March 9th , 2005

Following the reports that Dame Elizabeth Taylor is expanding her “House of Taylor” fragrances line to include jewelry is the even bigger news that the movie queen/entrepreneur/philanthropist was lured from her self-imposed isolation by none other than Brad Pitt and would be making PSAs on behalf of AIDS awareness. Brad has been instrumental in the formation of The One Campaign which seeks to focus public attention on the twin crises of AIDS and poverty throughout the world. We understand that the double–Oscar-winning actress, out of the limelight for months now, invited Pitt to her Bel-Air home for dinner to discuss her role in the effort. The public service announcements begin airing this month and, along with Brad Pitt, they will feature George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, and Tom Hanks. And, of course, Elizabeth Taylor, if our sources were correct. It is high time that some of the current generation of young celebrities get on board the charity train and hats off to Mr. Pitt for spearheading the drive to keep these tragic conditions in the public eye. Everyone agrees that he is doing a wonderful job bringing the entertainment community together to combat HIV, AIDS, and poverty, all having reached pandemic proportions, especially in the Third World.
  Career-wise, Brad Pitt couldn’t be busier. We told you about Jesse James, you’ll recall. He is also bringing to the screen a terrific story about a young actor who dreams of movie stardom in 1980s Hollywood, moves to the film capital, and finds that he bears a strong resemblance to another up-and-coming actor by the name of Brad Pitt. As Brad Pitt achieves a dazzling level of fame, the Pitt look-alike, with his sound-alike name (Chad Schmidt) becomes, despite his acknowledged talent, an uncastable joke, fodder for Leno and Letterman. It’s the reverse of a tactic used by the studios 60 years ago—especially 20th Century Fox—to keep their contract players in line: Sign a contract with a look-alike as a replacement threat to a disgruntled star. Betty Grable was hired by Fox as a threat to Alice Faye, who was tired of musicals and wanted to try her hand at more serious fare. To keep Grable (for ten years its number-one star) under control (she was asking for more money and less screen time), Fox signed in succession, June Haver, Sheree North, and Marilyn Monroe (Yep, it took three of ’em!), even co-starring these up-and-comers with Betty Grable, with varying degrees of success. (Grable was heard telling Marilyn on the set of the film they did together, How to Marry a Millionaire, “Honey, I’ve had mine. Now, you go out there and get yours.”) You gotta love it.

  The landmark New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street has become a prime event venue, with two “happenings” in recent weeks: At the Performing Arts new exhibition, there is Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights, a heaping dose of nostalgia, right down to a replica of the moon-and-spoon sign that hovered over the dance floor at Studio 54. At the exhibit, tucked amid Donna Summers’ album covers, photos of Andy Warhol, and the crowd getting down to the throbbing beat of Last Dance, are on display a few of the outfits that helped define the disco era: John Travolta’s white, three-piece suit from Saturday Night Fever and one of Patti LaBelle’s more Star Trek-ian get-ups, replete with silver trim and purple wings, both protected behind a glass wall. A screening room is set up in the corner where the likes of Truman Capote, Bianca Jagger, Halston, and Elizabeth Taylor discuss on film the revolutionary spirit of the era, among other things.
  Years ago at the Studio, we met Travolta with his Fever producer, Bob Stigwood, and even dined with the two of them a few times at Elaine’s. We have always found John Travolta utterly charming. We ran into him at the recent Grauman’s Chinese Theatre premiere of Be Cool, the follow-up to 1995’s Get Shorty. We asked John if he still has the disco moves, and he assured us he does: “Kelly [Preston] and I put in the disco eight-track tapes and old 33’s and dance every now and then.” John told us he’s off to Jacksonville, Florida, where he and James Gandolfini will costar in a crime caper, Lonely Hearts, playing 1950s-era detectives on the hunt for a serial killer. Our friend Holly Wiersma, who seems to have a finger in every pie, is producing.
  Meanwhile, back at the library’s disco exhibit, we ran into Myra Scheer, one-time assistant to Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager. Myra said Ian is planning a get-together, a reunion of sorts, for all the “survivors” of Studio 54. We cannot wait to receive our invitation.
  Also at the public library a few weeks ago, a gaggle of glamoratti turned out to remember the late Eleanor Lambert, the indefatigable PR lady who founded the Council of Fashion Designers and the International Best Dressed List. Centerpiece of the evening was the showing of a documentary about Lambert, put together by her grandson, Moses Berkson. It is called The Godmother of American Fashion and it is a charming, 30-minute remembrance of the legendary fashion publicist who died in 2003 at the age of 100. Saks Fifth Avenue and Vanity Fair co-sponsored the screening of the film, which is based on an article in the magazine by Amy Fine Collins. It is narrated by Bobby Short, who was still recording tracks just hours before the showing. Saks chairman Fred Wilson says SFA plans to screen the film in all of its stores, including Beverly Hills.
  At the event, Reinaldo Herrera (Carolina’s husband) told those assembled that the “2005 Best Dressed List” has already been submitted to Vanity Fair, which, according to Amy Fine Collins, inherited the list upon Lambert’s death. Collins likened inheriting the list to inheriting a child: “You have to feed it and care for it and protect it.”

