Cindy Adams
The Corpulent News Network
Cindy Adams woke up on Election Day knowing exactly where to spend her evening. There were parties all over town. Lefty celebrities would be out in force. But the longtime gossip columnist for the New York Post wanted to be at the place she felt would be “the heartbeat of the world”—namely, the CNN Grill.
Like many of her pals in the media, Ms. Adams had first frequented the CNN Grill during its original iteration at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. There, the cable news network had sequestered a centrally located sports bar, plastered the walls with flat-screen televisions tuned to CNN, concocted some thematic drinks (the caucus cooler!) and threw open the doors. read more »
Bette Midler's Staying in Vegas, Baby!
For her "Hulaween" party this year, which benefits her New York Restoration Project, Bette Midler wore a white chef's costume (complete with toque) splayed with fake blood, and carried a cleaver. "If factory food doesn't start changing its ways, people are going to start dying in the streets. Amputations and blindness isn't any fun," Ms. Midler announced to the press assemblage. (The chef Alice Waters would be honored that evening for her advocacy of locally produced food.)
Later, finding Ms. Midler chatting with a family of fans dressed as the Palins, the Daily Transom asked her if there would be any Songs for the New New Depression, now that the boom is over. "I have a job—I'm in Vegas all year round, so I'm not worried," the songstress replied. Ms. Midler would only say that it was "thrilling" to have a fellow Hawaiian a hair away from the presidency. read more »
Only at the R.N.C., Kids
Spotted in Minneapolis: Cindy Adams pumping New York State G.O.P. Chairman Joe Mondello for information.
Cindy Adams Is Really Mad About This New Bill Clinton Book
In her New York Post column today, Cindy Adams takes to task Johns Hopkins University assistant professor of psychiatry John D. Gartner for the Bill Clinton bio he's publishing at the end of September through St. Martin's Press. In the book, titled In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography, professor Gartner claims that Clinton's father is not Bill Blythe, as Clinton has always believed, but rather Arkansas doctor George Wright.
Gartner lays out a whole psycho-biography of Clinton (as is his wont—talk about a weird niche!) that explains why he fell in love with Hillary (she looked like his grandma) and why he went for Monica (she reminded him of his mom). read more »
Gawker Self-Awareness Watch, Part II
A column continuing to run long after it's lost any shred of coherence or even entertainment value? Only in New York, kids.
(Related)
A Taste of Cindy
Today's Post gives Cindy Adams a much-deserved page-one teaser: "WTC: Why I hate this lousy movie."
Inside, on page 14, Cindy--self-nominated as "New York's watchdog" (motion seconded! And carried!)--touches all the critical bases:
* Filmgoing experience? "Slow-moving and formulaic."
* Commercial prospects? Oliver Stone's "handlers are moving him around with a tweezer. Must be, like on that actual day itself, they, too, can smell death."
* Factual accuracy? "Goshen to Manhattan for a cop driver on an empty highway at that hour is an hour and 15....He couldn't still be driving at 6 a.m."
* The ethics of commodifying and aestheticizing the mass murder of thousands of people, thereby reinforcing the horrifying success of the terrorists in their principal aim of creating an unforgettable spectacle? "When it came to filming, the city wouldn't allow Oliver Stone to close off those streets again and again, dress them with ash and debris and personal belongings and bleeding bodies, and more screams and agonies and horror and people jumping from windows...[F]ilm crews were permitted establishing shots, skyline shots, outdoor location shots only as close as Canal Street. The rest was newsreel footage, CGI graphics and whatever real pain they could fake in the studios in L.A.....I now report these Hollywood people out for a buck should have left us alone."
Cf. David Denby in the New Yorker, calling United 93 "a hundred percent professional filmmaking" and "true existential filmmaking," in the belief that settles anything. read more »
Plus, a restaurant manager kissed her! And a waiter!
Today's score:
Five Yorkies!
The Morning Read: June 23, 2006
In the Post, Cindy Adams dedicates her column to KT McFarland.
The Albany Times Union reports the State Legislature will try again today to strike a deal.
—Nicole BrydsonAnd Now A Word From Our Sponsors
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20 Real New Year's Eves
WOOD WAR XVIII
"Dirty Harry" would be clever if the Post had bothered to include a subhead mentioning the movie is PG-13; "CARD TRICK" feels like a desperate attempt to keep up with the non-developments in the FAKE BRAVEST 'SEX FIEND' story. read more »
But the Post could have run dummy text and a photo of Cindy Adams' dog's bunghole and it still couldn't have been worse than the feeble, embarrassing spectacle of the Daily News trying glom onto Alex Rodriguez's MVP win as an opportunity to promote a rehash of a scoop nobody was interested in the first time around.
Winner: New York Post Overall standings: Daily News 10, New York Post 8
