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 Virgin Media Music | R Kelly lawyers hope mystery man can help defense The Associated Press - CHICAGO (AP) - Questions linger about what, if anything, a man who made a surprise call to defense attorneys might be able to say to help R. Kelly at his child pornography trial. New witness comes to light Mystery man jolts R Kelly trial |
 E! Online | Make that Ashlee Simpson-Wentz Dallas Morning News - Newly married Ashlee Simpson is changing her name to Ashlee Wentz in honor of her husband, Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz. "I think that that's something that a woman should do when they're marrying a man," she tells People magazine. Newlyweds Ashlee Simpson, Pete Wentz expecting baby Ashlee & Pete: Really, Truly Expecting |
 Ottawa Citizen | 'Sex and the City:' Better than ever Chicago Tribune - By Jessica Reaves | Tribune reporter At the New York City premiere of "Sex and the City," cast member Willie Garson (Stanford Blatch) called the highly anticipated movie "critic-proof. Sex And The City: C Sex and the City (R) |
DreamHandlers
Submit a photo of your favorite art handler to Art Handlers of the Year! It’s a calender featuring twelve of everyone’s favorite art handlers of New York City. The calender will come out this summer, just in time for that busy fall season. Here are the guidelines:
-You can submit a photo of any person who is or has worked as an art handler, preparator, exhibitions coordinator, or installer recently. This also includes those of you on the trucks working for the shippers.
-You can submit a photo of yourself.
-You cannot be naked, thanks.
-You will only appear in the calender if you approve it.
-Submissions must be in by August 1st.
-Please include information about the person appearing in the photo, like their name and where they work.
-The photos will be narrowed down to a smaller number, and then there will be a vote to pick the lucky twelve.
There are something like 700 galleries in Chelsea alone. That means at least 700 art handlers. Please forward this to your favorite art handler or their gallery/company.
SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS TO
dkupfers@gmail.com
SUBJECT: DREAMHANDLERS
Wait, "exhibitions coordinators" are allowed? Are they really that hot? At least they'll be balanced out by the random truck drivers whose only connection to the art world is that they... drive art around. And maybe help unload it. Whatever, as long as they're ripped.
It's somehow comforting to know that, even in the avant-garde world of Chelsea art galleries, there's still an underlying fascination with flesh-baring protocelebrities. May you find your Julia Allison, art gays. And MAY WE ALL.
"They are telling folks that they are trying to adopt these animals out, but that is patently not true," said Patrick Kwan, New York state director of the Humane Society of the United States.
"These animals cannot be adopted out. This is an extermination program that sentences them to death."
Since the cats are feral, you're not allowed to adopt them from the shelter.
But you could try boycotting major JFK customers like, say, JetBlue, for not trying to exert more pressure on the port. It's not like that airline, in particular, is particularly humane to humans at that airport, either.
The heat is back on for Axel Foley.
More than a year after signing Eddie Murphy for another go-round as the wisecracking Detroit detective who prefers getting his hands dirty in SoCal,...
The prelude to Harry Potter's life at Hogwarts is, if not exactly sweet, then at least very short.
A prequel to the billion-dollar fantasy franchise, handwritten by J.K. Rowling on...[Craigslist via Above The Law]
(Image via IMDB)
Memo Pad: Even the 'Times' Realizes Sex Sells [WWD]
Kimberly wasn't good to Betty Suarez back in high school and she hasn't done much for her lately, either.
Lindsay Lohan's buzzed-about appearance as a Mean Girl from...
More than a few talking heads figure David Byrnes should be recognized for his pioneering efforts.
The new-wave rocker will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th...
David Eigenberg does not like to watch.Photo:
1984 was a great year.Photo: style.com
The worst thing I ever wore was legwarmers when I was in school. I not only wore them, I used to wear two or three pairs. Everything was some shade of dusty mauve and rose, what I call 'ishy colors.' At the time I was wearing a burgundy boot. Fortunately, there are no photographs.
Now imagine, reader, that ensemble on the guy you see above at left. That's Kors backstage at his show in 1984. Makes sense that he only wears his black-blazer uniform now.
Fasten Your Seatbelts [Style.com]
He may have crossed big-screen paths with Abe Lincoln, but the real-life Keanu Reeves is "certainly not more important than the president of the United States."
So said the...
Forget that baby bump, Ashlee Simpson has another new appendage.
The 23-year-old newlywed has confirmed she's taken her rocker hubby's name and become Ashlee..."Siberia was the kind of place you went to drink to forget. 'It's where I went to forget that earlier that day I showed up to cover a party for Freddie Prinze Jr. and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s publicist told me that he wasn't doing interviews,' offered Spiegelman.
"But some memories remain: 'One time [owner] Tracy [Westmoreland] interrupted our conversation to go throw some guy in a Dumpster and then returned to our conversation,' says former 'Page Six' scribe and current Maxim editor Chris Wilson. One of his fondest recollections of the bar is the night he did shots with CNN's Lou Dobbs.
"Another is the time when, just for fun, Westmoreland ordered his clients to hurl his entire inventory — several thousand dollars worth of alcohol — against the wall. 'I put it up in the pantheon with Max's Kansas City, CBGB, Mudd Club," said Wilson. 'I think they all occupy the same shadow of awesomeness.'
"''The first time I went down into the basement I thought, How can there not be a body down there?' said author and book publicist Sloane Crosley. 'It looked like Silence of the Lambs.'" [NYM]
"Oasis of lawlessness," "physically revolting," "a celebration of self-loathing." These are just a few of the phrases used to describe the now-shuttered dive bar Siberia in Jack Bryan's new documentary Life After Dark: The Story of Siberia Bar, which premiered at Soho House last night. "Siberia was the last stronghold of the New York bohemian," said Bryan. "It was sort of a place lost in time."
