Hello-hello and happy late Monday evening, at least here on the east coast it is ‘late’ at 9pm EDT, what we used to refer to as ‘civilized time’ back when we lived on the west coast. BTW, that term makes absolutely no one happy, is meant to offend no one, but manages to upset just about everyone, so we don’t use it very often for precisely those reasons.
Are you ready for some tennis? We most assuredly are, much more eager to partake of this than politics, we must admit. We’ll start with the weekend’s runup to the US Open, the annual Arthur Ashe Kids Day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and here are a few quick hits of the happenings. What fun to see US Olympic Swimming Gold Medalist Cullen Jones with Ana Ivanovic on the left (photo by Jennifer Pottheiser) and then the one that has us wishing we were a fly on the grandstand… or something like that, Rafa and Roger, just a couple of guys on the job. Chatting. About guy stuff. You know.
- Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images
And how about those immense, oversized tennis balls they had for the event? They looked very cool.
Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Lott
REUTERS/Joshua Lott
And parties, oh yes, there have been parties! On the left a photo from Heineken’s Player Party; it wouldn’t be the Open without pictures of Maria, even if she isn’t playing. Or even staying.
La Sharapova has let it be known that she would like (very much so if you please) to attend the Vera Wang and the Peter Som shows at Fashion Week. And the houses would be insane not to invite her, she is stunning and generates great publicity. But no, she had no intention of attending, or watching, or anything really to do with the Open. As she told the NY Observer, “To be honest, the day I got injured was the day that I was like, I’m not even sure who’s playing.” To be honest, if that was how we earned our living, we’re not sure how interested we would be either, although we might make an effort to be a tad more diplomatic in letting people know of our diminished interest.
Then there was the Nike store opening party in Soho, attracting athletes, entertainers, sports stars of the non-athletic nature, Hollywood types, you name it and they might have been there. (And even if they weren’t, they may still say they were.) It had to be fun just to see Spike Lee and Roger Federer almost looking like buddies. BTW, Spike said he would be at the Open almost every day, but at last sighting he was in Denver at The Convention, but then, there is a lot of Open left to be played.
Photo: Patrick McMullan
On the left, Roger & Serena at the Nike store opening party. Originally scheduled to open on 8.8.08 to coincide with the Olympics getting underway, that didn’t happen, nor did it seem to matter.
This is not just your run of the mill Nike store, but a Nike Sportswear store, and evidently there is a big difference. According to the media info from Nike, “The stand-alone shop will be the only location globally to carry the complete NSW collection and seasonal 21 Mercer products.” (The store is on Mercer Street.) That sounds quite impressive.
There were other parties in the city over the weekend. Men’s Vogue did the cool thing and hosted a fundraiser for James Blake to benefit the Thomas Blake Sr. Memorial Research Fund. Below left, Blake and Jay Fielden, the Arts Editor at Men’s Vogue’s, and below right, musician John Mayer, trying on watches at the party. Perhaps he can find one telling him it’s time to take his meds…yes? (Good idea? Or bad, bad Princess?)
Everything did get going today, and yes, there was tennis played. But tonight was the more formal kickoff with Mayor Bloomberg and lots of festivities as it is the 40th Anniversary of the Open.
And yes, Anna and Martha were in the house, Forest Whitaker was at the podium….
And when everything was kicked off by Mayor Bloomberg, one thing TP loved was the beauty shot that shows the Unisphere. You see, we have special memories of that Unisphere… we were very, very little, but we have special memories of that beautiful globe.
Much as there are so many other great players and matches, and yesofcourse we are going to watch as many as we can, it comes down to one thing: Roger and Rafa. The preppy vs. the Pirate. We loved the way Will Leitch (whom we absolutely adore) wrote about the whole thing in a post on the Magazine’s website:
“He beat Federer in the French Open for the third straight year, won that Wimbledon, took over his No. 1 world ranking, and, for good measure, won a gold medal in Beijing. Meanwhile, Federer was looking more mortal than ever. Not only was Nadal beating him on a non-clay court (finally): Federer lost to James-freaking-Blake in the Olympics.
Theoretically speaking, if there were ever a time to remind the world that he’s Roger Federer, dammit, this would be it; Wimbledon has the tradition, but the U.S. Open is where stars are made.”
Okay…enough tennis and now onto the next topic….
