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When aides to President Biden heard in recent days that George Clooney, as close a figure as there is in Hollywood to royalty, planned to publicly break with Mr. Biden in an essay that cast doubt on his re-election chances, panic set in from Wilmington to Beverly Hills. Could Mr. Clooney be persuaded not to publish it? Mr. Katzenberg, who moonlights as a top Biden official and has worked with Mr. Clooney on philanthropy for decades, reached out to him to see if there was an off-ramp, according to three people familiar with the matter. There was not — Mr. Clooney published his essay in The New York Times, and the president’s relationship with Hollywood was torn asunder. The fallout from the Clooney essay has ricocheted across the worlds of politics and entertainment — and onto Mr. Katzenberg himself.

Persons: Biden, George Clooney, Clooney, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Katzenberg, ”, Billy Ray, “ Organizations: Biden, New York Times, Hollywood, Democratic Locations: Hollywood, Wilmington, Beverly Hills

☆ At a Crucial Moment, Jill Biden Is Vogue’s Cover Star
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During much of President Biden’s term, the first lady was a figure of minimal controversy. That began to shift when campaign season heated up. Laura Ingraham of Fox News claimed that Dr. Biden was covering up the president’s unfitness out of her own desire for political power and prestige. Afterward, The New York Times reported that Dr. Biden was the first person he had turned to: “The first lady’s message to him was clear: They’d been counted out before, she was all in, and he — they — would stay in the race.”On the Vogue cover, Dr. Biden wears a white Ralph Lauren tuxedo dress. The accompanying profile of the first lady, by Maya Singer, describes her as a “vision of calm amid utter cacophony.”

Persons: Jill Biden, Biden’s, Laura Ingraham, Biden, Mac, ” Dr, Donald J, Trump, Dr, They’d, Ralph Lauren, Norman Jean Roy, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys, Karine Jean, Pierre, Maya Singer, ” Organizations: Vogue, Fox News, The New York Times, White House

☆ After His Arrest, Justin Timberlake Is the Talk of Sag Harbor
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-19 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Tuesday afternoon in Sag Harbor, Janice Yu of WABC-TV was sitting in the passenger seat of a Nissan news van, eating from a bag of Smart Food popcorn. It was as close as she would come to getting to a kernel of news. “We don’t even know who he was with,” she said, referring to the singer and actor Justin Timberlake, who had been arrested by a Sag Harbor police officer shortly after midnight on Tuesday and charged with driving while intoxicated. It was also where Mr. Timberlake had been partying with friends the night before. Now it was a muggy and sunny day on the leafy street of this quaint-by-Hamptons-standards onetime whaling village, lined by shops that sell everything from $30 Havaianas flip-flops to $4,600 swivel chairs by Charlotte Perriand.

Persons: Janice Yu, ”, Justin Timberlake, Yu, confit, Timberlake, Charlotte Perriand Organizations: WABC, Nissan, Smart, Hamptons Locations: Sag Harbor, New York, Lululemon

☆ After Trump’s Conviction, a National Enquirer Editor Sends His Regrets
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-02 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Even before former President Donald J. Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal, a verdict was being delivered on The National Enquirer. The no-holds-barred supermarket tabloid was once famous for publishing salacious stories about celebrities and politicians. “It’s just a tragedy for the paper,” said Barry Levine, the publication’s former executive editor, sitting in the living room of his one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan on a recent morning. Even among those who consider it a guilty pleasure, The Enquirer can hardly be described as a national treasure. But try telling that to Mr. Levine, a swashbuckling journalist who worked there from 1999 until 2016 and whose professional and personal identity was shaped by it.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, “ It’s, ”, Barry Levine, Levine Organizations: National Enquirer Locations: Manhattan

