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March 13, 2006
Friedman Swallows Pride, Real Estate Developers at 'Smoking' Premiere
Face it: New York's gossip ecosystem would just be Page Six's cold, cutthroat domain were it not for the adorably impaired ramblings of Fox's Roger Friedman. Whether reviewing movies or gagging on celebrity genitalia, Friedman is all about the real dirt, which is why I am so thankful he escaped his Michael Jackson beat for one night to report on MoMA's Thank You For Smoking premiere.
All the brain-damaged epiphanies are here: "I think (Aaron) Eckhart will be a big star after this"; "(Katie Holmes's) career is on its way to becoming a footnote"; etc. But perhaps most notable is Friedman's gratuitous plug of Extell Development, the surging New York builder that rolled out the red carpet:
The evening, which looked like it cost a lot more dough than usual, was sponsored by Extell Development Corp., a realty company launching two new luxury high rises on the Upper West Side. Owner Gary Barnett started the evening by awarding his top two salespeople year-long chauffeur-driven Maseratis.
I'm telling you, even Halle (Berry) looked envious. Extell's Raizy Haas didn't get the prize, but took home an even bigger one: one of the best events of the year.
Were it not for nagging space constraints, Friedman certainly would have noted that Extell was the perfect choice to sponsor the premiere of a lobbying satire; the company dropped $140,452 last year on lobbyists for the City Council alone.
Friedman likely would have added comments from worried uptown residents who hate the neighboring high-rise project, or maybe a wink and a nod from the Fox-friendly, neocon-affiliated Carlyle Group, which went in halfsies with Extell on a corresponding land deal that stirred enough shit to get Donald Trump to sue his own business partners. And then there is the hotttt incest action between Fox News and Smoking distributor Fox Searchlight, not to mention the Page Six dispatch guaranteed to extol Extell Tuesday morning.
So kudos to Raizy Haas--she may not have gotten her Maserati chauffered, but nothing says "immortality" like a multi-tiered endorsement from the Murdoch gossip apparatus. Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.
Posted by stvanairsdale at March 13, 2006 10:49 AM
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