The New York Observer (New York, NY) back issues from November 2007:
Linda Stein: 'She Was Shocking, She Was Over the Top'.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Real estate broker Linda Stein was found Tuesday night bludgeoned in her 18th-floor apartment at 965 Fifth Avenue. She was 62. Nearly all news reports of the murder called Stein a "broker to the stars," which misses the point. It's not that Stein represented celebrities; it's ...
Five Reasons to Watch the Jets.
Nov 01, 2007 ... The bad news: It's mid-season and the Jets are in a nosedive, fighting to stay out of last place in the AFC East. The (potentially) good news: there's been a big change at quarterback, and with eight games left and no hope for this postseason, there's plenty of time to see what ...
Events for Friday, November 2, 2007.
Nov 01, 2007 ... 7:20 a.m. Jon Corzine is interviewed on WCBS News, 880 AM. 7:30 a.m. Jon Corzine is interviewed on Bloomberg Radio, 1130 AM. 8 a.m. Jon Corzine is interviewed on WBMG, 1310 AM . 9 a.m. Eliot Spitzer is interviewed by Diana Williams of Eyewitness News Up ...
The Afternoon Wrap: Thursday.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Long Island City to get luxury hotel. [Curbed] Bed Stuy: combat zone? Or is Billy Joel way off base? [amNY] Love ...
Elsewhere: Giuliani, Spitzer, Bloomberg.
Nov 01, 2007 ... The Economist writes, "Now that Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, has left the fold to become an independent, nobody else can boast such broad appeal." Sewell Chan hears people comparing Michael Bloomberg to Pope John XXIII. As a possible presidential candidate, ...
Dreams of Brooklyn Central Business District Dashed.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Joe Chan, the head of the public-private Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, is scaling back expectations that downtown Brooklyn will ever achieve the dizzying heights of central business district-dom once imagined way back in 2004. "You are not seeing historically what has happened ...
Clinton Campaign Seeks Sympathy, Cash.
Nov 01, 2007 ... The Clinton campaign continues with what it clearly regards as the winning theme of Hillary-as-mugging-victim after this week's debate. Here's a fund-raising letter just sent out to supporters by Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle: If you saw the debate Tuesday night, or ...
Eric Gioia Discusses Investigation of Rudy Giuliani's 9/11 Role.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Here's City Councilman Eric Gioia, a Clinton supporter who chairs the Council's Investigations Committee and may run for public advocate, ...
Richard Gere Closes on Schnabel's Palazzo Condo for $12 M.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Reports have been saying for a month or so that handsome hippy thespian Richard Gere has bought into Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chuppi at 360 West 11th Street. But city records filed today reveal the purchase price: $12 million. That means Mr. Gere still has $850,000 left over ...
Clinton Supporter Says License Mess Is Hillary's Fault, Not Eliot's.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Ruben Diaz, Jr., an Assemblyman from the Bronx, supports Hillary Clinton. He also opposes Eliot Spitzer's latest driver's license policy. But when it comes to blaming someone for Clinton's awkward answers during the debate on this issue, Diaz says Spitzer is catching a bad rap ....
The Experts: "There's Something Weird" About Lance and Ashley.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Page Six is a funny kind of matchmaker. Right or wrong (Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin?) a relationship posited in the column becomes a real thing in Hollywood, where press is everything. Not really sure of what to make of the Lance Armstrong-Ashley Olsen pairing posited in the ...
N+1 Explains Regrets in Higher Education.
Nov 01, 2007 ... We knew we shouldn't have bothered torturing ourselves through a reading of Ulysses! N+1 magazine is publishing a pamphlet for ungraduates titled What We Should Have Known: Two Discussions. The topic, as Scott McLemee at Inside Higher Ed.com explains, is the relationship between education ...
Fidler Opposes Bloomberg's Traffic Plan, Praises Him.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Lew Fidler isn't supporting Michael Bloomberg's traffic reduction plan, which hinges on congestion pricing. In fact, tonight, Fidler will introduce his own plan to reduce traffic which features an idea Bloomberg had already opposed: building the Cross Harbor Tunnel. But when I ...
