Gwen Stefani

Jessica Silk, a wavy-haired, freckled grad student in public health, was sitting at the Organic Grille in the East Village on a recent sun-drenched afternoon, picking at a healthful seitan wrap. “Sometimes I think we can smell one another in a crowd, and not because we have snacks,” she said.

Ms. Silk, 27, was talking about former fat kids, of which she is one. Have you ever noticed how New York is simply swimming with these psychologically fragile souls? You can see it in the careful attention to what’s on their plates ... their slavish devotion to daily exercise routines ... and the slightly nervous look that creeps into their eyes now, as bikini season looms.  read more »

The ability to artfully keep Kate Moss’ acne and George Clooney’s wrinkles out of glossy magazines is more lucrative than one might think.  read more »

Last night at the Hammerstein Ballroom, where celebrities converged for Conde Nast's Black Ball to benefit Keep a Child Alive, singer Alicia Keys was decked out in head-to-toe Armani and a lot of black patent leather. She told she was taking a very special date to the Bungalow 8-themed, Amy Sacco-designed after-party ...  read more »

Looking something like a zebra, hollaback girl Gwen Stefani just arrived at Hammerstein Ballroom in midtown, where later tonight she will perform with Alicia Keys for the Black Ball 2007. The proceeds from the evening will go to the AIDS charity Keep a Child Alive.

Gwen Stefani Keeps a Child Alive [Just Jared]

No figure embodies the ambiguous last decade of popular music quite like Pharrell Williams.  read more »

AIMEE: Brian and I settle in for our final consult with our wedding planner Jennifer Arezzo of A Simple Wish and the barrage of questions begins: menu choices, linens, gift bags, songlist...songlist, stop! Now she's hit a hot-button issue, one we care about deeply. We've got a dancing crowd and the band, which I chose partly because they had played Cal Ripken Jr's wedding years ago and I'm a big Orioles fan (so kill me, there are worse ways to make decisions and they really are supposedly one of the best in Baltimore), had promised me they would learn a slew of new songs by April. I was looking for a little Black Eyed Peas, some Gwen Stefani, a Beyonce or two.

Jennifer hands me the list. It's organized by decade so I flip past the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s to get to the heading "Current." Jennifer is ominously silent as I read down the page and see the five songs listed which include Cher's "Believe" and something by Kenny G. The panic sets in. I struggle to remain calm.

"Um, so this is the NEW list?" It can't be. It can't be. "I mean, Kenny G??!!!"

Jennifer speaks in a low tone, like a mother talking to her child who lost her favorite toy. "I've been sick about this. But I have it in writing that we booked them contingent upon them learning 10-15 new songs."

I'm a bride in the headlights.

"I know," Jennifer says. "I promise we'll get this fixed..." Now she tries to distract me: "Have you thought about when you want to take pictures?" But I can't concentrate on anything besides Kenny G.

I have a painful 24 hours, but the very next day I get an email from Jennifer: The band's finally buckling down to focus on what they need to: Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started" for starters. Victory.

The new Gwen.

Remember the mangy below-stairs bar on Houston Street with all of the smoke-stained sweaters stitched together and slung from the ceiling?

For a long time now it's been a multi-stage venue on Leonard Street in Tribeca, and even had a Los Angeles arm that was partly responsible for transforming Gwen Stefani from an imitator of Selecter into an international phenom.

Now the place is rolling out little Knitting Factories all over the country. It might even start in Boise, Idaho.

“Knitting Factory Entertainment will have over $20 million in revenue with this deal,” the new C.E.O. of something called Knitting Factory Entertainment told Crain's.  read more »

How are they doing it?

The music company acquired a majority interest in Boise, Idaho-based Bravo Entertainment, one of the nation’s top 15 concert promoters, to establish 1,000- to 2,000-seat live music venues in underserved markets.

- Tom McGeveran

In December, Barbara Corcoran told The Observer that if she wasn't invited to the Gods and Goddesses-themed holiday party, she would probably crash it.

We're actually not sure if Babs ever made it, but from the sound of this "event report," Corcoran CEO Pam Liebman was definitely in control of the festivities.