The bar first opened in 1996, in the 50th Street and Broadway subway station. After being evicted by the landlord there, owner Tracy Westmoreland, a former lifeguard who once worked the back door at Studio 54, took it to a bigger space at 40th Street and Ninth Avenue. There he reigned until September 2007, when the joint was give the boot for the last time. "Siberia was a high-school reunion of nasty," he told us fondly.
"The first time I went down into the basement I thought, How can there not be a body down there?" said author and book publicist Sloane Crosley. "It looked like Silence of the Lambs."
The dank watering hole served as a postmodern Algonquin club for "Page Six" reporters and struggling writers. Former "Page Six" reporter Ian Spiegelman opens the film: "I don't even know how you could make a documentary about Siberia," he says. "I don't know how people have any memories of what happened there."
Siberia was the kind of place you went to drink to forget. "It's where I went to forget that earlier that day I showed up to cover a party for Freddie Prinze Jr. and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s publicist told me that he wasn't doing interviews," offered Spiegelman.
But some memories remain: "One time Tracy interrupted our conversation to go throw some guy in a Dumpster and then returned to our conversation," says former "Page Six" scribe and current Maxim editor Chris Wilson. One of his fondest recollections of the bar is the night he did shots with CNN's Lou Dobbs.
Another is the time when, just for fun, Westmoreland ordered his clients to hurl his entire inventory — several thousand dollars worth of alcohol — against the wall. "I put it up in the pantheon with Max's Kansas City, CBGB, Mudd Club," said Wilson. "I think they all occupy the same shadow of awesomeness."
The film includes interviews with everyone from The Sopranos' Michael Imperioli to chef Anthony Bourdain and party snapper Patrick McMullan, a testament to the cross section of New Yorkers who were attracted to the bars skanky-chic appeal. Sure, It was filthy, an island of lost souls. But everyone was lost together.
"Siberia was where you took your drunken freakness," Spiegelman explains.
The beginning of the end came in January 2007, when a fire tore through the bar in and the place became flooded ("I don't think the bar has ever been cleaner," Westmoreland observed). Nevertheless, he kept Siberia open and started pouring shots. It was business as usual for the next eight months until the place was forced to close owing to rent disputes.
"Siberia wasn't good for me, but it was great for me," says New York Observer writer George Gurley. "I'm glad it's over, but I miss it. I got a lot of great stories out of that place." —Noelle Hancock
For more on Siberia, see Grub Street.
Photo: Getty Images
"Christopher Tolkien did not wish to be involved in the LOTR movies and I would assume his feelings are the same with these two films. I totally respect him for that since he is looking after the legacy of his father's books and does not wish to be involved in someone else's interpretation of those stories."—Peter Jackson in this weekend's online chat about The Hobbit
Christopher Tolkien, 83, is calling for “one last crusade” in a long-running court battle against the producers of The Lord of the Rings only weeks before carpenters are due to begin work in New Zealand on the sets for the latest Middle-earth epic. He claims the Tolkien family is owed £80m by New Line Cinema under a deal for a 7.5% share of profits that was signed in 1969, when his father reluctantly sold film rights to pay a tax bill... At a hearing on June 6 Christopher Tolkien will ask a Californian judge to back his claim that he can “terminate” film rights to The Hobbit. He is said to be furious with the New Line studio, which earned £3 billion from the Rings trilogy.—"Hobbit movies meet dire foe in son of Tolkien," the Sunday Times (London)
Note: Beyoncé's nails match her dress.Photo: David Dyson / Camera Press / Retna
SKIN
• Venus razors promoted its smooth-leg pitch by turning an escalator in a Philippines train station into one giant leg. It's supposed to look like passengers are running their hands up the leg as they ride up. Get it? Now if only we could do something about Penn Station's escalators. [Trendhunter]
HAIR
• Ghd's new IV styler is a limited-edition straightener that promises healthy locks without dead ends. The travel case it comes in is almost cuter than the product itself. [British Vogue]
MAKEUP
• Lancôme's Star Bronzer Sun Cherub Compact is the size of a CD. You know what they say: When cell phones get tinier, compacts, uh, get huge? [Allure/Daily Beauty Reporter]
• BellaSugar named their top five mascaras, and we’re surprised their picks aren't all major brands. They include Lancôme Courbe Virtuose, Lash Blast by Cover Girl, Balm Two-Timer, Mirenesse Secret Weapon, and Beauty Addict’s Lash Galore. [BellaSugar]
• The Watermelon Tinted Moisturizer from Korres sounds yummy. Plus it contains SPF 30, which is ideal for face protection. [Makeup Moxie]
Photo: Getty Images
Was it hard convincing your family to star in a documentary about steroids?
My brothers were part of the reason we decided to do it. They wanted to speak out themselves about this issue and about their use of steroids. My parents knew the film was about steroids, but they thought we were making a movie about how terrible steroids were. I did let them know from the get-go that the film was going to be very tough — I told them that if they ever got to the point where they wanted to shut it down, all they had to do was tell me. They never got to that point.
One of your brothers talks openly in the film about his steroid use but also says that he doesn’t want your parents to know. Was he aware that by saying it on film he was essentially telling them?
I asked him: “Why would you tell me, but not our parents? They’re going to see the movie.” And his reply was, “Who’d ever want to tell their parents to their face about something like that?” He was willing to tell something to the whole world, but not to his mom.
The film also features Ben Johnson, the Canadian runner who was famously stripped of his Olympic gold medal in 1988, admitting to steroid use.
