Today is Ann-Margret's birthday, and here's the red-headed cutie frugging wildly in a loony 1966 movie called The Swinger. Nobody looks as good shaking her hips as Ann. Go, Kitten With A Whip!

The amazing Robbie D returns as Jer Ber Jones in FOWL, probably the best show I've seen in YEARS! While some people will be sweltering with a crowd of 60,000 in 120 degree heat at Coachella, YOU can be sipping an ice cold margarita in the cool, intimate environs of The Cavern Club Theater (located in the basement of the infamous Silver Lake Mexican restaurant Casita del Campos) having your mind blown by the astounding theatrical strangeness that is FOWL! Really, this show is FANTASTIC and unlike anything you've probaby ever seen before! Plus this latest incarnation features new songs!!!!

READ MORE »

So, when we posted that we were giving away a copy of the re-released Hope Floats soundtrack, we received a full-on onslaught of comments from people telling us why they deserved to own the CD. Clearly, we had hit a nerve! After poring over the oodles of emails, we finally decided to go the schmaltzy route, and settled upon Stefan. Here's why he deserves the Hope Floats soundtrack:

"My then-girlfriend (now my wife) and I watched this movie together back in 1998, just weeks before we got married. It was the first movie we watched together after getting back together after a 6-month break up. I am a sentimental fool, I admit, but it was this movie that convinced me to ask her the question. Our anniversary is coming up in a few weeks. Being able to give her this soundtrack would be a great anniversary gift."

Congrats, Stefan! Do us proud!

READ MORE »

The cuties came out last night to celebrate New York's most popular fashion designer Cynthia Rowley. Her new book Slim: A Fantasy Memoir is just that -- fantasy, but entertaining fantasy featuring fun drawings by the designer. A parade of fun types rubbed elbows on the fifth floor at BG including Anne Slater and John Cahill, Vanessa Carlton, Waris, Arden Wohl, PAPER's Hunter Hill, Kim Vernon, Daniel Benedict, Patricia Velazquez, Ryan McGinness and Emma Snowdon-Jones.

Photographs by Caroline Torem Craig

By special PAPERMAG correspondent Gary Pini:

Upfront full discloser: We went to the after-party but not to the film screening. More on the missed film in a second, but first back to the start of the evening. Carlo McCormick and I went to an artsy SoHo party for the latest issue of Zing magazine at the Grand Street loft of the magazine's publisher Devon Dikeou. Devon is also an artist and chef who had prepared some delicious lamb chops (see photo above). We got into an argument/discussion about whether or not a chef could be an artist when I announced that the curators for this year's version of Documenta. in Germany had invited the acclaimed Spanish chef Adria Ferran to participate. I say it's valid.

READ MORE »

I don't think anyone can put it better than The Washington Post did in Thursday's article, "A Noir Opening to Phil Spector Murder Trial":

Another creepy and sad celebrity murder trial began here (in L.A.) Wednesday morning as the troubled genius and record producer Phil Spector appeared before jurors in a courtroom down the hall from the one where O.J. Simpson was tried and acquitted.

The 67-year-old diminutive musicmaker arrived wearing a blond wig cut in a pageboy style, dressed in a cream-colored suit with a cranberry shirt open at the collar and a matching pocket handkerchief. He was accompanied by three burly bodyguards in pinstripes.

Spector's natty Saturday Night Fever outfit stood in stark contrast to the sordid and bloody facts being laid out in court. You can read all about it at the L.A. Times' ongoing Spector trial BLOG (Bookmark it now!). Ugh. Ick. Ew. Yuk. But can we turn our attentions away to something more lofty? Doubtful. Just wait till this tidbit from The Smoking Gun get's aired out for the jury (and media):

READ MORE »

Welcome to our first insallment of JD Ferguson Presents the Porn Stars, wherein he will regularly interview and photograph the hottest porn stars of the moment! When he's not getting cute boys to strip down to their skivvies, former-model Ferguson serves as a man about town as well as assisting such greats Karl Lagerfeld and Mario Testino. So, without further ado, here is the cute and delectable Ben Andrews... Enjoy!

BEN ANDREWS

Age: 21

Hometown: Cleveland, OH

Astrological sign: Gemini

Company you shoot porn with: Lucas Entertainment

Measurements: 11"x8" -- Uncut

What's the most memorable sex scene you've ever done and why?
My first scene ever was the most memorable. You never forget your first! It was with Jack McCarthy for Auditions 10 and I also had the honor of gracing the cover.

Which celebrity would you most like to have sex with and why?

I've always had a thing for Antonio Sabato Jr. He's been gay for pay in a couple of his recent movies and even flashed his hot Italian sausage in "Testosterone". So sexy!

What's the last movie that you saw?
The last thing I saw in the theatre was Vacancy (not by choice) and the last thing I watched at home was Failure to Launch.