Chris Hayes To Lead The Nation's DC Bureau.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Twenty-eight-year-old Christopher Hayes will be The Nation's new DC bureau editor, according to a memo sent to staff this afternoon. Mr. Hayes, who has spent the last year contributing regularly to The Nation as a Puffin Fellow at the Nation Institute, will replace David Corn, ...
At Big Box Bash, LeeLee Sobieski Remembers Her Mortality.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Late last night at Simon Hammerstein and Richard Kimmel's celeb-infested, serially newsworthy Lower East Side cabaret, The Box, the actress Leelee Sobieski wore a top-hat and slinky tank top and carried a mold of her own skull (it had been commissioned for an upcoming film, Night Train, ...
Bono on Bloomberg.
Nov 01, 2007 ... U2 lead singer and good-international-causes advocate Bono just left a private meeting with Michael Bloomberg here at City Hall. A crush of reporters accosted the sunglassed singer, who focused on Bloomberg's philanthropic potential, and sidestepped the question of whether the ...
That Old Trick: Jake and Reese Can't Evade Cameras, Even in Costume.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Fresh-out-of-the-package lovebirds Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal ran into a little paparazzi action last night while celebrating boo-day with Ms. Witherspoon's wee tots. Hard as he may have tried, Mr. Gyllenhaal didn't fool the camera-toting celeb-stalkers ...
If You Discount It, Will They Come?
Nov 01, 2007 ... True, most 20-somethings in New York would rather go to a movie, or, you know, pay rent, rather than drop a C-note for a Broadway show. But Charles Isherwood of The New York Times is wondering about the success of new discount ticket prices at several theaters in the city. The ...
Charles Hynes on Dropping Murder Charges.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Charles Hynes spoke with reporters outside City Hall earlier today about dropping murder charges against a former FBI agent after a Village Voice article damaged the credibility of the prosecution's start witness. ...
What Chutzpah! Jews Are Smarter, But Also Sicker, Says Author.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Slate's William Saletan discussed genetics, intelligence, superiority and "outbreeding" with the author of Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People, Jon Entine. [W]hat if Judaism as a genetic inheritance is compatible with Judaism as a cultural ...
Second Most Expensive New York Townhouse Sale a Done Deal.
Nov 01, 2007 ... It's official: Oil tycoon Len Blavatnik has paid exactly $50 million for his friend Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s East 64th Street townhouse, the second biggest New York townhouse deal ever. The sales deed was filed in city records this morning, the day after iconic uptown broker Linda ...
Strike Puts Heroes Spin-Off On Hold.
Nov 01, 2007 ... NBC is blaming the WGA's strike for the shelving of their Heroes spin-off, according to Variety. We have a feeling it has something to do with the crappy subplots and growing backlash, as well. As Newark Star-Ledger critic Alan Sepinwall's blog put it, "Are we sure the writers of Heroes ...
Do Artists Need a Ph.D?
Nov 01, 2007 ... Daniel Grant of The Chronicle of Higher Education examines the slow death of the M.F.A. as an artists "terminal degree." Devaluing the M.F.A. or making the doctorate the fine-art world's terminal degree is likely to drive away professional artists who have a lot to offer in ...
A&E Suspends Dog the Bounty Hunter for Racist Comments.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Last night A&E suspended production on their popular reality show "Dog the Bounty Hunter," after Dog, the show's star, allegedly unleashed a tirade of racist comments about his son's African-American girlfriend, in two recorded phone calls, which the National Enquirer subsequently posted ...
Heather Mills on Today.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Heather Mills may want to just disappear sometimes, but one wouldn't know it from her recent press march. Ms. Mills, 39, a onetime nude model and the erstwhile spouse of Paul McCartney, went on the Today show this morning with a bad case of logorrhea. ("I fell in love with a man, not a ...
HBO to Premiere In Treatment in January.
Nov 01, 2007 ... HBO looks to us this season like it's starving for a great big zeitgeist hit like The Sopranos. Their latest bid to regain the glory days? Variety reports: Starring Gabriel Byrne as a psychotherapist, "In Treatment" consists of five characters in one-on-one sessions as patients ...