☆ Michael Cohen and Rosie O’Donnell: A Love Story
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The text came through on Michael D. Cohen’s iPhone on Monday morning, shortly before he took the stand in a Manhattan courtroom as the star witness in the criminal case against his former boss, Donald J. Trump: “breathe - relax - tell the truth - u got this - i love u.”An hour later, another text came in from the same person: “Ur doing great.”“Thank you and truly love you,” Mr. Cohen wrote back to the sender, who was not his wife, either of his children or another family member, but the comedian and actress Rosie O’Donnell. Politics, the cliché goes, makes strange bedfellows. But few relationships seem as unlikely as the intense bond that has developed between Mr. Cohen and Ms. O’Donnell, two Long Island natives of the same generation who were pulled into Mr. Trump’s force field in vastly different ways years ago, and who connected as they surveyed the damage afterward. It is not lost on Ms. O’Donnell, 62, that Mr. Cohen, 57, once helped carry out Mr. Trump’s campaign of insults against her, tormenting her for her looks and her weight and calling her “wacko.”

Persons: Michael D, Donald J, “, Mr, Cohen, Rosie O’Donnell, O’Donnell, Trump’s, ” Organizations: Trump, Mr Locations: Manhattan, Long

One reason the Met Gala after-parties are nearly as famous as the Met Gala itself has to do with an incident that took place 10 years ago at the Standard Hotel in the West Village of Manhattan. On that night, Beyoncé was a star of the red carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with her husband, Jay-Z, and her sister Solange Knowles. Afterward, in an elevator car headed to the Boom Boom Room, the club on the top floor of the Standard, Solange attacked her brother-in-law while Beyoncé stood watching and a bodyguard tried to restore order. The security-cam footage leaked to TMZ and the internet, and a family fight became the stuff of New York social lore. Connie Fleming, the hotel’s longtime doorwoman, reflected on the changes in the social atmosphere since the heady days of 2014.

Persons: Beyoncé, Jay, Solange Knowles, Solange, Christian Siriano, Coca Rocha, Connie Fleming Organizations: of, Metropolitan Museum of Art, TMZ Locations: West, of Manhattan, York

Although the Met Gala serves as a branding event for Vogue, it has long accepted sponsorships from the tech giants that have threatened the very survival of legacy media publications. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, appeared as the ball’s honorary chair in 2012. Four years later, when Apple was a Met Gala sponsor, its chief executive, Tim Cook, showed up in tux and tails. And Instagram supplied cash in 2022. In the wake of that political firestorm, Shou Chew, the 41-year-old chief executive of TikTok, is expected to join dozens of celebrity guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan on Monday evening.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, Apple, Tim Cook, TikTok, goliath, Condé Nast, Biden, Shou Chew Organizations: Vogue, Amazon, Metropolitan Museum of Art Locations: United States, Manhattan

☆ At the Time 100 Gala, Glamour Meets Influence
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | Krista Schlueter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“This line is crazy,” said the broadcast journalist Don Lemon, as he walked toward the red carpet crush at just after 7 p.m. on Thursday night. He was bound for the Time 100 Gala, the annual black tie schmoozefest in Manhattan where a 100-person smorgasbord of luminaries — tech titans, activists, Oscar winners, pop stars, athletes and artists — was celebrated by the magazine as the most important people of the year. And the celebrities who were feted at the event included Colman Domingo, Taraji P. Henson, Dev Patel, Patrick Mahomes and Dua Lipa. Lemon, who arrived with his husband, the real estate broker Tim Malone, was not among the honorees. Still, he took questions from the journalists at the barricades who wanted details from his recent wedding, including which designer had made the suit he had worn for the occasion.

