Forced Waltzing with Michael Fassbender; Pippa Middleton's Old New Squeeze
Also: What Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo have planned for Super Bowl Sunday, Bruce Springsteen's complicated way of not stealing the spotlight, and Walter Kirn joins GQ.com as a political columnist
.Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: What Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo have planned for Super Bowl Sunday, Bruce Springsteen's complicated way of not stealing the spotlight, and Walter Kirn joins GQ.com as a political columnist.
What are New York political types doing for the Super Bowl? Good question! New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is flying out to Indianapolis on a private jet Sunday morning to do Meet the Press on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium. He'll be joined by Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. Sources New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is sticking closer to home, and has rented out Bill's Bar and Burger in Rockefeller Center for an invite-only, 150-person shindig. [Page Six]
The ubiquitous Michael Fassbender was "politely asked to leave" the afterparty of A Dangerous Method in London after he began "becoming a bit of a handful for the other guests," according to a source. In this instance, "being a bit of a handful" consisted of grabbing his co-stars and forcing then to waltz with him. According to the source, he also "lit a cigarette indoors and that was the point it had gone too far." He exited the Mayfair Hotel without incident, though he was riding a security guard piggyback. [The Sun]
Bruce Springsteen takes care of his own. He even wrote a song about it. So naturally, when The Boss arrived early Wednesday night to a VIP screening of bandmate Steven Van Zandt's new Netflix show Lillyhammer at the Crosby Street Hotel, he "entered the hotel and quickly jumped into an elevator going up, even though the screening was in the basement, to avoid press, saying he didn’t want to be photographed without Van Zandt, who had yet to arrive." That sounds unduly complicated, considering he could have just waited in cloakroom, or continued circling the block in his limo. But that's The Boss for you. He's a man of the people. [Page Six]
The Sun is reporting that Pippa Middleton is back together George Percy, with her college boyfriend. Good, because that always works out! In Percy's defense, he's "heir to the Duke of Northumberland" and his family owns the castle that doubled as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. So this is not your usual getting-back-together-with-the-person-you-outgrew-because-you-don't-know-what-else-to-do situation. Again, the man is a Duke. [People]
It seems that Ashton Kutcher, who people thought was a big jerk for staying in Brazil and dancing like a goof while ex-wife Demi Moore was in the hospital, "sought counsel and guidance from spiritual advisers at the Kabbalah Center in Beverly Hills" and has been going up to her house to pray with her. So, reconciliation? In the works? Nope, says a source: "This absolutely isn't a reconciliation." The source goes on to add that since returning, Kutcher has been "reclusive, and very somber" on the set of Two and a Half Men, a regular Jean Valjean of the Warner Bros. lot. [Radar]
Novelist, Charlie Sheen defender, and all-around man of letters Walter Kirn is joining GQ.com as a weekly political columnist. His first column -- in which he likens Newt Gingrich to "a drunken traveling salesman who hits on a freaky new sexual position during a night of Motel Six carnal fumbling" went live this morning. [WWD]