READ MORE »

PAPER nightlife photographer Caroline Torem Craig is the nightlife photographer to end all nightlife photographer. Here's her report from the Vanity Fair's Tribeca Film Festival opening night party the other night:

On a warm and breezy Monday evening, celebrities ascended the beautifully-dressed Supreme Court steps (I am referring to hundreds of tiny candles and orange lights). It was the Vanity Fair opening party for the Tribeca Film Festival. Every year it is THE challenge to catch a flick of of Robert DeNiro as he makes one last grimace and races by the red carpet. David Bowie usually leaves the "posing " to Iman but this year, to our delight, he was incredibly animated and shared with us the fact that this was their 12th year anniversary. As he neared my camera, I asked if they were "still spiders from Mars." I truly don't know if he heard me, but this little dance move occurred out of the blue.

It was such a TRIP to see Narciso Rodriguez direct Jessica Seinfeld to pose for PAPER.

While it is common knowledge that Whoopi Goldberg can be cranky, this evening she told ET (as she glanced at nearby guest Kerri Washington), "See, I lost her in weight -- I lost 43 pounds and that's just about what she weighs."

Some of the other guests were Minnie Driver, Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, Harvey Wenstein, Amy Sacco, Amy Fine Collins, Christy Turlington and Ed Burns, Walter Cronkite and host Graydon Carter. Interesting note: these were all loyal attendees last year and the year before.

One of the most bizarre questions posed to Kerri Washington was what she thought about Alec Baldwin's tirade and inappropriate phone call to his daughter. Without skipping a beat, she replied she was not a parent so couldn't comment except to say anything that took our minds off the war in Iraq was a good thing.

(Photos by Caroline Torem Craig. From left to right, Robert DeNiro, Grace Hightower, Iman, David Bowie, Jessica Seinfeld, Narciso Rodriguez and Kerri Washington.)

At long last, Mickey Boardman, aka Mr. Mickey, brings his PAPER Magazine column on sex, comedy and fashion (not necessarily in that order) to life. In this, his premiere episode, Mr. Mickey answers questions about slutty moms, sexy dads and takes on the age-old question: Ryan Gosling or Jake Gyllenhaal?

Have a question you'd like Mr. Mickey to answer? Send in your sexy, fashion-related queries to vip@papermag.com with the subject line "Ask Mr. Mickey."

I had the best lunch break this week when I got to attend the annual Easter Bonnet Benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at the Minskoff Theater. At this yearly extravaganza, the casts of many Broadway and off-Broadway shows come together to perform skits mocking other shows and present their homemade Easter Bonnets to be judged by bigwigs in the Broadway community. This year's bigwigs included John Connelly, Bebe, Neuwirth, Baayork Lee, Tom Jones and Joan Didion.

The winner was the cast Journey’s End. The all-male cast stripped down to their jodhpurs for a laugh. My personal favorites were In the Heights’ cast’s hip-hop spin on Fiddler on the Roof, and the Company cast members with instruments in tow pretending to audition for their director John Doyle -- who has recently become well known for his productions of Sondheim featuring orchestral casts -- as if they were in A Chorus Line.

READ MORE »

The Last Supper is an outrageous, grisly Asian shocker about a handsome cosmetic surgeon named Dr. Yuji Kotonado (Masaya Kato). He is also secretly a cannibal, who delights in killing his dates and later grilling their body parts on the stove. He writes online a “Diary Of A Cannibal” on how he came to this, from first frying up some fat from one of the women he liposuctioned, to finding a woman hanging in the park who became his first real entrée.

“It is the desire to eat the meat of the one you love” is his mantra. There’s a wild scene when he travels to Hong Kong and goes to a private club where a woman is beheaded and the patrons all feast on her. Directed by Osamu Fukatani, mercifully some of the special effects are not great, but on the whole the movie is unbelievably bizarre. Yummy!

Am I a body builder or am I a porn star? This is a question that seems hard to answer these days. Queer Me Now, a fun blog, has been covering this developing story with lots of links to Hungarian and Czech sites. It seems in these countries that the (relatively) large bags of dough a cutie can get for baring his well-muscled ass (to say nothing of shaking it or spreading it) are too much to resist for body builders who have gym memberships to pay and very little source or income and very little non-workout time.

Take Tanek (pictured) who is obviously a serious competetive body builder in the Czech Republic. He's also a sexy (mostly bottom) star of porn films (you'll have to go to Queer Me Now to see some the XXX shots).

This situation is not exclusive to Central Europe. Some big porn stars of the past in California like Tom Katt and Caesar have placed in serious statewide body building competions and gave gays serious woodies with their seeming insatiable hunger for schlong.

Let us know what you think MMBloggers of this serious and hard-hitting issue!

PAPER film critic and blogger Dennis Dermody dishes on the best new TV show box sets -- Ironsides, I Love Lucy, South Park, The Wild Wild West and Twin Peaks.

I'm off to the desert later this afternoon, kids! For the next three days I will be putting on 45 SPF sunblock every half hour to protect my porcelain Irish skin from the hot sun. To be quite honest, I'm actually a bit nervous about the heat -- but who cares? I'm going to Coachella!