Ben Johnson claims that he was taking something, but not what they discovered him taking. He believes somebody poured steroids into his drink. And when you say to him, “But you were still cheating,” his response is, “Yeah, but so was everyone else.” He says he took Winstrel but that he was tested for Stanozolol. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that those are actually the same drug. Winstrel is just the brand-name version.
And then there’s Floyd Landis.
Floyd sleeps in an altitude chamber. There are four different ways you can increase your red-blood-cell count: You can sleep in an altitude chamber; you can train at altitude; you can inject EPO, a hormone that makes your blood produce more blood cells; or you can blood dope, which is just reinjecting your own blood a day before the race. The two latter ways are cheating; the two former ways are totally allowed. You ask, what’s the difference? They’ll say, “Well, one actually increases it a lot more than the other one.” Which is just another way of saying: “An altitude chamber doesn’t work as well as the drugs or the blood doping.”
What do you think of his story?
I don’t know whether to believe him or not. I wasn’t there when everything went down, but I did see the lab results, and they were very shady. The way they went about the testing was a mess.
You make a compelling argument in the film that the dangers of steroids have been greatly exaggerated, and in some cases even completely invented. Why?
It’s easy to get on a soapbox and say, “These guys cheated, they used steroids, and steroids are bad. I’m gonna protect you and your children from this evil drug.” Remember, in the 1960s, the Russians were using them. And the Germans were using them in WWII: Guys were coming back from war malnourished and beat-up, and the Nazis were injecting their soldiers with testosterone. Of course we misinterpreted that as the Nazis injecting them with steroids so they’d get ’roid rage and go crazy, but it was actually to reinvigorate the men so they could function and get back in shape. But basically, anything the Nazis and the Soviets were using couldn’t possibly be a good thing, in our eyes.
So, should steroids still be regulated?
Definitely. I just don’t know if I think they should be a controlled substance, the way they are now. If you look at all the laws in our country, and at how and why things get banned, they don’t actually fit into that category: They’re not addictive, they don’t actually kill people. I don’t condone the stuff, but after three years of researching this, it seems like we should take another look. —Bilge Ebiri
After taking a rather unsuccessful stab at running a bed and breakfast on their Oxygen reality series, Tori & Dean: Inn Love, Tori Spelling and her hubby, Dean McDermott, return to Tinseltown...
Overstock.com's "Carrie kit."Photo: Courtesy of Overstock.com
What eDressme can do for you!Photo: Courtesy of eDressme
Available in the HBO shop.Photo: Courtesy of HBO
Photo: Courtesy of Tobi.com
Left: What Rachel Johnson can pick out for you. Right: The cougar necklace. Rawr!Photo: Courtesy of 5W PR, LaRue PR
6. Max and Chloe makes a "super fab" cougar necklace for necks missing that special something. We actually like this idea: It will be great for Halloween, when we dress up as Lil Mama.
7. VideoJug.com offers video instruction on how to lead your life just like the girls. Because people who are actually interested in this service don't already know precisely how to go about pursuing their delusions? Anyhow, according to the e-mail, you can learn how to "run in high heels like Carrie," "give a good-night kiss like Charlotte," and "date younger men" like Samantha. Best of all, you can learn how to power-dress without the shoulder pads. You know, we'd rather just wear the shoulder pads than watch all the videos.
8. Fireside restaurant will get you trashed with Fab Four–inspired cocktails. You're gonna need them, and they're free at Fireside, with your ticket stub. Enjoy drinks specially concocted for Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda — like Charlotte's Virgin Cotton-Candy Kiss. After one of those, you'll probably want another just to forget the shame of the first.
9. eBay offers statistics on how select items have been selling in light of the movie. Oh, burning curiosity satiated! They say sales of flower accessories and handbags have increased 21 percent. And Manolo Blahnik sales are up by 64 percent. Good to know, right? Thanks, eBay. We know you were dying to jump on the bandwagon. Well played.
Producers decided the mayor did not have the right look.Photo illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos: WireImage; Courtesy of New Line Cinema
"By the way, I was originally supposed to have a part in Sex and the City, but my scene wound up on the cutting-room floor. It turned out that they wanted more sex and less city. That’s fine. Their loss."
Then he burst into tears and fled the room. Well, no, he didn't, but practically. And it's not, as the Times' City Room blog points out, the first time that the mayor has brought up his removal from the Movie Event of the Year. He's made the comment before: "I even got a small part in the upcoming Sex and the City movie," he told Penn students on May 19. "Unfortunately, my scene ended up on the cutting-room floor." Plus he's said it at least two other times! Jeez. He's even more upset than Charlotte was when her wedding-announcement photo turned up with a Hitler mustache. Buck up, Mayor B. Remember what Fergie always says: Big girls don't cry.
‘They Wanted More Sex and Less City,’ Mayor Gripes [City Room/NYT]
Photo illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos: Courtesy of ABC; iStockphoto
And yet, the writers keep upping the ante. Their brassiest move came in the finale of last season, when they effectively blew out the front door of their own narrative spaceship, revealing — in that eerie final sequence when Kate and Jack met at an airplane hangar — that what we'd thought was a flashback was actually a flash-forward. It was the equivalent of a perfect arabesque; like they were showing off how much power they have over us.
The flash-forward was one of those splashy TV moments, like Kimberly pulling off her wig in Melrose Place. But it's paid off as more than just a gimmick.
That single shift flipped the Lost game board out fifteen squares in each direction. It expanded the show's setting from the island to the world. It raised the level of narrative difficulty, both for the writers and for the fans, pivoting elegantly away from "Will these people get off the island?" and complicating the whole notion of "What will happen next?" (And I'm not even getting into the whole time-travel thing.)
