Hello, I Must Be Going
I’m thrilled to share the news that I’ve joined Departures, the luxury lifestyle and travel magazine, as a Contributing Editor. Since 2012, I’ve written stories for the magazine on the Isle of Cavallo, the coming of the $100 Million Manhattan condo, the eastern Riviera, designer-class retailing in Miami, and the rebirth of Mexico City. Watch […]
“Before there was reality TV, there was Naomi Campbell”
Cindy Crawford makes fudge for NBC
Cindy Crawford is developing a TV series “that revolves around the modeling wars in the ’80s that occurred between Ford Modeling Agency and Elite Model Management”, Variety reports. “The show is completely fictionalized.” That’s for sure. The Model Wars began in spring 1977, when Crawford was eleven years old. By the time her first test […]
Over-reaching at 15CPW?
The late insurance benefits executive Richard Ullman’s duplex “penthouse” at 15 Central Park West is back on the market a year after it was sold, asking $65 million, a slight increase over the $62.5 million the estate originally wanted, but a whopping increase over the $48 million the current owners, tucked inside an opaque LLC […]
The Donald will not approve
Donald Trump’s opinion notwithstanding, Mexico City is one of the most exciting, engaging and civilized cities in the world. Here’s my feature story for Departures on the DF’s many pleasures.
Rizzoli Redux
In rare good news from the world of brick-and-mortar book retailing, Rizzoli Bookstore, forced from its gorgeous West 57th Street location by a developer last spring, has announced its Phoenix-like return. It will re-open on Broadway and West 26th Street on July 27th. Auguri!
Cry, the Beloved Lutece
Here’s one for Jeremiah Moss’ Vanishing New York: The townhouse that once held Lutece, Andre Soltner’s French restaurant on East 50th Street, and a NYC classic for more than four decades (it opened in 1961), is being demolished along with two adjacent houses–no doubt for another condominium tower. Lutece closed more than eleven years ago, […]
Battling Billionaires: LA Strikes Back
The Billionaire’s Belt in midtown Manhattan isn’t the only place where the .01 percent are spending mounds of money on real estate. The Hilton-Hyland realty blog, run by Bilal Khan, formerly of Curbed, today spotlights a Billionaire’s Hill in Bel Air, one of the neighborhoods featured in Unreal Estate. Want to rub garden hoses with […]
Meet Mexico City
“Mexico City is one of the world’s great cultural destinations. So what are you waiting for?” is my profile of the city and the story of its stunning revival in the May/June 2015 issue of Departures. Click the link to read a pdf.
Gripepad Recommended Read: Isn’t That Rich?
Ad man and raconteur Richard Kirshenbaum‘s Isn’t That Rich: Life Among the 1% is now available on line and in book stores. Gripepad’s proprietor wrote the forward and hopes its readers will be Kirshenbaum’s as well–if you aren’t already, that is.