- Photo: Gary Caskey/UPI/Landov
Our email just ‘pinged’ indicating something new just hit the electronic in-box. It turns out to be an “urgent,” or ‘news alert’ from Women’s Wear Daily on what Michelle Obama will be wearing tonight when she addresses the convention, and word is that it will be Maria Pinto again, the Chicago-based designer Ms. Obama has favored previously.
According to WWD, the word is that The Dress, and yes, we think it deserves to be in caps as a proper title of something, will be:
“Pinto said the dress Obama is planning to wear is a turquoise blue, three-quarter-sleeve sheath-like, fitted, Fifties-inspired style in double-faced wool. But, as like any woman, Obama could change her mind at the last minute.”
You may recognize the first high-profile Pinto dress worn by Ms. Obama from June 3, the night the Senator claimed victory in the race for the Democratic nomination.
- Photo: Jason Reed/Reuters
And one of our favorite quotes from Michelle Obama?
“I have some high-end stuff – I work with a great designer in Chicago, Maria Pinto – but I got this dress at this store that it’s all black and white stuff … You put a little pin on it and you’ve got something going on.”
That kind of showed TP something when it came to the potential First Lady and where her head is when it comes to fashion. Not everyone needs to be as relentlessly obsessed even moderately interested, as we are. Here are a couple more Pinto pixs, things we love from the designer’s Fall 08 Accessory line, both pieces far more suited to a winter Bridal event than anything TP would be wearing, but so lovely we had to share them.
Now since we’re all (well, okay, not all) thinking conventions and politics, we thought we would update things for everyone who’s been awake at night wondering how Angelina Jolie is leaning, compliments of a story for Daily Variety:
“In June, when Entertainment Weekly asked her whether she talked politics with Clint Eastwood, a longtime Republican, on the set of the upcoming movie, “The Changeling,” she said, “Actually, we don’t disagree as much as you’d think. I think people assume I’m a Democrat. But I’m registered independent and I’m still undecided. So I’m looking at McCain as well as Obama.”
- Photos: Moloshok/Landov; Kempin/FilmMagic; Reed/Landov
Jolie’s father, Jon Voight, has endorsed McCain and recently wrote an op-ed for the Washington Times highly critical of Obama.
- Courtesy: Wilshire & Washington
Reports tonight from various sources that two mega-acts will be rocking and rolling in Denver come Thursday night for Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the convention. The Rocky Mountain News reports:
“The Jersey boys are coming, and we ain’t talking about Frankie Valli. The Boss and Bon Jovi are ready to perform.
Multiple sources confirmed to the Rocky that Jon Bon Jovi will fly in to perform two acoustic songs before Sen. Barack Obama gives his acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Thursday. After the speech, Bruce Springsteen (photo at left) will close out the night, presumably solo acoustic (E Street Band member Nils Lofgren told the Rocky last week that the band wouldn’t be with Springsteen in Denver).”
The Princess called Denver home for more than 17 years, and has sources *but everywhere* telling her all about the goings-on, the galas and get-togethers, the parties and premieres, the meetings-made- to-look-like-parties and the security. Oh my. The. Security. Ohmygoodnessitiseverywheresecurity.
And she thought she had dealt with security. You know, the White House type, the military type, the Papal visit type, the run of the mill disaster type. Not. At. All. A few years out of the business and it is really quite a far more serious and in many respects, a somewhat ugly business now, where the worst must be thought of everyone in order to protect the someones and the everyones. We aren’t sorry to be out of that fray and watching it from home for a change, we must admit.
It’s time for a little update on the People cover featuring Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their twins. The Princess mistakenly thought perhaps people were bored to tears by all the Brad and Angelina baby hoo-hah and media circus, and might elect not to invest in the magazine’s ‘Special Double Issue‘ featuring the twins or the Hello magazine issue, should you be on the other side of the pond. Silly, silly Princess. What was she thinking?!
It turns out this was the biggest seller in seven years, the fourth biggest seller of all time! So there, Miss Princess! Only issues covering Sept. 11th, Princess Diana’s death and John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death sold more at the newsstand. It’s interesting that death seems to push us toward purchasing People magazine. I wonder if it does the same for other newsweeklies, or other ‘celebrity/personality driven’ titles?
The Preppy Princess 