But best of all, it made the show's appeal weirdly clear: that this is as much a game as a story. It's no surprise I find myself talking about the level of difficulty; it feels very much like we're leveling up. My husband, who is a video-game critic, pointed out that Lost online commentary often feels less like a response to a story and more like the way fans deconstruct an ARG, an alternative reality game, participating in communal puzzle-solving and focusing obsessively on tiny details. Some of this is deliberate, of course. Lost has had its own video game and ARGs (The Lost Experience and Find 815); co-creator Damon Lindelof has talked about the influence of Myst. But it was a little bit of a shock to me, a traditional narrative nerd, to realize that what was kicking my ass was the game play, not the deep thoughts.
Because Lost is a brilliant TV show, but it's not brilliant the way our culture usually defines that quality — it's not "Dickensian." It's thought-provoking, but the themes are not always complex; with a few exceptions (for me, Locke and Ben), it has compelling characters, but they have motivations, not true inner lives. Yet if there's one thing this excellent season has demonstrated, it's that a TV show doesn't have to be like a literary novel to be genuinely ambitious. Lost feels a bit like a detective story and a lot like a comic book, but even more like a video game, with some of the pleasures of sci-fi, and definite aspects of a magic show. It's a new kind of tour de force.
Its tricks are tricks of puzzle and chronology — showman's tricks, rhythmic revelations that can lead to real emotional release (Penny and Desmond's phone call at last!) but are more centrally about the mathematical shock of watching two elements slip into unexpected relationship (like the realization that Desmond's "incident" is what caused the plane to crash). The series has always rewarded near-schizophrenic levels of pattern recognition, to such an extent that it can distort my other TV watching (does anyone else watch The Wire expecting license-plate numbers to reveal hidden clues?). But the most original aspect to Lost is the sure-handed way its creators have dovetailed the satisfactions of a story with the payoffs of a game.
And maybe this isn't just a coincidence. After all, board games have taken up a striking amount of space this season. There's Locke with his backgammon; there's Hurley's Connect Four; there was that suggestive, meta-conversation over a game of Risk. And Ben did complain mysteriously about Widmore's "changing the rules": Could the whole thing be a game? Excuse me, I'm off to consult Lostpedia and figure it all out before the finale… —Emily Nussbaum
The president has always denied being an acoholic, though he's copped to "drinking too much" back in his callow youth (which lasted until his 40s, by the way, when he had his convenient religious reawakening). The alcohol provided a convenient excuse for his being a no-good fuckup for his entire 20s and 30s, and the religious awakening and supposed sobering up helped him gain forgiveness for youthful indiscretions like his disorderly conduct arrest and his 1976 DUI.
Anyway. Billy Graham showed up in 1985. In July of 1986, according to the lies he told in 2000, Bush quit drinking for good.
When the president "choked on a pretzel" in 2002, the White House took the step of having the White House physician announce to the press that "There was absolutely, positively, no suggestion on physical examination that any alcohol was involved." He just choked on a pretzel, during a football game, and lost consciousness.
Graydon Carter sez he knows a guy who sez Bush's blood alcohol level was quite high when he was hospitalized after the pretzel incident.
(Around the same time, a number of nuttier lefty sites began blowing up and enhancing photos of the president's face to point out all the burst capillaries that proved his continued reliance on booze.)
Cocaine
The rumors made the rounds in 1999: George W. Bush did coke! This was before 9/11, when everyone started doing coke again, so it was a big deal. If it was true! Proving it became quite difficult when the person with the most damning-sounding "proof" of drug use turned out to be an unreliable criminal (much like how the people with the best proof that Bush went AWOL from the national guard were using questionable documents, FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS). So. Here are some of the rumors:
We're forced to ask if Obama didn't exaggerate his drug use for the sake of a compelling narrative!
(We've come so far.)
Americans know Louis Malle best for high-minded fare like My Dinner With Andre and Au Revoir les Enfants—and for his marriage to Candice Bergen—but in 1958 he was famous for The Lovers, a succès du scandale that starred Jeanne Moreau as a bourgeois housewife with a wandering eye. The film triggered a Supreme Court case on obscenity, which Justice Potter Stewart defined curtly: “I know it when I see it.”
This would never happen in Topeka.
The ladies of The View silenced Elisabeth Hasselbeck long enough this morning to take a moment to recognize something very special to their national audience: the June 18 opening of the Red Hook Ikea! And to celebrate New York City's very first do-it-yourself Swedish furniture multiplex (and the possibility that we might never have to take a shuttle to Elizabeth again), The View gave all audience members $200 Ikea gift cards. Yay! Or not. Though the crowd dutifully cheered, the real reaction was tepid at best. Just a hunch, but we're guessing most folks who want to go watch a taping of The View aren't from New York or cramped urban places where they might be resigned to buy Ektorps and Malms. (And if they are from around here, they're hitting Raymour & Flanigan.) As Racked astutely notes, "$200 at Ikea is more a responsibility than a gift" — which is probably why Whoopi felt compelled to remind them of the home-assembly hell that awaits them all. Seriously, Oprah would never pull that shit. —Jessica Coen
Red Hook Ikea [Racked]
Photo: Getty Images
2. Tricky, "Council Estate" (live on Later … With Jools Holland)
Council estates are more or less the English version of the projects, but Tricky's new anthem is more punk rock than hip-hop. [Culture Bully]
3. Rick Ross feat. Pharrell, "Get Down"
Rick Ross gets in on the comic-book-hero racket this summer with this engaging track about Superhead. [Attorney Street]
4. Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris and Chrome, "Dance Wiv Me"
Dizzee, ever the romantic, approaches a girl on the dance floor by commenting that he "can't see no room for improvement" and suggests that there might be something more "than a hotel-room thing" between them. [First Up]
5. Numero 6 feat. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, "Da Piccolissimi Pezzi"
Oldham goes from singing in someone else's voice (see the video for Kanye's "Can't Tell Me Nothin'") to singing in someone else's language, as he wraps his rough twang around the more mellifluous Italian he sports on this track. [Pitchfork]
—Ehren Gresehover
This is how it's done, people!Photo:Courtesy of Carlos Miele
Photo:Courtesy of Carlos Miele
Photo: Courtesy of Carlos Miele
Photo: Courtesy of Carlos Miele
Courtesy of New Line
But is this actually true? We don't think so. We're a man, and we would definitely choose seeing Sex and the City over being shot. Sex and the City promises to be a somewhat tacky, thoroughly ridiculous movie that we would like some parts of and hate other parts of. Getting shot is scary and can kill you!
