Maggie Gyllenhaal

Diana Bianchi, who co-stars with Christy Brinkley's ex-husband Peter Cook in a recently uncovered sex tape, claims "she had no idea she was ever being recorded." Meanwhile, Mr. Cook seems to be attempting to blame Ms. Bianchi for the leak: "I have no comment on this crap," he said. "I don't know what she's doing or why she's doing it." [P6]

Paparazzi have been mobbing the Broadway performances of All My Sons, which stars Katie Holmes. Meanwhile, the anti-Scientology group Anonymous, which has been protesting outside the theater since previews, has been quarantined down the street. [OK!]

Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and Stephen Gyllenhaal, parents to Maggie and Jake, are getting divorced. [TMZ]  read more »

Attending the premiere of Warner Brothers’ Batman: The Dark Knight at AMC Loews Lincoln Square on Monday, July 14: the film’s stars Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal (wearing charcoal Dries Van Noten splashed with flowers and accompanied by husband Peter Sarsgaard), Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart; actors Ethan Hawke, Edie Falco, Josh Hartnett, Seth Green and Emile Hirsch; plus Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively, Penn Badgley and Ed Westwick.

So whom did we nab? Screenwriter David Goyer! “This film is intense intense,” he said. “It’s about escalation, both good and bad.” What’s new about this Batman? “He’s the most realistic.  read more »

THE DARK KNIGHT
RUNNING TIME 152 minutes
WRITTEN BY Christopher and Jonathan Nolan
DIRECTED BY Christopher Nolan
STARRING Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Some folks take metaphysical pleasure from the New Batman Philosophy According to Christopher Nolan: that good and evil lurk side by side in everyone, including Batman. But in my opinion, every Batman movie is about only one thing: action hero (the caped crusader with wings) vs. bad guys (everyone else). Writer-director Nolan’s Batman Begins, with its surreal and mystical mumbo jumbo about playboy Bruce Wayne’s beginnings, remains the worst Batman movie I’ve ever seen, although the comic-book addicts disagree.  read more »

THE DARK KNIGHT
RUNNING TIME 152 minutes
WRITTEN BY Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
DIRECTED BY Christopher Nolan
STARRING Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, from a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, is, of course, ultimately from a series of comic books published by DC Comics, with the creation of the Batman character attributed to Bob Kane. In the world of comic-book superheroes, the Batman franchise has specialized in the most eccentrically colorful villains. I still remember Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne/Batman character looking out of the corner of his eye at Jack Nicholson’s clownish antics as the Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, the second such cinematic transfer after Laslia Martinson’s 1966 Batman, with Adam West reprising in a campy fashion his hit television role.  read more »

For its August issue, Marie Claire recruited Maggie Gyllenhaal, Batman's girlfriend in Dark Knight—and stroller-pushing Park Sloper—to talk about her ever-evolving career, her brother Jake's new relationship, and what it was like losing co-star and Brooklyn neighbor, Heath Ledger earlier this year.

You already know what's after the jump: Highlights!  read more »

Designer Yves Saint Laurent died at home in his apartment in Paris yesterday at the age of 71. [NY Times]

Tatum O'Neal, who wrote a memoir in 2004 about her drug addiction, was arrested for buying crack on the Lower East Side on Sunday morning from a homeless man. [NY Daily News]  read more »

When Heath Ledger's masseuse found the actor unconscious Tuesday, she called Mary-Kate Olsen for advice before dialing 911. The NYPD spokesman said, "I'm not going to speculate on why 911 was not called first." [City Room]

Also, multiple types of anti-anxiety meds and sedatives, all prescribed to Ledger, were found in his apartment. [TMZ]

Paris Hilton updated her MySpace blog – she's "never been happier"! [Just Jared]

A who's who of city restaurants, like Michael Romano of Union Square Café and The Modern's Gabriel Kreuther, flocked to the preview of Alain Ducasse's new wine-themed restaurant Adour. Their critical palates were not disappointed. [Page Six]  read more »

Lance Armstrong seems to be working very hard to snuff rumors of a fling with Ashley Olsen. Both guests were at last night’s Calvin Klein-hosted “First Look” party—held to celebrate the opening of the Bowery’s New Museum—but the once-lappy couple avoided each other like SARS. Sadly, we couldn’t be there to recoil. But Jim Shi was! The Fashion Week Daily reporter, who manages to be everywhere at once, offered a dynamic recap of the artful affair.