"Liebman then commanded everyone to “have the best time ever,” at which point New Kids on the Block’s “Hangin’ Tough” blared through the room. An intentional goof, the music stopped as soon as Liebman declared that the song did not belong at the party, and she needed the emperor to bring out a new DJ. Soon the emperor emerged (another actor), followed by a troupe of dancers, as the DJ switched the soundtrack to Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.” Then dancers dressed in Roman garb performed onstage, and the guards handed out red feather fans to the Corcoran employees."

Yes, this is where all those broker commissions wind up at the end of the year. (BizBash via Gawker)  read more »

-Michael Calderone

In The Transom: The catty front-row seat thieves of fashion week! Salman Rushdie goes off on "philistines" at the New York Public Library! Billioinairess Sheila C. Johnson comes to town, with her checkbook and white wedding shoes! Amanda De Cadenet gets strokes from her Stroke beau at her big gallery opening! Walter Kirn's memoir of bad behavior comes to the big screen! And, of course, The Transom sneaks into Gwen Stefani's show to molest Lenny Kravitz and steal shoes.

Elsewhere:

Lloyd Grove, are ya leaving us? Contracts up, say the gossips!

South Williamsburg, will you look like Battery Park City?  read more »

George Gurley's back in couples therapy, and the words "controlling" and "hung over" are used. Big Billy Clinton throws his weight around his sushi-fest confab. And finally: when girly book clubs go bad.

