Scoops Archives

New York, November 25, 2008 – Ugly Betty’s Mark Indelicato was not a ballet fan until he moved to New York.  “I go to Performing Arts school, so there’s a lot of ballerinas in my class who happen to be my good friends,” the 14-year-old told us at the New York City Ballet’s opening night on Tuesday.  “I love “The Nutcracker;”  it’s a beautiful show,” Indelicato added.  Despite trying out for Billy Elliot on Ugly Betty, however, Mark has not studied dance.  His cast-mate, Vanessa Williams, is a longtime ballet aficionado.  Accompanied by an old friend, Williams told us, “We’ve been going to the ballet ever since we graduated back in the – eighties, shall we say?” She laughed, and said,  “We’re not going to give it away.”  Another ballet-goer, Sarah Jessica Parker, told us that the Sex and the City movie sequel is not yet a sure thing.  “There is an ongoing conversation that is real about it.  I’m not being cagey, I mean honestly, that’s the extent of our progress thus far,” she said. 

Photos: Luisa Johns/PKI

New York, November 13, 2008 - John Mayer thinks it’s in poor taste to flaunt his rock star millions while people are losing jobs all over.  “There are certain things I don’t think I would do right now because it’s not a time to celebrate the country in terms of the economy,” Mayer said before his performance at Keep a Child Alive’s Black Ball on November 13.  “I don’t think that I’d be racing up and down the street in a Ferrari right now,” he said. “Even if I had a Ferrari, I don’t think I’d take it out,” he added.

In fact, it apparently is not his fancy cars that have attracted Mayer’s string of high-profile girlfriends.   “I think the best form of recycling is buying used cars, so I haven’t bought a new car in like five years,” he told us.  “I’m into Land Rovers, like old, used Defenders.”  Not only that, Mayer works on them himself!  “I watch my hands, but I’m sort of figuring out how to do all that stuff,” he says.  (Maybe that explains the butch haircut?)

But Mayer is not economizing too much – he has three 1990s-era Defender models.  Alas, he would not tell us how many of the off-road utility vehicles are up on blocks in his front yard.

New York, October 28, 2008 – “If there was ever a store that is the symbol of a city, it is Macy’s in New York City,” said Mayor Mike Bloomberg at the iconic department store’s 150th anniversary party.  And the city helped celebrate: 34th Street was renamed “R.H. Macy Way”, the Empire State Building was lit in red in honor of the occasion, and citizens turned out for an evening fireworks display in the sky over the store’s Herald Square flagship.  The party at Gotham Hall featured performances by Michael Feinstein and singer Charise, and speeches from the mayor, CEO Terry Lundgren and Sesame Street characters Elmo and Miss Piggy.  Martha Stewart, Jessica Simpson, Eva Mendes, Tommy Hilfiger, Kenneth Cole, Steve Madden, and chefs Todd English, Tyler Florence and Ming Tsai toasted the retail giant. 

New York, October 21, 2008 – Everyone was excited to be in Central Park for the unveiling of Chanel’s Mobile Art Container.  Karl Lagerfeld conceived the idea, and Chanel commissioned renowned Iraqi-born, London-based architect Zaha Hadid to design it.  “I think it’s a great location for something like this,” Lagerfeld told reporters.  “[Hadid’s] work looks good in nature. The shape looks good. I think it’s very beautiful,” the Kaiser added. The container set down in New York after stops in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and it will move on with art exhibits in London, Moscow and Paris.  “It’s exciting to bring it to another city, to another country, to another environment. I think it’s a great, never been done before idea,” Lagerfeld said. 

Padma Lakshmi concurred, saying, “I like Zaha Hadid’s work; she’s a force to be reckoned with.”  And Sarah Jessica Parker, looking chic in Chanel, called the evening a very special moment.  “It’s a wonderful idea,” said Parker.   “Anybody would be a fool not to accept this lovely invitation!” she added.

