Jon Hamm Likes to Watch; Karl Lagerfeld Buries Newsweek
Welcome to the Smart Set: Every morning, we bring you the gossip coverage filtered. Today: Karl Lagerfeld roasts Tina Brown in Tokyo, Jon Hamm is quite the photographer, and DSK was allegedly not a model orgy guest.
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In January, Newsweek called Karl Lagerfeld "overrated," which apparently has not been sitting well with the Chanel creative director. When the subject came up at a news conference during Tokyo Fashion Week, Lagerfeld promptly and thoroughly eviscerated the magazine and editor Tina Brown. "First of all," he said, "Tina Brown's magazine is not doing well at all, She is dying, I'm sorry for Tina Brown, who was such a success at Vanity Fair, to go down with a shitty little paper like this. I'm sorry." Cold stuff. He could have at least mentioned the app. [WWD]
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When Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich was defeated in a Democratic primary earlier this month, it looked like his House career was over. But maybe not! He's going to Washington state next month to speak at a forum on Social Security, which is "stoking speculation" that he'll try to run in the state's newly-created 10th district. Kucinich actually toyed with the idea of relocating before deciding to fight it out in Ohio, so the speculation stokers aren't being unreasonable. The filing deadline is May 18. [Roll Call]
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When it comes to actors who seem to have a good head on their shoulders, Jon Hamm is right up there with Jeff Bridges and Tom Hanks, But he also seems to have a thing about photographs and videos. It seems when the Mad Men cast rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week "Hamm was spotted filming it for posterity on a white iPhone." Chalk that one up to excitement. But earlier, before a screening of the show at the Crosby Street Hotel, Page Six "spotted Hamm alone in a hallway, photographing a poster of himself and the cast." That's kind of weird, right? [Page Six]
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Katy Perry has a new boyfriend. His name is Baptiste Giabiconi and he is a "French model and musician." Good for her! Apparently Giabiconi is considering moving to Los Angeles, because it might help with his French model and musician career, and because it would let him be "closer to" his new girlfriend. Relocating halfway around the world to go on a few extra dates with a famous lady on the rebound whom you haven't even been seeing for very long seems to us a plan fraught with potential complications. Then again, it could be true love. If you don't go, how do you know?. [Page Six]
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Speaking of fellas who don't want to be away from their gals even from an instant: Salman Rushdie reportedly "hung on the arm" of beautiful Lunchbox Fund founder Topaz Page-Green during a charity auction at Del Posto in Manhattan on Wednesday night. According to a smart-aleck source, Rushdie offered "no proposals that night," which is reasonable, since he's already done one of those this year. [Page Six]
If you have New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni in your media gout pool, this is big news: Frank Bruni has the gout. Bruni, who spent five years as the paper's food critic, detailed his battle with the disease of kings in a 2,241 word Times blog post. Since being diagnosed in November he says he has still been able to eat red meat, though "probably not more than 16 ounces in any one week." And don't get him started on shellfish: over the past four months, he's had "about eight shrimp in all." Gout has also negatively impacted his drinking. Says Bruni: "I’ve had wine and even some bourbon, but while it used to be customary for me to down at least two alcoholic beverages on six out of seven nights, I’ll now frequently go four to five days without a drop." He also doesn't care for the blinding pain that accompanies an attack, which doctors tell him is comparable to the agony of child birth. "All I know," Bruni says,"is that when gout pays a visit to one of my feet, I can’t stand on it or put a sock on it or even place a thin sheet over it... all I can do is stare at it, swear at it and bang my fist on the nearest hard surface while waiting for the industrial-strength anti-inflammatories my doctor has prescribed to kick in." [The New York Times via LA Observed]
Oh, dear: a French madam named Béatrice Legrain claims that in 2009, Dominique Strauss-Khan participated in a "90-minute Viagra-pumped orgy in a restaurant basement" in Paris, the highlight of which was apparently the former IMF chairman's "30-minute-long sexcapade with a young woman as a handful of other men gawked and pleasured themselves." Legrain also says DSK cornered her in the hallway to the bathroom during a lull in the proceedings, grabbed her throat, and said "It's you I want." Charming. [New York Daily News]
New York Post music critic Dan Aquilante is leaving the paper after 32 years to start his own blog, but he wanted to thank his colleagues before he left, so he decided to take out a big "Thanks for all the memories!"-type ad in Tuesday's paper. Except it wasn't there. He called the advertising department and was informed that Post editor Col Allan made the call to pull the promo, which was to run for several consecutive Tuesdays." Baffled, he sent Allan an email asking why he spiked the ad, and offered to discuss any lingering hard feelings with Allan over drinks. "As of Thursday morning," Capital reports, "Allan had not taken Aquilante up on his offer." [Capital New York]
