Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night in a major blackout stays the N.Y. Post gossip columnists from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
As the lights went dark, computers blinked out and AC ground to a halt, newspapers affected by the startling Northeastern blackout Thursday night scrambled to crank out the Friday papers as best they could. In New York, the Times slimmed down and shifted printing operations to a plant in New Jersey; the paper's high-end gossip column, Boldface Names, was not among the copy the paper put up online. The Daily News dedicated 29 pages of its slender 46-page issue to coverage of the power outage; Rush and Molloy's column, however, was absent from the paper's online edition. But the good ol' trashy Post devoted only five or its 48 pages to blackout news, and two of its three gossip columns were there, as usual, in the morning paper.
(In other cities affected by the power loss, the Detroit News squeaked out an eight-page paper with no ads and the Cleveland Plain Dealer managed to publish a 24-page edition, eight pages of which were news.)
And so, without further ado, as the lights flicker back on in Salon's New York office. We bring you the post-blackout version of your morning gossip Fix.
Money Quotes
Russell Crowe on his rep in the U.S. in the upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly: "There are things that I do that get completely misunderstood or misrepresented in America. You smoke a cigarette in America and it's taken as some sort of statement. I don't want to be one of your [bleep]ing movie stars. I'm just an actor ... It's a [bleep]ing simple job ... I'll turn up on time and give you my best work. I owe you that, but I don't owe you a good attitude. I don't owe you the [bleep]ing time of day." (Page Six)
Charlotte Abbott, book news editor of Publishers Weekly, on the dustup between Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken, both of whom have books coming out in September: "I think it elevated both books to a higher degree of visibility. The kind of visibility that Franken is getting is extraordinary. It surprises me." (L.A. Times)
Best of the Rest
Page Six: Vogue covergirl Amanda Moore said to have socked the boy toy of her lesbian lover, Kate Young, in the kisser. Said a source present at the public sucker-punch: "She totally embarrassed him in front of all his friends"; Vincent "Big Pussy" Pastore tells journalist he wants to return to "The Sopranos" to play his own brother; Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz frolic in NYC, share "illicit smoke while partying with Christina Aguilera" and others, may move in together after Timberlake wraps current tour; former Washington Post gossip columnist Lloyd Grove given Liz Smith voodoo doll by author Kitty Kelly as he departs for the N.Y. Daily News; "Y Tu Mama Tambien" star Diego Luna compared to randy Colin Farrell, said to be "plowing through women like party snacks"; Hillary Clinton not returning Gray Davis's calls.
Cindy Adams: AOL Time Warner appeals to Madonna to add glitz to the February opening of company's new building on NYC's Columbus Circle, said to be sparing no expense to get her and other big stars to attend; Joel Grey says his new Broadway-bound musical, "Wicked," is "a riff on 'The Wizard of Oz'" only it takes place "before Dorothy takes her journey."
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