Love is in the air at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s winter White House.
The president is said to be pleased as punch about both his ex-daughter-in-law Vanessa Trump’s relationship with golf legend Tiger Woods and his son Don Jr.’s new girlfriend, Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson.
Tiger, who plays golf with the president at his Florida clubs, gave Trump a heads-up about his budding romance with Vanessa and the president gave them both his blessing.
Don Jr. and Anderson are going strong, and insiders predict that they may well be engaged by the end of the summer, once his ex-fiancé Kimberly Guilfoyle has been confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Greece and heads to Athens.
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Brooklyn rapper Sheff G, born Michael Williams, 26, is heading back to prison in August, having pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
But his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told me, “Sheff is a really good kid. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t do drugs. His mother and sister came to court every day.”
Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez wanted a sentence of 20 years. Sheff G will get five, and get out in three years with time already served.
More than 30 members of the 8 Trey Crips and the street gang’s affiliate, the 9 Ways gang, have been indicted.
“Notoriety could not shield this defendant from justice,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “He used his fame to fund and direct violence, terrorizing our streets.”
Prosecutors said Sheff G showered jewelry and cash on gang members as they battled rivals.
Aidala said Sheff G is “a smart, sweet kid who is not happy going to prison and probably shielding some friends who faced jail.”
Helping him prepare for life behind bars is prison consultant Craig Rothfeld, who coached Harvey Weinstein and Luigi Mangione.
Until August, Sheff G will be making appearances and hanging with fans, Aidala said. “He’s more popular than ever.”
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Cal Hoffman is becoming the pied piper of authors on the national tour for his debut novel, “Easy to Slip.”
“Proof” playwright David Auburn describes the 1970s coming-of-age story as “intricate, hallucinatory, funny and harrowing.”
At the tour’s kick-off at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., investigative journalist Mike Isikoff was cheering along with ABC’s Jon Garcia and CBS’s Fin Gomez.
The next stop at the Palm Beach Book Store saw bestselling author Laurence Leamer (“Capote’s Women” and the upcoming “Warhol’s Muses”) introduce Hoffman and told the standing-room crowd to “pay attention” to this author.
The next night at Books & Books in Miami, audience members were quoting his novel back to him.
But the New York City Barnes & Noble blowout broke the Upper West Side store’s all-time attendance record and was overflowing with authors including Hoffman’s in-conversation partner John Burnham Schwartz, Thomas Beller, James Sanders, Joanna Hershon, Molly Ringwald, Elspeth Leacock, MM De Voe, David Wallis, Tom Rowan and Cornelia Read Riegert.
Not to mention actors Josh Hamilton, Peter Riegert, Amy Stiller and documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple.
Hoffman’s wife, theater producer Victoria Leacock Hoffman (who produced Jonathan Larson’s “tick, tick… BOOM!”), is pacing herself for next week’s Los Angeles events at Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood (with actor Arye Gross) and Book Soup in West Hollywood (with actor Richard Cox), where she expects the movie rights to come into play.
“Cal’s written a once-in-a-generation book that is profound while you laugh out loud and sob,” Victoria said. “I can’t wait to see who directs the film!”
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Life was different 38 years ago, when Off-Broadway’s “Perfect Crime” debuted.
The comedy murder mystery is still going strong at the Anne L. Bernstein Theater at The Theater Center, 210 W. 50th St.
But when it opened, you hailed a yellow cab with your arm, not an app; Times Square was considered dangerous, not Disneyfied; buying marijuana was illegal and involved pagers, code words and park benches; going out meant calling someone’s landline and hoping they were home; the Brooklyn Nets didn’t exist, and neither did Citi Field; you could see a Broadway show for under $30; and you brought a boombox to the park, not Bluetooth earbuds.
“Perfect Crime” stars Catherine Russell, who has never taken a day off in those 38 years. It’s a feat that has landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records. People magazine dubbed her “The Cal Ripken of Broadway.”
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Movie writer and director James Toback won’t be paying the $1.68 billion in damages awarded to 40 women who accused him of sexual abuse. He’s not that rich.
When the verdict was reached, high-stakes gambler R.J. Cipriani wrote Toback, “Checking on you. Hope you’re hanging in, all things considered.”
Toback replied, “Thanks. No evidence. No truth. No proof. Ludicrous lies. I hope you’re well. I’m not! 80 years old with multiple conditions.”
As Mickey Mantle said: “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
The victims’ lawyer, Brad Beckworth, said, “This verdict is about justice. But more importantly, it’s about taking power back from the abusers — and their enablers — and returning it to those he tried to control and silence.”
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Kamala Harris will speak at a real estate conference in Australia next month, but she won’t answer any questions.
The former vice president, who lost to Donald Trump, will participate in a moderated conversation at the Australasian Real Estate Conference, but unlike the other 32 speakers, “no interviews” was listed next to her biography.
Among the speakers who will answer questions are real estate broker and reality TV star Mauricio Umansky, gold medal-winning Olympians Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus, and British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.
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April 18 marks the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s midnight ride from Boston to Lexington in 1775 to alert the Minutemen that the British Army was coming.
Revere lit his lantern and made the ride to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of their impending arrests and to help defend the American colonies.
While the Sons of Liberty member is renowned as a patriot, he was also the preeminent silversmith in America.
In celebration of this historic ride, M.S. Rau in New Orleans is offering three silver pieces handcrafted by the American revolutionary, including a coffee pot for $1,285,000.
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Ellen Hart, the former Miss Subway, wowed the crowd at her Ellen’s Stardust Diner on Tuesday by handing over the mic to autistic subway busker Shane Dan Taylor, a current “American Idol” contestant, who sang the Bob Dylan hit “Girl from the North Country.”
Ellen presented Shane a Mr. Subway poster of his own, and will honor Autism Acceptance Month with a special Empowerment Shake with proceeds supporting Luv Michael, a SoHo-based granola company that hires neurodivergent employees.
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The new trend in plastic surgery has women as young as 35 going under the knife.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Bianca Molina, who just opened an office on lower Fifth Ave., says that professional women who work downtown are coming to her asking for facelifts as part of their “Mommy Makeovers” in their mid-30s and early 40s.
Dr. Molina says that she’s getting calls for tummy tucks and breast augmentations, as well as fillers and Botox, as patients get ready to don their bikinis for the summer.