Persons: ”, Don Lemon, Oscar, —, Colman Domingo, Taraji P, Henson, Dev Patel, Patrick Mahomes, Lemon, Tim Malone Organizations: titans Locations: Manhattan, Dua Lipa

☆ Roberto Cavalli, a Life Out Loud
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

His animal prints did not always originate from nature but from his own imagination, chimeras of exotic skins that telegraphed excess, sex and aspiration. If Gianni Versace was the id of Italian fashion, Mr. Cavalli made it roar, hitting mass saturation in the late nineties as an antidote to the minimalism of Jil Sander and Helmut Lang. He stepped into the vacuum created by the murder of Mr. Versace in 1997, was further buoyed by the frothy stock market, and soon, Paris Hilton was wearing him. So was Candace Bushnell, creator of “Sex and the City.” Victoria Beckham was a fan during her Posh Spice era. Little wonder he was the main sponsor of the 2004 show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute: “Wild: Fashion Untamed” — or that Ben Stiller wore Mr. Cavalli’s designs for “Zoolander,” Mr. Stiller’s fashion satire.

Persons: Roberto Cavalli, Tropez, Gianni Versace, Cavalli, Jil Sander, Helmut Lang, Versace, Paris Hilton, Candace Bushnell, Victoria Beckham, Ben Stiller, “, Mr Organizations: City, Metropolitan Museum, Art’s Costume Locations: Italian, Paris

☆ When Sean Combs Was ‘Living the American Dream’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Long before he was accused of sexual misconduct in a series of lawsuits, and long before federal agents in military gear raided his homes in Miami and Los Angeles, Sean Combs was unforgivable. That was the name he had selected for his first fragrance, which he sold through a partnership with Estée Lauder. It was promoted as a scent that “exudes the energy, sexiness and elegance of Sean Combs,” and he was supposed to give it a publicity boost in April 2006 by ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange alongside William Lauder, the Estée Lauder chief executive, and Terry Lundgren, the head of Federated Department Stores. But Mr. Combs didn’t arrive in time for the opening of the market, saying he had been stuck in traffic. So his fellow business titans did the honors without him.

Persons: Long, Sean Combs, Estée Lauder, ”, William Lauder, Lauder, Terry Lundgren, Combs didn’t Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, Federated Department Stores, titans Locations: Miami, Los Angeles

☆ Trump Attends His Sister’s Funeral, but Does Not Speak
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | More About Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Judge Barry refrained in her lifetime from publicly criticizing her famous brother. But in a series of surreptitiously recorded interviews in 2018 and 2019 with a niece, Mary L. Trump, she spoke scathingly of him. Judge Barry also spoke critically to her niece about the eulogy Donald Trump delivered at the 1999 memorial service for their father, the real estate mogul Fred C. Trump. “I don’t want any of my siblings to speak at my funeral,” Judge Barry continued. It was all about him.”Mr. Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination while facing 91 felony counts in four cases, has expressed deep admiration for Judge Barry over the years.

Persons: Barry, Mary L, “, ”, Donald, Mary Trump, Barry’s, Judge Barry, Donald Trump, Fred C, “ Donald, ” Judge Barry, ” Mr, Trump Organizations: Trump, Washington Post

☆ The Many People Behind ‘The Woman in Me’
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | More About Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“If you follow me on Instagram, you thought this book was going to be written in emojis, didn’t you?” Britney Spears asks at the end of her memoir, “The Woman in Me.”She has said that completing the recently published book — an account of her journey from Louisiana to the top of the pop charts and on to a conservatorship that denied her control of her career and finances — required an enormous amount of therapy. And to get the story on the page, she had the help of “collaborators,” as she called them in the book’s acknowledgments. “You know who you are,” she writes, without naming names. According to two people close to the project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, three writers — all successful authors in their own right — made significant contributions to Ms. Spears’s memoir.

