Ethan Hawke

At a benefit for The New Group theater company, we learned that even celebrities like Billy Crudup and Justin Long have been fired (not Ethan Hawke, though).

We learned the difference between the man who buys a $300 shirt and the man who buys a $600 shirt at a fashion show sponsored by private concierge service Quintessentially.

After reviewing Stylista's lackluster ratings, we wondered when and if the rest of the world would see the appeal of Anne Slowey.   read more »

As the U.S. economy goes ever more deeply down the rabbit hole, the attendees at Monday evening's benefit at Chelsea Piers for The New Group theater company were in the mood to share their stories of past financial woe. 

"I’m a Mac" actor (and former Drew Barrymore dater) Justin Long, who is in town filming After.Life with Christina Ricci and Liam Neeson, has had quite a bit of experience with getting laid off. “Once, I was fired from Carvel for giving out free ice cream. I was like the Robin Hood of ice cream!" said Mr. Long. "But then I got fired and developed lactose intolerance, which kind of sucked. It was like getting dumped and getting an STD at the same time. Well…maybe not quite that bad.”

He continued: “Then I also got fired from a bagel shop for throwing bagels and I got fired from a film once, which was pretty heartbreaking. I guess I’ve been fired from a lot. But now, I’m great with rejection. In fact, I’m amazed when I don’t get rejected. This industry is a very flighty, fickle business—the minute you’re done with a job, you may never work again. But I’m a fairly flighty and fickle person so I’m just suited to it, I think.”  read more »

Last night’s Calvin Klein 40th Anniversary party was held in a John Pawson-designed, temporary structure on 10th Avenue and 30th Street built specifically for the event.

Adjacent to the space—fittingly, it seemed to be constructed from the same building material used to turn Manhattan living rooms into second bedrooms—was the new Highline Park, which guests were invited to tour during the party (the park is not yet open to the public).

Once inside, the place looked something like a very glamorous high school quad—a slate-colored staircase ran the width of the building, most of which was occupied by seated cliques of attendees sipping drinks and appraising the entryway.  read more »

Heath Ledger was reportedly a silent investor in Five Leaves, a Greenpoint bar designed by John McCormick, who also designed Smith & Mills and Beatrice Inn. While the project was at first put on hold after the actor's death, his father has agreed to fund the project to its completion. [P6]

Christian Bale's assault on his mother was possibly not an assault at all; sources say he never touched her, but merely raised his voice when she made negative remarks about his wife. Apparently, the British consider yelling a verbal assault and therefore a crime. [NY Daily News]

As part of an investigation into Raffaello Follieri's affairs, the F.  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 »

Brasserie Cognac's owner Vittorio Assaf is having to introduce a children's menu because neighborhood couples like Brooke Shields and husband Chris Henchy; Jeff Gordon and wife, Belgian model Ingrid; and designer Eric Villency and wife Kimberly Guilfoyle keep bringing in their toddlers. [P6]

Michelle Williams is reportedly making a film about Heath Ledger for daughter Matilda starring his friends and co-workers, who will share anecdotes of the late actor. [NY Daily News]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's model wife, Carla Bruni, reportedly said she'd like to be pregnant. [The Cut]

When Russell Simmons breaks up with you and makes you move out of his home, he'll help you find an apartment and take you furniture shopping first.  read more »

Carla Bruni says she was seduced by Nicolas Sarkozy's "physique and intelligence" in a new book, Carla and Nicolas, The True Story. [P6]

Ethan Hawke can't get out of jury duty. [P6]  read more »

Gina Gershon and her team of lawyers are going after Vanity Fair for alleging that she has been having an affair with Bill Clinton. [TMZ]

Ethan Hawke and pregnant fiancée Ryan Shawhughes, who used to be the nanny of his two children with Uma Thurman, were seen applying for their marriage license and are getting ready to wed. [P6]  read more »

One day you're a New York City subway toll booth worker, then you total your car in an accident that lands you in physical therapy, which is sort of boring (plus you have no cash to buy a new car). So, you enter a screenwriting competition on a whim, hoping to score some prize money. And the next thing you know, you're rubbing elbows with Hollywood bigwigs who think you're so good they ask you to write a sequel to a famous gangbanger flick!  read more »

“The first time we did a read-through with all of us, I was looking forward to it, but I was actually overcome with emotion,” said Josh Hamilton, the 38-year-old theater vet and indie movie star, who was discussing his role as Teddy in The New Group’s production Things We Want, directed by Ethan Hawke and currently being staged at the Acorn on Theatre Row.

While lounging on a frumpy couch backstage, Mr. Hamilton cradled a cup of tea and explained that he first met playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman nearly two decades ago, when they were just teenagers, on the same block as the Acorn. Mr. Hamilton played Mr. Sherman’s alter ego in the successful play Women and Wallace, and the pair (who look oddly alike with their winning grins and rich, brown eyes) would later form the Malaparte Theater Company with Ethan Hawke. After a nearly decade-long hiatus due to marriages, movie roles and, in Mr. Sherman’s case, alcoholism, the trio are working together for the first time in nearly a decade. “Reconvening all of us as adults now has been oddly emotional for me in a really nice way,” Mr. Hamilton said.  read more »

In Ethan Hawke-directed Things We Want, puffy-pouted Paul Dano plays angsty younger bro to Josh Hamilton and Peter Dinklage. Next up, co-starring with Daniel Day Lewis. Could someone turn the light on?  read more »

“I’m totally getting my ass kicked,” said Paul Dano, the 23-year-old actor best known as the brooding, Nietzsche-obsessed older brother in last year's Little Miss Sunshine. “But in a very good way,” he added, discussing his role as Charlie, a heartbroken college dropout, in the Ethan-Hawke directed, off-broadway play Things We Want currently in previews at The Acorn Theater.

Mr. Dano’s character is one-third of a trio of brothers in The New Group production. They’re forced to live together in their childhood apartment as lost adults, slugging whiskey shots, quoting Pinocchio, threatening to jump out windows and desperately searching for the things that will make them happy. Teddy (played by theater vet Josh Hamilton) seeks the answers through a guru known as "Mr. Miracle," while Sty (The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage) numbs himself with alcohol. Charlie is preoccupied with his “heartbreakdown,” which happened after his girlfriend, Zelda, broke up with him and he dropped out of culinary school.

“What’s frightening about Charlie is that there are definitely some things that happen to him that I can relate to, in a personal way,” Mr. Dano explained. “It’s much harder to play somebody who does hit close to home. That was definitely what attracted me to Charlie and that’s definitely the challenge that I’m facing right now.”

"I think there’s an honesty in Charlie, I think there’s an honesty in the writing too. This is a modern play, it’s a new play and it’s not like presentational theater or something. It’s pretty realistic. I just think Jonathan’s writing is an amazing combination of darkness and humor. I think there is a lot of uncomfortable laughs, I can relate to that."

Read more about Paul Dano in his new play Things We Want in next week's issue of the Observer, out on Oct. 31. Check here for tickets to the show.

Via Variety:

You won't be seeing Ethan Hawke onstage for a while, but that's not because he's burned out on theater after those nine-hour marathon perfs of "The Coast of Utopia." Opening Off Broadway Nov. 7, the ever-expanding multihyphenate's next stage project will be the New Group's upcoming "Things We Want," with Hawke onboard as director.

 read more »