Mort Zuckerman

Arianna Huffington made The New York Times on Friday morning for a blog post she wrote on her Web site about John McCain. In that post Ms. Huffington wrote that a few years back McCain told her at a dinner party that he did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000. This made McCain look like a hypocrite, and his campaign responded by calling Ms. Huffington “a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva.”  read more »

Rupert Murdoch was standing in a deep corner of the Rose Hall at about 7:30 p.m. last night to toast his fellow influencers: It was the Time 100 celebration, an event that drums up publicity for the magazine's decreasingly influential list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The day before, Mr. Murdoch had promised investors and reporters listening in on a News Corp. investors' call that he'd prevail in his purchase of Newsday over rival bidders Mort Zuckerman and the Dolans.  read more »

It's officially a horse-race for the tabloid in a tutu.  read more »

Word was spreading last week that Sam Zell was in deep danger of credit default, but there might be an out (in fact, it's an out that Mr. Zell seems to already have begun working on). Reuters is reporting:  read more »

The Slatin Report has the first piece of fresh news in a long while about the possible sale of Harry Macklowe's GM Building. You'll remember it went on the market in January; and then two quick rounds of bids were done by early March. And then... well, not much beyond speculation.

Which brings us to today's news: Daily News publisher and Boston Properties chairman Mort Zuckerman is "the last man standing" in the fight to get the GM Building. And he may have to pay as much as $2.9 billion for it, which would make it the biggest single-building sale ever (that much we expected).

What's unexpected is Mr. Zuckerman himself. The Observer reported in early February that he was considering a bid for the building. "It's a terrific building without question," Mr. Zuckerman told our Eliot Brown then. Later, however, The New York Sun reported that Mr. Zuckerman was, in fact, not involved in the first round of bids.  read more »

The ever-reliable Peter Slatin is reporting today that Mort Zuckerman is the "last man standing" in the push to buy the G.M. Building on Fifth Avenue. The potential sale price? $2.9 billion.  read more »

Despite a rumor floating around Newsday headquarters on Friday that Rupert Murdoch had purchased the paper, Mort Zuckerman is still in the running.

Newsday reported on Saturday that Mr. Zuckerman is "aggressively pursuing" the paper and quotes an unnamed former executive at the paper who said he's been looking at it for a long time.

The Daily News announced this afternoon that its entire newspaper is going to be in color. You'll have to wait until the end of 2009 for this to happen, but when it does, it will be the "first major market daily newspaper in the U.S." that will be fully in color, touts the press release (which sadly is only in black and white). The News purchased new press equipment ("a multimillion investment") that will allow any image of any size to go in color, and they'll do just that starting next year.  read more »

Talks continue between Harry Macklowe and his creditors over the $7 billion in debt he owes connected to his purchase of seven Manhattan buildings last February. Otherwise, no new news to report this morning.

But my colleague, Eliot Brown, has a story in today's Observer about Mort Zuckerman's coy interest in Mr. Macklowe's GM Building, which he put on the market in January as a possible way to pay off some of the debt.

Is Mort Zuckerman planning a bid for Harry Macklowe’s General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue?  read more »

Roger Stone doesn’t think much of the suggestion (based on my reading of a Weekly Standard story) that he had any role in drumming up a controversy over the fact that Eliot Spitzer’s father and MTA nominee Dale Hemmerdinger were members of the racially un-diverse Harmonie Club. Hemmerdinger's membership became a contentious political issue after an angry letter from Democratic Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.

Stone emails:

Azi
Just for the record, I never spoke to Hakim Jeffries, never spoke to his people and never asked anyone to speak to him. In fact, until I read the story I never heard of him.

He also said, “I admire what Jeffries did.”

In another email, Stone wrote:  read more »

The law firm Gibson Dunn is in the final stage of wrapping up a 200,000-square-foot lease for the tower floors of a planned Eighth Avenue skyscraper, a source said.  read more »

Spotted at 1 p.m. at the Grill Room in the Four Seasons today: Bill Rudin, Mort Zuckerman and Christine Quinn, all at separate tables.

Ms. Quinn, the City Council Speaker, stopped by Mr. Rudin’s table at the beginning of lunch; Mr. Rudin, scion of one of the city's oldest real estate families, stopped by Ms. Quinn’s table at the end. Mr. Zuckerman, the chairman of Boston Properties, stayed put as far as we could tell.

Mr. Zuckerman: Sit down, I’m reading about one of my favorite topics: the Middle East. I get all the articles—all the major political articles from all the Israeli newspapers. I’ve been reading it for 30 years; it’s really fantastic.  read more »