Diamonds from Salman Rushdie; There Are Too Many Ezra Kleins
Welcome to the Smart Set where every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Demi Moore is out of the hospital, Salman Rushdie's marriage proposal is still pending, and Bill Daley exits the castle.
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Salman Rushdie has not abandoned his pursuit of Michelle Barish, who he proposed to last month days after she separated from husband Steve Tisch. A source says that Rushdie has followed up on the proposal by "presenting her with a 7-carat emerald-cut diamond ring," which is something we have never done. The source says Barish, who still needs to iron out a divorce settlement with Tisch, is "mulling over" the offer to be the fifth Mrs. Rushdie. [Page Six]
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The Los Angeles Fire Department is going to release the audio tape of the 911 call that came from Demi Moore's house earlier this week, but will redact any and all references to drug use -- prescription or otherwise. The city attorney's office is already pushing back against the idea Moore is getting special treatment, with a spokesman telling the Los Angeles Times that they almost always recommend redacting references to "any medical condition or ingested substance" from 911 tapes. Moore was released from the hospital last night. [TMZ]
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Meanwhile, the producers of Lovelace have apparently settled on Mary-Louise Parker to replace Moore in the role of Linda Lovelace. [Us Weekly]
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Robert Harris, the British author of The Ghost Writer, has a new novel coming out called The Fear Index. It features a character named Ezra Klein, who is an investor in an evil hedge fund and "has "[a] habit of talking at a rate of six words per second ... roughly twice as fast as normal human speech, and by the fact that every third word seemed to be an acronym or piece of financial jargon” and "no wife, no kids...no sexual organs of any kind." This has led to all the usual questions about whether Harris was taking a swipe at Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein, who to the best of our knowledge has no ties to evil hedge funds, but does like his acronyms. Harris, says it's a total coincidence, and that he's "not familiar with the real-life Ezra Klein." The real Klein added that he and Harris have never met, and that it's probably a "totally random coincidence." [Slate]
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Seal and Heidi Klum are the latest allegedly kaput Hollywood couple to be spotted wearing their wedding rings in public. Seal, for his part, is already talking up the idea that a reconciliation "may happen," though it's probably not a good sign that Klum was wearing hers upside down. [People]
Today is White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley's last day on the job. Fare thee well, Bill Daley! Last night, he was spotted huddling up with successor Jack Lew at Ristorante Tosca on F Street, "talking transition," which sounds like a scene from the D.C. remake of Training Day. [Playbook]
There's a rumor going around that Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z are going to ask Oprah Winfrey to be wee Blue Ivy Carter's godmother. Apparently they didn't want to ask family members to serve in a godparent capacity, Meanwhile, Jay-Z's friend and frequent inspiration Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith is said to have landed the coveted role of godfather. [Page Six via Media Take Out]
Rebekah Brooks' surrogate has given birth to Rebekah Brooks' baby. Scarlett Anne Mary Brooks arrived in the world yesterday at 4:05 p.m., London time. She weighs 6 pounds, 1 ounce, and has not yet heard the words "phone hacking." [The Daily Mail]
