Rachel Roy, the fashion designer and ex-wife of Damon Dash, turns 36 today. Actor Chad Lowe is turning 42. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is 50. Eddie Cahill of CSI: NY turns 32. Mario Van Peeples is turning 53. Shane McMahon, the wrestler and son of WWE chairman Vince McMahon, is 40. And singer Charo turns 59 today. A few people celebrating birthdays this weekend are below.
MC Hammer pumped up a Silicon Valley rap battle; Nick Denton mocked a laid off New York Timesman; and a Fox Newser lashed out at the "hippies." The Twitterati love a fight.
Years from now, way off into the distant future, people will look back at the videos made by Plum TV, those tireless chroniclers of high society cheesedickery, and they, the future people, will wonder, "Why weren't those twatwaffles sterilized?"
New York turned out to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the historic Apollo Theater on Monday night. Prince, Mariah Carey, Steve Harvey, Bill Cosby, Fantasia Barrino, and Chanj all took turns on the stage; Jamie Foxx introduced Quincy Jones, who was inducted into the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame; and the crowd included Michael Bloomberg and Diana Taylor, New York First Lady Michelle Patterson, Patti LaBelle, Dick Parsons, Al Sharpton, Gayle King, Sherri Shepard, Phylicia Rashad, Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman Jr., Ruby Dee, Ron Perelman and daughter Samantha Perelman, Sade Baderinwa, Devyn Simone, Kevin Liles, Jonelle Procope, Susan Magrino, Robin Roberts, Doug E. Fresh, Bryant and Hilary Gumbel, Bethenny Frankel, Denise Rich, and designer (and secret soul music fan) Roberto Cavalli. [PMc, Wireimage, VF]
Richard Johnson and Jason Binn celebrated their birthdays with a joint bash at Da Silvano on Monday night, where they were joined by their wives, Sessa von Richthofen and Haley Binn, along with guests like Donny Deutsch, Jared Kushner, Brooke Shields and Chris Henchy, Silvano and Marisa Marchetto, Ann Dexter-Jones, Lauren and Charlie Walk, Daniel Benedict, Jane and Richie Notar, Jerry Della Femina and Judy Licht, Beth Ostrosky, Amy Nederlander, Alina Cho, jewelry exec Benny Shabtai, Sharon Dorram, film producer Meryl Poster, and Gigi Stone of ABC News. [PMc, GoaG]
Kate Moss turns 35 today. Page Six's Richard Johnson is turning 55. Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl is celebrating her 61st. Republican fundraiser (and cosmetics company founder) Georgette Mosbacher is 62. Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi is turning 28. Dr. Laura Schlessinger is 62. And the singer Sade is 50. Weekend birthdays appear after the jump!
• Start your engines, ladies: Sean Avery and Kelly Klein have split up. [P6]
• Mariah Carey may have collected as much as $1 million to perform three or four songs on St. Barts on New Year's Eve. [R&M]
• Lots of unresolved questions remain concerning the death of John Travolta's 16-year-old son, Jett, last week. [TMZ, NYP, Mirror]
• Get ready to see more of Lourdes Leon: Madonna's 14-year-old daughter has reportedly enrolled in Manhattan's Professional Children's School with hopes of starting an acting career. [Daily Mail]
• The new year isn't shaping up to be much fun for Gwyneth Paltrow. Her new diet bans dairy, gluten, meat, shellfish, nuts, potatoes, condiments, sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. [Telegraph]
♦ Alexander Wang was the big winner at Monday night's fifth-annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund awards at Skylight Studios. Wang and fellow nominees like Richard Chai, Jason Wu, Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, Irene Neuwirth, Alejandro Ingelmo, Juan Carlos Obando, Albertus Swanepoel, Swaim and Christina Hutson, and John Patrick were feted by John Galliano (left, with Charlize Theron), Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, Sally Singer, Andrew Rosen, Reed Krakoff, Jeffrey Kalinsky, Julie Gilhart, Julie Macklowe, Daphne Guinness, Sasha Heinz, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, Andre Leon Talley, Narciso Rodriguez, Maria Sharapova, Penn Badgley, Zac Posen, Vera Wang, Chanel Iman, Juliette Lewis, Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman, Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo, Lauren Santo Domingo, Peter Som, Piper Perabo, Phillip Lim, Lazaro Hernandez, Maggie Betts, Calvin Klein, Damon Dash and Rachel Roy, and James Franco. [PMc, NYO, Style.com, The Daily]
