Little Big Town pictures from New York Magazine

Armed Men Arrested at Kate Hudson's House!

Photo: Getty Images A little while ago, Intel received a tip of a "big police action" down at King and Varick streets. "Three young guys pulled out of a town house by a whole bunch of policemen and swat and everything," said the tipster. Turns out that was Kate Hudson's house. According to TMZ, a neighbor called the police "after seeing what she thought were men on her roof with a rifle." But the swat team might not have been entirely necessary: Us is now reporting that all the dudes were planning on shooting was a movie. Men Arrested At Kate Hudson's Home [Us]

Published: 2008-03-11 Provider: New York Magazine

President Bush Sums Up the Financial Crisis the Best Way He Knows How

W = wise. Photo: Getty Images FINANCE • President Bush breaks down the current economic situation: "Wall Street got drunk, and now it's got a hangover." [NYP] • Is JPMorgan on the prowl? "I am pretty certain they are shopping," one analyst says. "The fact they haven't done anything yet suggests to me that they are not so sure we've seen the bottom." [Reuters] • Meanwhile, after Wachovia and Washington Mutual reported losses of more than $11 billion, their shares jumped 14 percent. Is this a sign that investors think the banks' stocks have fallen as low as they can go? [WSJ] • Paulson & Company's John Paulson is starting a hedge fund to provide capital to firms hurt by mortgage write-downs. "Paulson has significant knowledge of the subprime market that has created earthquakes for the banks," says one lawyer who works with hedge funds. "I expect that he understands their experiences, balance sheets, and financial exposure better than many." [Bloomberg]MEDIA • Us Weekly is no longer up for grabs. Or maybe it wasn't for sale to begin with. [NYP] • Esquire's 75th-anniversary issue, which will hit newsstands in October, will have the words "The 21st Century Begins Now" flashing across the cover. Could the magazine's editors not have been a little bit more, er, flashy than that with their scrolling cover line? [Folio] • Viacom's Sumner Redstone has plans to live forever: "I'm gonna fight death as long as I can. I like it here. I don't want to go anywhere else." [MSNBC] REAL ESTATE • Donald Trump Jr., spawn of property magnet the Donald, is starting a real-estate fund that will invest in property in India. This is from the kid who started a mortgage company two years ago and watched it fail spectacularly. [Bloomberg via DealBreaker] • The most recent addition to 15 Central Park West? Big surprise here: a Chase bank. [City Room/NYT] • Tishman Speyer renovated and converted 560 rent-regulated apartments at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village to market-rate rentals, but t

Published: 2008-07-23 Provider: New York Magazine

‘B’ Battle Brews in Brooklyn

Photo: Everett Bogue (market); BrooklynBrewery.com (beer) When the C-Town supermarket in Williamsburg wanted to freshen its look in an effort "to appeal to a neighborhood that is now more hip," as manager Jose Cruz says, it rechristened itself Billy's Marketplace and slapped on a high-design, retro-y logo. One little problem: The new logo looks suspiciously like Brooklyn Brewery's insignia. "You would think they would understand you can't just take someone's logo," said brewery president Steve Hindy, who points out that his version was created by legendary New York designer — and legendary New York designer — Milton Glaser. "It evokes the history of baseball in Brooklyn as well represents the new Brooklyn and the future," Hindy said. A few weeks ago, the brewery sent a letter to Billy's asking them to change their logo, but market manager Cruz doesn't see what the big deal is. "They have a 'B' inside a circle, and we have a 'B' inside a square," he explained. "Our 'B' is more of a typical old English 'B.' They're different types of Bs. They're not the same, aside from both having a B." Um, yeah. —Shana Liebman

Published: 2007-07-05 Provider: New York Magazine

Clinton, Obama Fine-tune Pandering in Final Days Before Indiana Primary

Photo: Getty Images If you needed an illustration of how close the Democratic race has become, look no further than Guam. Guam held its primary on Saturday (for reasons unclear, since it doesn't get to vote in the general election), and Barack Obama won by seven votes. That's a high-school-class-treasurer type margin. And the candidates know it might be that close in Indiana tomorrow, which is why they've mixed up their game plans a little bit. Obama is eschewing the raucous chanting crowds for small-town American-as-apple-pie photo ops, like taking his kids roller-skating, shooting some hoops, and visiting a house his great-great-great-uncle lived in. Next up might be sharing a big banana split Sunday with Indiana's oldest WWII veteran (we're guessing). Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has transformed herself into a raging populist. On Sunday, when asked if any economists supported her plan for a gas-tax holiday, she said, "Well, I'll tell you what, I'm not going to put my lot in with economists." (Because what would they know about economics?) And later that night at an Indiana Democratic Party dinner, she told the crowd we needed to "hold these Wall Street money-grubbers responsible for their role in this recession." So tomorrow Indiana will decide which is more effective: pandering with Kodak moments or pandering with bad ideas. • Carrie Budoff Brown writes that Obama has taken a 180-degree shift from the time when he would give speeches in front of massive crowds, in an effort to combat the hits on his character from the Reverend Wright controversy and the characterization of him as being "out of touch." [Politico] • John Dickerson follows Obama to more intimate, personal campaign events in his final days, including the one at a roller-skating rink where his daughters skated, and says that if "the point of the scene was to make the candidate look just like any other (well-dressed) Indiana father," then they succeeded. [Slate] • Karen Tumulty calls

Published: 2008-05-05 Provider: New York Magazine

A Wing and a Prayer

Photo: Bebeto Matthews/APFacing unholy approval ratings last week, Governor Spitzer stopped pontificating about his driver's-license plan and dumped it. Pope Benedict XVI announced that he'd bless the city with a visit next spring, with stops at Saint Patrick's, ground zero, and Yankee Stadium. Hillary Clinton was accused of playing God with her Iowa town-hall meetings by handing out preapproved questions. City cops very publicly declined to endorse their onetime overlord Rudy Giuliani for president. Alpha editrix Judith Regan sued News Corp., claiming that she'd been canned to protect information about former police commissioner (and ex-flame) Bernard Kerik "that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani's presidential campaign." Mayor Bloomberg hosted Nancy Reagan at his Upper East Side home. Reporters were invited to, then kicked out of, a Union Club speech by First Brother Jeb Bush. A city councilman proposed a $1,000 fine for feeding pigeons. (His advice to bread-crumb bearers: "Feed [them] in your house and let them crap all over the place in your living room.") Merrill Lynch named John Thain, a Goldman vet turned NYSE chief, its new CEO. Linda Stein's accused killer claimed her confession had been coerced. Officials announced that the Big Apple's first "green" school would grow in Battery Park City. Weathermen predicted an unseasonably warm Gotham winter. Striking Broadway stagehands gave Jennifer Garner the week off from Cyrano; disappointed tourists, deprived of Little Mermaid and Phantom seats, moped through the theater district. Jorge Posada received $52 million to stay behind the plate in the Bronx for four years, Mariano Rivera wasn't sure if $45 million over three years would be enough to keep him in pinstripes, and A-Rod, sans agent, turned up in Tampa to make amends with the Steinbrenners. Knicks guard Stephon Marbury blew off the team during a West Coast swing. And Garden deity Mark Messier—who's said for the record that he'd love to run the Rangers

Published: 2007-11-16 Provider: New York Magazine