Because by unloading the Trump Marina Hotel Casino for $316 million to Coastal Marina, a company owned by Richard Fields, Trump is dropping his lawsuit against Fields, which he filed after the former protege tried, and succeeded in, swindling The Donald out of another casino deal in 2005. [AP] The inflated price of the deal? Perhaps part of an unwritten settlement agreement.
Trump Entertainment Resorts has sold, for three hundred sixteen million dollars, the Trump Marina Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. Its buyer, Coastal Marina, is renaming it Margaritaville. [AP]
DONALD TRUMP’S SOHO PROBLEMS Notwithstanding the actual construction dilemmas of Trump Soho, The Donald’s biz partners’ skeevy pasts are coming to light. There’s investor Felix Sater, the ex-con who might be tied to the mob, whose involvement in a pump-and-dump stock scam forced him to flee the country. And now there’s German real estate tycoon Thomas Kramer, an investor in the building’s restaurant, Quattro, who was arrested last year for allegedly fondling a 13-year-old boy in the Rainbow Room’s bathroom, which added to reports of his allegedly raping his secretary, assaulting a homeless man, and fonding a woman’s breast at a party.
“Made of only the best pure blue agaves in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, this tasty beverage comes in three varieties (Blanco, Resposado and Anejo) for your sipping pleasure.” That’s one pitch for Frida Kahlo Tequila, a party bevy branded around the famed Mexican painter.
But do nightlife titans really want to be seen ordering unibrows for bottle service?
Well, actually, there are worse options. CONTINUED »
At least one news organization has already been April Fool-ed: Crain’s Chicago Business. They picked up a fake press release from Time Out Chicago, which claimed Donald Trump had assumed a controlling interest in the magazine. (It helped that Donald smiled at readers from the cover of the March 27-April 2 issue under the headline “Our New Owner.”) Says TONY: “We thought people would realize this was a parody issue.” And we thought nobody took press releases at face value.
A bodypainted model who was serving Trump Vodka at a Trump Vodka party may have been just 17 years old as she slung back shots of Trump Vodka. [The Dirty]
Just a quick FYI: Owning your own production has its benefits. Because David Letterman’s company, Worldwide Pants, made a separate agreement with the Writers Guild of America, the second-rated late night host can have Screen Actors Guild guests without any awkwardness and/or protests from the WGA. CONTINUED »
Our daily attempt to help you seem smart, even if you’re not.
afflatus \uh-FLAY-tus\ noun : a divine imparting of knowledge or power : inspiration
The recent Thursday Styles piece on Ivanka Trump makes her success seem like the result of her own hard work, not afflatus or her father’s name.
[Photo Credit: WireImage]
• Note to the slutty American Idol wannabe who now has her very own third-rate porn tape: the journey is so over.
• Donald Trump denies giving a waiter a $10,000, cites his lifelong history of miserliness as evidence.
• Tara Reid could almost pass for a high-class rent girl. Related: Reid’s parents are said to be bursting with pride.
• Yep, this awkward, dispassionate PDA totally clears up any misgivings we had about Rachael Ray’s marital troubles.
• Ever heard a native New Yorker grouse that Times Square makes him/her want to vomit? Allow us to introduce Exhibit A.
There’s no better cure for the Mondays than looking for jobs, and no better cure for hating your job than reading job listings. Each week, we remind you that as bad your job is, it could be a lot worse.
This week, Donald Trump is hiring. As if working for Donald, the real estate mogul, wasn’t repellent enough, here’s an opportunity to promote Donald, the scholar. Trump U. is looking for a creative director for the only online university with the Trump seal of approval.
If you have five years of marketing experience, this terrible job could be yours. Full listing after the jump. CONTINUED »
Well, we’ve doubted Paris Hilton’s intelligence before, but we have to credit her for being smart enough to skip out on the televised ego trip known as The Apprentice. This heiress/actress/partygoer/musician will not be participating in this season’s Celebrity Apprentice.
Even without Paris Hilton, plenty of people are desperate enough for media exposure to be in the same room as Donald Trump. And they include: Omarosa, Lennox Lewis, Tito Ortiz, Gene Simmons, Stephen Baldwin, Carol Alt, Vincent Pastore, John Cena and Marilu Henner.
First off, Omarosa isn’t a celebrity. She’s a person who appeared on a reality TV show three years ago. Stephen Baldwin is related to celebrities, but is no longer one himself. As for Lennox Lewis, it’s a shame he didn’t have better endorsements back when he was heavyweight champion of the world.
Angelina Jolie is sort of amazing because everyone thinks she’s like this great beauty. And I’m not saying she’s an unattractive woman, but she’s not beauty, by any stretch of the imagination. I really understand beauty. And I will tell you, she’s not — I do own Miss Universe. I do own Miss USA. I mean I own a lot of different things. I do understand beauty, and she’s not.
–Donald Trump, using his ownership of the Miss Universe pageant to disprove the fallacy of Angelina Jolie’s attractiveness. [DListed via Mollygood]
• We’re used to seeing Courtney Love look wasted. We’re not used to seeing her wasting away.
• Turns out Chris Crocker’s wee is even shorter than his fifteen minutes of fame. Zing! (Very, very NSFW).
• “Spoiler” alert: Carrie is going to be wearing some fugly outfits in the SATC movie.
• Your social networking habit is worth $10B, which is, incidentally, the approximate value of all that time wasted annually on social networking.
• How is Kanye West like a nervous teenage girl before a first date? Answer: Both of them take FOREVER to get ready, desperately need their friends’ approval and change their outfit a zillion times.
• Trump’s upcoming new magazine to cater to “wealthy readers.” Who would have guessed??
Beauty doesn’t pay. At least beauty pageants don’t.
The New York Times reports today that beauty pageants are really just as dumb and vapid as they seem. