Jessica Biel's Press-Shy Engagement Ring; David Geffen Is Single
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Also: Monaco's Prince Pierre Casiraghi might have started the New York City bar fight in which his jaw was broken, Chelsea Handler's famous friends supposedly don't care for her, and former Village Voice film critic Jim Hoberman has a new job.
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This is sad: David Geffen has split up with Jeremy Lingvall, his boyfriend of six years. A source says the romance had "simply run its course” and that "[t]here is nobody else involved,” which makes us feel a little better Geffen confirmed the split last night, but wouldn't provide additional details. Page Six notes the two "had long been inseparable despite a 40-year age difference between them." (The item also refers to Lingvall as "indisputably handsome," a characterization we very much enjoyed for reasons we can't quite articulate.) [Page Six]
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Monaco’s Prince Pierre Casiraghi ended up with a broken jaw and facial lacerations following a bar fight in New York's meatpacking district on Saturday, but it's unclear whether Grace Kelly's grandson or Andy Hock, the former nightclub owner he traded blows with, was in the wrong. Hock was the only person to be arrested following the melee, but Hock indicated in an interview Monday he was just "defending a bevy of supermodels" from the prince. Hock's lawyer is already describing the prince and his friends as "wealthy barons from Europe" who show up in American bars and act like jerks. The prince's friends say Hock "slammed [Caspian] for no reason" when he approached his table and then did the same thing to Greek shipping heir (and noted Paris Hilton ex) StavRos Niarchos. One incident witnesses on both sides can confirm is that "a friend of Casiraghi grabbed a bottle of Grey Goose vodka from a nearby table and tried to crack it over Hock’s head." [New York Daily News and New York Post]
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A source who attended this week's SNL after-party insists -- insists -- that Jessica Biel was showing off the fancy, as-yet-unphotographed new engagement ring Justin Timberlake gave her. Kristen Wiig was particularly taken by it, according to a source, who says Wiig "loved the ring and chatted her up about it." When it was time to emerge to see the press, the ring was hidden away, somewhere. And so the legend of its shininess and whether Timberlake has a matching ring with the same message inscribed --possibly in Sanskrit on the inside of the band -- will only grow. [Gatecrasher]
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A source says that Bobby Brown wants to send daughter Bobbi Kristina to rehab to help her get over the death of her mother Whitney Houston. The source says "Brown is searching for "professional help to get her through the grieving process without falling back on alcohol or drugs to mask her pain.” Bobbi Kristina was hospitalized the day after her mother's death, and was also hospitalized following Houston's funeral. A source told The Daily Beast that after the funeral, Bobbi Kristina was found at a hotel "getting high." [Radar]
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Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston are supposed to be true blue friends with Chelsea Handler -- she of the many memoirs and jokes that would have killed in 1994 -- but apparently they're not. A source says Aniston and Witherspoon "are "terrified of [Handler] and kiss her ass because they want to stay on her good side." It's a sad state of affairs when Chelsea Handler -- who's hoping manufactured awfulness will somehow make her America's drunk-driving sweetheart -- is capable of putting a real movie star and a real TV star (both of whom have shown the ability to be funny and appealing without playing characters who constantly "tell it like it is") on their heels. [Us Weekly]
J. Hoberman, the recently ousted senior film critic for The Village Voice, has found gainful employment, as chief fIlm critic for ARTINFO. As titles go, chief beats senior every time, so these new people clearly know what they're doing, though Hoberman cautions the new position "isn't a full-time gig in the sense that The Voice was," and that he'll continue to freelance and blog. [Vulture]
For years, Minnie Driver wouldn't say who the father of her 3-year-old son was, which not unreasonably had people wondering if he was famous or married or both. Nope, she tells The Observer. Complete opposite, in fact. Non-famous person whose anonymity she says she wanted to protect. "We weren't together and he wasn't directly in the business,"Driver explains, "so I chose to protect him and not have a rain of publicity...It's ridiculous. He's not famous. There's no big story." Minnie Driver, you confound and befuddle us. [The New York Observer]
