These days, ruined neocon actors scrounge for roles while Nancy Pelosi sings hippie drug songs in respected theaters and the liberal media elites run off to Canada to fornicate in public.
The Museum of the City of New York's Director’s Council held its annual Winter Ball last night. Among the 600 attendees at the Versace-sponsored event were Steve and Christine Schwarzman, Patricia Duff, Allison and Peter Rockefeller, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss (left), Andrew Rosen, Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross, Rachel and Ara Hovnanian, Nicole Miller and Kim Taipale, Woody Johnson and Suzanne Ircha, Meredith Melling Burke, Dennis Basso, Valesca Guerrand Hermès, Amanda Cutter Brooks, Helen Lee Schifter, Celerie Kemble, Cristina Cuomo, Sylvester and Gillian Miniter, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Marjorie Gubelmann, Cynthia Lufkin and Dan Lufkin, Debbie Bancroft, Heather Mnuchin, Jennifer Creel, Zani Gugelmann, John Demsey, Jonathan and Somers White Farkas, Mark Gilbertson, Alexandra Lebenthal and Jay Diamond, Byrdie Bell, Allison Brokaw, Peter and Jamee Gregory, Geoffrey Bradfield, Antony Todd, Serena Boardman, Tatiana and Campion Platt, Maggie Betts, Johannes Huebl and Olivia Palermo, Bronson Van Wyck, Douglas Hannant, Karen Duffy, Jack Bryan, Brian Reyes, Yigal Azrouel, and Amy Fine Collins. [PMc, NYSD, MS, WWD, GoaG]
In Tuesday's disturbing relationship newsdump, we learn Nadya Suleman's kids brutalize her, Rihanna's Chris Brown reunion riled her family and dinner with TomKat is as weird as you think.
• Lindsay Lohan says she wants to convert to Judaism so she can "prove her commitment" to girlfriend Sam Ronson. She even went to the great trouble of updating her Facebook status to "I'm converting." [Daily Mail, P6]
• Katie Holmes looked "gaunt and tired" at an LA restaurant over the weekend. It could just be the elaborate security precautions wearing her down: Tom's security detail insisted on "sweeping" the eatery before anyone sat down to eat. [NYDN, MSNBC]
• Chris Brown and Rihanna have left Miami for LA and are now staying at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The public outrage over the reconciliation continues, though. [E!, LAT, OK!, People]
• Jimmy Fallon looked a bit "awkward" and "stiff" when his talk show made its debut last night with guests Robert De Niro and Justin Timberlake. [Us]
Chelsea Clinton is celebrating her 29th birthday today. Elizabeth Taylor is turning 77. Josh Groban is 28. Ralph Nader is 75. Joanne Woodward, the Oscar-winning actress and widow of Paul Newman, turns 79. Actor Noah Emmerich is turning 44. Lynyrd Skynyrd's Johnny Van Zant is 50. Rozonda Thomas (or Chilli) from TLC is 38. And the head of the 92nd St. Y, Sol Adler, turns 55. Weekend birthdays—including Olivia Palermo's big day—after the jump.
David Beckham walking around town with his sons on Saturday morning and later joining up with Victoria to take them to see Jersey Boys ... Agyness Deyn and Albert Hammond Jr. walking their dog and drinking coffee ... Britney Spears arriving at JFK yesterday ... The Jonas Brothers signing autographs outside their hotel ... Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes buying candy at the M&M's store in Times Square with Suri and Isabella ... Natalie Portman filming scenes for her new movie ... Hillary and Chelsea Clinton leaving Billy Elliot on Broadway ... Taylor Momsen standing on the Gossip Girl set ... Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts walking downtown with cups of coffee in hand ... Miley Cyrus arriving at her hotel, accompanied by her mom and boyfriend, Justin Gaston ... and Tyra Banks leaving dinner with boyfriend John Utendahl.
