Director of Tyson, Black and White and (haha) The Pick-Up Artist, James Toback has gained a reputation as a creep for hitting on young, random women. A few years ago, Gawker posted a string of stories detailing his antics. Here's a recent one from a 24-year-old Bushwick resident who spent over two hours with the 67-year-old filmmaker.
James Toback (Two Girls and a Guy, Tyson) was on the prowl yesterday. For romance. The 65-year-old writer/director hit on a 24-year-old lady, who he'd unwittingly cruised once before. He promised to make her a Star. Her harrowing tale below.
Elle creative director (and regular on The City) Joe Zee turns 41 today. Senator Chuck Schumer is turning 59. Miley Cyrus is 17. Good Morning America's Robin Roberts is turning 49. Director and screenwriter James Toback is 65, as is Basic Instinct and Showgirls writer Joe Eszterhas. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana turns 54. Former Lazard chief Michel David-Weill is 77. TV chef Rick Bayless turns 55. Defense attorney Gary Naftalis is turning 68. Filmmaker Robert Towne is 75. Psychiatrist and author Keith Ablow is turning 48. Comedy writer Bruce Vilanch is 61. And child soldier-turned-bestselling author Ishmael Beah is 29 today.
• Richard Fuld's daughter Christine and her husband Aaron Packles, a managing director at Merrill Lynch, have dropped the price of their co-op at 79 East 79th Street by more than $3 million. The five-bedroom, full-floor apartment is now listed for $9.8 million, which is just $50,000 more than they paid for the home in 2007. [NYT, ELC]
• Marc Ecko and his wife Allison—who are currently facing $2.1 million in liens in connection with the Bernardsville, New Jersey castle they've been renovating for close to three years now—are now selling the colonial home next door for $1.229 million. [NYP, CB]
• Former UBS exec Ramesh Singh has sold his 4,225-square-foot co-op at 860 Park Avenue, which he first put on the market for $13.4 million in 2007 and went into contract to sell in December '08, for $7 million. [NYT]
• Writer/director James Toback is putting his late mother's 15th-floor co-op at the Majestic on Central Park West up for auction. The 2,200-square-foot apartment, which first went on the market for $3.75 million in November, will be available for a minimum asking price of $1.999 million. [NYT]
With his appearance Saturday night in Park City, documentary subject Mike Tyson became the first ear-biting, convicted-rapist ex-heavyweight champion to receive a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival.
♦ After briefly listing his fifth-floor "Astor Suite" apartment at the Plaza for $55 million for one day in September and then taking it off the market, Esprit's Jurgen Friedrich has put the 5,000-square-foot spread back on the market for $38 million. [NYP]
♦ David Smilow, the co-founder of TeleBank, which was sold in 2000 to E*Trade for more than $1 billion, has put his duplex penthouse at 140 Perry Street on the market for $19.5 million. Curbed.com has photos and a floor plan here. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
♦ Screenwriter and director James Toback has listed his 15th-floor apartment at the Majestic for $3.75 million. The 2,200-square-foot apartment comes with two bedrooms and a handful of celebrity neighbors including Conan O'Brien. [NYP, BHS]
We're not intimately familiar with the work of writer-director James Toback, but the New York native's film credits are somewhat impressive. He directed Two Girls And A Guy, wrote Bugsy and is working his magic on a Mike Tyson documentary due out this fall. But he seems to have convinced at least one Brooklyn resident that he's doing a very, very poor imitation of Robert Downey Jr. in one of his other films, the Pick-Up Artist, which happens to be precisely what Spy magazine nailed Toback for in a takedown published in the late 1980s (he disputed much of the article). The resident, who has had one too many brushes with Toback writes:
Where are the big spenders this year at Cannes? After a 2007 buying spree that topped out with Universal snagging We Own the Night for a whopping $11.5 million, only one distributor has made any considerable investment in the current crop of selections — IFC Films, which made news Wednesday by acquiring the acclaimed Irish drama Hunger, its seventh buy in as many days. And even its other deals — an international mash-up including A Christmas Tale (France), Chaser (S. Korea) and the American indie The Pleasure of Being Robbed — are slated for minimal theatrical play as they funnel into IFC's day-and-date on-demand circuit.
