Comeback 2.0 (via Tumblr)

In both Sydney, Australia and London, two signs have appeared announcing that Lance Armstrong's titles have been moved to the fiction sections. Oh, it's like the Million Little Pieces problem all over again!

In Sydney's Manly Library:

A photo taken by British Tumblr user/library employee A Sad Man, My Friend who was inspired by the Manly prank to create his own:

You know, this is really all Oprah's fault. If she'd just stop having all these famous people admitting that their life/work was a complete lie, our lie-braries might go back to being the truth-braries we know them to be.

Lance Armstrong, riding a bicycle earlier this year (Getty Images)

The embattled cyclist Lance Armstrong, undergoing scrutiny after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's report of his and his teammates' use of performance-enhancing drugs, has resigned as head of the Livestrong charity, which rose to prominence in the mid-2000s for selling yellow rubber wristbands. (Presidential candidate John Kerry wore one throughout the 2004 campaign.)

Mr. Armstrong's ardent defender, Buzz Bissinger of the Daily Beast and Newsweek, has been silent thus far today, though he recently called both Mr. Armstrong and Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney "huge dongasauruses" who attract criticism.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong and girlfriend Anna Hansen are expecting their first child together. [People]

Britney Spears's father, Jamie, will be paid an additional $6,000 per month (on top of the $10,000 he was already getting) for the court-ordered supervision of his daughter. [Us Weekly]

The Nobu Hotel, which was supposed to be financed by Lehman Brothers, is not happening. [Down By The Hipster]

Marisa Tomei is now dating OC actor Logan Marshall-Green, who she met while performing in the play The Investigation of Solitude. [P6]

Philadelphia Eagles player Stewart Bradley hopes to be the next athlete to work at a fashion magazine: "I mean, it's not like I wear women's clothing, but I’d like to work for a women’s magazine because they’ve got a wider readership than most men's magazines." [Gatecrasher]

After the cyclist mentioned his announced return to competition, the Mayor said, "l did like the comments about doing it again, but that's another issue."

He smiled broadly as the audience applauded and laughed.

Then Bill Clinton more or less endorsed a third term for Mayor Bloomberg, saying of Hizzoner:

"I admire him, I'm grateful for his service and I'm guessing there's a lot more ahead."

]]> At the opening plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative just now, Michael Bloomberg appeared with Lance Armstrong to announce a joint anti-cancer effort between their foundations.

After the cyclist mentioned his announced return to competition, the Mayor said, "l did like the comments about doing it again, but that's another issue."

He smiled broadly as the audience applauded and laughed.

Then Bill Clinton more or less endorsed a third term for Mayor Bloomberg, saying of Hizzoner:

"I admire him, I'm grateful for his service and I'm guessing there's a lot more ahead."

]]> http://observer.com/2008/09/mikes-latest-tease/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver http://observer.com/2008/09/bloomberg-talks-about-coming-back-reaffirms-opposition-to-corporatepay-limits/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:35:38 -0400 http://observer.com/2008/09/bloomberg-talks-about-coming-back-reaffirms-opposition-to-corporatepay-limits/ Jason Horowitz http://www.observer.com/2008/09/bloomberg-talks-about-coming-back-reaffirms-opposition-to-corporatepay-limits/ Standing onstage with Bill Clinton and Lance Armstrong at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative in the New York Sheraton this morning, Bloomberg appeared to hint strongly (as if his maneuverings to this point weren’t a strong enough indication) that he likes the idea of running again for mayor.

Armstrong, who was there to promote his cancer foundation and health issues, talked about his return to competitive racing after initially retiring.

Bloomberg, who spoke directly afterward, addressed himself to Armstrong and said, “I did like your comments about coming back and doing it again. But that is a whole nother issue.”

After Bloomberg spoke, Clinton commended the job he had done serving the city (and country, he said) as mayor and told the audience, "My guess is there's a lot more ahead."

Talking to reporters in the hotel basement about 15 minutes earlier, once again addressing economic issues, Bloomberg had expressed confidence that a government bailout would go through, but called the opposition to high compensation for executives at companies involved in the bailout "impractical."

Asked whether he thought the deal was imperiled, Bloomberg said, "If people really thought that was in trouble the market would crater."

Asked for his thoughts on the opposition to high executive pay, which the increasingly populist-sounding presidential candidates have railed against on the campaign trail, Bloomberg said, "It's one of the most impractical things."

He went on to suggest, as he did yesterday, that the opposition to high pay could reduce incentives for executives to help dig their industries out of the crisis, saying that in a "free market" climate like Wall Street, people "tend to use financial reward as their goal rather than public service." There is, he said, "nothing wrong with that."

Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong may be over. [P6]

Tim Gunn reportedly appeared on the first season of Project Runway free of charge, and made only $2,500 per episode during the second season. [NY Daily News]

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, is reportedly having some trouble with his summer programming choices as ratings have dropped. Who knew Baby Borrowers and American Gladiators could fail? [P6]

Michelle Obama made Vanity Fair's best dressed list alongside Julian Schnabel and SJP. [VF]

Madonna's rep says her client, who was recently photographed looking thin and sickly pale, is a just victim of an unfortunate and possibly touched up photo. [NY Daily News]

Drea De Matteo was overheard saying that one of NBC's better known spin-off disasters, Joey, ruined her career. [P6]

Fair-skinned Anna Wintour, who traveled to Miami last week for Karl Lagerfeld's Channel Cruise show, doesn't deal well with humidity and heat. [P6]

Beyonce and Jay-Z may be buying a house in Scarsdale, N.Y., perhaps in search of good schools? [NY Daily News]

Jodie Foster reportedly broke up with her long-time girlfriend, Cydney Bernard, to get together with screenwriter Cindy Mort, whom she met on the set of The Brave One. [NY Daily News]

Conan O'Brien is depressed about leaving 30 Rock for Burbank. [Intelligencer]

Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong are officially on. [US Weekly]

Not long ago, there was much talk of Mary-Kate Olsen smooching her grungy-cute artist boyfriend at Paul Sevigny’s Beatrice Inn. Now it seems her twin sister, Ashley, whose autumnal fling with Lance Armstrong was splashed across the gossip pages, has once again been nibbling from her own piece of the make-out pie.

Ms. Olsen, 21, and Jared Leto, 36, who dated for a spit in 2005, arrived hand-in-hand at the Art of Elysium gala in L.A. “They looked like a couple and they were making out,” an eyewitness told the gossip weekly Us. But before anyone jumps to conclusions about the pair, a source close to Ms. Olsen claimed that they “aren’t back together. They’re just friends.”

Apparently, the seventh-floor party space, a “custom-made Calvin Klein lounge,” presented some problems for those who only wear heels (a likely majority). While Roopal Patel, Linda Fargo, Rachel Feinstein and Yvonne Force Villareal decided to hang out and wait for an open elevator to whisk them skyward, Jennifer Creel mounted the steps, huffing and puffing her way to Partyville. “We didn’t eat Thanksgiving four days ago for nothing,” she said, while getting plenty of use out of her suede Prada boots.

Plus: co-hosts Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal waxed on art, sporting brows alternately high and low. Ms. Moore looked around and mused, "It's all very transgressive, but this is not fashion lighting." Responding to the fellow actress, Ms. Gyllenhaal, who recently wowed us with her gray matter, remarked while laughing, “I finally gave up trying to remember each piece by artist and name … I figured it out. Wanna know the trick? You look for a guard and you say, 'Ok, now tell me who everybody is.'"

It’s been a week since we last spoke with celebrity life coach Patrick Wanis, Ph.D., so we called him earlier today to ask him some of the more pressing questions celebrities are posing right now.

We started things off with Writers Guild Enemy No. 1, talk show host Ellen DeGeneres (who is also a W.G.A. member). She canceled plans to tape her show in New York next week after earning her union's disapproval for crossing the picket. Michael Winship, president of the W.G.A.’s East Coast branch, responded to the news by saying he was “delighted” Ms. DeGeneres would no longer be hitting Manhattan, where she was sure to face a fresh crop of protesters.

“Ellen’s approach has always been to not just buck the trends, but to do what she feels is right and do what she believes is right,” Mr. Wanis said. “What she doesn’t realize, because she’s not getting the right advice, is that her whole aura and image of being a fun, happy-go-lucky person goes out the door. If you’re a happy-go-lucky person, don’t go against the Guild that you’re a member of!”

Instead, he said, Ms. DeGeneres should either terminate her W.G.A. membership and continue taping, or prove her solidarity with the striking members and refuse to write until a resolution’s been made.

Mr. Wanis also touched on the apparent correlation between Ms. DeGeneres’ strike-breaking and the whole Iggy fiasco. “Here she is fighting to make sure that the dog ends up in a loving home—the teenagers of the hairdresser or whoever they were—and she didn’t scream immediately at the people who were making death threats at the dog agency [Mutts and Moms]. Sanctity of life goes for both canines and humans. And I’m all for animal rights; I don’t wear furry or any of that stuff,” he said.

“She’s living like she’s on an island where she forgets that there are consequences for her actions beyond just her own,” Mr. Wanis said. “So what she’s doing is being very sensitive to her own needs and insensitive to others’.”

He also had some interesting things to say about yesterday’s news that Lance Armstrong’s six-year-old daughter brought Ashley Olsen to show-and-tell at her Texas school. (The idea was hardly novel to Mr. Armstrong, who reportedly went to ex-girlfriend Tory Burch’s daughter’s Upper East Side school as part of her show-and-tell.)

“They say that most girls bring a doll to show-and-tell—something that’s close to them, something they play with—but to bring your dad’s girlfriend, whose been in such a short-term relationship? So you ask yourself the motivation,” he said. “It’s about showing off and boasting. In that situation, I think it should be Lance Armstrong speaking to his daughters. To help them establish some priorities. Show-and-tell! What, are you bringing her in like a Barbie Doll?” He wondered aloud what Ms. Olsen could possibly have offered the young Armstrong girl’s classmates. Mr. Wanis said that it’s highly unlikely that the cyclist’s daughter sees in Ms. Olsen whatever it is that Mr. Armstrong seems to adore.

“If Ashley and Lance were to continue in a relationship, and it were to become serious and they end up in a live-in relationship, how is Ashley going to be able to discipline and guide this girl? If Ashley says, ‘You’re grounded,’ what is that little girl going to turn around and say to her one day? Ashley’s not going to be in much of a position to be a mother, a nurturer or a guide to Lance’s daughter,” he said.