Tuesday afternoon we asked about rumored layoffs at Niche Media, publisher of socialite city magazines. From what we've heard since, it sounds like the bloodletting does, indeed, go well beyond Philadelphia Style and is in fact related to the Wall Street meltdown and advertising recession. "Top management is on it's way to Miami to repeat the same," one tipster writes. "Slash up the staff at Ocean Drive." Another writes, "There were more layoffs on Monday at [DC-based] Capitol File. The senior editor and two sales reps were let go." It should come as little surprise that plummeting real estate values and stock market contraction should sharply curb the number of people who think of themselves as affluent, and who thus read these sorts of magazines, particularly in recently fast-growing cities like Miami and DC. CEO Jason Binn made things worse by expanding to aggressively, one tipster claims:
Yesterday, we started hearing rumors of big layoffs on the way at Niche Media, that stable of glossy, journalism-free socialite-focused city magazines across the country. Today the Philly Daily News confirmed that Philadelphia Style had "much of its editorial and creative staff" laid off yesterday. But that may have been just the beginning; another tipster tells us that there are "massive layoffs" across the company, and "people are getting fired with no notice from editorial on a lot of different magazines — Hamptons, Boston Common, Philadelphia Style, LA Confidential..." Is Niche CEO Jason Binn's company the latest entrant in the Great Magazine Die-Off? If you have more specifics on the cuts, email us. [We're also hearing that the rumored looming layoffs at Viacom could actually be coming next week—stay tuned.]
1) The final big event of the season was the Robert Wilson-hosted concert benefit at the Watermill Center on Saturday. Rufus Wainwright, Kate, Anna and Martha McGarrigle, and Jessye Norman performed for a crowd including Isabella Rossellini, Calvin Klein, Amanda Hearst, Steven Klein, Daphne Guinness, Patrick McMullan, Bob Colacello, Jamee Gregory, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Luigi Tadini, and Lisa Anastos. [Paper/PMc]
1) On Saturday night, Gwyneth Paltrow co-hosted "The Mane Event" to benefit Amaryllis Farm Equine Rescue with photographer Steven Klein at his West Kill Farm in Bridgehampton. Arden Wohl, Kiera Chaplin, Kelly Klein, Patrick McMullan, Sale Johnson, and Rory Tahari all made appearances, but hotly anticipated guest Madonna was a no show. [NYO/PMc]
1) A screening of Bottle Shock, a dramedy about when California beat France in a wine taste test, was hosted by Michael Dunbar of Domaine Chandon and Newton Vineyard on Sunday night at the Southampton Cinema. The film's stars Alan Rickman, Eliza Dushku, and Bill Pullman, along with Bronson van Wyck, Andrew Fry, Devorah Rose, Elizabeth Lindemann, Jill, John, and Whitney Fairchild, Jeanne Greenberg and Nick Rohatyn, and Bettina Zilkha, watched the film followed by food and wine at Savanna's. [PMc]
(1) The 9th annual Art For Life Benefit took place on Saturday at Russell Simmons' East Hampton house. Despite tickets not selling out as fast as usual, the event played host to Aretha Franklin, Christy Turlington, Lorraine Bracco, Soledad O'Brien, David Paterson, Diddy, Padma Lakshmi, Brett Ratner, LA Reid, the cast of Real Housewives of New York, Al Roker, Kelly Bensimon, Alina Cho, Simon de Pury, and Porschla Coleman—whose break up with Simmons, judging by their behavior, is either incredibly amicable or no longer in effect. [PMc]
Jason Binn's Niche Media has discovered a winning commercial formula for Hamptons and its other magazines: print party photos of socialites; invite advertisers to parties at which said personages are supposed to be present, but usually aren't; and get them to spend on advertising to this largely fictional audience. (Much like the rest of media, but more so.) The greatest cost-saving innovation of all: journalism is a superfluous function. As Binn has demonstrated by appointing his wife and chief salesperson to top editorial positions.