If we had to quantify the amount of discomfort we would go through rather than see Sex and the City, we'd go fairly low; we'd maybe be willing to be punched once in the kidneys, or to suffer a mild stomach flu. We polled our colleagues, asking them the same question, and the responses were illuminating. After we sorted through the hyperbole ("I would rather be waterboarded with 1,000 Cosmopolitans") and the annoyed responses from female colleagues who (a) rightly objected to the vague male-panic overtones of the premise or (b) demanded to know why they couldn't express how much they don't want to see Sex and the City, we discovered that many men seem not at all unwilling to see Sex and the City — at least not unwilling enough to suffer all that much for it.
The responses, in escalating order of discomfort:
A light flick on the nose.
If I had to choose between a mild but persistent itching sensation that lasts 25 minutes, or watching that movie, I’d pick the itching.
I suppose I'd prefer waiting on line for two hours to get into Magnolia to seeing the movie. At least at the end I'd have a cupcake.
I would rather take medication with annoying side effects than watch Sex and the City.
I would rather eat someone else’s booger.
I would rather read and then endlessly discuss Emily Gould’s piece in the Times Magazine.
I would rather get a paper cut between each of the fingers of my right hand.
I’d rather get nausea and throw up in my mouth from watching The Notebook than see Sex and the City.
I would rather fall through ice (assuming I was rescued before drowning).
I would be shot with a BB gun, as long as it wasn’t in the eye.
I would rather have Kim Cattrall give me a Brazilian wax.
I would rather be punched in the stomach by the guy that killed Houdini.
I would be willing to take one solid blow to the gut from a professional boxer, seriously.
I’d be willing to be Tasered, but only if I’m holding a Cosmo that symbolically flies out of my hand and shatters against a wall.
I would rather be mauled by one of Michael Vick’s pit bulls.
Next week: What would women rather do than watch The Incredible Hulk? (Our answer: Watch Sex and the City!)
'Sex' sells, but will men see 'City?' [Variety]
Photo: iStockphoto
Jamaica: Port Authority will no longer neuter the pack of feral cats that inhabit the grounds of JFK Airport and instead will remove them to shelters, where they may be put down. P.A. honchos say the wild kitties are an airport hazard, but a pro-pussyist says, "I've never seen a feral kitten pole vault into the engine of a jet airplane." She's obviously never eaten mushrooms before a flight. [amNY via QueensCrap]
Mill Island: Do you even know where this corner of Brooklyn is? Well, neither did we, but after looking at these photos of the hood's crazy mini-castles and various pretty inlets, we'd like to visit it. [Traffic Triangle]
Park Slope: It would be sooo easy to mock the food co-op here for just banning plastic bags, but you know what? God love 'em for doing the right thing. And they're gonna ban the plastic roll-and-rip bags in the produce section next. So don't think they can be stopped on any level. [Brooklyn Paper]
Upper West Side: The city has stopped the private Trinity School from selling the last (affordable) Mitchell-Lama building in the area to a private condo developer — a kibosh that leaves even non-Christian tenants there making the sign of the cross. [amNY]
Photo: iStockphoto
Doubtless, there are those of us who empathize with Carter. Who has not felt the searing irritation the overenthusiastic gymgoer inspires? Who has not wanted to punch the spandy-clad stranger on the adjacent elliptical when they brightly suggest, "another fifteen minutes?" right in the teeth? Who has not wanted to smack the whooper, to kick the guy who doesn't wipe the machine, to subject the chronic yoga-farter to a public stoning? But there are laws in gym as there are laws in life, and it would behoove us all to remember these wise words from Mr. Sugarman's lawyer: "Spin class is an environment where there is passion in their pedaling — but there shouldn't be violence."
Psycho Spin-Out [NYP]
Rachel Sussman’s Welwitchia Mirabilis #0707-6411 (2,000 years old; namib naukluft desert, namibia) (2008).Courtesy of the artist
Photo: FilmMagic
R. Kelly — "Freak Show" [DJ MVB]
Earlier: Things Suddenly Not Looking So Great for R. Kelly
And when they cried they cried tears of fashion.Photo: Getty Images
Overheard outside the Sex and the City premiere.
Girl 1: Oh my God! Becky, tell me, tell me, how was it?
Girl 2: Ummmm … UH-'mazing.
Girl 1: Really?
Girl 2: Yes, I mean, God, I miss that show so much.
Girl 1: I know; me too. Did you cry?
Girl 2: So much. First, it was tears of joy, then it was tears of fashion.
Girl 1: Oh my God, tears of fashion? I think you totes just coined that phrase.
Girl 2: I totes did. Tears of fashion. The fashion was so good. I love fashion.
