Last night marked the inauguration of The New York Observer’s First Annual Young Philanthropy Event. On the chic PH-D rooftop lounge of the Dream Hotel, amidst panoramic views of the city and overlooking the twinkling lights of the Empire State building, some of the leading lights in philanthropy came together to celebrate giving back.
The Read More
Well, we can’t say that we’re surprised that NBC correspondent and former first daughter Chelsea Clinton has inked a deal to move into The Whitman. (At least, if the New York Post can be believed—apparently the whole Clinton family posed for photos with the construction workers when visiting the four-unit luxury condo last week).
The Whitman, at 12 East 26th Street, is just the kind of old-fashioned with lots of new-fangled bells and whistles luxury product that has had buyers frothing at the mouth these days. To wit, 15 Central Park West, 18 Gramercy Park and 135 East 79th Street. A brand new or gut-renovated building molded into classically-styled condos on a Park is a fail-safe residential development play in Manhattan. No one relishes dealing with the awkwardness of kitchenside maids’ rooms pre remodeling job or blue hairs on a co-op board. Nor is townhouse living for everyone. Ditto industrial chic—a painfully played out trend if we ever saw one. Especially not those who have spent eight of their formative years living in the uber-traditional White House. Read More
Mogul Edgar Bronfman is launching his book The Bronfman Haggadah, with illustrations by his wife, artist Jan Aronson, at The Four Seasons Restaurant. Published by Rizzoli, the haggadah—a Jewish text that sets the order of the Passover seder—sold out before the publication date in February and has since gone back to press to print more Read More
Wall Street firms face billions in potential damages after New York State AG Eric Schneiderman brought civil charges against JPMorgan this week for mortgage-packaging standards at Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan acquired in 2008. The lawsuit, which has been criticized for offering little new information, is the first tort filed by a federal-state task force formed by President Barack Obama earlier this year. Mr. Schneiderman said yesterday that other suits would follow.
From engineering financial instruments to building the world’s biggest Ferris wheel, climb aboard with Matt Chaban for former Bear Stearns Asset Management CEO Richard Marin’s wild ride.
Former Wells Fargo Chairman Dick Kovacevich will not abide arguments that the U.S. government bailed out his bank, especially not in his country club’s men’s dining room.
Large firms such as BlackRock are best positioned to take advantage of JOBS Act provisions that would lift the ban on advertising by private investment firms, Bloomberg reports. One reason: bigger money managers already have marketers on staff to work on products such as mutual funds. Read More
September’s 916-page Vogue induced in us a medical crisis (two crises, if you count the hernia we sustained while carrying it from the mailbox). After reading contributor Lynn Yaeger’s piece on her prosopagnosia, commonly known as face blindness, we began to fret that we, too, were afflicted. Ms. Yaeger admits that she didn’t even recognize Read More
“We have a Shakespearean, Elizabethean temper,” Al Pacino informed a seated crowd Monday evening in Central Park. As part of its 50th Anniversary Gala, the Public Theater was honoring Mr. Pacino with an award, in the form of a prop rapier he had once wielded on stage, “I’m a little nervous,” he laughed. “I wish I had water, but I have a sword,” Read More
“Honestly, there is nothing like it,” Dianna DiMenna told The Observer Monday evening. “The beauty, the discipline, the lineage, the heritage, the history!” she gushed. While Ms. DiMenna’s lavish words may have applied to a great many ventures beloved by the city’s gentility, she was in fact referring to ballet. As the evening’s prima, she greeted guests in the marbled lobby of the David H. Koch Theater with that particular hostess’s élan, kissing elegant consoeurs and their bow-tied husbands. The decorous crowd had gathered for the School of American Ballet’s Winter Ball, and there was surely no shortage of pomp or circumstance. Read More
Chelsea Clinton arrived at the 44th floor of Hearst Tower Tuesday night (“with amaaaaze makeup and an impeccable blowout,” one fan tweeted from the publisher’s headquarters) and soon began whispering with Randi Zuckerberg in the corner. The Observer, taking notes on the surrounding scene (high heels, designer dresses, crispy cheesesticks), lurked nearby, waiting to Read More
The pool was closed for private parties last week, but the grill was bumping. On Monday, Chelsea Clinton came in for lunch with Sandy Weill. The Post reported that she went to Michael’s, though, so maybe I need to get my eyes checked–or the media needs to fact-check. Ha! I’ve been working for three weeks Read More
Chelsea Clinton joined advocates this evening in Manhattan to mark the first week of a phonebank campaign to legalize same-sex marriage, and said she hopes that New York will pass a same-sex marriage bill by her anniversary this July.
“As someone who got married last year, it was certainly the happiest day of my life Read More
