Katy Perry Doodles on Her Divorce Papers; Salman Rushdie's Big Night Out
Welcome to the Smart Set: Prince Harry is an Apache helicopter pilot and has a prize to prove it, the leading contender to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, and the president of Current TV denies napping during conference calls.
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A source says that Kate Upton -- the very pretty Victoria's Secret model who might be dating very mediocre New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez -- is the leading candidate to appear on the cover of this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. This is the kind of decision you'd think would have been made months ago, but other sources insist it hasn't been, and say the equally striking Chrissy Telgen, Anne V., Genevieve Morton, and Alyssa Miller are all still in the running for the coveted spot. The cover will be revealed next Monday on The Late Show with David Letterman. [Page Six]
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Salman Rushdie had a big night Tuesday! First he was spotted in the West Village, for the opening Ouattara Watts’ art show “Vertigo.” He skipped the after party to head over to "Flatiron eatery Junoon, where he was honored by Dom Perignon and Booktrack," which created that lush orchestral soundtrack for his new short story. After reading the entire thing, Rushdie "spent the rest of the night surrounded by beautiful women." [Page Six]
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Katy Perry and Russell Brand have finalized their divorce. Perry, for some reason, put a smiley face next to her signature on all court documents. We don't like to take sides on these things, but after hearing that, it's possible that Russell Brand may have dodged a bullet. [Us Weekly]
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After 18 months of training, Prince Harry is now a real, live Apache attack helicopter pilot. Per Britain's defense ministry, he was given a prize for being the "best co-pilot gunner" in his class, which had more than 20 members, at a fancy dinner in their honor on Wednesday night. According to the ministry, the prize consisted of "a polished 30 mm round from an Apache cannon mounted on a stand." After pre-deployment training, Harry's slated to return to the front lines in Afghanistan, though as The Telegraph points out, nobody's sure when that will happen, since his orders will be "subject to review by senior generals and even the Prime Minister until the last minute." [Reuters]
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The Palace has already announced there won't be a reprise of the media blackout that was enforced during Harry's first tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2008. Morbidly, a Telegraph reporter named John Bingham who was the only member of the press embedded with the Prince's unit, is now revealing the details of Harry's "first kill" which came in January 2008 when he called in an airstrike from his post at military base in the southern Helmand Province. [The Telegraph]
Finally, some good news from Current TV: network president David Bohrman insists he was not, in fact, sleeping during a conference call with executives last week. While sources say they heard a "loud snore" on the line, Bohrman denies it was him. He adds that he was taking the call from his home in California, which is being remodeled, and what sounded like snoring was probably just the sound of drilling and blasting. [Page Six]
Billionaire David Koch -- a backer of conservative political causes and intricate fireworks displays -- has found something new to throw gobs of money at: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, specifically the museum's aging facade, which he's donated $60 million to fix. [The New York Observer]
