Airlines running into each other's arms. The two could announce a definitive plan to merge as early as next week. [NYT]
• Senate Republicans have axed a proposed economic-stimulus bill. The Dem-proposed $158 billion package, which sought to avert a full-fledged recession, came up one short of the required 60 votes. [FT]
• But, no worries. Economists put odds of a U.S. recession at 49 percent, which means we're not technically there yet. Also, for what it's worth, this video is funny. [WSJ]
MEDIA
• Remember when Revver was going to show YouTube how it's really done? Well, no more. The video site is now shopping itself for $300,000–$500,000, a real steal considering the $12.7 million in venture capital it raised two years ago. [CNET]
• Perhaps fearful of top talent abandoning ship at the possibility of a Microsoft takeover, Yahoo chief Jerry Yang sent an all-hands e-mail yesterday (cc-ing the SEC, natch) reminding them, "As we look to build on the progress we've been making, I want to make sure you all realize how essential you are to Yahoo!'s success." [CNN/Fortune]
• Hollywood is preparing for the blitz. With the WGA strike (hopefully) winding down, studio execs expect a flurry of scripts and new deals to come their way. [HR]
LAW
• New York State regulators apparently don't get the giggles from funny law-firm ads, and equally humorless Florida has some bizarre bans on what is — and is not — permissible in their local legal spots. [WSJ]
• Finally, some justice for Fluffy. Two Chinese pet food–makers and an American importer have been indicted on charges related to a rash of poisonous chow released in the U.S. last year. [NYT]
• As many as 60 suspected Gambino-family mobsters are expected to be charged after a major FBI sweep today. [NYDN]
FASHION
• Victoria Beckham's need to start a real, actual fashion line might have contributed to the abrupt early end of the new Spice Girls reunion tour. [NYDN]
• Warm weather ruined Derek Lam's plans to serve hot chocolate at his show! [The Cut]
• The potential U.S. recession hasn't brought down luxury yet: LMVH's profits were up 8 percent last year. [WWD]
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