  Everyone knows that Karl Lagerfeld is a big fan and close friend of Nicole Kidman and Kate Moss, both of whom star in Chanel ad campaigns. So it is understandable why he is as mad as hell and is not going to take it anymore! Of course, he was referring to the British tabloids and American gossip columnists maliciously misquoting him about the physical gifts (and lack thereof) of these two women. In his original interview for the French daily Liberation, he was quizzed about the changing standards of beauty. But Lagerfeld charges that a number of British publications mis-translated and truncated his praiseful remarks “into one of derision and criticism [using] words that were invented that I did not speak. Everyone knows that I hold Nicole in the highest regard, both personally and professionally.” So there you are, Karl. Hope this helps to set the record straight.
  Speaking of Nicole and the aborted film Eucalyptus, in which she was skedded to star with Russell Crowe: The production was shut down three days before it was to begin shooting, and some were attributing the cancellation to Crowe’s outsized ego and his clashes with the film’s writer/director Jocelyn Moorhouse over his role. (This is hard to believe, given that Moorhouse wrote and directed Crowe’s 1991 breakout film, Proof.) Mr. Crowe, defending his action, began saying that the media misstated his motives, and that his halting of production had to do with a gratuitous nude scene, which he refused to do. There were also some rumblings that Danielle Spencer (Mrs. Russell Crowe) wanted the film to stop because of her fears that there might be a repeat of what happened when her husband’s on-the-set affair with Meg Ryan precipitated the breakup of Ryan’s marriage to Dennis Quaid. Then, too, there’s the Brad Pitt separation from Jennifer Aniston and a reported affair between Angelina Jolie and Brad, when they costarred in Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
  For her part, Nicole wanted everyone to know that there was nothing between her and Russell Crowe except the desire to bring Murray Bail’s beautiful novel, Eucalyptus, to the screen. And friendship. She reminds us that they’ve known each other since they were kids. Nicole, who is still frightened over the listening devices discovered in her home, is selling the house for $9 million and moving into a penthouse with a view of Sydney’s picturesque harbor. With the halt in production of Eucalyptus, Nicole flew to New York and took in, our sources say, not once but twice, the Promenade Theatre’s production of Woman Before a Glass, starring Mercedes Ruehl as Peggy Guggenheim. Nicole is interested in bringing to the screen the story of Guggenheim, who had a voracious sexual appetite, but was truly an art visionary, introducing the surrealists from Europe and the modernists from America to form what became the abstract-expressionist movement. Nicole also reportedly had lunch at the Four Seasons restaurant with her Birth costar Lauren Bacall and was presented with a copy of Bacall’s continuing autobiographical saga, By Myself and Then Some.

  One final note about the inestimable Mr. Russell Crowe. In the new issue of GQ, the controversial, Oscar-winning actor stirs it up again with an interview in which he takes grave issue with actors who endorse commercial products for pay and says, “I don’t use my celebrity to make a living. I don’t do ads for suits in Spain like George Clooney or cigarettes in Japan like Harrison Ford. And on one level, people go, ‘Well, more fault to you, mate, because there’s free money to be handed out.’ But to me it’s kind of sacrilegious. It’s a complete contradiction of the [bleep]ing social contract you have with your audience. I mean, Robert De Niro’s advertising American Express. Gee whiz, it’s not the first time he’s disappointed me. It’s been happening for a while now.” To this we say: Mr. Crowe, until you have the looks that compare favorably to George Clooney’s or Harrison Ford’s or even Mr. De Niro’s, we advise you to just cool your invectives, pop another Foster’s and throw another shrimp on the barbie. Oh, by the way, as to your confession that you and your lovely Denise remained celibate for three months prior to your wedding: Is this something we should care about, given the history of your wild and wooly ways during your bachelorhood?

