Salman Rushdie 'Mortified' by Romance Rumors; Anne Hathaway to Marry
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the day's top gossip coverage filtered. Today: Andrew Cuomo's Thanksgiving dinner was lacking, Tobey Maguire came out ahead on his high-stakes poker games, and Rebecca Hall and Sam Mendes are an item.
Salman Rushdie is working overtime to put the kibosh on any suggestion that he’s dating Social Life magazine editor-in-chief Devorah Rose, who he was photographed sharing a restaurant booth with last week. Rushdie told Page Six: "I’d just like to express my personal embarrassment about your story today linking me with Ms. Devorah Rose. There is not, and will not be anything between Ms. Rose and myself. I am mortified that her Twitter feed suggests otherwise.” He suggested maybe she was “making too much of a casual acquaintance.” [Page Six]
Rebecca Hall -- miscast in The Town but terrific in just about everything else -- is dating Sam Mendes, who hasn't made a watchable movie since the first half of Road to Perdition. This is good news, but we hope Mendes learned his lesson by casting ex-wife Kate Winslet in a stifling period piece that's nothing but couples yelling at each other. [Us Weekly]
If you believe his mother Matilda, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did not like what his chefs at New York State Executive Mansion did with his mom's stuffing recipe over Thanksgiving. Mid-meal, Matilda tells Page Six, the son leaned over and whispered, "Mom, this is awful." [Page Six]
Tobey Maguire will be ponying up $80,000 to settle a lawsuit over his winnings in a series high-stakes, allegedly illegal poker games with hedge fund manager Brad Runderman, now in jail after being convicted of fraud. When the story first broke in June, TMZ reported Maguire won more than $300,000 in the games, which were commonly held at fancy Los Angeles hotels like the Peninsula and the Four Seasons, while armed security guards in Kevlar manned the door. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Anne Hathaway is engaged to actor Adam Shulman, her boyfriend of three years. Being in a relationship with an actor can be difficult, but in Hathaway's case, she'll be happy as long as he's not an international swindler. [Us Weekly]
Demi Moore went out for dinner Saturday night at the Tower Bar in Los Angeles with "a mystery man," who for some reason we picture wearing a cape. It was his first evening out with a man, mystery or non, since filing for divorce from Ashton Kutcher earlier this month. [Page Six]
Microsoft has apparently hired a headhunter to search for an experienced executive" to head up a scripted television division for the company. It's unclear whether Microsoft wants to adapt programs based on, say, existing XBox properties, or get into the acquisitions business. Deadline notes the company is interested in "exploring the scripted TV territory for its video-game console XBox," which would work as a delivery system, but doesn't shine much light on the kind of programming the network wants to develop. [Deadline]
Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf has dropped a cool $19 million on a four-bedroom, 4.5-bath Park avenue apartment, which according to the listing, boasts a "master bedroom and marble master bath [that] provide a quiet Zen-like retreat.." Considering the Vikings struggles to secure financing for a proposed new stadium, that $19 million might have been better spent on a place in Malibu or Beverly Hills, since that's probably where his team will be playing in five years. [The New York Observer]
