Ron Burkle

The Associated Press is reporting that the defamation lawsuit brought by former New York Post writer Jared Paul Stern against Ron Burkle, The New York Daily News, and Bill and Hillary Clinton has been dismissed by State Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub. (This comes via Jim Romenesko.)

In April 2006, The Observer's Choire Sicha profiled Mr. Stern at his Catskills cottage and reported on his book deal which was subsequently cancelled .

Leon Neyfakh wonders who'll replace departing Random House CEO Peter Olson. "Regardless of whom Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski and his 15-person supervisory board appoint to replace Mr. Olson, it is all but certain that Random House will undergo some radical changes." Plus: James Frey.  read more »

Last night brought together a spirited mix of New York’s cutting-edge fashion designers and artists—young representatives from two industries that are impossible to keep apart these days.

Designer Philip Lim, model Jessica Stam, stylist Kate Schelter, Vogue’s Stephanie LaCava, socialite Genevieve Jones, men's wear designer Thom Browne and supermarket mogul Ron Burkle were among the revelers swirling around the Max Lang gallery in Chelsea—a smallish, brightly-lit, bi-level space on Tenth Ave. It's where French shoemaker Repetto was celebrating its 60th anniversary traveling exhibition and the launch of their eponymous charitable foundation.  read more »

You'd think a guy like Ron Burkle, a man with maybe $2.5 billion and a stake in P. Diddy's clothing company (and, less glamorously, Pathmark grocery stores), would have enough cash for his New York apartment.

On the other hand, his new 11,000-square-foot triplex penthouse at 704 Broadway just cost him $17.5 million, as first reported by Mr. Burkle's friends at The New York Post.

City records filed yesterday showed that Mr. Burkle took out a massive $12 million mortgage--from Deutsche Bank--in order to grab the apartment in September, which means his monthly payments are going to be upsettingly steep.

On the bright side, the market mogul has two professional kitchens, plus Jerry Seinfeld got married in his ballroom. And of course Sex and the City has filmed at his heated outdoor swimming pool, which happens to have its own “landscaped forest.”

The News Corp. chief, according to the Associated Press, appeared "frustrated" with the Bancrofts:

"They keep changing their minds," Murdoch told The Associated Press in Sun Valley, Idaho, during a conference of top media executives hosted by investment banker Herbert Allen. Murdoch is a regular guest at the conference, which has become a landmark event for media power players since the early 1980s.

(AP via Forbes)

On Tuesday afternoon, Steve Yount, president of Local 1096, the union that represents Dow Jones employees, dined at the Waldorf in midtown Manhattan with Brad Greenspan, the founder of MySpace.  read more »

“If the family doesn’t want to sell to Mr. Murdoch,” said Steve Yount, “this opens up a whole range of possibilities.”  read more »

Supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle is set to meet with members of the Dow Jones board today to discuss a possible bid to rival that of News Corp. magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Mr. Murdoch is said to be hammering out the details of a deal, and London newspapers Friday declared it all but done.

Still, rumors surfacing over the weekend that Mr. Burkle would meet with board members were confirmed yesterday.

Of course, all reports offer the conventional wisdom that Mr. Burkle is unlikely to be able to top Mr. Murdoch's offer of $5 billion.  read more »

The bold-faced names are coming out for two Democrats: Hillary Clinton and... Jerrold Nadler.

Christina Aguilera is going to be performing at a June 7 fund-raiser for Hillary that's being organized by Ron Burkle and Harvey Weinstein, among others, at Capitale on Grand Street.
And tonight, Julianne Moore and Cynthia Nixon will be at the Hudson Theatre to honor Nadler for his 30th year of public service and his 60th birthday.

Also expected to be there, according to the invitation, are Eliot Spitzer, Andrew Cuomo and John Conyers, who chairs the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell swooped late into the bidding for Tribune Co., and has now beat out the unlikely pairing of Ron Burkle and Eli Broad, according to today's press release.

It looks like the Wall Street Journal got the story first, breaking it online, with the Tribune itself, and others close behind.

And since it broke before 6 a.m. on the west coast, we'll let's the Los Angeles Times James Rainey off the hook. Sure he'll have something soon, though.

Whether or not billionaire Ron Burkle is an investor in Radar--despite plenty of speculation--has never been fully established. Indeed, Mr. Burkle has never said he is an investor on the record.

However, in former Page Six freelance writer Jared Paul Stern's lawsuit, filed today against Burkle, Ronald Sitrick, William Sherman, the Daily News, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, it is stated as fact.

From the lawsuit:

"Stories further disparaging Mr. Stern and repeating Burkle's false and baseless accusations as unqualified fact subsequently appeared in Radar Online, the Internet version of a New York-based magazine that Burkle owns. One of the articles referred to Mr. Stern as an "extortionate former gossip columnist," while others re-stated Burkle's false accusations as fact. Burkle subsequently used Radar to get another Page Six staffer fired."

--Michael Calderone

In the coming New York Times Magazine, interrogator Deborah Solomon asks Ron Burkle a few questions. About David Geffen's revolt against Hillary:

"... I have known David for a long time. David is very aggressive in his comments and very aggressive in his thoughts on everything."

About whether Al Gore should run (and, remember, this is the guy who is holding a 1,000-person Hillary Clinton fund-raiser at his Beverly Hills house):

"I told him the other day, he has made me so much money, I hope he keeps working."

What about his war with The New York Post? Was the Post pursuing a political agenda?

"I think it could have just as easily been an agenda by some people at the paper to make money."

- Tom McGeveran

Jared Paul Stern, a former contributor to the New York Post gossip column Page Six, is baring his te  read more »

Mike Sitrick, a spokesperson for Ron Burkle, just released a statement regarding the news that Jared Paul Stern will not be charged.

