If it’s September, this must be 834 Fifth
When I started researching the book that became 740 Park, I began with a list of fascinating buildings, and eventually settled on one. But the others retain their fascination and thanks to Avenue, which gave me a column in the spring named after my current book, Unreal Estate, I now get to write about them, […]
Meet the Met
An exclusive story in today’s New York Post alleges that there is a secret deal between the Metropolitan Musem of Art and neighboring co-ops to “scale down big plans for the institution’s iconic plaza.” It apppears, however, that some of those neighbors are not going to lie down and acquiesce to any plan to turn […]
Oscar de la Renta: A Thin-Skinned Weiner?
In today’s WWD, Oscar de la Renta (formerly Oscar Renta), the fashion designer and husband of Metropolitan Museum of Art Vice Chairman Annette de la Renta (formerly Anne France Mannheimer, Annette Engelhard, and Annette Reed) sticks a pin into New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn. The question is, Huh? Oscar was apparently offended by […]
Museum Piece: Vintage Miuccia Prada
In 1993, I interviewed Miuccia Prada in Milan for a story (never written) on the revival of venerated labels like Prada and Gucci. The tape popped out of a box in storage not long ago, and the conversation is published here for the first time.
Dona Quixote: The Model Edition
The New York Observer’s crack observer Drew Grant looks at what goes on behind the scenes at Fashion Week in a cover story today–and it isn’t a pretty picture. Readers of Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women already knew that, but this regular reminder was inspired by a new documentary, Girl Model, and Sara […]
Don Quimurdock Tilts at Windmills
David Murdock, the billionaire who features large in Unreal Estate–he owned (and ripped the designer guts out of) the most significant mansion in Bel Air (pictured)–has sold an even more significant piece of property, the Hawaiian island of Lanai, to Oracle’s Larry Ellison, but retains the right to build a field of 45-story turbine windmills […]
Political Petting Zoo (Don’t forget that check)
Who would you rather share an elevator with? A puppy or an armed Secret Service man and Paul Ryan? In this week’s New York Observer, Kim Velsey looks at the tribal rights of fundraising nights in New York’s best buildings, and includes 740 Park (home of big Republican donors like David Koch and Steve Schwarzman) […]
Unreal Estate Southampton Style
The Southampton estate of Peter and Maya Tufo (at right, in the 1890s, with the gondola on Lake Agawam that belong to its builders, the Betts family) is on the market–and is the subject of my latest Unreal Estate column, just out in the August issue of Avenue magazine.
Supermodels: The Back Story
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders‘ documentary on supermodels of a certain age premieres tonight on HBO. For the back story on how they got to supermodeldom…and how modeling itself got super-sized, there’s Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, the New York Times bestseller, recently re-issued in an updated edition and, for the first time, an e-book. You […]
“Liar Loan” Widow Lists $150 Million Holmby Hills Estate: Marilyn Monroe Canoodled Here
Dawn Arnall, widow of Roland Arnall, a central figure in creating the mortgage crisis, is quietly seeking to sell Owlwood in Holmby Hills, one of the central estates in Unreal Estate for a noisy $150 million ask, says the Hollywood Reporter and Real Estalker. Among the fabled residents of the gated estate (actually once three […]