It's going to be quite the festival this year what with Bjork, The Jesus & Mary Chain and of course the main attraction and my ultimate reason for attending this year -- Rage Against the Machine! Other favorites scheduled to perform include The Arcade Fire, CSS, Explosions in the Sky, Interpol, Grizzly Bear, Air, Mika, Pop Levi, Peter Bjorn and John, !!!, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem and Blonde Redhead. My head is spinning already from the thought of so much amazing music all in one same place!

If you're not going, weep not! You can watch it all live and online at the AT&T Blue Room, April 27-29.

A few days ago, I got something titled "Disgruntled Communique #452" in my email box from my pal Charles Hauther, armchair anarchist and buyer for the very groovy Skylight Books in Los Feliz. Chuck's POV on this mad world is always a welcome relief and I thought I'd share his observations on the show Painkiller Jane with ya'll. (I don't know about the TV show but the comic book looks purdy darned cool! But then again, so many are... until flesh and blood actors get involved.)

READ MORE »

Shoppers rejoice!!! Mr. Mickey's longtime favorite high-fashion salesperson is back. The sexy and chic Sergei Mihailov was King of the third floor men's department at Barneys and always steered Mr. Mickey to the most fabulous looks. Well sadly Sergei left Barneys (fear not, MM has found solace in the arms of salesman HB!). He spent some time at Dior Homme but now has landed at Jeffrey, which is fabulous news! MM just stopped in Jeffrey (he was on 14th St. popping into Stella McCartney to buy this season's tote bag) and MM must say they are so sweet at Jeffrey. MM doesn't know if any of you remember that skit they used to do on SNL where they portrayed the kids at Jeffrey as snobby fashion snots. MM was always outraged because the people are sooooo sweet there! Anyhoo, see you in the Meat Packing District girls!!!

Arriving on May 8th are two DVDs on www.bcieclipse.com of Euro-cult legend Paul Naschy. Naschy, actor, writer and director, was the Lon Chaney Jr. of Spain, and starred in a series of Universal-like films where he played a wolfman and then countless other gothic chillers. The two DVDs are Night of the Werewolf, a 1980 film where Naschy stars as Waldermar Daninsky, who rises from the grave to fight vampires and worry about the full moon when he turns to a bloodthirsty monster. In the other, Vengeance of the Zombies (1972), he plays three roles including a Hindu healer and Satan. It's a gory shocker about voodoo and living dead hellbent on revenge. Both are remastered and look stunning with extensive still and photo galleries and are a lot of fun.

I went to a really fun dinner on Tuesday night in honor of the wonderful woman Nicole Miller's 25th year in the biz. I love Nicole and it was great to sit down with 200 "close friends" (I know it sounds absurd but it was kind of true that these people have all known/knew each other over the past 25 years in our crazy city) who felt the same way. It was at Chinatown (the old Time Cafe) and it turned out to be so fun, because I saw so many old friends there, including my dear friend Paige Powell who flew in from Portland for the evening.

My table was super cute. I sat next to my old friend Ross Bleckner, the painter, who I adore, and across from the old school chef Kerry Simon, who was a doll (he just opened a new restaurant in Times Square called Spotlight). Lots of other old schoolers were there at our table including the fun Tama Janowitz, who I hadn't seen in ages, the amazing jewelry designer Janis Savit (she is one of the greats), my new BFF Mary Boone (I kid you not -- I've never met her, but she was so nice to me I was suspicious), this cute young scruffy photog named Sam Bassett, and of course my fave person in the world Paige.

Lots more fun folks were there... Cindy Crawford, Allison Sarofim, Bobby Kennedy, Andre Balasz, Karen Duffy (my neighbor who I adore!), Tony Shafrazi, Sara Wynter, Jay McInerney, Zac Posen, the list goes on. The thing about this particular dinner was that it was not an "event." (I go to millions of "events" where people are there for no reason.) It just felt good and fun because everyone was there to have fun and celebrate this person that they all really love -- Nicole who is a super good friend to tons of people. Good vibes. Congrats to her!

(Photos: Mary Boone, Kerry Simon and Paige Powell; Nicole Miller flanked by Andre Balasz and Tony Shafrazi; Me and Ross Bleckner)

1. Top Ten Happy Foods: In a bad mood? Maybe it's what you ate or didn't eat. This came to me a little late, but it's never too late to know about things that could make you happy. Nutritionist Joy Bauer broke down the happy food group here in bite sizes. Basically it's all about omega 3 fats, folic acid and fiber which translates to eating lots of fish, fruits, veggies and legumes. According to this study, if you are a hardcore carnivore then you are miserable!

1) Wild salmon - rich in omega 3 fats and vitamin D
2) Spinach - rich in folic acid and soluble fiber
3) Skim milk - rich in Vitamin D and B12
4) Ground flaxseeds - rich soluble fiber, omega 3 fats and folic acid
5) Blackberries - rich in soluble fiber and folic acid
6) Omega 3 fortified eggs - rich in omega 3 fats, Vitamin D and B12
7) Sardines - rich in omega 3 fats and Vitamin D
8) Soybeans - rich in soluble fiber, folic acid and omega 3 fats
9) Beans - rich in soluble fiber and folic acid
10) Brussels sprouts - soluble fiber and folic acid

Plus an extra for good luck!
11) Sunflower seeds - rich in soluble fiber and folic acid

2. All you Jack & Meg fans, you don't have to wait till June 11th, the official release date of the White Stripes' new album Icky Thump, to hear their first single of the same name. Set your alarms, because you can get it through iTunes music store starting at 12:01 a.m. this Thursday (4/26) -- and not a minute too soon.