"The facts speak very clearly for themselves, as media reports on the contents of the tapes have demonstrated.

"Mr. Burkle followed the government's instructions from the onset: From their directive that he record and they monitor the second meeting Mr. Stern had with him -- where Mr. Stern repeated his request that Mr. Burkle pay him $100,000 up front and thereafter $10,000 monthly in exchange for Mr. Stern's 'efforts' to stop the publication of false reports about Mr. Burkle on Page Six of the New York Post -- to the government's subsequent monitoring of a series of emails with Mr. Stern in which Mr. Burkle was given bank account information for wiring money to Mr. Stern -- to now. Mr. Burkle didn't question their decisions previously and he isn't going to start doing so now."

Jared Paul Stern has been notified that he will not be charged with a crime by the U.S. Attorney's office.

Since last April, Mr. Stern, a former Page Six writer, has waited on word from any law enforcement office regarding allegations of extortion or blackmail due to his interactions with supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle.

Joe Tacopina, Mr. Stern's lawyer, issued a statement to The Observer today:

"I have been informed by the U.S. Attorney's office that they are not proceeding with any case against Mr. Stern. We have said from day one that this was a campaign to spread lies based on false accusations fueled by Burkle's personal vendetta against the New York Post, and that there was never any evidence of wrongdoing on Mr. Stern's part."

More in tomorrow's New York Observer.

--Choire Sicha

“You know the average Post reader is a complete cretin,” Jared Paul Stern said.  read more »

“You know the average Post reader is a complete cretin,” Jared Paul Stern said.  read more »

Television journalist Stone Phillips has just slashed $1 million off the asking price for his West 72nd Street penthouse, according to the New York Post. The Dateline NBC anchor is now asking $4.45 million for the apartment, listed with the Corcoran Group. And good news: there's an open house this weekend!

Also, (we refuse to write "babe-loving") billionaire Ron Burkle has been seen looking for a full-floor pad in Tribeca. But didn't that whole Jared Paul Stern mess take place in a Tribeca apartment that Mr. Burkle renting at the time? Why not try another neighborhood?  read more »

And is the Forward Building--which The Observer recently profiled--now the "Dakota of the Lower East Side?" The Post emphatically says no!

- Michael Calderone

“When this thing dropped down on me,” said Jared Paul Stern, “it made it sound like the cops w  read more »

“When this thing dropped down on me,” said Jared Paul Stern, “it made it sound lik  read more »

Billionaire Ron Burkle went from bagboy to Bill Clinton's only business partner. On the way, he's tried to keep under the radar—even if he does purchase Radar—but with a messy divorce, litigation in California, and a sting set-up of Page Sixer Jared Paul Stern, it's hard to keep his name out of the papers. And so the Observer's Jason Horowitz has reported out the details on the jet-set and lawyer-friendly Ronald Burkle.

Ronald Burkle went from bagging groceries in a store his dad ran in Claremont, California to presiding over a multi-billion dollar California supermarket empire that planted him in of one of the world's most rich and powerful circles.

At 21, Mr. Burkle married 19-year-old Janet Steeper, a descendent of the Wright brothers. Over the next decades, he would make his own foray into aviation, owning a Sikorsky helicopter and a Boeing 757 jet used so often by his friend and business partner Bill Clinton that the former President jokingly referred to it as "Air Force Two." Eventually the marriage to Ms. Steeper would fall apart, and, in doing so, become the center of a constitutional battle in California. The plane would appear in a blind item in the New York Post; in it, a "grocery billionaire" and "close Clinton pal" was known for flying models around on his private jet.

That item infuriated Mr. Burkle, 53, who felt that as Mr. Clinton's only business partner, he was the keeper of Mr. Clinton's trust, and in no way wanted to embarrass the former president, said a source with knowledge of Mr. Burkle's feelings on the matter.  read more »

The five emails scanned and reproduced here are written by and to: Paolo Zampolli, a friend of Ron Burkle's and the founder of ID models; Jared Paul Stern, a freelance employee and writer for Page Six; and Kevin Marchetti, an associate of Ron Burkle's.

They were provided in print form by a single source and have not been authenticated with other parties.  read more »

An explication of their relationships is provided in today's New York Observer story.

• From Paolo Zampolli in response to Jared Paul Stern, the day after Mr. Stern's Palace Hotel meeting with Ron Burkle.
• From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern, a shirt order for Ron Burkle, four days after the Palace Hotel meeting
• From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern, regarding Ron Burkle's shirt size
• From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern; Page Six tips regarding Ron Burkle, August, 2005
• From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern, Page Six tips, August, 2005

— Gabriel Sherman

From Paolo Zampolli in response to Jared Paul Stern, the day after Mr. Stern's Palace Hotel meeting with Ron Burkle. From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern; Page Six tips regarding Ron Burkle, August, 2005 From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern, regarding Ron Burkle's shirt size From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern, a shirt order for Ron Burkle, four days after the Palace Hotel meeting From Kevin Marchetti to Jared Paul Stern, Page Six tips, August, 2005

• Billionaire Ron Burkle is preparing to spend "up to $50 million" on a new Manhattan residence. And Jonathan Leitersdorf's Broadway penthouse (and Sex and the City party pad) is finally taking a breather from the luxury market.(New York Post)
• David Geffen may be selling off millions of dollars in art (not to mention Dreamworks), but he still closed on the duplex penthouse at 810 Fifth Avenue. Also, The Observer reported last month that French billionaire Francois Pinault sold his duplex at 515 Park Avenue. According to William Neuman, the mogul is having a problem with Ian Schrager over at 50 Gramercy. (New York Times)

- Michael Calderone