Girl 1: So was it so good? I mean, tell me, but don't tell me. Did you see Big?
Girl 2: Big was there and all the girls and Regis. I called my mom and I was like, "I saw Regis."
Girl 1: I'm so glad the movie was good. That show, that show, it was just, God. [Sigh.]
Girl 2: There were moments that just blew me away.
Girl 1: And how was Sarah Jessica?
Girl 2: UH-'mazing.
Girl 1: It makes me so mad what Maxim said about her.
Girl 2: I know. I don't want to oversell it but…
Girl 1: I feel like I'm going to cry right now. Oh my God.
Girl 2: You're going to cry.
Girl 1: I'm going to cry right now.
Girl 2 : Let's all cry.
—Levi Fox
See what reduced Girls 1 and 2 to tears at our complete coverage of the Sex and the City premiere.
Photo: Melissa Hom
Artist and set designer Anne Koch — who's known for her striking photo-shoot settings in the pages of Vanity Fair and Teen Vogue — was responsible for translating Ruffian's rebellious-schoolgirl aesthetic into the space. Koch says she always works with a character in mind: “When you walk in the room, it should feel like the girl has just left, like she’s going to come back in at any moment and catch you,” she says. “She’s like the ghost in the room.” We asked Koch to divulge the details of her creation. Hover over the arrows in the room to reveal her tricks. —Lauren Murrow
Could you look this good with a $5 jacket and a QVC bag? Photo: Melissa Hom
So when did you start shooting?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I moved to New York at a ripe age, the right age to pursue my dreams of becoming a famous photographer.
When did you get into photography?
When I was 10 years old, which was just two years ago.
How did you get into photography?
My aunt gave me a 110 camera, a Kodak, and I would carry that with me everywhere. I thought it was so fabulous. I'd take pictures of my friends modeling. We’d come across old-lady depositories of old gowns and so we’d clear a space in the bedroom and we’d take modeling pictures. And after that my father gave me this 35-mm camera and that’s when I really started because it had multiple lenses and it looked fancy. But I have no idea why I started to take those 110 pictures because I didn’t discover fashion photography until I was 18. So I don’t know what we were doing at 10. Maybe it was instinct.
Did you ever want to be a stylist?
I never wanted to be the model, and I never wanted to be a stylist. I was always the photographer. I mean, think about it. I take the picture, I can remember the picture. My memory is so poo these days, it’s a way to keep everything embedded and there.
How’d you get your first gig?
I had a street-fashion column in the New York Post. In 1998, the Post decided they wanted to appeal to a more feminine demographic so they started a women’s section. So they gave me the column and I was hanging out downtown. I was hanging out on Ludlow like at the beginning of Ludlow. I would go photograph all the downtown kids — those were my contemporaries, those were my friends, that’s where I went, that’s where I partied. My thing was the downtown set. And I did that for a long time. That was very integral to my growth. I met loads of people. I started to understand more about the industry. It was really something else. Then I started in Nylon and that was a big thing for me.
Was that your first magazine job?
Actually my first mag job was Out magazine. It was like an author a hundred years ago. But Nylon was really the beginning. They were all very supportive, and I shot a lot of celebrities for them and I did weird kids and I shot real people. I stopped shooting models as the main thing basically early on in my career.
Danielle with her Sharif original.Photo: Melissa Hom
You were on America's Next Top Model, season three. How was that?
How hilarious was that? You saw me? I barely met Tyra, which was a bummer. You can't do ANTM and not meet Tyra. She barely showed up. She just dropped in. It was actually a lot of work. The thing was that I work in a commercial capacity, but if I have a model who doesn’t know how to model, I work with them, I show them how to do it. But it was thirteen of them. It was a long day. I treated it like it was a real job.
Did they at least pay you?
No, they didn't pay me. And I'm so embarrassed. I looked at it the one time, and I've never looked at it again.
So we have to ask, what's up with the bag?
I got the bag in Boca. It’s a QVC original, by Sharif. It’s a signed piece.
Most people wouldn't carry a QVC bag.
I think it's from QVC, but I knew it was from Boca. It's got a jewel-encrusted snake head. I have to say that I refuse to be limited by confines of expectations when it comes to fashion. It's too much. It's too much pressure to own everything properly. It can be trendy, that's fine. If a look is too expected, if you can surmise somebody's look based on what they're wearing, I don't want to be that simple.
Your book's coming out in November and is about teenagers. Why them?
I love kids' style, I love the way they express themselves. I love that teenagers are sort of influenced and clued in by what's going on all the time. They're influenced and care about impressing their friends. I love the way they express themselves, and I love to watch the commitment to that expression. It feels so passionate and real and hard-core. And there's room for experimentation. I like watching kids separate themselves from the pack. I love that kid who wants to be independent from the norm.
How would you describe your style?
There's a little Florida in me. And there's a little eighties in me — but not in a Danceteria sort of way. A late-seventies high-waisted, belted skirt and tank, really simple. I wear Hervé Léger…
High-end disco maybe?
High-end disco! I am high-end disco, yes!
Do you wear all the same jewelry every day?
I change them. I vary them. Sifting through the bins to find something exciting, so it's a matter of collection. I love a necklace, I love a dangle. Brand-wise, Lia Sophia and Noir make me feel glamourous and Crumley jewlery is beautiful and so unexpected in its design. At night, I don't change up the jewelry, but I do try to amend it. I took off my earrings — I thought it was too much. The gold hoops were a little much.
What should every woman have in her wardrobe?
Chic shoes, girl, chic shoes. It does change quite a bit, but I love a shoe that gives me a skinny leg. I love a height, I love a platform, and I love being able to wear a messy outfit and a chic, complicated shoe.