Blake Lively did not share that sentiment – event organizers kept repeating, over and over, that Lively was on her way from the set of Gossip Girl.  We couldn’t wait any longer, and left the Chanel party shortly after 8:30 PM, and headed downtown to the Us Weekly Hot Hollywood party – and there was Blake!  Maybe she couldn’t resist a rare New York appearance by Zac Efron.

New York, September 24-26, 2008 – While world leaders were in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, Bill Clinton took advantage of the opportunity to bulk up the guest list for his Clinton Global Initiative, which was going on at the same time at a Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan.  World political leaders from Clinton to Al Gore to Shimon Perez to Tony Blair to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to wannabe leaders like Sarah Palin called attention to global problems at the CGI. 

But unlike the U.N. Assembly, celebrities like Drew Barrymore and Matt Damon also lent their voices to Clinton’s “Call to Action”.  George H.W. Bush joked that he had trouble getting in, so he told them at the door that he knows Bono, who was, indeed, inside, and was quite smitten with Queen Rania of Jordan.  Lance Armstrong answered the question of the week when he spoke about having met French President Nicolas Sarkozy: “I met his wife – that’s what everyone asks me,” Armstrong quipped about the popular Carla Bruni. 

Clinton even had the pull to attract business leaders like Bill Gates and T. Boone Pickens – at the same time that Wall Street was in the throes of its biggest meltdown in history. 

New York, September 3, 2008 - While the country music world in general tends to lean to the right, politically – remember when the Dixie Chicks were shunned for bad mouthing President Bush? – LeAnn Rimes works both sides.  She performed at the Republican National Convention last week, but says it was a bipartisan event.  “I performed for both parties; it really doesn’t say much about where I’m at and where I’m not at politically,” Rimes told us at the launch of Stop Hiding, Start Living, a psoriasis awareness campaign.  (Rimes has battled the condition since childhood, and now has it under control.) 

“I’ve performed for many presidents - it’s funny to say that at 26 - but I have performed for three different presidents now,” the Grammy winner said.  She’s a big Bill Clinton fan.  “Clinton was always way into music, and he’s just an incredible man to be around, and very, very funny,” she says.  But then she had fun with fellow Texan W, too.  “You know, it’s funny, it happens to all of us, we’ll meet a ton of people and they’ll walk by and you’re like, hi, how are you.  And he’ll get to me in a line, and he’ll be like, ‘Hi…Oh, LeAnn!  How’s it goin’?  It’s my Texas girl.’”  Rimes says no matter the party, it is a thrill to meet the president.  “You know, it’s our president at the end of the day.  So I go and have fun with them.  That’s my job.  I get to go have fun.”

Denver, CO, August 27, 2008 – Jennifer Lopez was the keynote speaker at an event during the Democratic National Convention!  But don’t worry - although J. Lo was dressed very conservatively, she isn’t entering politics yet.  She spoke at a Children’s Defense Fund event at the Denver Art Museum, where politicians, children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman and other celebs like Ashley Judd were in the crowd. 

“I wanted to make a real difference”, Lopez told reporters, but not enough to stay for the luncheon – she slipped out before lunch was served. 

Denver, CO, August 26, 2008 – Charlize Theron and her longtime boyfriend Stuart Townsend were in Denver during the DNC, but ostensibly for a movie screening and not for politics.  Townsend directed Battle in Seattle, which was screened as part of the IMPACT Film Festival, which focuses on socially themed films.  Oscar winner Theron starred in the movie, which chronicles the protests surrounding the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle. 

Theron and Townsend were hostile to photographers outside the venue.  They arrived together, and she offered a steely smile; after the panel discussion, the two looked outside, and Theron said, “Let’s just run!” and she bolted out the door alone.  She ran faster as we followed her down the street, and when OAN’s photographer told her he’d chase her if he were younger, Theron laughed – but kept running. 

Impact Film Festival