3. Manny Is My Man: I care about baseball as much as I care about the rail & road report. But really, to my surprise, when I began thumbing through the new issue of The New Yorker, I couldn't put down the profile of the Red Sox bad boy Manny Ramirez. The story was so riveting! It had me at the first paragraph, which read: "Manny Ramirez is a deeply frustrating employee, the kind whose talents are so prodigious that he gets away with skipping meetings, falling asleep on the job, and fraternizing with the competition." Ramirez grew up in Washington Heights, sports dreads, drives a Caddy and (probably) smokes weed. A new folk-hero is born!

4. We heard... in case you haven't gotten enough of her already, jailbait it-teen Cory Kennedy has been tapped to be a subject of a documentary....

5. As I was leafing through the May issue of Vogue that has a cavalcade of blank-faced models sporting the new Gap-and-hot-young-designer-collab-whites on the cover, one thing really jumped out -- a full-page Band-Aid Active Flex Blister Block Stick ad! I hate blisters and regular Band-Aids always crumple up and leave a gross sticky mess on your foot. I guess you're supposed to roll it on the sensitive area like a stick of deodorant. Well, I'm into it.

6. Lastly, I found a great restaurant web site better than both City Search and Menu Pages called Urban Spoon. When you search for a restaurant, it lists all the reviews by bloggers, as well as by the usual critics, and it tells you other eating/drinking options in the vicinity.

Dear loyal PAPERMAG.com fans,

Because PAPERMAG is incredibly dedicated to bringing you the best in, well, everything, we've decided to throw a monthly party with The Musebox! And guess what? The first one is this Friday at the newly renovated Orchard Bar! There will be live music provided by The Beasts of Eden and Locksley to be followed with a dance party with DJs Stretch Armstrong, Jacques Renault, Bardi (Bang Gang) and June D + Shelly -- oh my! PAPER TV will be there to film it all, so don't feel blue if you live in Ohio.

And just because we love you all so much we're going to give you a chance to get on the list! The first 10 people who write an email to vip@papermag.com (telling us how much you love us so) will get on the list with a +1. Put "Party Time" in the subject line.

xoxo,
PAPERMAG.com crew

Tis the season for benefits. You'd be hard-pressed to find a not-for-profit that's not doing what it can to lure supporters to their star-studded events. Then there are others, like the surfwear company Billabong's charitable division Design for Humanity. This year, they're going all out to raise money for SurfAid International, a non-profit humanitarian aid organization that runs community-based health, education and disease prevention programs in village areas of the Mentawai Islands and Nias region of Western Sumatra where 25% of children die before reaching the age of twelve years from preventable and treatable diseases, including malaria, measles, tetanus, diarrhea and respiratory infections.

Tomorrow, April 26th, Billabong USA hosts an event in Los Angeles at the Avalon/Spyder Club in Hollywood. The beautiful thing here is that everyone can participate, as the entire event will be featured in a live webcast to be hosted at designforhumanity. The webcast will be approximately one and a half hours in length and will feature both the fashion, art and music components that can be purchased on Ebay as quickly as they appear.

I got an email this morning about a few cast recordings that have either just been released or will be in the coming weeks. One of which was High Fidelity, the disasterous musical based on Nick Hornby’s novel and the John Cusack movie which opened on Dec. 7th of last year and closed 10 days later after an onslaught of horrible reviews. What makes the producers think an audience that never existed in the first place will somehow come out of the woodwork to swarm the Virgin Megastore on May 15th when the CD is released?

I own a recording of the 1959 beatnik musical, The Nervous Set, which only ran for 23 performances on Broadway in 1959 due in part to hasty preparation and an over three-hour length. I’m glad they still released an album for this show despite its short run, since otherwise I never would have heard it, and parts of it aren’t half bad. But unlike High Fidelity, this show got mixed reviews (some reviewers thinking it was brilliant), and also had a successful start in St. Louis before flopping on the grander stage. So my point is, I don’t think I will be searching for the High Fidelity album in 50 years at the library… and hopefully for the sake of Broadway nobody will. It’s IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) page is plenty remembrance for me.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! The mock heavy metal band, Spinal Tap (immortalized by the ever-talented Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer) are reuniting to save the earth from global warming. The band itself, which includes Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls, are playing as part of the Live Earth concert series at Wembley Stadium on July 7th. Man. Sometimes I really wish I lived in London.

Also in attendance will the fake documentarian Michael DeBergi, otherwise known as Rob Reiner. Apparently he's put together a new 15-minute film about the band's reunion which will air at the concert and also at the Tribeca Film Festival. "They're not that environmentally conscious, but they have heard of global warming," said Reiner. Oops, I mean DeBergi. "Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing -- that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler."