A Spring Sit-Down with Linda Stein.
Nov 01, 2007 ... In early May of this year, The Observer's Max Abelson sat down with Linda Stein to talk about her two careers--the first as a music manager for the likes of The Ramones and her second as a highly successful broker to stars like Sting and Billy Joel. Stein was found murdered on Tuesday ...
SI District Attorney on Felony Conviction Rates.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Last week I posted a campaign ad from Democratic Staten Island District Attorney candidate Mike Ryan. This week, an ad from the other side. ...
Michael's Has a Really Good Halloween!
Nov 01, 2007 ... The New York Social Diary reports today that Michael's had a good day yesterday. It was "hopping" with the likes of Joe Armstrong, who ate with a freshly-shorn Paula Zahn; Dominick Dunne, who was sitting with Chuck Pfeiffer and Taki Theodoracopulos; West-Coasters Mike Medavoy and Nikki ...
Duran Duran to Make Broadway Debut Tonight.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Duran Duran will play their hits from the last three decades at their Broadway debut tonight at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The show, entitled Duran Duran: Red Carpet Massacre, celebrates the group's upcoming CD, Red Carpet Massacre, which will be released on Nov. 13. Playbill ...
Streep to Play Julia Child in Ephron Movie.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Meryl Streep has signed on to play jolly cooking icon Julia Child in Nora Ephron's new film Julia & Julia, based on the adaptation of the 2005 book by Julie Powell, Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter writes: ...
The Morning Read: Thursday, November 1, 2007.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Hillary Clinton "supports," but doesn't endorse, Eliot Spitzer's driver's plan. Hillary is getting it from the left and right. Eliot Spitzer is poised to hire a former Albany lobbyist, Bruce Gyory, and former Newsday reporter Errol Cockfield [link fixed]. ...
The Day in Gossip: Owen Wilson's Not Camera Shy; Jann Wenner Gets Flak!
Nov 01, 2007 ... Kelly Klein, Calvin's ex, is now a mother; her child, Lukas Alexander Rector, was born to a surrogate in California, but will be raised in New York. [Page Six] Hunter S. Thompson's widow is not at all happy with Jann Wenner, who published the gonzo journalist at Rolling Stone ...
Halloween Scare as Gunman Opens Fire in Union Square.
Nov 01, 2007 ... A gunman opened fire on the late-night crowd milling about Union Square a little before 1 a.m. last night, as revelry associated with the Halloween Parade was winding down in downtown Manhattan. According ...
The Round-Up: Thursday.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Former resident of Upper West Side co-op sues the board. [NY Post] Renderings of Brooklyn's growth. [NY Post] Toxic Whole Foods site is still open to the public. [NYDN] Bloomberg leans toward waterfront ...
Meet the Misfits: Your 2007-2008 New York Knicks.
Nov 01, 2007 ... After a gruesome off-season characterized by legal troubles and classless behavior, the Knicks organization must surely be relieved by the prospect of focusing, starting with their first game tomorrow, on basketball. But the feeling may not last. From the looks of ...
Celebrity Broker Linda Stein Found Murdered.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Linda Stein, the original celebrity real-estate broker, was found by her daughters bludgeoned to death Tuesday night in her Fifth Avenue apartment. Ms. Stein, who sat down for an interview with The Observer in May, became a broker after her breakup with Seymour Stein of Sire ...
Upper East Side vs. Upper West Side: Read This Before You Rent a One-Bedroom.
Nov 01, 2007 ... In these days of bitterly expensive apartments for the young and the restless, the late October news of declining Manhattan rents came as a pleasant surprise. The news (PDF) came from The Real Estate Group New York, a brokerage that analyzed rents in apartment buildings below 100th ...
Halloween Hangover: Alexandra Richards' Metal Moment; Roberto Cavalli's Feathered Friend.
Nov 01, 2007 ... Halloween comes but once a year, and it can seem like you're writing about it for weeks afterward. With that in mind we burp up the following remainders from our All Hallow's Eve treatbag. Don't spoil your supper. First up, we negledted to mention Alexandra Richards, daughter of ...
