Rest in Hell: Jean-Luc Brunel is dead
One of the lead villains in the history of fashion modeling, Jean-Luc Brunel, was found dead, hanging in his cell in a Paris prison this morning. A major character in my book Model, he was being held for trial, accused of sexual assault of a minor, after he was first tied to the pedophile pervert […]
R.I.P. Nancy Berg, 1931-2022
The former model, TV host, actress and makeup artist Nancy Berg died last week at 90. I interviewed Berg for Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. Here is an excerpt from the book about her: Something about modeling seemed to attract women who attracted trouble. “So many tragic lives” is all Richard Avedon will […]
Some crack with your Central Park views (redux)?
I see that 432 Park, the massive residential tower on the corner of 57th Street and Park Avenue, continues to attract unwanted attention, this time courtesy of my former New York Magazine colleague George Kalogerakis, who has written “A Fawlty Tower of Billionaires” for Graydon Carter‘s Airmail. It’s a reminder that Gripepad was the first […]
There’s Life in Print Yet, Pt. 1
Just when I thought the well had run dry, I found my byline on the cover of a new-ish magazine, Park. Its second issue includes an excerpt from 740 Park and a newly-penned appreciation of photographer Ron Gallela.
Diana, Panned
The reviews are in and they are uniformly lousy, comparing those responsible for Broadway’s Diana, the Musical, to the papparazzi who killed the People’s Princess. Which reminded me of “The Princess and the Jackals,” written just after the death of the Princess of Wales. Click each page below to read it.
“Nothing is worse than the movie business,” said Alec Baldwin
In 1997, I spent several days with Alec Baldwin for a cover story in New York magazine on his political ambitions, then said to be running hot. Baldwin’s political opinions continued to run hot, even if his path to a career in politics went nowhere. Now, with his movie career disrupted by the shooting death […]
Radical Lovers
The New Yorker has released an alternately loving and profane documentary on the late (and unexpectedly potty-mouthed) radical lawyer Michael Kennedy and his wife and trial consultant Eleanora Kennedy. Its tight focus is their youthful radicalism. For a lot of the rest of the story (and there’s a lot), here’s my 1991 cover story on […]
Resto a Go-Go
This week’s terrific New York Magazine profile of Balathazar/Pastis/Morandi impresario Keith McNally–which includes an account of his breakup with his once-upon-a-time partner in London’s Balthazar, the former garmento Richard Caring, reminded me of my 2015 Departures (R.I.P.) story on the food fight between Caring and his beloved rival Jeremy King, the creator of many of […]
Model: Coming to Your TV
In Sunday’s Daily News, Richard Johnson reveals that Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women is in development as a TV series. Click the image to read the item.
Vanderbilt Genes: “I don’t talk about it,” says Anderson Cooper
In Fall 2004, I conducted an interview with Gloria Vanderbilt and her son Anderson Cooper for Bergdorf Goodman Magazine. In honor of Cooper’s just-published book (co-authored by Katherine Howe) on his mother’s family, here is that conversation: Gloria Laura Vanderbilt, a great-great-great grand-daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, aka The Commodore, first entered the public eye as […]