♦ Are Madonna and Guy Ritchie really divorcing? It might be another rumor or really a Sun exclusive, but the British tabloid says they plan to announce the split as soon as today. [The Sun]
♦ Christie Brinkley is suing Peter Cook for violating the couple's confidentiality agreement by talking about their relationship on 20/20. [NYP]
♦ The "mystery illness" that's caused Janet Jackson to cancel tour dates is supposedly a vestibular migraine, which "induces the sensation of vertigo." The good news is that now she's apparently cured. [ET]
♦ Raffaello Follieri's lawyers yesterday asked a judge to "go easy" on Raffaello in exchange for his quick return to Italy where he'll "never be heard from again." Ha! [NYDN]
♦ The 40-year-old CEO of a company called Future Tech Enterprise on Long Island is actually paying $20,000 to box Michael Lohan. And Stephen Baldwin is now planning to serve as the match judge. [Newsday via NYO]
Chelsea Clinton walking in flip-flops with a cup of espresso in hand ... Penn Badgley and Ed Westwick filming scenes for Gossip Girl outside the Palace Hotel ... Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes laughing with friends in Times Square ... Tom Cruise and daughter Suri leaving their apartment ... Rachel Bilson making an in-store appearance at Macy's in Herald Square ... John Mayer leaving his apartment with a big bag ... Madonna's kids Lourdes and Rocco arriving at the Kabbalah Center ... Tim Robbins and Brian Williams outside the Letterman show ... Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel getting in an SUV after Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky's wedding at Le Cirque ... Angelina Jolie outside Lee's Art Shop on West 57th Street with her kids, and later leaving Nobu with Brad Pitt.
Chelsea Clinton made a surprise appearance at a meeting of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy committee this afternoon. (She was there to represent the hedge fund she works for, Marc Lasry's Avenue Capital.) But let's move on to the more important question: What was she wearing? "She was smartly dressed in black pants, white collared dress shirt and black vest, very blond hair up in a bun. Her chic black shoes appeared to have a platform, and her name was etched on her cell phone." [WSJ/Deal Journal]
Insta-stalker: "Just spotted Chelsea Clinton twice on Fifth Avenue and 23rd St. as I was coming to and going from the gym. Hot and not at all embarking on the 'my-mom-should-have-conceded' walk of shame." She's no reason to be ashamed! Now she gets to be the first lady president!
WTF. Wooden almost actor Jake Gyllenhaal apparently dated wooden former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, according to Star. In 1999! When he wasn't even famous! Apparently their parents knew each other. We don't buy a word of this. Why is it coming out now? Last-ditch effort to rescue Hillary Clinton's campaign with star power? Also according to this story, Chelsea Clinton thinks Jake should marry Reese Witherspoon. According to a "source." That "source" is drugs. [Star]
Hey, a camera phone photo of Chelsea Clinton partying at Bump, where she hung out as part of her whirlwind weekend tour of Philadelphia gay bars! Could this be one the breathless photo-ops mentioned in Sunday's story? Maybe the one where an excited woman announced that she'd grabbed the former first daughter's ass? Probably not, as it looks like there's not another woman for miles in this shot. But still. It is a photo of Chelsea Clinton surrounded by drunk homosexuals. [Previously]
"'I grabbed her ass,' one young woman exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter."
Back when Chelsea Clinton was a little girl, she was, to the press, the only "off limits" member of the Clinton family. Now she's an adult, and actively campaigning for her mother, and acting more or less like any other Clinton surrogate with her public appearances and politicking. And everyone still treats her with kid gloves, and gets very upset when she's spoken to like any other campaign operative. It's all quite condescending, but whatever. She can handle herself. Look how nicely she deceives: "'There was some talk in the media about whether it was true or whether it was not true,' she said. 'Her family has said it's true in the interim, but what matters to me in the following story is that no one ever doubted that it could be true in our country. So here's the story we heard . . . .'" That's a beautiful way to introduce a lie, isn't it? [LAT]
Chelsea Clinton, in Portland, Oregon campaigning for her mother, apparently moved her schedule around to make time for a trip to "the 'Red Dress Party,' a mondo-alcohol-fueled dance party where nearly 2,000 gay men in various states of red dress undress (and several nearly naked straight men as well as one very colorfully decorated naked woman) invade a warehouse in Northeast Portland and dance their collective asses off to pounding disco music and the incredible Storm Large and her Balls (they were beyond fabulous)." [WWeek]
First Chelsea Clinton left a nine-year-old Scholastic News reporter "crestfallen" by stonewalling her interview request, saying, "I don't talk to the press, and that applies to you." Around the same time, Chelsea's mom Hillary attacked Democratic presidential opponent Barack Obama for statements he made while in kindergarten. Now Gary Busey has taken child pundit abuse to new extremes, playing serious hardball with an 11-year-old StarzLife reporter outside the Oscar after-party of the United Nations Children's Foundation. According to StarzLife, "a'Busey" was "visibly intoxicated," yanked away the camera from the reporter and "proceeded to bend down and spit-yell right to the little girl's face." Busey has already apologized to his idol Ryan Seacrest for behavior earlier in the evening, but given that child reporters now get about as much respect as paparazzi, StarzLife wisely decided to just post the whole thing to YouTube and move on to the next belligerent public figure:
