[Norman Mailer with 6th wife Norris Church, Source: NYTimes]

Norman Mailer was posthumously awarded the Bad Sex in Fiction Award, for his novel The Castle in the Forest. The irony is of course thick, given Mailer’s active sex life (he was married 6 times!). Most interesting is that he was clearly on the forefront of the 1 day celebrity marriage that we see so often today. He separated from his fifth wife, Carol Stevens, one day after their wedding.

In any event, his description of the penis as an “old battering ram” clinched the award, and no doubt Mailer himself was a bit of an old battering ram as he edged into the twilight of his years. Norman Mailer you dirty old man you!

Last night was the official launch party of model/designer/socialite Lydia Hearst’s new line for Puma.  We had the opportunity to muse around 60 Thompson with all the gays and fashionistas to get a peek at all the bags (well okay only 2 different ones).  First of all, good job PR team…if inviting hundreds of people and then choosing to host it in a venue that won’t house them all so that you seem ultra-fab is your idea of a good party, you totally achieved your goal.  You also pissed off a lot of people who had actually rsvp’d weeks ago and couldn’t get in (many of them personal friends).  Oh but alas…..you did bring in the Heatherette crew (including Richie Rich), who apparently collaborated on the merger, you gave us an open bar with not one but TWO overly sweetened drinks to choose from, and you provided us with a couple of actual straight people to look at (the servers).  Paul Johnson Calderon was there who kept a far distance from Kristian Laliberte, as was actress Francesca Cecil who will be hosting her own party this Thursday.

 Ah New York, a town where you can go to a hotel and bump elbows with the gays, the backs, and even the tiny asians in one night (what else do you NEED as a sign of a good party???)  Lydia was graceful as ever with her bright blond do and golden dress…making sure to appease all her little social divas that wanted a piece.  Now for the actual reason for the party: the bags.  Surprisingly (or maybe not) we actually really like these bags, at least the lighter one.  Bags or no bags, we always love a good party.

[Anthony D. Marshall, Source: NYTimes]

Brooke Astor’s son Anthony D. Marshall has surrendered to face 16 counts of criminal charges.  The District Attorney had the following to say:

“Marshall…took advantage of Mrs. Astor’s diminished mental capacity in a scheme to defraud her and others out of millions of dollars…Marshall abused his power of attorney and convinced Mrs. Astor to sell property by falsely telling her that she was running out of money. He is charged with stealing money from her as well as stealing valuable art work from her Park Avenue apartment.”

What this of course boils down to is that Mrs. Astor lived too damn long!  Her son is 83 and wanted to enjoy his inheritance.  Under the supposed will, her son was to receive 7% of the estate per year.  Simple math means he would get the entire estate in 15 years (making him close to 100).

You can’t do too much with hundreds of millions of dollars at 100 aside from getting new dentures, an awesome wheelchair, and multiple rubs and massages from aids and nurses.   Nope, Anthony wanted to live the high life now while he was 83 years young (80 is the new 60 right?).  well Anthony look on the bright side, now you’ll be getting a massage in Club Fed.

Like we aren’t stating the obvious in the title…who hasn’t met an Ivy Leaguer that was, well WAY out of their league? We often wonder how some people get into the school when people like Warren Buffett get turned down. Alas, the new writeup today in the Harvard Crimson about the difficulties the students are facing with having the newer version of Microsoft Word 2007 in their computer rooms confirms this. You see, trying to format their documents to be compatible with older versions has been such a problem that it was justified as the focus of an entire article in the newspaper. The complaints range from the program’s new interface having the font Calibri instead of the traditional Times New Roman to the size of the finished texts. Said one preceptor, “I don’t want to be a stickler, but I do believe that tailoring an essay’s length to the assignment is a skill in itself.” Isn’t the CONTENT of the essay supposed to be the thing most looked at, not if it’s in 11 or 12 sized font?!

Gawker ran the issue as well, and just like many of their posts, the commentary section is sometimes the most ammusing. After their post titled “Book Smarts: Harvard Students Bewildered by New Version of ‘Word’”, our own pal Ha Ha Sound chimed in with:

BY HA HA SOUND AT 01:16 PM
Sucks to be them. Little Rock Community College seems to have handled the transition just fine.

Ha. Which reminded us of the conversation we had over Thanksgiving…Universities, COLLEGE, art history, and philosophy just isn’t for everyone. Maybe it is okay for people not to go to college. Nowadays EVERYONE goes to college when many of them want to be car mechanics or construction workers…is there really anything wrong with that? Why can’t they go to vocational schools where they won’t come out with thousands of dollars of debt? Because our society looks down on anyone that didn’t have a recognizable alma mater to wear as an emblem on their sweatpants? Why do we place so much importance on going to the places where, for most of us little if anything got accomplished except learning how to do beer stands and play flippy cup? And on that note, we are certain that Little Rock Community College’s students DID have a better transition into Word 2007, they are just more crafty that way.

[Source: Boston Globe]

In what may be one of the biggest cash advances for a book ever, Hachette Book Group USA has offered Senator Edward M. Kennedy over $10 million dollars for his memoir to be published in 2010.

No doubt Kennedy will speak about his senate career, his life as part of the Kennedy family, the civil rights movement, etc. But will he talk about getting kicked out of Harvard for plagiarism? His alcoholism? The murder death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick (He was driving a car drunk with her as the passenger when it went over a bridge. Kennedy got out, and didn’t call the police until many hours later).

Its pretty amazing how people are so enamored with this guy. And of course this book advance begs the question if Ted will plagiarize his very own memoir.

[photo modified from NYmag version]

Forget the fight between Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, the bigger fight in the ring it seems is that between their most popular supporters Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. Bill is an obvious supporter due to the covenant of marriage and is critical to Hillary’s candidacy because of the whole EXPERIENCE thing, whereas Oprah, (who has never made it a secret of her support for Obama from the start), is an obvious supporter due to racial ties and may be critical to Obama for well, being Oprah. While Hillary has Bill up her sleeve, Obama seems to have Oprah in his pocket…but does it really matter? According to most, no.

Based on the results from Google fight, Bill is clearly ahead in this battle, and as Time’s Mark Halperin points out “American voters are not looking for a celebrity or talk show side kick to lead them.” He goes as far as suggesting that Winfrey may even be counterproductive, bringing to the table only the things Obama already has like campaign cash, celebrity, excitement, and big crowds…not validity in his ability to lead our country. Well as much as we would like to believe that our citizens are smart enough to move pass such propaganda, it’s just not the case. These are the same people waiting in lines for weeks to score an overprice i-phone, or days to get in on Black Friday specials. Obama knows what’s up…those folks over in Des Moines or Cedar Rapids, Iowa LOVE their Oprah and whatever she touches becomes golden. Her “favorite things” show is a guarantee that your product will sell off the shelves like hot cakes the following day, and her new “favorite thing” she’s promoting? Well we think that there are thousands of housewives all over that will be telling their clan just how spectacular they think he is.

[photo from NYmag]

Our favorite little reporter over at Radar Magazine, Neel Shah knows a drug-related party foul when he sees one. His latest victim? Leighton Meester (aka Blair Waldorf, our fav bitch on Gossip Girl). Apparently Leighton was out at Goldbar with friends smokin a doobie at a neighboring table. Now, this is nothing to write home about, however what IS wrong is that the little moocher not only jumped the rotation but “awkwardly tried to relight the dying roach with a candle”! Oh Blair, you have some lessons to learn regarding pot etiquette indeed. Neel earlier proved that cocaine was nothing to be fretted about in this town, which got us thinking…where are the places you are most likely to spot a joint being passed around out in the open? Here’s our (rough) list:

-Goldbar (obvi)
-HOME
-Cielo
-Bungalow 8
-Sway
-Tenjune
-Double 7
-The Madison
-Central Park in daytime
-Stereo
-Libation

This is just what we came up with on the top of our heads, feel free to add. Hopefully Leighton will start mingling with some of her more experienced counterparts before she gets caught making this party foul again in the future. One experienced user named Paris would be good to call. The picture above was at the Coachella music festival just WEEKS before her infamous trial that sent her to prison. Paris may have been a criminal, but it wasn’t for getting caught with pot nor her marijuana etiquette…sister sure as hell knows the smoking guide rules and at least TRIES to stay discrete.

[Anthony D. Marshall son of Brooke Astor.  Source: NYTimes]

First it was the neglect and abuse petition filed in court by own son, and now Anthony D. Marshall, 83, son of the famed socialite has been indicted on charges that stem from how he and his lawyer managed his mother’s estate (estimated at close to $200 million).

Looks like little Tony dipped his hand into the cookie jar a couple of times and forged signatures on documents that transfered millions of dollars and several assets over to himslef.  He also collected, get this, a $2 million dollar transaction fee for selling one of Mrs. Astor’s paintings for $10 million dollars called “Flags, Fifth Avenue” by famous impressionist Childe Hassam (he even under reported the income from the sale on tax returns).

If he had just taken care of his mommy (while he took care of himself), like all good boys should, there prob wouldn’t be much fuss about this at all.  No cookie for you Mr. Marshall!

["Flags, Fifth Avenue" also known as "Up the Avenue from Thirty-Fourth Street, May 1917,” by Childe Hassam]

[photo from NYMag's Grub St]

The infamous home of the place that started the mini burger rage in Meatpacking, PopBurger is set to open any day now on 58th between 5th and Madison. All those GM Building workers must be thrilled to have another lunch option. However, we aren’t sure that this place will have any of the night crowd following as it’s 15th street counterpart. For one, the Warhol-lian themed space with the loud dj’s and flashy drinks isn’t that fun before 2am, just as the burgers and fries are the BEST food for your drunk tummy only after slimeing it up with the guidos in meatpacking… But the mini burgers and guids were not even our most favorite things about the old location. It was the secret porn playing room hidden behind the black curtain (anyone else remember that?) We aren’t even sure if they still have it (doubt it), but it was one of our favorite little secrets of the neighborhood, besides Passerby. Doubting that the new location will house one of these, we don’t think they have much to offer us.

We just found out that Ben & Jerry’s is giving you a chance to taste one of their most popular flavors, without any of the calories.  Seem to good to be true?  Well it kindof is…the company just launched theses cute little lip balms and the first flavor comes in Peanut Butter Cup and looks exactly like a miniture version of the real thing.  It is sold internationally which will finally give people outside of America a chance to get a small taste of what they are missing over here (heehee).  (Though we do NOT encourage eating lip balm!)  We think this is a cute PR move that won’t hurt their company but may not help it that much either.  Makes us think back to our Dr. Pepper lip smackers days….

[Source: NYTimes]

This holiday season we aren’t too concerned with who the GOP or Democratic front-runners are (Hillary or Obama? Rudy or Mitt?), or if/when the lights will be turned back on Broadway, or which game system will sell more (X-Box 360 or Playstation 3). Nope, we are much more interested in the rivalry between Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and MTV’s Rock Band. Which game is going to win out? It seems like Guitar Hero has the advantage, being the 3rd game in its series, and it being featured on Gossip Girl which is a major plus for us.

We are also kinda annoyed and tired of MTV. The VMA’s suck, there are no music videos, and their reality shows are stale (A shot at Love with Tela Tequila, are you joking?!) to name a few things….(Run’s House is pretty funny though).  For these reasons (and a host of others) we aren’t super pumped to buy one of their game titles.

But all this guitar game talk got us thinking. So remember when you saw all those poor bastards who wasted days waiting for Black Friday sales, and you thought to yourself, “well at least think of the several hundreds of dollars they saved?” And then immediately after you thought to yourself, “think of all the hundreds of dollars they would have saved if they didn’t buy that crap in the first place?” Well having now witnessed people playing wasting hours and hours learning how become a guitar game master, we can’t help but ask ourselves “imagine if you just bought a guitar and instead of playing a game, learned that actual instrument!?”

[NYTimes]