Shott On Location: Corner of Thompson and West 3rd Streets.
Nov 02, 2007 ... "CAN AH GETTA SHAIKH-ALLUJAH?!?!" No, Astor Place isn't getting another Starbucks. Yet. Actually, the Reverend Billy and his "Church of Stop Shopping" choir were rallying yesterday in support of a retailer: the longstanding Thompson Newsstand near the corner of ...
The Stein Investigation: Pot Dealers, A Hammer, Red Paint, The Cuban.
Nov 02, 2007 ... The reports this morning on the investigation into mega-broker Linda Stein's death are like bad pulp fiction: For starters, The Daily News says cops are looking for pot dealers who delivered to Stein's apartment: "All of them dressed well and some delivered weed to her flat in wooden boxes ...
Day in Gossip: Surprise! Britney Spends Most of Her Money on Entertainment, Clothes, Not Kids; Box Hires Security Firm.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Court papers reveal Britney Spears' outrageous spending: $102,000 a month on entertainment, $16,000 on clothes, $6,000 on child care. [Page Six] Celebrity Halloween costumes are exposed; Britney wins for craziest costume, dressed as herself. [Rush & Malloy] At ...
Bloomberg on Spitzer Plan: 'Stop This Craziness'.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Michael Bloomberg turned his appearance on CNN yesterday into an opportunity to come out against Eliot Spitzer's driver's license policy. Here, courtesy of CNN's Situation Room, is a transcript of Bloomberg's exchange with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. WOLF BLITZER, CNN ...
Times Gets Bloggier Still.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Looks like The New York Times was so pleased with the decision to enable readers to comment on blog posts that they've decided to take things a step further. According to Gawker, the paper is now ...
More Racist Vandalism in a Bastion of Ethnic Diversity.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Just before city officials announced a crackdown on hate crimes yesterday, several cars in Jackson Heights were vandalized with racial slurs. Above is a photograph from a blogger in Jackson Heights. John Sabini issued a statement last night saying, "The residents of ...
"New Yorkers Are Party Animals--and So Are the Youth of the Middle East!".
Nov 02, 2007 ... This Thursday evening, a mix of Manhattan's literati, business professionals, and foreign-policy wonks gathered at the Jewish-chic Soho Synogogue loft in downtown Manhattan to celebrate the release of Jared Cohen's new book, Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of ...
The Morning Read: Friday, November 2, 2007.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Federal authorities are investigating one of Hillary Clinton's Chinatown donors. The Economist wonders if Rudy Giuliani can maintain his lead. Corporate America is donating to Charlie Rangel. Outspoken activist Fred Newman defends social therapy. ...
Fincher to Make Killer Movie.
Nov 02, 2007 ... David Fincher, who directed Sev7en, The Game and Zodiac, will take on another Killer in a new movie based on the graphic novel. Variety reports: Allesandro Camon will write the script, about a top assassin suddenly plagued by his conscience and a highly competent cop ...
TV News Luminaries Gather to Celebrate Jennings Book, Jennings.
Nov 02, 2007 ... On Thursday evening, near a window in a banquet hall overlooking the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Times Square, Andy Rooney sidled up to a makeshift bar and asked for a bourbon. No bourbon, explained the bartender. Wine? Mr. Rooney shook his head no, furled his massive ...
The Round-Up: Friday.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Memories of Linda Stein. [NY Times] Panel in East Village discusses Jane Jacobs's legacy. [City Room] Bloomberg vows against tax breaks ...
Manhattan Masochists in Spankin' Hamptons.(Reprint)
Nov 02, 2007 ... [Ed. note: this article was originally published on June 3, 1996.] Every five minutes during the Jitney ride out to the Hamptons on Memorial Day weekend, Janey Wilcox wanted to stand up and scream, "I'm Janey Wilcox, the model, and I'm spending the weekend with Zack Manners, the ...
New Hampshire's Waiting Game is Fine by Hillary.