What trend do you love right now?
The white T-shirt, leather jacket. The most trendy thing I do is my leather jacket. And I bought it in Paris ten years ago at a thrift store for $5.
What do you wish would just go away?
I don't need to see leggings. There's also a certain slouchy-boot aesthetic. I don't mind a slouchy boot, but there's a certain aesthetic that I don't like. It's too definable, cheap.
Who are your favorite designers?
I get a kick out of Escada, Hervé Léger, at the same time, I like Marc by Marc, a Chanel shoe, I like a Chanel jacket, I like a Burberry classic skirt. I'm not really defined by a specific designer because it's about a feeling that I'm exploring and hopefully I come across it in my travels.
What designers or labels do you actually wear the most?
I do wear some high-end designers, but for me, those lines become more interesting when you mix in younger lines, like this cool surf T-shirt line called Warriors of Radness or a knitwear line called Spring & Clifton. And who can live with out Grey Ant? Marc Jacobs is the shoe brand I own most. I seem to only wear J Brand jeans. But it's all in context to build an overall look. But my favorite shoe is Azzedine Alaïa. I love Alaïa. I have some hot pants and a miniskirt!
Too much is never enough.Photo: Melissa Hom
What are you lusting over right now?
I'm lusting after gladiator sandals from like last year or whatever. The ones with the metal on them. Oh my God. Give me more platforms, give me more height. I'm always lusting after a shoe, and I'm always seeking more white T-shirts, the perfect white T-shirt.
What in your wardrobe can't you live without?
Honestly white T-shirts and tank tops. I'm a huge tank-top fan, something about my shoulders. I'm sort of cut. If I wear a square tank top, it works for my back. —Amina Akhtar
Photo: Getty Images
Looking at an excerpt in today's Wall Street Journal and commentary on political blogs with copies of the book, we can see that McClellan variously portrays Bush as:
Dependent on politicized advisers: Bush “had been deceived” about the Valerie Plame leak by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, “and therefore became unwittingly involved in deceiving” McClellan. He relied on propaganda instead of candor in a time of war, and “was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security.”
Self-deceptive: McClellan remembers being puzzled by Bush’s assertion that he honestly couldn’t remember whether he had ever done cocaine, an episode that demonstrated Bush’s tendency to “convince himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment.”
Uninquisitive: Bush didn’t even grasp the debate as to whether the war in Iraq was one of necessity or choice. “It strikes me today as an indication of his lack of inquisitiveness and his detrimental resistance to reflection,” McClellan writes.
Slow to act: McClellan says Bush “spent most of the first week [after Hurricane Katrina] in a state of denial,” and that the “botched federal response” to the disaster “would largely come to define Bush’s second term.”
Insecure: Had Bush been “a more self-confident executive” he would have been “willing to acknowledge failure” and trust he would be forgiven. But he was focused on “accomplish[ing] what his father had failed to do by winning a second term in office,” and adopted a “permanent campaign approach,” which included “never reflecting, never reconsidering, never compromising. Especially not where Iraq was concerned.” Bush’s unwillingness, when asked by a reporter, to admit a single mistake he made in office is “symbolic of a leader unable to acknowledge that he got it wrong, and unwilling to grow in office by learning from his mistake.”
McClellan will surely be lambasted on the right for betraying his old boss "just to sell books" or to secure his own place as an innocent onlooker in a failed presidency. But ultimately it seems that McClellan goes easier on Bush than he could have, inasmuch as the deception and politicization in the White House is often attributed to scheming aides — or Bush’s defects as a leader, as opposed to his “consciously set[ting] out to engage in these destructive practices.” He might not be so good at his job, McClellan seems to say, but he's not a bad guy. Really. —Dan Amira
Scott McClellan's Confession [WSJ]
Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House [Politico]
Ex-Press Aide Writes That Bush Misled U.S. on Iraq [WP]
McClellan On Bush's Version of the Truth: From Cocaine Rumors to Destructive Partisan Warfare [Political Punch/ABC News]
Bush misled U.S. on Iraq, former aide says in new book [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Photo: Getty Images
"A professor that turns into a car that turns into a robot." —Rainn Wilson, describing his role in the new Transformers movie [Movies Blog/MTV]
"I was reading last week in USA Today about the Bond film — The Quantum of Solace — and they were shooting in Chile in some desert at 120 degrees, they're running on a metal building, the crew was dying, they can't function, they don't know how they're going it, the Mayor of the city is mad at them because it's supposed to be Colombia. Everybody's going crazy. I mean they could be shooting in Pinewood. They could be in a big green room." —Speed Racer producer Joel Silver on why locations, sets, and real actors are superfluous [Moviehole]
"I was raised by a matriarch, I have a wife and three daughters, so I know what women are looking for when they shop for clothes. Clothes have to make a woman feel good, relaxed and sexy. We are going to be constantly looking at fine-tuning the fit and we'll get it right." —LL Cool J, on designing a range of children's clothes for Sears [WENN via Starpulse]
"I've got a film script based on 'L.A. Woman,' and another one in which three UCLA film school guys go to the desert to take peyote with the Native Americans at the Native American Church." —Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek prepares to launch his screenwriting career with scripts that will really appeal to kids today [Billboard]
Photo: Getty Images
According to Twitch's Todd Brown, J.C.V.D. is "a truly great film. No matter what criteria you may use to judge it — scripting, cinematography, humor, action, even dramatic performance — J.C.V.D. is one remarkable piece of work … Nearly half way through 2008, this is the best film I've seen all year." Making this even more insane is the fact that Variety's review is also an unqualified rave, citing Van Damme's "near-Buster Keatonesque deadpan" and "a tear- and prayer-filled" monologue that "must be seen to be believed." Assuming this isn't all some massive French Internet prank, we sort of can't wait to see this.
