Last night we ventured out to the opening of the triple-floored Pronovias boutique in midtown that also served as a New Yorkers for Children benefit. There were many daughters of celebrities, and some socialites and models. But given all the women in the room browsing the clothing racks, we thought we'd ask what they thought about the most important woman of the day.

So ladies, given Tuesday's primaries, what should Hillary do now?  read more »

Looking out at the southwest corner of Central Park, the crowd at Jean-Georges yesterday was mostly made up of champagne-sipping journalists and Trump Organization executives, patiently awaiting the man of the hour and his three oldest children.

Unfortunately, Eric Trump couldn't make it—he's in Mexico on official Trump business—but the beautiful Ivanka, clad in black and white with sparkling peep-toe pumps, and her brother Don Jr. were there to announce the big news: New York has become too small a playground for these growing Trumps. With Pappa Trump's approving nod, the children announced the expansion of the Trump Hotel Collection into the rest of the world.

Whether the rest of the world is ready or not.  read more »

In New York, the culture wars aren’t over abortion and gay marriage—we are far too sophisticated to disagree about those sorts of issues!—but over 46-story condo-hotels in SoHo.

Specifically, the one that was officially unveiled to reporters Wednesday at a heavily guarded and extremely lavish press conference (picture red carpets; chandeliers large enough for any room at Versailles; gold-plated utensils; and a peculiarly lissome black-clad catering staff at a construction site), while a crowd of earnest, sandal-wearing demonstrators across the street waved hand-lettered signs bearing such slogans as, “Value of Land: Millions. Defending our Neighborhoods: Priceless” and “Zoning Laws Trump Trump.”

The Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium, slated for completion in the spring of 2009, would be the tallest building between the financial district and the Empire State Building. Part condo, part luxury hotel, the glassy tower with panoramic city views will undoubtedly be opulent—some might even say garishly so (with cause: the top floor will house a members-only club called “SoHi”).

It’s no surprise that the building has detractors among the NPR crowd, people for whom a genuine concern for historic preservation coalesces with an equally genuine distaste for unabashed materialism (a.k.a., the cornerstone of our capitalist economy). What was particularly impressive about the 50 or so protesters who showed up yesterday was their diversity—that is, their chronological, not ethnic or racial, diversity. Twenty-somethings in nerd glasses—the This American Life crowd—waved their placards next to gray-haired devotees of Isaiah Sheffer.  read more »

Every ritzy Manhattan neighborhood deserves its own place for ogling expensive, shiny MP3 players. The third Manhattan Apple flagship (out of five) will open at a 52,000-square-foot monster on West 14th Street, thus making the Meatpacking District a tiny bit less hateful. [Apple Insider, via Gawker]

The mysterious-sounding Center For an Urban Future predicts Staten Island will suffer "an economic decline and a significant deterioration in its quality of life." Surely, Staten Island-born rap group Wu Tang Clan does not want their old borough to become a “lower-middle-class retirement community.” [N.Y. Mag/D.I.]

Ivanka Trump, Manhattan’s most aesthetically pleasing real-estate mogul, says she has “thirty-three projects under my direct control.” Plus, in an interview accompanying her very stirring new GQ pictorial, she uses the words “cocky” and “shit.” Wowzah! [GQ]  read more »