Apparently, the seventh-floor party space, a “custom-made Calvin Klein lounge,” presented some problems for those who only wear heels (a likely majority). While Roopal Patel, Linda Fargo, Rachel Feinstein and Yvonne Force Villareal decided to hang out and wait for an open elevator to whisk them skyward, Jennifer Creel mounted the steps, huffing and puffing her way to Partyville. “We didn’t eat Thanksgiving four days ago for nothing,” she said, while getting plenty of use out of her suede Prada boots.

Plus: co-hosts Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal waxed on art, sporting brows alternately high and low. Ms. Moore looked around and mused, "It's all very transgressive, but this is not fashion lighting." Responding to the fellow actress, Ms. Gyllenhaal, who recently wowed us with her gray matter, remarked while laughing, “I finally gave up trying to remember each piece by artist and name … I figured it out. Wanna know the trick? You look for a guard and you say, 'Ok, now tell me who everybody is.'"

“It’s okay to think about clothes as long as you think about other things,” the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal told the Daily Transom last night. “Otherwise it’s pretty problematic.”

The clever moppet was looking like a young Joan Crawford with her long, dark and wavy hair framing a pair of claret-colored lips, a glass of Champagne in her hand, as she stood on a tented balcony that hugs the third floor of the Longchamp store on Spring Street. She was wearing a deep vintage black dress under a trench coat as guests gathered at the store for an intimate dinner party.

But she didn't mean fashion can't be deep. She said shopping provides an opportunity to "think about who you are."

“I think that’s the pleasure in it for me,” the 29-year-old said.  read more »

David Fincher’s Zodiac, from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Gra  read more »

Michael Apted’s 49 Up continues and possibly concludes the most remarkable chronicle of a slice of  read more »

Michael Apted’s 49 Up continues and possibly concludes the most remarkable chronicle of a slic  read more »

I was in the elevator coming down from work.  read more »

If you're a celebrity-obsessed (or celebrity-loathing?) Brooklynite, the most exciting piece of today's Manhattan Transfers has to be the news that Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal have signed a contract for a grandmotherly $1.75 million Park Slope brownstone. As the Boswell Sisters would say: Yowza!

(Also: Don't miss the personal story of our friend Miranda Purves, who couldn't afford said brownstone but resents the fact that Haalgaard snapped it up before she could! Life in Brooklyn is full of such contradictions.)

If we were to pat ourselves on the back we'd say that we actually took the trouble to confirm what had been a smoldering-hot Stoop-Sale Rumor. Anyone up there at the Pulitzer commission listening?

But if instead we were to indebt ourselves to previous reports that they were looking at the place, with non-transparent sourcing, we'd have to give Kudos to Brooklyn Record, who wrote in to remind us (how could we have forgotten?) that their blog was the first to publish. Hey, you take the risk, you get the credit, right? Here's the link.  read more »

- Max Abelson

The New York Post reports today that Maggie Gyllenhaal, and her fiancee Peter Sarsgaard have been checking out a $2.7 million Tribeca condo. At this time, the contract has not been signed. But considering that the attractive couple just announced they were getting married earlier this month, and that Ms. Gyllenhaal is pregant, they could be ready to settle down in a sleek, 2,300-square-foot apartment.

