By Drew Grant 6/11 7:18pm

Fashion

Strapping in for the long haul. (Photo by Vecchio/Three Lions/Getty Images)

Bra Boutiques Bloom as Big Bazongas Bewilder the Bamboobled!

As a young woman, one of the most memorable coming-of-age moments is being taken to get your first bra: equal parts mortifying and thrilling, it’s one of those prepubescent rites that most adults wouldn’t care to repeat.

And yet a colleague and I recently found ourselves re-enacting a scene from Judy Blume in the bathroom stalls of The Observer offices, trying to assess our respective digits under Jockey’s new numbers-only sizing system. The Volumetric Fit Bra sizing kit contains a measuring tape and 10 plastic cup molds labeled numerically. You try each one until you find a fit, like a soft-core Cinderella. “Do you think this plastic cup makes my boobs look bigger?” I joked. Read More

By Drew Grant 1/21 2:59pm

Lance Armstrong

Comeback 2.0 (via Tumblr)

Lance Armstrong Books ‘Moved’ to Fiction Section in Libraries

Since Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs, former fans have struggled to find an outlet for their anger. Some have taken to Internet tirades (both pro and anti-Armstrong), some have found relief in shoddy Photoshop jobs, and yet others have gone to their local library to retaliate for the lies.

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! Read More

By Drew Grant 10/01/12 2:38pm

Celebrity interviews

Colbert and Oprah: Deathmatch! (OWN)

Stephen Colbert on Oprah’s Next Chapter: Love, Loss and Sean Hannity [Video]

Last night Stephen Colbert and his wife Evelyn “Evie” McGee-Colbert had Oprah over at Evie’s parents’ 150-year-old home in Charleston for the latest installment of Oprah’s Next Chapter. (Which is really good! Have you guys watched the Rihanna one yet? Get on that!)

We learned so much about Mr. Colbert, who lately seems to be distancing himself from his Stephen Colbert “character” more and more (in case people were still confused); first by speaking at Fordham with Cardinal Dolan, and then going on the mother of all talk shows to discuss everything from his family’s death in a terrible plane crash to his influence on the presidential elections. Read More

By Kim Velsey 5/11/12 7:44pm

Red Carpet Real Estate

Playing fairy godmother again (Story Accents, flickr)

Oprah’s Penthouse Makes Broker’s Dreams Come True

Even when she’s selling her sprawling Midtown penthouse for $7.75 million, Oprah Winfrey manages to spread hope and joy. She even made a little profit in the process, having bought the penthouse for $7.1 million in 2008. How does she do it?

When we heard that Ms. Winfrey’s Place 57 condo on East 57th Street sold to hedge fund partner Mark Hillery (as reported by The Real Deal earlier this week), we thought that naturally Mr. Hillery would be happy. He got the high-ceilinged, big-windowed pad, listed with Corcoran broker Mark Schoenfeld, for a few hundred thousand under the $7.9 million ask. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/16/12 8:00am

Literary Stuff

The author and bird lover (Quinn deEskimo, flickr)

Jonathan Franzen’s Reluctant Reading

The first thing the Observer noticed about Jonathan Franzen was that he was wearing a name tag. It said “Jonathan Franzen.”

We asked him if he usually wore name tags to his readings.

“Everyone is wearing one but you,” Mr. Franzen pointed out. This was true. In what appeared to be an act of almost defiant social leveling, the organizers of last Thursday’s Semiperm House’s fifth anniversary celebration/Jonathan Franzen reading had given everyone a name tag. Read More

By Drew Grant 2:38pm

Andy Cohen

Andy Cohen, newly-minted author (Getty Images)

Lunching with Pop Culture’s Most Talkative Author Andy Cohen

Over the course of an intimate, two hour lunch with Andy Cohen at the Palm West  End Steakhouse, the Bravo celebrity and producer (not to mention celebrity producer) added a new notch in his grey, dapper Hugo Boss suit. Mr. Cohen, whose talk show Watch What Happens Live just moved into its five night a week spot–”You should come tomorrow, we’re having a Ralph Fiennes Pajama Party…with Ralph Fiennes!” he had gushed over a meal of Atlantic salmon and Southwest steak salad–was now officially an author, giving us his first reading of his upcoming memoir Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture. Read More

By Drew Grant 10/24/11 9:10am

Mental Health Week

simm

Overdosing on Improvement: How Seven Days of Self-Help Made Us Weak

Three days after we picked up The Secret, we won the lottery. It was a Friday night in Williamsburg, and we were drunkenly blinking into the fluorescent lights of a local bodega, waiting for our dinner—also, technically, a late lunch and tomorrow’s early breakfast—of a beef patty with cheese, when we decided to feed two dollars into a machine to purchase an Instant Take 5 ticket, which enticed us with a promise that we could “Win Up To $5,555!”

Read More

By Drew Grant 9/21/11 5:23pm

Reality TV

Heather Thompson, Aviva Drescher, and Carole Radziwill

Are These Your New New York Housewives?

Now that Bravo has officially given the axe to Real Housewives of New York Alex McCord, Jill Zarin, Kelly Bensimon, and Cindy Barshop , the rumor treadmill is already up and burning its morning calories over who the new school of classy ladies will be. New York Daily News has already fingered Kennedy-by-association Carole Radziwill, along with Yummie Tummie designer Heather Thomson and philanthropist Aviva Drescher. Read More