J.C.V.D. Review [Twitch]
J.C.V.D. [Variety]
He wishes it was him.Photo illustration: Patrick McMullan (Koblin)
FINANCE
• Fed chairman Ben Bernanke seems to have quieted his Wall Street critics. For now. [NYT]
• Did Wall Street investment banks packaging mortgages know that they were selling bad loans to investors? [NPR]
• An investment-banking summer-intern survival guide. [Mergers & Inquisitions]
REAL ESTATE
• Did Scarlett Johansson buy a $2.1 million penthouse on East 53rd Street near Sutton Place? [NYO]
• The average price of a Brooklyn condo: $656,784. [Brownstoner]
• Countdown to Ikea! There are only 21 days left to the store opening that will change everything. [NYP]
LAW
• Former Baker & McKenzie partner Martin Weisberg has been indicted for a second time on new counts of wire fraud and money laundering. [Law.com]
• Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal is the latest leading law firm to lay off staffers. [Above the Law]
• New York's Dewey and LeBoeuf law firm is making its mark in Silicon Valley. [Law.com]
Photo: Courtesy of Opening Ceremony
Only five percent of Chloë's Opening Ceremony line remains in the New York store, which bought a "huge amount of it," according to Leon. Currently, the book is on presale at Amazon, and Opening Ceremony is the only store where you can currently purchase it. But don't expect a marketing blitz when it's officially released to boutique booksellers, in mid-June. "We wanted people to discover it," Leon explained. "We wanted people to kind of walk in the store and go, 'Wow, what's this?'" So when you stumble upon one of the 2,000 they made, now you'll know.
Chloë Sevigny for Opening Ceremony [Amazon]
Maybe Frank Rich, Richard Plepler, and Tina Brown can all go tanning together! Photo: Patrick McMullan
If you run a big network, you can spend your money to surround yourself with people you respect and admire and who you want to hang out with.
Oh. You know who's really cool to hang out with, Plepler? Bloggers. We're just saying.
We're here to fix HBO! [NYO]
Photo: Getty Images
• Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field calls her own style "very utilitarian" and "comfortable." Also, Cleopatra is her style icon, "because she was here over 2,000 years ago and we are still talking about her." She adds, "I love watching Victoria Beckham, Gwen Stefani, and Paris." That is all so confusing. [British Vogue]
• Elle creative director Joe Zee ad-libbed for the Ugly Betty season finale, on which he guest starred, with editor Robbie Myers. He added this zinger during a softball scene: "I'm not going to be distracted by how fat you look in white." Knowing he came up with that on his own makes us feel like we "get" him a little bit better. [WWD]
• Blasted! This year's CFDA awards won't have cocktail hour. [WWD]
• Proenza Schouler signed a new shoe-licensing deal with Giuseppe Zanotti. The first batch will launch for resort sales, and a full collection will debut in 2009. [WWD]
• Did you know Paul Winston, of Chipp tailors, invented patched-madras cloth? He'll also make you a custom jacket out of turquoise Indian silk for suggested wear to Palm Beach, Palm Springs, or the country club. Father's Day, anyone? [City Room/NYT]
• Former L'Oréal cover girl Caron Bernstein's new art show features paintings that represent her rape by an ex-boyfriend and her brother's suicide. What a cheerful way to welcome summer. [NYP]
• Heavens! Now there are pictures of Miley Cyrus's bare stomach on the Internet! [NYDN]
• Roberto Cavalli: "Anyone is capable of doing minimalism. I won't, because it's horrible." [Telegraph]
• Two 25-year-old designers for Seven Jeans were killed earlier this month in what appears to be a hit-and-run outside the company's Vernon headquarters. A suspect was arrested and released on bail. [WWD]
• The 81-year-old founder of Ross Stores, Inc., Stuart G. Moldaw, died on Saturday, following a short illness. [WWD]
Photo: Getty Images
Lookie! Our other leading ladies! Kim, darling, hot-gluing lace panels on one's gown doth not glamour make, but love the hair and makeup. Kristin Davis looks as Charlotte as she possibly could. And Cynthia Nixon's dress is largely inoffensive, but those white shoes belong on a Fort Lauderdale boardwalk.Photo: Getty Images
Jennifer Hudson's bra is doing something magical here, but we prefer lingerie underneath clothes. In the middle is Nicole Forester from Guiding Light. We dare say she could pass for Sea Anemone Lady No. 4 from the Little Mermaid musical, too. And on the right Libera — er, Christian Siriano — holds fast to the face of the Earth. In case this picture has made you forget, he's "America's next great fashion designer."Photo: Getty Images
For shame, Fergie! Red shoes on the pink carpet?! Love the seahorse, though. Candace Bushnell really looks charming, though we wonder if the dress would have looked better without the fringe. Whatever, she owns it. And on the right, enjoy the rare sight of Ashley Olsen smiling really big! She looks great. If carrying a Manila envelope out with her always makes her this happy, we fully support it.Photo: Getty Images
The Best Photo Op of the Night Award goes to André Leon Talley and Anna Wintour. Yeah, they wear their sunglasses at night. Perfection. And OMG, Michelle Williams is back! Looks like she's not over that unfortunate case of the Carpet Clashies. (Didn't PR warn everyone that the carpet would be a deep pink?) And on the right is Melania Trump. We're sure she's going for a chic early-season Hamptons thing here, but isn't it amazing how expensive outfits can look like they came from Forever 21 sometimes?Photo: Getty Images
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