After a brief hiatus for vacation and a string of various Thursday-happening crises, we once again return to Thursday Styles With Tom Scocca, in which The Transom sits on its post-lunch ass in the office 15 feet away from On The Record man Tom Scocca, the New York Observer's media dude, and blathers about the New York Times' Thursday Styles section. Why? Dunno. For better or, most probably, for worse, The Transom is pleased to present today's (tardy) IM exchange. The Transom: Which trimester is Jodi Kantor in? The third? The Transom: Her two most recent bylines: On September 11th: "Move Over, Doc, the Guests Can't See the Baby," the story of hordes of people who cram into delivery rooms to experience placental joy. Then, on September 15th: "Expecting Trouble: The Book They Love to Hate," the story of the most popular and least helpful book on pregnancy. The Transom: Listen, shit, I'm all about write what ya know too, which is why I mostly write about smoking and having sex with gay Republicans. Media Tom: I knew a guy named Jodi once. Media Tom: He was a boxing referee. Media Tom: He pronounced it "JO-die," with a long I. The Transom: Well, I'm wishing this Jodi a short and blessed delivery in a not-too-crowded room. Although, hell, since it's all the rage, maybe she'll invite us? In fact, I'm looking forward to her and Amanda Hesser trading recipes on fried placenta. Media Tom: Mandy, presumably, will just use Jean-Georges's. The Transom: I'm SURE Tom Keller has a lovely green pepper and placenta soup. The Transom: Speaking of The Way We Eat/The Way We Live... The Transom: Isn't that a particularly infantilizing construction? Have we talked about this? The Transom: It's like, "This is the way we row the boat, row the boat..." Media Tom: The inclusive editorial "we." The Transom: Right! Media Tom: Does that mean "we" get input on the mayoral endorsements? Media Tom: Because I think we wouldn't have been quite such dicks to Ferrer. Media Tom: We think the New York Times should maybe not be smacking their endorsees with the back of our hands quite so nastily hard. Media Tom: Our endorsees? The Transom: The Way We Live seems to me to be not such bastards, yes. Media Tom: Sometimes, the way we live is confused. For instance, Guy Trebay. "Sometimes it all runs together, the 180 shows, 70 in tents and the rest in showrooms and garages and //" CUT! Media Tom: You're right, Mr. Guy Trebay! It does sometimes all run together! The Transom: Well, to their credit, Thursday Styles has addressed the news of the day! The Transom: This is a FIRST! Media Tom: Or, you know, the news of yesterday. The Transom: Good enough! Well, sure. The news of the second-to-last day of fashion week. Whatevs! For them, it's like writing about 2009! Media Tom: Sorry, I'm hung up on Mr. Guy Trebay's prose style. See, it's like, there's TOO MUCH STUFF to process, so I'm going to pack TOO MUCH STUFF into a run-on sentence to show what it was like. Very sophisticated. Except writing confusingly about being confused is just confusing. The Transom: There is the possibility that Mr. Trebay has ingested drugs this week, as has most of the City. Media Tom: Somewhere far downstream in the roiling waters of that sentence, I see "Samantha on 'Sex and the City'" and "naked," which means I am steering the Poke Boat of my readerly attention straight for the nearest muddy bank and clambering on out. Bon voyage, Mr. Guy Trebay! The Transom: And, of course, any "Samantha" reference does mean that Thursday Styles is writing about, oh, 1999. So. Perhaps I was wrong to praise them. Media Tom: "Sex and the City"--was that a television show? The Transom: I heard it was a book! The Transom: Hey, there's something very odd about how Gwen Stefani ended up on page 6... The Transom: Could it be... That the LA Times wrote the same story last Sunday, and they thought, ACK, and bumped it back? The Transom: LAT: "She greets a guest on Sunday, five days before the big event, and the collection is far from finished. Stefani is blowing into her SoHo design studio after a music rehearsal for the show, and even here among the see-and-be-seen crowd on Broadway, there is no question that she is the star." Media Tom: Now you are accusing the New York Times of being (1) on top of current events AND (2) responsive to the competition. The Transom: That's true. I'm not accusing them of actually reading the LA Times. The Transom: Now, from the NYT: "ON Monday, with her spring 2006 fashion show just four days away, Gwen Stefani careered around her showroom in downtown Manhattan like a wayward billiard ball. One minute she was instructing her patternmaker where the ruffles should go on a chiffon evening dress; the next, listening intently with Zaldy, her head designer, to a few bars of music she had written for the show." The Transom: The LAT even got into her studio a day earlier. Media Tom: But it is Gwen Stefani. The Transom: True. I think I'm going over this afternoon myself. Here is what I will write: ONE DAY BEFORE HER BIG SHOW, GWEN LIKES MUSIC. AND ALSO CLOTHES! Media Tom: She is totally Exhibit A in my upcoming PowerPoint presentation: You Are Not a Model, So Please Get the Fuck Off That Magazine Cover, Thank You. Media Tom: Exhibit B is that sow Renee Zellweger. The Transom: !!! Media Tom: Look, Gwen. You were the cutest gal on the ska-punk scene. That's like being the best hitter on your seven-and-under tee-ball squad. That doesn't mean you get to bat cleanup for the Yankees! The Transom: Right. You're sexy in fucking ANAHEIM. Media Tom: Yes! As a model, you've got stumpy legs, a thick torso, and no facial bone structure at all. The Transom: Let's face it. At 102 pounds, SHE'S FAT. The Transom: SHE'S ENORMOUS. Media Tom: Cow. The Transom: REVOLTING. Media Tom: Like, do we listen to Christy Turlington playing guitar? No, we do not. The Transom: I have a confession to make. Alex Kuczynski is starting to grow on me in that "I'm fucking nuts, I'm Joyce fucking Wadler, ooga-booga!" sort of way. The Transom: Plus, like you, Tom, Ms. K. shows this week that she is incompetent in other languages. Although hers is a Romance language, not fucking Mandarin. Wuss. The Transom: Hey, Alex has the Guy Trebay run-on-sentence thing going too! Media Tom: Distracted by fashion week, line-editing is OVER. The Transom: The Way We Write Now: Fucked UP. Media Tom: Maybe Jodi should take on a little editing. Media Tom: I like how in Alex's adventures among the Negroes, race is only implicitly mentioned. The Transom: In the photo, only *the mannequins* are ebony. Media Tom: "Harlem brownstone...washcloth set embroidered with ankhs....a sense of adventure....hats are a staple..." The Transom: Oh Shit. Penn Station! Media Tom: Hmm? The Transom: [The Transom is offline]  read more »