  Sarah Jessica Parker’s long-term relationship with her main-man is well known. Now she wants everyone to know she wants a long-term relationship with Coty, Inc. and, in fact, will launch a fragrance this fall, which she describes as “a timeless fragrance that a woman can have a relationship with.” Said to be worth up to seven million dollars a year, the scent is expected to be the first in a line of beauty products that will include a men’s fragrance and one day maybe even cosmetics and skin care products. But, she cautions, don’t look for SJP to follow in the footsteps of Jennifer, Beyonce, Gwen, and those other celebrities with a clothing line. She said, “I love fashion. I love it too much to think of doing it myself.” She is enamored of established designers like Oscar de la Renta, Narciso Rodriguez, Albert Elbaz at Lanvin and, of course, Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel. “I like a lot of designers. That is kind of my problem. I don’t date one guy in a fashion sense. You’d be a fool not to want to wear every beautiful thing.”

  Sarah pooh-poohed the notion that she would join the cast of Desperate Housewives or that she would be starring in a Housewives spin-off. However, her schedule does include a new film for Fox (working title: The Family Stone), with Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, and Rachel McAdams. After that, she’ll be joining Matthew McConaughey in Failure to Launch for Paramount, a comedy to be directed by Tom Dey and produced by Scott Rudin.

  “I just shot my first ever Vogue cover with Annie Leibovitz in New York,” an excited Drew Barrymore told us when we ran into her shopping for handbags at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. (She bought a straw bag by Oscar de la Renta and asked the sales clerk for some extra felt storage bags for other purses at home.) Drew said she wore lots of couture gowns in the Tarrytown Castle shoot. Having heard the rumors that Drew and boyfriend Fabrizio Morretti were having trouble, we asked her to comment. “Everything’s fine. I just bought him some fabulous Dolce and Gabbana new super low-rise jeans.” (Fashion watchers say these full-frontal, low-rise jeans are only for the most daring and the most physically fit.) Next month, Drew can be seen opposite Jimmy Fallon in the Farrelly brothers’ Fever Pitch. And she’s signed on as the face of the new Lancome cosmetic campaign.

  Also at Saks, Kevin Federline was doing some serious shopping on his wife Britney Spears’ credit card. Kevin has gone from sloppy chic to cover-boy sleek, as witness the cover of the new Details magazine, where he’s holding the couple’s chihuahua, Bit-bit. Inside, in the eight-page spread, Kevin shows off some outrageous dance moves, wearing great designer duds and, despite the magazine’s promise that “Kevin tells all,” it’s all pretty mild stuff. He (and Brittney, too) should lose the scatology. It is unbecoming of their status as role models. But Kevin is very ambitious, saying he’s danced in public for the last time. Now he wants to express himself with a line of clothes. “I want to get my hands on everything,” said the young father of two. He’s just shot a fashion spread for L’Uomo Vogue. “I have a lot of different ideas for jeans, sports jackets, and shirts,” said Kevin. “It would be the rock-and-roll side of cool, dress-up clothes.” (Our spy at Saks told us that Kevin bought suits by Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Gucci, and other top designers.)
  Not surprisingly, Kevin also wants to act. And he might be starring this summer as the Andy Warhol superstar, Joe Dallesandro, in Holly Woodlawn’s long a-borning movie based on her autobiography, A Low Life in High Heels. Kevin is interested in the role and Holly says that he “bears a striking resemblance to Joe.” Holly also said there might be a nude scene in the film—Dallesandro was famous for baring all—but right now the script has the Joe character wearing only tighty-whities in a re-creation of a scene from Trash, Andy Warhol’s only mainstream film.

