Sarah Silverman

Trident Media Group C.E.O. and literary agent Daniel Strone oversaw two of the season's most high-stakes book auctions last week, fielding eye-popping offers from publishers across the city without giving them so much as a proposal for either project. Sarah Silverman's book, which Mr. Strone sold to HarperCollins on Thursday, went for about $2.5 million dollars. Jerry Seinfeld's, which publishers found out about last Monday, is said to have attracted bids over $7 million.

At this point, Mr. Seinfeld's deal looks like it still hasn't closed, but the sheer number of commas Mr. Strone is juggling has stunned many in the publishing industry.  read more »

The auction for comedian Sarah Silverman's book has ended, with HarperCollins emerging victorious after submitting a house bid in the neighborhood of $2.5 million dollars. Editors at three of HarperCollins' imprints—David Hirshey at Harper, Gillian Blake at Collins, and Laurie Chittenden at William Morrow—are interested in the book, which means Ms. Silverman and her agent, Trident Media Group CEO Daniel Strone, have some deciding to do.

HarperCollins' number two Michael Morrison, who will oversee the so-called beauty contest between the three imprints, said he was talking to Mr. Strone about the possibility of having Ms. Silverman come in and meet with editors and publishers from all three imprints before making her choice.  read more »

Sarah Silverman is writing a book, several sources confirm. Publishers have been fighting over it all morning and afternoon, with Trident Media Group founder Daniel Strone overseeing the proceedings and no doubt smiling broadly as the pot climbs past $2.5 million.

One of Mr. Strone's other clients, meanwhile, ex-Microsoft sponsor Jerry Seinfeld, has a book on the market this week that is said to have driven at least two publishers crazy enough to submit bids in the $7 million to $8 million dollar range. Unclear whether that auction is over, or when Mr. Seinfeld will settle on a publisher, but judging by the reaction Media Mob has heard from agents, literary scouts and publishers who aren't pursuing the book, whoever ends up winning is going to have some explaining to do.  read more »

We channeled the spirit of Edgar Allen Poe alongside Josh Lucas, David Schwimmer, Arden Wohl, and Mary-Kate Olsen at the Accompanied Literary Society Halloween party.

The art world remembered Robert Rauschenberg at a Coalition for the Homeless benefit. 

We spent an anxious Election Eve with Graydon Carter, Tina Brown, Salman Rushdie, Regis Philbin, and Nora Ephron at the New York Public Library’s Library Lions benefit. 

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The label Juicy Couture is perhaps best known for outfitting young girls (and sometimes their moms who should know better) in cotton candy-bright velour sweatpants with the word "Juicy" written across the buttocks. Its clothes are often decorated with rhinestones and lots of hardware, combining the image of daddy's uptown little girl with a little bit of punk. Or, as Cintra Wilson wrote in the New York Times last month: "The girl for whom Juicy Couture is designed, I determined, is Lady Veruca Salt: the imperial tween in the candy store who screams: 'Daddy says only weak people have recessions. I want an Oompa Loompa NOW!'"

The organizers of Thursday evening's opening party for the label's new, 12,000 square foot flagship store at Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street had taken  Ms. Wilson's words to heart. Outside the store, a small army of male models dressed in tight black Levi's, tuxedo shirts, ripped blazers, marching boots, bowler hats, and pink flowers in place of bow ties stared at guests through their emo eye-liner with monotone facial expressions. Inside, professional ballerinas in tutus twisted into ballet moves along the steps leading upstairs. Violinists scratched away at their instruments. Colorful little cakes were passed out. A gospel choir performed. And the publicist Leslie Sloane Zelnick was nearly responsible for a few broken limbs when she entered with her client Penn Badgley, accompanied by his Gossip Girl co-star and real-life girlfriend Blake Lively, Sex and the City hunk Jason Lewis, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Gretchen Mol, sending gaggles of lip-glossed tween girls in a stampede towards the door.  read more »

In a killed profile for Elle by Kevin Sessums (the piece is now available on Tina Brown's Daily Beast), Jennifer Lopez is described as "weepy and fragile" and "flu-ridden." She also discusses potentially sending her children to Scientology school and her postpartum insecurity. [P6] 

Michelle Rodriguez woke up her fellow guests at Florida's Mayfair Hotel by banging the door knocker to her room and screaming at her female "roommate." [R&M] 

Female employees of Hawaiian Tropic Zone are suing parent company Riese for $600 million over charges of physical and sexual harassment and rape. [NYP via Grub Street]