The new film focuses on what the boys have been doing with their lives since the band broke up -- Nigel has been raising miniature horses to race, but can't find jockeys small enough to ride them; David is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet. Awesome!

Thanks to wtopnews.com for this tasty little tidbit of information. And thanks to imdb for the following quotes from This Is Spinal Tap!:

READ MORE »

With Mai House, the new Tribeca venture from restaurateur Drew Nieporent (Tribeca Grill, Nobu and Centrico) and chef Michael Bao Huynh (Bao 111, Bao Noodles), Vietnamese food may be going the way of Chinese, which used to mean greasy takeout eaten at home on the couch wearing your fuzzy slippers but now implies plush banquettes and stilettos (think Buddakan and Chinatown Brasserie). Similarly, Mai House moves Vietnamese cooking in that same high-end direction. The beautiful space is set off by a series of flower lanterns and a stunning floor-to-ceiling curtain of intricately carved wood that separates the kitchen from the main dining room. Colorful cocktails crafted from sake and fresh juices liven up the bar, while in the dining room, the pleasures of the kitchen hit their mark. Summer rolls the size of Italian sausages are overstuffed with fresh herbs, vermicelli noodles and sweet succulent shrimp ($11). A spicy salad of rare beef is tossed with grapefruit, fiery chiles and juicy lime ($12). Dungeness crab ($29) is taken out of its shell, broken into lovely lumps and piled on a bed of glass noodles topped with garlic, chives and mushrooms. Clay-pot organic chicken ($18) is wildly saturated with flavor, and the house lacxa ($23) is the stuff dreams are made of: spicy curry loaded up with king prawns, baby shrimp and noodles. Due to the generous portions, you'll have leftovers. But don't worry: It's still OK to take them home and eat them on the couch in your fuzzy slippers. 186 Franklin St., (212) 431-0606. Andrea Strong

Kudos to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for adding the Wiccan pentacle to VA gravemarkers in our national cemetaries! Wicca families of fallen soldiers will now be allowed to affix the witchy emblam, a five-pointed star known to all Goths and Cher fans, to the government-issued headstones of their departed loved ones who lost their lives in our nations quest for power...uh, democracy.

READ MORE »

Just a heads up that one of my favorite designers Maria Cornejo has just opened a retail store that went live today. It's a simple site, but you can buy her collection Zero from her directly on line. So for all of you that can't make it to her NYC shop, it's a great place to get her super cool stuff. Check it out here.

A festival honoring Barbara Stanwyck starts Wednesday at BAM. Brooklyn’s own Ruby Stevens was born July 16, 1907 and rose the ranks in films from snappy pr-Code comedies like Baby Face and Frank Capra movies like Meet John Doe to stunning performances in Ball Of Fire, The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity and Sorry Wrong Number. She never gave a bad performance. Read Anthony Lane’s terrific piece on her, “Lady Be Good,” in this week’s New Yorker. What pleases me about the festival is that they’re including her last theatrical film on May 6th -- William Castle’s 1964 The Night Walker, co-starring her husband Robert Taylor, about a woman’s repeated nightmares which seem all too real. It’s campy and wonderful. Watch this trailer for it and see if you don’t agree. Hail Stanwyck!

Name: Jessica Sussman

Age: 22

Position: magazine intern

Hometown: Leonia, NJ

Heart is in: Tel Aviv, IL

School: FIT, Advertising and Marketing Communications

Facebook or Myspace: Regrettably, Facebook

Fave blog: Brooklyn Vegan

Fave designer: Phillip Lim 3.1 (for them), Lover (for me)

Best thing about interning at PAPER: Photo shoots and the proximity to Pinkberry.

The worst: Realizing I'm certainly not cut out to be a messenger.

Fave PAPER cover: Jean-Paul Goude's Maggie Cheung cover (Mar 2006).

Fave PAPER person and why: Samantha, because she is kind, quirky and treats me as an equal.

Where do you see yourself in five years: Smiling brightly with rough, bloody soles.

Fave free things you do in NYC: Sampling ice cream shops, salivating/fantasizing in Barney's, picnicking

Fave boutique: Opening Ceremony

Fave restaurant: The best meals I've had in a long time: In NYC: Cru; In Tel Aviv: Carmella Bistro

Fave bar: Black & White (Tuesday nights), Bembe (Every night)

First five songs to shuffle on your iPod:
1. After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
2. Wash the Day Away - TV On The Radio
3. Come Together - Beatles
4. White Palms - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
5. Me, Me, And What Separates Us - Rockfour

What's the best and worst things about being in a 6,000 mile long-long-distance relationship? Best - the empowerment of an iSight; Worst - the intangible factor.

By Blaire Huntley

1. Last night, Vanity Fair and Free Arts NYC hosted a benefit auction at Milk Studios. Hostesses with the mostesses Amy Sacco and Alice Stephenson oversaw the event, along with co-hosts Liv Tyler and Scarlett Johansson (who was a no-show) and Simon de Pury led the auction. At one point, De Pury got so carried away that his gavel-thingy broke! Spotted by us: Derek Blasberg and Lyle Maltz leaving with model Jacquetta Wheeler; a pregnant Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber looking mildly irked; Rachel Zoe seated with a man much her junior; and Rachel-Zoe-in-training Kristian Laliberte working the room with a girl in a hat.
MORE PHOTOS HERE >>

2. The most hilarious Bob Odenkirk (he of Mr. Show fame who most recently directed Let’s Go to Prison) just signed on to do 12 short episodes of a show called Derek & Simon: The Show for Super Deluxe, the comedy broadband newtwork. According to the show’s description, the shorts will follow “real-life friends Derek Waters and Simon Helberg as they chase girls around Hollywood.”

3. This drunk German man rode a horse into a bank.

4. In the two days since the weather became lovely, the Pinkberry on 32nd St. has gone from ghost town to traffic jam! We noticed that they were being a little skimpy with the fruit toppings. If all these ladies are going to be eating Pinkberry for lunch, they’re going to need more nutrients –- so bring on the blueberries!

5. Nadia, the made-for-TV movie that I rented so many times as a young girl that the video store finally gave to me, has come out on DVD at long last! The 1984 biopic follows the career of Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci. There’s even footage (played in slow motion) from her actual bar routine during the 1976 Montreal Olympics that earned her the perfect 10!

6. Rumor has it that everyone’s go-to session rock-star Matt Sweeney (who has collaborated with everyone from Will Oldham to Cat Power to Johnny Cash, and played with Chavez, Zwan and Earlyman) will be working with Neil Young on a new album. While you’re at it, check out Neil Young’s super-well-designed, politically-charged and anti-Bush website.

Pictured above: Liv Tyler, Mary Alice Stephenson, Amy Sacco (front row) & Simon de Pury. Photo courtesy of www.patrickmcmullan.com

Oh NO! I just recieved an email from Jim's partner, Terrence Savage, with links to Jim's obits! I knew Jim back in New York and adored him! Our paths continually crossed during the glory days in the East Village and every few years we'd get together to dream, scheme and generally catch up. A film editor of the highest caliber (he worked wonders editing Ghostlight, a film I did with Richard Move about dance legend Martha Graham), Jim was best known for his collaborations with Todd Haynes (Safe, Far From Heaven) and Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides).

This is sad, sad news. I last saw Jim a couple of years ago (two? three? four? time flies when you move to L.A. and lose touch with your old New York pals). He was out here for work and rang me up to meet for lunch -- which lasted for several hours. Jim was not only talented but one of the smartest men I've ever known. His understanding of film and story and just plain ole human behavior was extraordinary. Plus he was such a handsome, charming guy! Everyone has a crush on him. I can't even write anymore. This is a real loss. At 46 Jim had so much creativity ahead of him! He would've made an incredible director! All the best editors do!

Rest in peace Jim! We loved you so much!!!!

The Willowz released their third album, Chautauqua, on Dim Mak Records last month. I feel guilty admitting that I've only now given the album a complete listen-through, but boy am I glad that I did! It's their best album to date, laden with tightly controlled songs coupled with their signature raw, rock 'n' roll sound. I'm not sure how they do it, but they've miraculously made a classic '60s style rock sound modern and original. I mean, sure, they may all look like they walked out of a Woodstock film -- note lead singer Richie Follin's ever-growing locks and newly grown mustache and Jessica Reynoza's unending amount of '60s dresses -- but their music is anything but stale and antiquated. It was particularly cute watching French people dance to their music during a scene from "Science Of Sleep."

Anyway, if you haven't heard this album yet, hear some of it on their MySpace page and judge for yourself. Here's their video for my favorite song on the new album, "Jubilee." The Willowz play at the Mercury Lounge Wednesday, April 25th.

The Vatican has decided that Limbo really doesn't exist after all and unbaptised babies CAN get into heaven. What a relief. But something tells me Mel Gibson and pere aren't buying it. I wish Mel would make a movie of Dante's Divine Comedy (espeically the Inferno part) based on those magnificent Gustave Dore illustrations (image of Purgatorio above). Yeah! Use some of that newfangled CGI stuff -- a Sin City for the real sinners of the world! *I'm suprised someone hasn't made it into a video game yet!*

READ MORE »

Triad Election is another crackling crime drama from Hong Kong great Johnnie To (PTU). This is actually Election 2, the second in a series about the two-year term election of a Triad gangster boss. In this one, the boss (Simon Yam -- who Asian genre fans will recall as the scary star of Dr. Lamb) -- is not eager to give up his title, and one lower level mob guy is reluctantly forced to go after the title for strictly financial reasons.

With some amazing violent confrontations and a thrilling chase through an outdoor restaurant, this brutal and stylish film is a treat for fans. Don’t miss this and Election (the first one- which is spectacular) opening at Film Forum this week.

A woman I recently met named Jessica Glasscock just emailed me these photos of her amazing new pocketbook. Can you believe??? She said it was one of a series of 200 made by a Spanish artist named Nicola Costantino that she recently bought from the "Dangerous Beauty" show at the Chelsea Art Museum. Amazing no?

That's right! You read that correctly, Jesus & Mary Chain are adding more shows to what was originally going to be only a two-show reunion (they're playing in California twice this week -- Friday at Coachella). The only other North American stops are two nights at Webster Hall, May 21st and 22nd. There is a God!

JAMC haven't played together since 1998 when they broke up during a show. When looking back at that show, Jim Reid said, "I suppose you could say this is another good reason for our reformation, cause that was no way for the Mary Chain to end." Indeed.

Tickets aren't on sale yet, but I can already feel my wallet being emptied out. Who cares, though, it's the Jesus & Mary Chain! This band is arguably one of the most influential bands of the last three decades. And boy are we lucky that they're gracing New York with their presence.

1. Who would be in your dream threesome? According to the rumor mill, heartthrob photographer Ryan McGinley just shot Kate Moss and BF Pete Doherty nude for the upcoming issue of W.

2. Art stars of today Elizabeth Peyton, Tony Just, Maurizio Cattalan, Dan Colen, Cecily Brown and Clarissa Dalrymple all came out for the Turner Prize winner Brit Jim Lambie's opening at Anton Kern Gallery last Thursday.

3. Fergie's lady humps were caught in high-waisted body-squeezing jeans by Judi Rosen of downtown boutique The Good, The Bad and The Ugly as reported by the fashion bible In Touch.

4. Vogue's Alexandra Kotur has a tough job of deciding who makes Style.com's Ten Best Dressed List each week. Look who made the cut last week!

1) Kirsten Dunst
2) Chloe Sevigny
3) Miuccia Prada
4) Coco Rocha
5) Doo-Ri Chung
6) Lisa Airan
7) Hilary Rhoda
8) Camilla Belle
9) Lauren DuPont
10) Demi Moore

5. Name Change: On a more, delicate note... Over this weekend, when rendering the Virginia Tech shooter's name, The New York Times decided to go by Seung-Hui Cho, rather than the easternized-style Cho Seung-Hui, which has been the official name used by the media world-wide since the release of his identity. There have been many whispers on the Internet among sensitive Korean-Americans about this uncouth placement of his surname.

After the downpour on Friday, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and turned Tinsel Town into a gleaming Technicolor Munchkin Land. Not enough to put a dent in our drought, the rain did bring out the best in my rose garden!

READ MORE »

I must confess that I haven't been a big Jason Schwartzman fan. He was good in Rushmore, but I wasn't convinced. And I sort of liked his band Phantom Planet, but not enough to ever listen to it on my own. Now I have had a change of heart. I loved him in Marie Antoinette and I love his new song called "West Coast" out on the label Young Baby Records. Most of all I love the video of a performance by the Nijinsky of skateboarding Mark Gonzales. The video was originally shot by Cheryl Dunn in 1988 at the Stadisches Museum Abtelberg in Monchengladbach, Germany. So when I called Dunn for the backstory you can imagine how surprised I was to discover that this was all news to her.

Spinner, where I first saw the video, says Schwartzman just released a solo album under the alias Coconut Records called Nighttiming. It goes on to say that "For the disc's first video, 'West Coast,' Schwartzman tapped his pal Cheryl Dunn for directorial duties and pro-skater Mark Gonzales as the subject. Since Schwartzman is currently off shooting the Ben Stiller film The Marc Pease Experience, Gonzales crafted the video with rare skateboarding footage from an exhibit in Germany."

Well, for starters Dunn has never met her "pal" Schwartzman. She found out about the video, which she made 10 years ago, through friends who began sending her emails. Another unfortunate consequence of this is that people tend to jump to all kinds of wrong conclusions like this one at obtusity.

"Compiling obscure footage surrounding an art exhibit in Germany, director Cheryl Dunn puts together a compelling video without any appearance from the singer or a massive narrative. She simply captures the excitement and beauty of a moment in 1998 from beginning to end -- culminating in an amazing performance of athleticism and grace by pro-skater Mark Gonzales. This arc is perfectly matched to the rising and falling of the song, making for a surprisingly thrilling experience."

While we agree that the video works beautifully, Cheryl didn't merely assemble the piece, she shot it, too. So Jason (or Jason's people) would you please get in touch with Cheryl Dunn. She's not by nature litigious, but she would at least like to find out more about how the video came about. And so would we.

Isn't it strange how DUMBO went from being an industrial wasteland that barely had sanitation service to being ultrahip and expensive without any of the usual stages in between (check-cashing kiosks, liquor stores, etc.)? That was largely by design -- the area was developed primarily by one company, Two Trees, which bought up the undesirable real estate, attracted artists to the empty spaces through space grants and let momentum do the rest. Sinister genius, huh? Well, now with the arrival of Zoë this past fall, the transformation is complete, like it or not. (West Elm was one thing, but Zoë makes West Elm look like Target.) A former box factory, which not so long ago housed such artistic endeavors as the visionary NTUSA theater company and Ugly Duckling Presse, is now home to Zoë's new 3,500-square-foot space, a spare, stylish sweep of minimal racks hung with high-end pieces from dozens of top designers (Prada, Mayle, Zac Posen, Phillip Lim 3.1 and Daryl K among them), and for spring, some standout items from Mint and Rebecca Taylor. The store also carries a deep selection of denim (Earnest Sewn, Acne and J Brand are among the brands offered), with a staff that knows how to steer a customer toward a perfect fit. Zoë has long been established in Princeton, New Jersey, as a style beacon but appears quite able to hold its own in DUMBO, as well. In general, it seems comfortable with its swankiness: It's not pretending to be anything other than what it is. And if you're tempted to wax nostalgic over the old days of DUMBO, when there were actual artists working here, you'll just have to settle for whatever glow they've left in their wake, like the beautiful, mysterious paintings of birds in flight on an old warehouse a few blocks down on Water Street. 70 Washington St., Brooklyn, (718) 237-4002. Olive Ridley

