Harvey Weinstein Prays at the Altar of Oprah
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Harvey Weinstein seeks guidance from a god, Queen Elizabeth and friends set sail, and D.C. gets painted.
RELATED: Lindsay Lohan's Big Ol' Hotel Bill
Big bad movie mogul Harvey Weinstein guest-hosted an episode of Piers Morgan Tonight this past Thursday, and while he's usually a hard-charging force unto himself, he decided to seek out a higher power for advice on how to do the show: Oprah Winfrey. Yes, he reportedly sought her counsel prior to taping, meaning he drove to an old dark Chicago TV studio late at night, lit a bunch of candles and incense, and read a few passages from The Secret aloud as if a prayer or a chant, thus invoking the spirit of Oprah. Her proud visage hovered in front of him as if a ghost or a dream, and he beseeched her wisdom. What the Oprah apparition told him is unclear, but it seems to have paid off, as Weinstein's episode was CNN's most-watched show that day. He interviewed Bill Clinton, Martin Scorsese, Jamie Foxx, and Quentin Tarantino, so it's possible that the good ratings had to do with that starry roster, but really this is an example of how faith works. Specifically faith in Oprah. Pray to no other idols! Oprah will provide. [Page Six]
RELATED: Blake and Ryan's Secret Wedding
The grand Diamond Jubilee celebration for Queen Elizabeth continues in glorious fashion in England, with Sunday seeing the rousing River Pageant processional. A Guniness world record-breaking one thousand ships filled the Thames as people on the shore waved and rattled their spears, so proud to see the Queen's fearsome aramada making its proud and terrible way out to sea. Princes William and Harry, clad in tartans and war paint, were on board the Queen's galley, the Bloody Maiden Spirit of Chartwell, along with Kate Middleton, who beat a great drum to keep the oarsmen in sync. At present the flotilla is headed for open water, where they will once again crush the Spanish fleet and secure the Empire's reign for another five hundred years. [Us Weekly]
RELATED: Levi Johnston's Handgun Baby Has Been Born
A bunch of Washington D.C. glitterati (yes, yes, that is an oxymoron, but just go with it) gathered together for the National Opera Ball on Saturday night. The affair took place at the United Arab Emirates embassy, and guests included Justices John Roberts and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The party was Middle Eastern-themed, so a henna artist was on hand to decorate the guests. Ha. It's fun to think about John Roberts and Ruth Bader Ginsburg getting henna. That stuff is hard to get off! "Uh, Chief Justice, do you need to, um, wash your hands?" "No, dammit, it's this damn henna. It won't freakin' come off. I knew shouldn't have gotten it done. I need to stop listening to Ginsburg when I'm drunk. She's crazy, Antonin. She's just crazy." [Reliable Source]
RELATED: Austerity for Herself, The Queen
At last night's glamorous MTV Movie Awards, the entertainment awards equivalent of the new Doritos taco from Taco Bell, Twilight mumbler Kristen Stewart accepted the award for Best Kiss sans her on-and off-screen boypal Robert Pattinson. As a joke she pleaded with some of her other costars, like Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, and Taylor Lautner (show off), to come up and kiss her, but none of them did, so she did that thing where you turn around and wrap your arms around yourself and make it look like you're kissing someone. So Kristen Stewart is your wacky party animal uncle. Who knew. [Us Weekly]
RELATED: A Woman Hears for the First Time; A Memorable Opening Pitch
The new, revamped Real Housewives of New York premieres tonight, and just in time one of the new cast members, Aviva Drescher, has resolved a child support dispute with her ex-husband, real estate bigwig Harry Dubin. So that's good, though of course the season already taped so it's possible we'll be hearing about the at-the-time unresolved matter on the show. Interestingly, Dubin has past romantic entanglements with three of the current New York Housewives, having also knocked boots with Sonja Morgan a while back and having dated the Countess LuAnn de Lesseps for a spell at some point. So he is lucky to be alive, basically. Here's hoping he dates Ramona Singer sometime in the future, and the two are spotted together high above the city in Ramona's autogyro, the wide-eyed winemaker pedaling furiously for Montauk. [Page Six]
Gossip Girl actress and Farina-based entity Blake Lively has been traipsing around upstate New York with her beau Ryan Reynolds in tow as she picks up various household goods for her new summer home in Bedford. Yes, it's been reported that "Lively loves the upscale interior design company Restoration Hardware and has been spotted at funky-but-chic Anthropologie in Westport, Conn." Oh. That's it? Anthropologie and Restoration Hardware? Those places are nice and all, but this is a $2.3 million dollar house we're talking about here. Jeez, imagine if Smith & Hawken was still around. It'd be nothing but multi-seasonal wreaths and old buckets. Think bigger, Blake! You're a movie star (sort of)! You can do better than hippie Urban Outfitters and that store where everyone goes Christmas shopping for their dad but never finds anything. Sheesh. And yes, we are criticizing her decorating choices as a way to distract ourselves from the fact that a 24-year-old owns a multimillion dollar country home upstate and we don't, so please just indulge us. [Gatecrasher]
