April 2008

April 26th 2008
Florence, Italy

I arrived in sunny Florence this week after leaving NYC with such a bang that it has taken me a whole week to recover.  The madness began last Friday night when I agreed to meet Victor & Hanuk for early margaritas & Mexican at everyone’s favorite West Village dive, Tortilla Flats.  As fate would have it, our 6pm margaritas fueled us until 4am the next morning, with stops all over town including the ultra-hip Bowery Hotel, the ultra-chic Indochine, the ultra-indie Max Fish, the ultra-electro Annex, and finally the ultra-debaucherous Beatrice Inn (where La Lohan was apparently fighting with Les Olsen Twins that night).  The evening’s shenanigans would take a novel to describe, so the photos will have to suffice, many of which are borrowed from world class photographer Hanuk, who posts his photo reportage de tout l'underground new-yorkais on www.hanuk.com.

Since Saturday evening was my last night in town, I decided to pull myself together and headed to dinner with Kate Schelter & Valeria McCulloch at Soho’s best French bistro, Lucky Strike.  From dinner we headed to a fabulously fun joint birthday party for Rachel, Tara, Kat & Sylvana at a giant loft nearby, which was a costume party themed “New York”.  As you can see from the photos, everyone looked fantastic in their NYC gear, and the dancing was still going strong when I left after midnight.  Happy Birthday Girls!!!

Off to St. Tropez next weekend, so stay tuned…

April 16th 2008
NYC

Last night the hottest party in Manhattan was definitely at NYC’s 24 Hour Post Office, where crowds of unashamed procrastinators stood in lines to mail in their tax returns before the midnight hour.  There were bands, there were dancers, there were even margaritas, and all of us bonded over our love of waiting until the absolute last minute.  The 24 Hour Post Office is the bomb.

In celebrity news, the girls from the HOLLYWOULD store informed me that heartthrob crooner G.Love stopped by yesterday for a little shopping.  If you don’t know G.Love’s music I highly recommend hitting itunes to download his entire G.Love & Special Sauce album, which is full of summertime hits you’ll be glad you have come June.

And last but not least, if you don’t receive our weekly emails you may want to sign up as a HOLLYWOULD VIP, which is the only way to know about our special offers.  For example, if you don’t get our emails you would have no way of knowing that from today until April 23^rd you can save 10% on any online order by using the secret code "ILOVEHOLLYWOULD" at check out.  My favorite looks are our gladiator sandals, seashell clutches, and bright t-shirt dresses, which are the perfect way to look chic as the summer arrives.

April 9th 2008
NYC

I have to ground myself.  The reason I haven’t written in this diary (or cleaned my apartment) in over a full month isn’t because I’ve been sitting home watching Matchmaker Millionaire every night.  God knows I would if I could, but I’ve actually been out on the town with friends every single night for a month straight, living it up as if the world was about to end.  Since the world is not about to end, I’m going to have to ground myself for at least a full week to catch up on important things like television and sleep. 

The party shenanigans began with one of New York’s favorite charity galas, The Save Venice Ball.  This year’s ball was co-hosted by HOLLYWOULD along with charitable beauties Olivia Chantecaille, Adelina Wong Ettelson, Alexandra Lind Rose, and Blair Voltz Clarke, who looked stunning in HOLLYWOULD.   The crowd was beautiful and the evening was divine, and my table, which included Lucy & Mark Cornell, Lucy & Euan Rellie, Peggy Seigal, Jess Bolcom, Kate Schelter, Miguel Fabregas, and Hud Morgan, was so much fun we found it hard to leave. 

The following night was a going-away-to-Chi-town party for Samantha & John Gauntt, followed by an all-night dance party to celebrate the Whitney Biennale, and then a film screening for the George Clooney produced “Playground” at Norwood, another film screening for the Charlize Theron produced “Sleepwalking” at the Tribeca Grand, an action packed ski trip to Telluride, Easter in sunny Arizona, a fun trip to LA, an art opening for the amazingly talented Hope Atherton, a fabulous dinner hosted by fashion guru Robert Burke, a film screening for Dennis Quaid & SJP’s “Smart People”, a film screening for Nora Jones & Natalie Portman’s “My Blueberry Nights” (my favorite new movie), Euan Rellie’s 29^th Birthday Party at Bar Milano (my favorite new restaurant), a party at Donna Karan’s gorgeous West Village brownstone, dinner with Kate Schelter at Bobo, and dinner with Jen Bell at Norwood, with at least five late-night trips to Beatrice Inn & Rose Bar in between. 

And, although all of the above was très, très fun, the absolute topper of all events occurred last night at the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence Gala, when the world’s greatest singer, Tony Bennett, performed live.  Wow, Tony Bennett is amazing.  Even at age 82 he gave an earth-shattering performance, and after hearing him sing “The Good Life” (which he dedicated to Elliot Spitzer), I completely understand why his 28 year old wife finds him smoking hot.  What a voice!

I left the gala on cloud nine, and when I was stopped in the lobby by a man who told me, “I really like your outfit - I mean, the whole look and the way you put it together is just nice”, I almost stopped breathing when I realized that the compliment was coming from none other than Puff Daddy/P. Diddy/Sean Combs himself.  Getting a style compliment from Diddy is like getting a prayer compliment from The Pope, so I’ll probably be wearing that outfit (head-to-toe HOLLYWOULD) again soon.

Before I’m officially grounded I do have a few more events this week, so stay tuned…