I just saw two fun summer collabs from Japanese designers Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe. Kawakubo worked with Speedo to create a very cool line of swimsuits and Watanabe worked with Converse creating four cute graphic summer Chuck Taylor-style kicks. Check them out below.

Great news for Film Noir fans -- on July 31, Warner Brothers is releasing Film Noir Volume 4, a 10-movie, five-disc set with sensational titles. Some classics like Nicholas Ray's 1948 masterpiece They Live By Night starring Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell, and two fun Robert Mitchum crime dramas -- The Big Steal and Where Danger Lives. Others include: Act Of Violence, Mystery Street, Crime Wave, Decoy, Illegal, Side Street and Tension.

Most have commentaries and extras. Also check out Robert Altman's sensational 1974 remake of They Live By Night, Thieves Like Us, starring Shelly Duvall and Keith Carradine which came out on www.mgm.com/dvd last week. (It includes a wonderful commentary track by the late master Robert Altman that is illuminating and funny).

This story from China really sends chills down my spine. Nothing scares me more than crocodiles! I think it started when I read a story in the New York Post ('natch) about some dumb vacationing Americans swimming in a swimming hole somewhere Down Under where a Danger: Crocodiles sign was posted. Dumb Americans ignored the sign and a model was snatched up by an Aussie croc and pulled down under herself. (I know this sounds like an urban myth but I SWEAR it was in the news!) They found her body in the crocodile's nest, buried in mud where the prehistoric monsters like to put their prey to soften it up before mealtime.

ARRGGHGHHRRRGHGHGHGHGHGGHHGH!

I can't believe I once went swimming in the ocean in northern Australia not far from where the Danger: Crocodiles signs were posted!! Those SAW movies can't be as scary as the thought of being pulled down and marinated in some crododile's lair. And now they've found the remains of nine-year-old inside a Chinese croc??

ARRGGHGHHRRRGHGHGHGHGHGGHHGH!

READ MORE »

I got an email from the only Guerilla Girl I have actually ever corresponded with today named Frida Kahlo. For those of you who don't know, the Guerilla Girls are a super-old-school feminist art collective made up of anonymous female artists whose sold mission is to point out how fucked up the art world is when it comes to women... they do amazing stuff, performances wearing guerilla masks, and take on the names of dead female artists.

The collective was invited to create a page for yesterday's Washington Post and you can see here what they did. The numbers are shocking, no? Ninety-eight percent of the National Gallery's art seems to be made my men, and 99 percent is made by white artists. The GG claim that when the Washington Post called to fact-check these numbers, the National Gallery began to scramble through their archives, desperately searching for art made by women and people of color to throw up this week. Ya gotta love the Guerilla Girls.

According to Frida, the Guerilla Girls will start blogging next month for the Huffington Post!!!

Oh kids, if there's one thing Mr. Mickey likes, it's ogling cute boys in man panties for charity. Well that was what went on a few days ago at the Jeffrey Fashion Cares benefit where tasty treats like the ones pictured pranced for the enjoyment of such luminaries as Andre Leon Talley and Princess Diane von Furstenberg. It raised $400,000 for Lambda Legal, Hetrick-Martin Institute and GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis).

See, the fashion folk can make the world a better place too!

You may laugh but Atlanta public access talk show host Alexyss K. Tylor really tells it like it is! This video is making the rounds (much like the dawgs Alexyss has 'dated') and is probably not safe for work and young children's ears but I think Ms. Tylor's hard-won wisdom should be heard by every teenage girl before her first menses. Talk about A Vagina Monologue! (Eve Ensler only wishes!) Alexyss speaks the truth more plainly than those lame sex education films we were marched (boys separate from girls) into the junior high school auditorium to watch. Sadly, it is our own experience with those who abuse their penis power that ultimately teach us the hard way (no pun intended). But the good news is that I finally understand that if my man can't even spring for shrimp dinner at Long John Silvers he is NOT worth my time!

FYI, Tylor's mother appears with her on the Atlanta Public Access TV9 show and offers the last word (probably the only real defense any of us have): stay prayed up!

ALSO CHECK OUT ALEXYSS' HALLOWEEN SHOW! Really love the schtick about the government cheese! (You know, the more I watch these videos I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't a comedy sketch afterall? If not, then it's the most brilliant performance art since Karen's Finley's I'M AN ASS MAN!)