Also in The Post: Katie Couric is reportedly buying an $8 million Southampton home, and there's a price on those units that Harry Macklowe is purchasing at The Plaza.  read more »

- Michael Calderone

In honor of the 1,000th issue of Reader's Digest, the self-proclaimed world's most widely read magazine threw an oh-so-futuristic "interactive party" last week. According to Laura McEwen, one of the magazine's VPs, the magazine is so "awesome and hip that the emphasis on the future was so right." Grandparents across the country are high-fiving.

Sections of the skylight studios were split into themes: Life on an Asteroid, which featured a four seater simulated virtual space ride; Materials of the Future, like malleable concrete (huh); and most importantly, the bedroom of the future, which contained one very tiny single bed. In the future, apparently, we will all sleep alone. Maggie Gyllenhaal stepped out of her black SUV looking weary. Still, she had taken the time to dress to meet the future; she wore a steel-colored sleeveless frock ornamented with long green glass beads. The photographers descended upon Ms. Gyllenhaal's thin frame. "Don't run after Maggie Gyllenhaal, you desperate people!" shouted a Getty Images photographer. Several actually backed off. "They all calmed down," the surprised photographer marveled aloud.

Ms. Gyllenhaal, who was drawn to the Readers Digest party out of curiosity, not because she actually reads it, of course, explained that, "Readers Digest is such a powerful institution—really a mainstay of American culture. They invited me because they have an eye towards the future." She posed patiently and unsmilingly for photos, then turned and entered the future. A voice activated human sized robot was strategically positioned in the lobby to greet Ms. Gyllenhaal and the other guests. One woman, in a lovely white and red wraparound dress, was shocked when the robot complimented her. "This is scary," she said, "I'm not often spoken to by robots."

Frightened by an actual actor clothed in robot clothing—very Mars 2112—she took consolation in knowing that a humanoid could not physically fit inside the skinny talking robot. "This is my lucky dress," she told The Transom, "something always happens when I wear this dress. I got my job with Readers Digest when I was wearing this dress!"

Her boss, Ms. McEwen, also had a close encounter with the robot. "He said to me, 'You're wearing my colors.'" Sure enough, her silvery-gray dress did resemble the robot's own couture. "How did you know?" she asked the robot in wonder.

Hopefully in the future we will not still be forced to suffer through all the George Michael with which the DJ was hurting the crowd. Ms. Gyllenhaal and Christian Slater were billed as DJ's for the party, but Mr. Slater had yet to arrive, and Ms. Gyllenhaal was occupied; she perused the futuristic drinks at the bar at great length. She settled on the decidedly historic white wine.

"I'm not DJ-ing," she said. "I told them I'd pick some songs. And I have a feeling that when I do, the party will get better." The indie queen prefers the likes of Arcade Fire, and, what's this? "David Bowie and David Byrne say they are the new band and I totally agree with them," she said. Alas, the DJ had no Arcade Fire mp3s for Ms. Gyllenhaal to "spin" so she played David Byrne and the Rolling Stones instead.

When Mr. Slater finally appeared, he was swarmed by the ladies. Escaping out back into the smoker's lounge of the future, Mr. Slater smoked and talked summer vacay with his buxom publicist. One curly haired young thing brazenly approached and handed Mr. Slater a folded piece of paper. Mr. Slater opened the note, which, besides the requisite name, number and email address, bore the enthusiastic message, "I loved Pump Up the Volume!" Mr. Slater looked impressed, "Oh! A fan from way back!" and promptly handed the note to his disgusted publicist.

But how will Mr. Slater and all his ladies fit onto those tiny single beds of the future?

The Transom bumped into the Robot. It was still smack in the center of the lobby, bidding guests warm electronic good-byes.

The Transom bid the robot adieu. It had such lovely bright blue oblong eyes.

"Nice to see you again," replied the Robot, "you look beautiful."

"Thanks," said The Transom. Well, really, we were all lonely here. After a moment of hesitation, we threw caution to the wind. "Robot, will you come home with me?"

"I love you," replied the Robot.  read more »

--Raquel Hecker

For years, the media has been portraying Hillary Clinton as a kind of public-service dominatrix, but  read more »