K’La Methven was sleeping in her lingerie in a third-floor room at the Trump International Hotel & Tower on Columbus Circle a couple weeks ago when firefighters banged on her door at 6 a.m.
Methven, whose South African grandfather made millions providing chickens to KFC, says she was rushed down to the lobby with the hotel’s other guests.
“I’m in a tiny thong and bra. It was so embarrassing. All the dads kept staring at me,” the TV producer told me. She was eventually handed a blanket to cover herself.
Then she noticed the smoking men of FDNY. “Those firemen were hot,” she laughed. “I would have had a good time.”
After waiting with the building’s other tenants in Central Park, the fire on the 16th floor was extinguished, and K’La was able to get ready for her meeting with execs at Disney.
Methven produces a TV show “K’La After Dark” where she interviews celebrities. Shel also has a line of lingerie, Madame Methven.
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Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez was the star at the Martha’s Vineyard/Circuit Arts Film Festival.
Velazquez was wrongly convicted of murder and spent 23 years in prison. He was exonerated in 2021 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo after a decade-long investigation by NBC News producer Dan Slepian turned into a 4-part documentary for MSNBC.
Velazquez co-stars with Colman Domingo in “Sing Sing,” the A24 prison drama that follows a group of incarcerated men who find purpose in acting in theater productions.
Maria Cuomo Cole, Andrew Cuomo’s sister, and her husband, fashion designer Kenneth Cole, joined in the standing ovation. Cole showcased his own documentary, “A Man with Sole.”
Bernard Chiu, owner of Harborview Hotel in Edgartown, and author James Hester hosted a dinner where Dawn Porter — who directed a documentary on the case, “Sing Sing Chronicles” — told guests how fortunate she was to have footage of JJ during his incarceration.
“It made my job and the film so powerful to explain the injustice that JJ had to endure,” Porter said.
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Operation Healing Forces, a charity backed by Tom Brady, tennis champion Monica Seles and golf legend Fuzzy Zoeller, started out with some wealthy yacht owners inviting Green Berets, Navy Seals and Marine Raiders onto their boats with their spouses.
The soldiers had been away from home for up to a year. Many had been injured or suffered from PTSD. The organization now offers retreats to Special Operation Forces members and their spouses and caregivers.
“We let them enjoy some luxuries,” top lobbyist Robert McBride told me. “They are disconnected from being away. We want to be a small part of getting them back together.”
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Paul Newman wore a Rolex Daytona that sold for $17 million. Collectors drool over the wrist watch from the ‘60s. But are they still a shrewd purchase?
Southampton jeweler Glenn Bradford buys and sells them routinely. He’s giving a talk Tuesday night at Casa Cipriani downtown. If you’re not a member, here’s some free advice.
“It’s all about provenance,” he says. “And overall condition. It can’t be polished. We want to see the original lines of the case. It can’t be doctored up.”
The evening is moderated by watch aficionado and PBS host Bill McCuddy, who often interviewed Newman, once asked the legendary actor and race car driver about his pricey Rolex.
“He told me the one time he wore it in a race, he lost. So he considered it bad luck,” said McCuddy. “I told him ‘not for the rest of us’ and he laughed.”
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The Jacob Riis Settlement has been helping New Yorkers for decades. Now some of those boys are old men and they are helping the next generation.
The charity is holding a benefit May 14 at Sound River Studios in Long Island City.
One attendee is a friend who came to America in 1956 as a kid and has been on the board of directors for 40 years.
“It’s a beautiful setting with some nice food,” said my friend. “I hope you can come.”
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Jane Holzer, the real estate heiress and art collector — nicknamed Baby Jane Holzer after the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford movie “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” — became a Vogue cover girl and Andy Warhol superstar in the ‘60s.
Tom Wolfe even wrote an essay about her titled “The Girl of the Year,” and in the ‘80s, she co-produced “Kiss of the Spider Woman” starring William Hurt.
Jane will sit down with designer Andrea Stark to discuss her extraordinary life at a tea to benefit HOW, Hearing the Ovarian Cancer Whisper, in Palm Beach on April 8. Earlier this year, the organization honored Isaac Mizrahi.
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Skincare mogul Peter Thomas Roth hired a private jet to take his mother, Carole Roth, to Las Vegas to celebrate her 102nd birthday with 17 family members and Julia Lemigova, a star of “The Real Housewives of Miami.”
The festivities started off at Chippendales, where Carole received two lap dances that were so racy they got banned from TikTok. The lucky birthday girl was spotted gambling at the Wynn until 2 a.m., where she won $1,500 playing poker.
The group, including her five great-grandchildren, also took in the show “Michael Jackson ONE.”
Carole was recognized everywhere she went from her work as a model on QVC, where she uses her son’s Retinol Fusion PM on her perfect legs.
As a present, Roth gave his mother her very first Birkin bag, making her longtime dream come true.
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Melissa de la Cruz, author of 70 books, was inspired by Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears for her latest, “When Stars Align.”
The novel skewers our culture’s obsession with fame and considers the real flawed people behind their glittery facades. And the fictional trio sometimes goes out sans underwear.