Persons: Britney Spears, ”, — Locations: emojis, Louisiana

☆ Brooke Shields Dishes Trump and Madonna in a New Cabaret Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | More About Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Most of the time, I’m halfway content.”Those words are Bob Dylan’s, and they were delivered one night last week by Brooke Shields during her sold-out debut show at the Café Carlyle, the intimate Manhattan supper club where Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch and Debbie Harry have performed. It was five months after Ms. Shields had returned to the spotlight with “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” an acclaimed documentary that chronicled the ups and downs of a career that got its start in the 1970s, when she was a child model and actress marketed as a sex symbol. A number of celebrities came out to see her at the venue, which is blocks away from the Upper East Side apartment where she grew up. At a table close to the stage were the actors Naomi Watts, Billy Crudup and Laura Dern. Nearby sat Mariska Hargitay, whom Ms. Shields has worked with on “Law & Order: SVU.” The crowd also included two men who had done cabaret at the Carlyle: Isaac Mizrahi, who designed the loosefitting orange dress Ms. Shields was wearing, and Alan Cumming.

Persons: Bob Dylan’s, Brooke Shields, Carlyle, Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch, Debbie Harry, Shields, ”, Naomi Watts, Billy Crudup, Laura Dern, Mariska Hargitay, Isaac Mizrahi, Alan Cumming Organizations: “ Locations: Mariska

☆ After Transitioning, Gabbi Tuft Pays a Visit to Smackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | More About Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But it is not uncommon for sexuality to shift over the course of a transition, according to experts who work with trans people. “Gender and sexuality are different things,” Katherine Rachlin, a psychotherapist in New York with a transgender focus, said in an email. For many people, sexual love and appreciation is gender-affirming.”How those shifts play out varies from one trans person to another. As well as trans women who go from having lived as gay men to being lesbians post-transition, she said. Ms. Tuft said she had lost a number of male clients who once saw her as a role model.

Persons: ” Katherine Rachlin, “, Rachlin, ”, “ I’m, Curtis Hussey, Tuft’s Locations: New York

☆ At Larry Kramer’s Memorial, a Gathering of Friends and Enemies
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Decades before Dr. Anthony S. Fauci became a household name during the coronavirus pandemic, one of his detractors wrote that he was “a murderer” and “a liar” who “should be put before a firing squad.”The man behind those words was Larry Kramer, the argumentative writer and activist who helped shape the modern gay rights movement during the AIDS crisis and who died in May 2020 at 84. On Monday evening, at a memorial for Mr. Kramer at the Lucille Lortel Theater in the West Village, Dr. Fauci was among the speakers. The second he strode onto the stage, people applauded. In his speech, Dr. Fauci described his long, complicated relationship with Mr. Kramer, starting with the fiery words that appeared in the The San Francisco Examiner in 1988, when he was four years into his nearly four-decade tenure as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At the time, Mr. Kramer blamed Dr. Fauci for the Reagan administration's tepid response to a disease that had claimed tens of thousands of lives in the United States by then.

Persons: Anthony S, Fauci, ”, Larry Kramer, Kramer, Lucille Lortel, strode, Dr, Reagan Organizations: San Francisco Examiner, National Institute of Allergy Locations: West, United States

☆ Paparazzi Speak on Meghan and Harry’s Car Chase
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

You’re killers,” Mr. Eichner said. One person who has excelled despite these odds is Kevin Mazur, an event photographer who co-founded the company Wire Image. In 2007, Wire Image was sold to Getty as part of what was described at the time as a $200 million deal. But Mr. Mazur continues to shoot constantly, including on Tuesday, when he was the sole photographer with full access at the Ms. Foundation gala. At the same time, the cries of victimhood by paparazzi are less likely to elicit sympathy than the ones made by a man whose mother died in a car crash fleeing from them.

☆ The Met Gala Was Just the Start. Welcome to the After-Parties.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Jacob Bernstein | Sadiba Hasan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Florence Pugh, her head newly shaved, stood at the bar in the front room. Ms. Lipa was at the front of a narrow, packed dance floor, dancing in an outfit adorned with pearls. The singer Juan Luis Londoño Arias, who performs as Maluma, was on the balcony, flashing peace signs to the crowd below. Paris Hilton swayed from side to side, eyes hidden behind white sunglasses, with Marc Jacobs at her side. Mary J. Blige stood next to Mr. Combs as he played emcee.

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