Creepy Secret 'Radar' Owner Made Bill Clinton $12.7 Million [Ron Burkle]

So—the years of tax returns the Clintons just released? They'll be feeding crazy news stories throughout the weekend. (Friday afternoon news dump! Good work, Clintons!) We'll try to limit ourselves to this: Bill Clinton has made millions of dollars just for being friends with Ron Burkle. Back in 2001, Burkle, the supermarket magnate who secretly owns Radar, asked his good friend Bill to do some nonsense advisory work for Burkle's private equity firm, Yucaipa Companies. How has that worked out? Well! Bill reported $12,674,668 in income from Yucaipa between 2001 and 2006. All for flying around on Burkle's private jet with cute girls. Anyway this could be a bit of trouble for Bill because of the sleazy rumors and whatnot.

Chelsea Horror Hotel [Gentrification]

It's been a bad trip for the legendary bohemian Chelsea Hotel ever since longtime kooky owner Stanley Bard was kicked out as manager last year. As the Observer reports, Bard re-appeared to shoot an interview in the lobby of the hotel recently, and the following anecdote illustrates perfectly how the new corporate management are just complete tightasses: "The new management comes running out of the back and is like, 'You can't shoot that here!' said the writer Ed Hamilton, a 13-year resident of the iconic lodge on West 23rd Street. 'He tried to charge Stanley $600 to film in the lobby.'" [NY Observer] There are also several new books out or forthcoming about the Chelsea Hotel:

The aforementioned Ed Hamilton's Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York's Rebel Mecca, came out last year. Inside: The Chelsea Hotel is a new photography book by Antonin Kratochvil and Julia Calfee. 2007's Chelsea Hotel Manhattan, by Joe Ambrose, recalls "extreme living" inside the sacred space. And for those with the taste for the inventive and psychotic, there's the old classic Chelsea Horror Hotel, a novel by the late Dee Dee Ramone.

Tinsley Mortimer Talks Like I Think [Heroes Of Mine]

It wasn't made up! Tinsley Mortimer does talk in weird, nonsensical sentences about strange things, like I imagine her to. New York magazine caught up with the socialite at the Takashi Murakami celebration at the Brooklyn Museum last night, and managed to get some choice quotes out of her, mostly about funny little Japanese things. Find some quotes after the jump. (Also, a personal vindication/hideous embarrassment: this was sent directly to me, and not to "tips." People are catching on.)

On her outfit for the evening:

I thought, I need to wear a lot of color. I'm sick of it being freezing. It's been teasing me every day. And now it's freezing again, though it wasn't the day before.

I'm obsessed with everything in here. I want it all. I like the Japanimation sculptures, those anime creatures come to life. I love Japanimation. I love Sailor Moon. She, like, spins and glows light or something.

Wow. I'm sure there's not. But I'd definitely like to have some superpower. Maybe I could snap my fingers and be instantly dressed in a pink poofy dress, and my hair would be automatically curled, since it's naturally straight. Snap my fingers and my hair would be curled. That's a great superpower. It might not change the world, but it would help me a lot. The hair takes some time.

I went outside yesterday and I was very tired but also happy because I could see a cloud that looked like my old hamster, Tim Daniels. He was named after one of daddy's tennis friends who liked to go see musicals and sometimes he would take me and Dabney to get ice cream cones and I'd always spill but Tim Daniels would say it's ok. He had a nice friend that he lived with named Arthur Meckleburg. We named our iguana Arthur Meckleburg. I was looking at the cloud for a while and then Guadalupe said 'Meez Tinsley, you have been outside for hours!' So I laughed and she made me some fishsticks and then I cried for a while and then she taught me how to do her Mexi-Dancing. It was a great birthday.

(OK, that last one's not real.)

Breaking Political News [Breaking]

Richard took off for the day, just in time to miss the shocking news that nice young actress Heidi Montag is not registered to vote. Radar helpfully points her to voter registration sites so that she may help lead John McCain to victory. [Radar]

Jay-Z And Beyonce Getting Married Now! Say Rumors [Celebrities]

Hey, so yes, you, you, and you, and also you, have noticed that there's a bunch of paparazzi and police and all that down on Hudson and Canal. That means Jay-Z and Beyonce are getting married right now! Or at least that's the rumor. Maybe he's just giving some sort of charity concert, did anybody even think of that? Well if you're down there, go sneak in for us and send a full report. [NY Mag, pic from Joe the tipster]

Kreepie Kats in "It Kame From Inside My Mangina" [Kreepie Kats]

[This week, Jim Behrle's Kreepie Kats take you on a guided tour of their futuristic headquarters. Then Dadmom stops by! Fun for the whole post-modern family! Watch above, or klick here.]

Subscribe with an RSS reader Older News Archive Add news to your web site