  It was about 14 years ago, with talk about Holly’s book being made into a movie, that there was a lot of speculation as to who would be playing whom. Harvey Fierstein suggested that Madonna would be perfect to play Candy Darling, one of a trio of transvestites—the other two being Holly and Jackie Curtis—whom Andy Warhol would elevate to the status of “superstars” in many of his films. (Lou Reed’s iconic song A Walk on the Wild Side was all about this trio.) At the time, Madonna was every excited about the production, especially since she’d be a woman portraying a man portraying a woman. (Didn’t they use that as the plot in Victor/Victoria?) We were on the set of Madonna’s music video, Deeper and Deeper, where she (Madonna) appeared as Candy Darling sitting alongside Holly Woodlawn. We sat around the set for hours and were part of a dance scene that ended up on the cutting-room floor. Flash forward to 2005: When we got word that Madonna would be portraying Candy in some (unidentified) new film—with the Material Girl so determined to fulfill her youthful dream that she reportedly would work for free—we told Holly Woodlawn, who was aghast. “Candy died when she was, what, 24? Madonna is 46, for crying out loud.” Said Holly, “It would be like when Lucille Ball was determined to play Mame Dennis in the film musical, Mame. Said an incredulous Holly, “She was 64, playing a 40-year-old woman!” Then, “I wish her well. But I know Candy wouldn’t like it one bit, if she were alive.”


  We heard that Hugh Grant recently ran into his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley at a private viewing of an upcoming Sotheby’s auction of some of Gianni Versace’s art collection. Hugh was checking out the late designer’s pricy canvases with his lady love, Jemima Kahn, and Elizabeth was there with Arun Nayar. The Versace heirs were putting up for auction dozens of Gianni’s paintings, including works by Andy Warhol and one of Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-book nudes that once hung in Gianni’s East Side townhouse. Our spies reported that the viewing encounter was very civilized, but suggested that there might be a war—a bidding war—when the auction takes place next month. Among the paintings going under the gavel are some of the collaborations between Jean Michel Basquiat and Warhol, including Amoco, the logo of the oil giant rumored to fetch $1.2 million, and GE, another Basquiat/Warhol collaborative logo estimated to bring between $400,000 and $600,000. Both couples were said to be very interested in these two pieces.
  The dashing British actor and his Jemima were shopping for their very own island—the very latest trend, it seems—and were said to have looked at Sainte Marguerite, an island retreat off France’s famous Cote d’Azur. It is a steal at only $65.3 million, with an estate that includes swimming pools, a tennis court, and lots of beaches. What it doesn’t have is cars. No cars allowed on the tiny island.

  We caught Hitch hottie Eva Mendes, as she was leaving Caffe Roma the other day and she told us she was off to Australia to begin shooting Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage. The film is based on the Marvel comic book. Eva told us she’d just done some lingerie and swimwear shopping at Eres on Rodeo Drive before having a bite to eat at Caffe Roma. You should know that Eva played opposite Denzel Washington in two films, Training Day and Out of Time, and opposite Johnny Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. This gal is hotter than hot and her home town of Miami held an “Eva Mendes Day” on March 8 for this Cuban-American beauty. She was just six when her family moved to L.A., and settled in Silver Lake, “before it was Hips-ville,” she said, laughing.
  She recently completed a two-and-a-half-week trip to Nepal and Bhutan with Cameron Diaz for her MTV show, Trippin’. The show centers on trips to exotic locales with Cameron as the tour guide, the purpose being to raise environmental awareness to at-risk areas. The two rode elephants bareback, Eva said. She also told us about the video she shot with her pal Drew Barrymore’s boyfriend, Fabrizio Morretti, and his band, Strokes.

  Filed under missed opportunities is this item: Ewan McGregor might have played J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland in the role Johnny Depp enacted to a fare-the-well. We were at The Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel, lunching with Darlene Adams and Cornelia Guest, and ran into Ewan in the lobby when he told us that he’d “flirted with the idea,” but that Depp was brilliant. Ewan had a bag from the La Prairie Spa, where he’d just picked up La Prairie’s new fragrance, Silver Rain, for his wife—a belated Valentine’s Day gift.
  Next up for Ewan is “my first grown up role,” in Marc Forster’s reality-bending film, Stay. He plays a college professor who tries to prevent the suicide of a student —pretty heavy-going. Being released this month is 20th Century Fox’s animated adventure, Robots, which stars a bunch of stars in voice-overs, including Ewan, Halle Berry, Mel Brooks, Robin Williams, and Greg Kinnear.