Christie Brinkley's ex-husband, Peter Cook, is finally sharing his side of the story in an upcoming interview with Barbara Walters. His explanation for having an affair with his then 18-year-old assistant?  "I was seeking a connection I could not find in my own marriage...I wanted a little acknowledgment, a little attention, a little thank you every now and then for my efforts, for the amount of time I took to care for her and my family, for the wealth I was building." [NYDN]   read more »

Madonna is reportedly so pleased with the press that her alleged affair with Alex Rodriguez has gotten for her Sticky and Sweet tour that she plans on attending A-Rod's game at Yankee stadium tonight to keep it going. [P6]

Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman's reps confirm their break-up. [Vanity Fair]

Friend to Christie Brinkley and Today show contributor, Jill Rappaport is reportedly handling all press for the recently settled divorcée, granting the first televised interview to the Today show. Ms. Rappaport is also apparently telling other outlets, that if they want any information, they have to introduce her as "Today show correspondent and renowned entertainment journalist.  read more »

On Friday, May 9, counterintuitively lewd comedian Sarah Silverman appeared at Columbia University’s Alfred Lerner Hall in a benefit show for Project A.L.S., which raises money for the study and treatment of a not-very-hilarious neurodegenerative disease. Instead, her monologue evoked an old favorite: starving African children. “I don’t send them money,” Ms.  read more »

To the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute Gala on Monday, May 5, themed “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” Gossip Girl star Blake Lively wore black gloves and a snug black Ralph Lauren gown involving feathers. She said that her favorite superhero was “Spider-Man. Cause he’s awesome! He gets to swing around, and, I don’t know....” Accompanied by her onscreen (and rumored offscreen) boyfriend, actor Penn Badgley, Ms. Lively had come straight from a photo shoot and had done her hair in the car. “I have no idea what I look like,” she said, adding: “I’ve always seen pictures growing up, being a teenager, and thought, ‘I’d love to go to that, a night just to dress up in ball gowns.’ And here I am!”

Here everyone was, at least in fashion and showbiz and society circles. Oh, to have the superpower of invisibility and be able to flit up the stairs and into the great halls beyond!

Vogue editor and hostess Anna Wintour was the first to arrive, at 6:33 p.m., wearing a Chanel gown adorned with what appeared to be seahorse tails and accompanied by daughter Bee Shaffer, who required two men, including the formidable Vogue editor at large André Leon Talley, to carry the train of her voluminous blue Nina Ricci dress up the stairs.  read more »

The guys that brought you The Aristocrats, the movie where more than a dozen comics delivered versions of the oldest, dirtiest joke on the Hollywood comedy circuit, have just signed a six-figure deal for a book that will interview salty comics about controversial topics.

!Satiristas¡ will be written by Paul Provenza with photographer Dan Dion, the house photographer at the Fillmore Auditorium.

Matt Thornton at Publishers Weekly writes:

In the book, comedians George Carlin, Lewis Black, Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman and others will sound off on everything from race to religion, politics to pornography.

There's talk of a concert tour based on the book.

• Publishers Weekly

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 30 -- Those who know Sarah Silverman only from her much discussed star turn in the 2005 comedy film "The Aristocrats" and from her one-woman concert movie, "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic," might bristle at the notion that another overnight wonder has been granted that holy grail of comedy, the self-titled sitcom.

Witness the might of "might":

* IF there are people who only know Sarah Silverman from two movies, and

* IF those people, on watching The Aristocrats, concluded that this woman who appeared onscreen telling a joke, in the middle of a movie that consisted of dozens of veteran professional comedians telling a joke, was not a veteran professional comedian, and

* IF those people were then to hear that Silverman had landed a self-titled sitcom, and

* IF they were tired of the television industry's constant practice of building name-branded sitcoms around unknown and unproven comedians then...what? They "might bristle." Unless Edward Wyatt of the New York Times--having executed the classic Straw Man Lead, aka the Flying Pig--is there to placate them:

But "The Sarah Silverman Program," a six-installment Comedy Central series that has its premiere on Thursday night at 10:30 (9:30 Central time), is far from the work of an overnight success.

At ease, bristly people, wherever you might be! Edward Wyatt is here to tell you that Sarah Silverman is actually a hard-working comedy veteran. And, um, also (with less fanfare) that her "holy grail" sitcom consists of a six-show run on cable--which puts her in a bit of a a different league from Bob Newhart.