Olivia Palermo

A preview of Whitney Port's new Hills spin-off reality show, The City, was shown on MTV last night. For the past few months Ms. Port has been working in the PR department at Diane von Furstenberg and has befriended socialite (and professional frenemy) Olivia Palermo.

Ms. Port is shown spending time with an attractive Australian guy who seems to be the East Coast version of Justin Bobby, both aesthetically and in his views of monogamy. Meanwhile Ms. Palermo seems quite friendly--she is shown at a balcony dinner party thrown in honor of Ms. Port's arrival in New York--but also kinda untrustworthy! (We caught her shooting Ms. Port a glare when she wasn't looking.)

But wait! Could that be... Kelly Cutrone?  read more »

Michael Lohan has written a scare quote-heavy email to gossipy X17 calling Samantha Ronson "dark, hideous and a disgusting representation of humanity." Mr. Lohan adds, "What's with this 'person?' Look at the way she 'dresses?'" [P6] 

Meanwhile, Ms. Lohan confirmed yeserday that she and Ronson have been together for "a very long time." [Us Weekly]

In other stage-parent news, Lynn Spears is jealous—er, indignant—that Sarah Palin "became celebrated" for her teen daughter's pregnancy, while her pregnant teen, Jamie Lynn, was "crucified." [US Weekly]  read more »

Sep. 17, 2008

The Best-Dressed at
the New Yorkers
for Children Benefit

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the post-work crowd on 42nd Street was treated to a procession of coquettish cocktail dresses and floor-sweeping evening gowns worn by Manhattan's uptown set as they exited their chauffeured cars--or pedicabs as we saw in the case of one unfortunate couple--into Cipriani's for the annual New Yorkers for Children gala. While some opted for the eye-catching tiered gowns like Julie Macklowe, portfolio manager for Sigma Capital Management and wife of William Macklowe, president Macklowe Properties, who arrived in a voluminous blue dress. Others, like Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, went for the simple sparkly black mini, T-shirt and blazer.

We've selected our 10 favorite looks from the gala; click the slideshow above to take a look.

Socialite Olivia Palermo has come a long way over the past couple of years. She left that whole Socialite Rank mess behind her, started dating Wilhelmina model Johannes Huebl, and according to this week's Page Six Magazine, she's even moved out of her parents' Upper East Side home.

“I'm so excited to be living in my own home,” said Ms. Palermo of her estimated $4,150 a month, one bedroom, Leonard Street apartment. “This is the space I love the most. You can see it the second you walk in. It represents me.”

And what represents her is a Jennifer Convertibles couch, a zebra-print rug for her walk-in closet, couch cushions with little circular mirrors befitting a college gal's bedroom and framed photos of Mr.  read more »

Putting well-known names on invitations and tip sheets is a standard way of publicizing a charity event in New York. The promise of clinking glasses with an actor or a socialite brings out a larger crowd to bid on whatever is being auctioned off, and ultimately brings in more money for the cause. Everybody wins.

But then there is the shameful practice of advertising glittering guests who have not in fact confirmed that they’re attending.  read more »

Justin Bartha, who is dating Ashley Olsen, used to yell and curse at former girlfriend Lydia Hearst. [P6]  read more »

Rumor has it that fashion label, Heatherette, is no more as Richie Rich may start his own line or move out to Los Angeles (gasp!) to pursue music and television projects. [N.Y. Daily News]

For John Varvatos, the real challenge of opening a store in the CBGB space was not crossing picket lines but getting the stench of punk out of the space.  read more »

We’re no fashion expert, but we’re fairly certain that the clothes at Nicky Hilton’s Bryant Park show on Sunday were…bad. Ms. Hilton’s new line, Nicholai, had no unifying theme except shortness, and looked in moments to have been plucked from the sale rack at Forever 21. There was a white St. Tropez-looking bikini The Transom thought was hot, worn with a do-rag by leggy model Caroline Trentini, but it was soon cancelled out by an outfit involving a boxy green metallic blazer that can only be described as Star-Trek-at-the-disco. Almost everything involved sequins. And half of it, you couldn’t imagine Ms. Hilton would wear herself.

But a Nicky Hilton fashion show isn’t really about the clothes anyway, and the front row didn’t disappoint. Instead of Kate Bosworth and Demi Moore, we had Jenna Jameson and Brandon Davis, but hey, this was different! Also spotted were Russell Simmons, Trevor Rains and Richie Rich of Heatherette, Arden Wohl, Amanda Hearst, and Olivia Palermo. We spied no Vogue editors (though on Friday at Sabyasaschi we’d heard a publicist imploring Meredith Melling Burke to come, or at least send someone).  read more »