Breaking: Fire at 740 Park in home of Madoff-associate Ezra Merkin’s apartment
As many as two dozen fire vehicles are outside 740 Park and a source inside the building says there is a fire in the sixth and seventh floor duplex apartment of embattled financier Ezra Merkin.
Focus is “juicy…fast-paced…insider,” says Devil Wears Prada author Lauren Weisberger
The Devil Wears Prada was a publishing, fashion and film phenomenon. Its author Lauren Weisberger is the latest early reader of Focus. “I loved reading all the juicy details that Michael uncovered in this fast-paced—and clearly insider—look at the rarefied, sexy world of fashion photography,” she says. Pre-order Focus here.
Panama Papers target 15CPW’s Condo King Rybolovlev
Today’s Irish Times delves into the leak of “more than 11 million documents, dating from 1977 to December 2015, [that] show the inner workings of Mossack Fonseca, a global law firm based in Panama that helps customers create offshore shelters.” One of those customers is Dmitry Rybolovlev, purchaser (through an LLC, as first revealed in […]
Focus is “compelling,” says Anthony Haden-Guest
Author, journalist and cartoonist Anthony Haden-Guest is the latest early reader to offer an endorsement of Focus. He says, “Michael Gross takes us on a compelling journey through a hugely desirable culture – a culture which sometimes destroyed its most brilliant children and which is now slipping as irretrievably into the past as Versailles or […]
Focus: “Exposing photographers,” says New York Post’s Richard Johnson
In today’s New York Post, gossip King Richard Johnson reveals a tid-bit from the opening pages of Focus, telling how King of the Selfies, photographer Terry Richardson, was dissed by the often naked pop princess Miley Cyrus. “The book, exposing photographers from Richard Avedon to Richardson, is out July 5th,” Johnson writes.
Calvin Klein comes clean?
Word comes via WWD that retired designer Calvin Klein is “writing” a book, though he adds, “I’m not big on looking back.” For those who would like to look back, Calvin Klein’s masterful advertising is discussed in depth in Focus, out July 5th. Meantime, here is my controversial profile of the designer from 1988 that […]
How Safe is Your Hotel in the Age of Daesh Terror?
The latest issue of Departures presciently addresses terror and travel in a special section. It’s a subject that seems all the more urgent after this week’s Brussels attacks. My story on the latest in hotel safety is here. The illo is by Owen Freeman.
Focus is “equally delicious and deeply informative,” says Sheila Weller
“Michael Gross‘s FOCUS is that rare thing: an equally delicious and deeply informative book, a news-breaking romp through the world of fashion photography, from its beginnings early in the last century to the recent controversial exploits of super bad boy Terry Richardson,” says Sheila Weller, the bestselling author of GIRLS LIKE US and THE NEWS […]
Focus is “Fabulous…amazing,” says columnist Liz Smith.
Liz Smith devotes her entire column to an advance peek at Focus today. “It is a phantasmagoria of gossip, history, fabulous times, terrible times; the men (and a couple of women) who turned their creative lenses onto runways, clothes, models and (as in the case of Richard Avedon) onto America itself,” the columnist writes. “If […]
Weekend Dose of Donald: How the Angry Populist feathered a nest of Happy Plutocrats
In which I return to the Daily Beast to tell the tale of how Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump invented the Billionaire’s Belt, or as the Beast puts it, “New York City’s crass luxury hell.” A strange-but-true story based on the book House of Outrageous Fortune.