Nov 02, 2007 ... DURHAM, NH-Yesterday, at the University of New Hampshire's athletic complex in Durham-where the school's long-suffering Wildcats hoops team nursed the longest home court losing streak in college basketball history in the early 1990s-a few hundred students, faculty members, and local ...
Events for November 3 - 5, 2007.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Saturday 10 a.m. Marty Golden hosts an education fair, at 2001 Oriental Boulevard, Brooklyn. Noon. Protesters rally against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, outside by 51st Street and Madison Avenue. Noon. Environmental advocates host the "Step It Up ...
NYPD: No Arrests Yet in Stein Case.
Nov 02, 2007 ... There's a rumor going around the high-end brokerage community today that Linda Stein's ex-assistant Raoul Garcia Bernal is in custody. Mr. Bernal, described in the papers this morning as a "handsome Romeo type" known as The Cuban, reportedly fell ...
Elsewhere: Bloomberg, Spitzer, Plummer.
Nov 02, 2007 ... On the new blog of the New York Times editorial board, they write of Hillary Clinton and the Spitzer immigration initiative, "if a Democratic Senator from New York can't make that argument clearly and forcefully, who can?" Ben spots a story in which Hillary Clinton denies she's ...
The Afternoon Wrap: Friday.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Long Island City is taken over by Japanese hotel chain. [Curbed] Hudson Square's St. John's building might get a hotel too. [Villager] ...
Schumer's Rationale.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Looking over the statement Chuck Schumer just put out explaining his support for Michael Mukasey's nomination for Attorney General, it seems to me the key graph is this one, which seems to put the onus for outlawing waterboarding torture on Congress. "This afternoon, I met with ...
Russians Still Brooding Over Translations.
Nov 02, 2007 ... As the Observer's Leon Neyfakh wrote this summer, the new (and old) translations of War and Peace are causing a raucous among the Russian literary elite. But the New York Review of Books' Orlando Figes writes in his review of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's new version of ...
Schumer (Still) Sticking With Mukasey.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Chuck Schumer just released the following statement reasserting his support for Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general. I will support Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. I have spent the last nine months doing everything I can to get new ...
Democratic Assemblyman Thinks Governor Gave G.O.P. 'New Life'.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, a Democrat from the Bronx, says that Eliot Spitzer has done some major damage to the Democrats' chances of taking over the state Senate. "I know it's probably going to be problematic next year, when it comes to making the effort to finally take over ...
At Linda Stein's Funeral, Recalling a 'Chic and Fabulous' Anti-Grandma.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Linda Stein, the quintessential star real estate broker, would have been elated to see her overfilled service today at Riverside Memorial on West 76th Street. "She's up there with The Ramones, reveling in the publicity," eulogized Danny Fields, who co-managed that glorious ...
Jay-Z Still Giving Tours of Brooklyn.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Jay-Z, whose new album inspired by American Gangster comes out next Tuesday, gave the Los Angeles Times' Richard Cromelin a personal tour of Brooklyn. Jay-Z, 37, doesn't return often to this Brooklyn neighborhood, where he grew up as Shawn Corey Carter. Stardom and wealth have ...
Atlantic Monthly M.E. Sells First Person Account of Anxiety Disorder to Knopf.
Nov 02, 2007 ... Scott Stossel, the managing editor of The Atlantic Monthly who oversaw the magazine's 2005 move from Boston to Washington, D.C., has sold a book about his anxiety disorder to Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House. According to Knopf publicity director Paul Bogaards, Mr. ...
Fox "Will Respond" to Romney Campaign's Use of Debate Footage.
Nov 02, 2007 ... An unlikely showdown could be developing between Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and a leading Republican presidential contender. Last week, Fox sent out letters to the campaigns of each of the leading Republican presidential candidates, ordering them to stop using footage from Fox ...
Susan Dominus Joins Times Metro.
Nov 02, 2007 ... The New York Times has a new metro columnist. Susan Dominus, who has contributed to The Times Magazine, New York and Glamour, will start work this Monday and will write a twice-a-week column for Metro, joining columnists Clyde Haberman, Jim Dwyer and Peter Applebome. In a memo, ...