Bill and Hillary's Hamptons House Hunt
There goes the neighborhood. Look out Hamptons, the Clintons are coming to roost. Longtime renters in the snooty Long Island enclave, former president Bill Clinton and his wife, soon-to-be-former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are said to be looking to purchase an oceanfront home somewhere in the $10-15 million range. My my! To do so, they are using "a multitude of 'handlers and advisers' who look at the properties first," according to a Page Six source. Though, another source tells them, "This is totally false. As you've probably seen, they are a little busy right now dealing with other things than buying a house." So who knows what's real?! It would make sense for the Clintons to want to put down some permanent roots, though, wouldn't it? With Hillary leaving her post and everything? And what are they gonna do, go back to Arkansas? I think not. That price tag seems a little ostentatious for them, but one might argue they've earned it. Whatever they decide to do — buy or continue renting — we can't imagine it would change the Hamptons scene much. It's already a total zoo of wealth and celebrity and political weight-throwing. Two more rich white people, who've already been summering there for a while, aren't going to make a difference. Still, it will be interesting to see what "retired" life looks like for the Clintons. Of course they won't actually be retired — they will never be retired — but maybe they'll operate at a slightly slower pace. Until Chelsea runs for senate in 2016, of course. Then the war machine groans back into full operation. So they should enjoy the relative peace and quiet for these next few years, Hamptons or elsewhere. And, really, what's 10 or 15 million bucks when it could buy you some rest and relaxation? [Page Six]
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Speaking of celebrities moving places, Natalie Portman is moving to Paris. Yes, the already impossibly glamorous actress is going to get impossibly glamorouser, when she and her husband, dancer/choreographer Benjamin Millepied, and their son Aleph, more to Paris next year. Millepied got a big fancy job at the Paris Opera Ballet, so the family is relocating. Isn't that elegant? Little Aleph, raised a Frenchman. Natalie sitting in cafés, drinking red wine and reading scripts. The whole family spending sunny Sundays in the Luxembourg Gardens or wandering around Père Lachaise, Natalie idly wondering if she could ever play Gertrude Stein. He does his dance stuff, she goes off and does some acting here and there, and that's life for a while. Meanwhile, the maintenance guy called, and you're not gonna have heat in your condo until at least Monday, so you're gonna have to stay on your sister's couch for a few more days. So. That's that. [Us Weekly]
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American Idol, keeper of the American spirit-flame, is being accused of racism. In a letter submitted to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of nine former contestants, a lawyer argues that Idol has been habitually discriminatory against black men, in violation of certain California labor laws. The lawyer claims that nine black male contestants, kicked off the show for failing to disclose arrest records, were subject to a "cruel and inhumane" plot to embarrass black contestants and pump up ratings. None of the men booted from the show were convicted of the crimes they were accused of, the letter claims, and no non-black contestant has ever received similar treatment in the show's history. So, that sounds pretty bad! Idol has generally seemed like a relatively racially harmonious show, compared to other things like The Bachelor, at least. But it wouldn't surprise us to learn that some nefarious machinations were going on behind the scenes, as something that big and that successful likely can't help but be at least a little evil at its core. Producer Nigel Lythgoe calls the accusation "ridiculous" and says "we treat everybody the same." Which, I mean, that's not exactly true. Lotta cheery white kids seem to get favorable edits while other folks linger in the shadows. And that's just what we see. So. Who knows? [TMZ]
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Big news for people concerned with newscaster romances. (And who isn't?) Dreamy Good Morning America host Josh Elliott and gorgeous WABC New York anchor Liz Cho, long rumored to be a couple, seem to have taken the same vacation week. Cho has been out this week, as has Elliott. Could they be on some sort of romantic getaway? Touring the Newseum in Washington, D.C.? Visiting the set of The Newsroom? Sitting on a frigid beach in Newport News? There are so many places they could be! And if they are at the vacationing together stage of the relationship, when will they make the dang thing official? One hopes it will happen on one of their shows. That's what would happen if it was a movie, anyway. This just in: romance. [Page Six]
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One Directioners the world over will spend today analyzing these new photos of band member Louis Tomlinson with his girlfriend, Eleanor, stepping out for some sort of event. Fans of the relationship will note how in love they look, while detractors, especially those who 'ship Tomlinson and his bandmate Harry Styles as their OTP, Larry Stylinson, will say that it all looks fake or loveless or whatever. Who knows what's really going on? All we know is that Louis has suspiciously good hair. Suspicious in what we're not sure. Just suspicious. (It would be inappropriate to, as a journalist, make a public political statement, so I must remain neutral on the Eleanor vs. Larry situation. But obviously one makes complete sense and the other is just media hogwash. I mean, "Eleanor"?? Sounds like a made-up name to me.) [Daily Mail]
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Former call girl Ashley Dupre, the one who was a regular, uh, companion of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, is now a published book author! Yes, Dupre, who was recently spotted out and about with her two-month-old daughter Izabel Jagger Earle (yes, Jagger is her middle name), has published "the New York Post’s first eBook," according to the paper. My my. What a thing! What an auspicious way to being the Post's eBook empire! The tome is called Tricks of the Trade (get it? Tricks?) and it is sex and relationship advice mostly cobbled together from Dupre's old Post advice columns. So, next stop Carrie Bradshaw, basically. Welcome to the literary world, Ashley! [Page Six]
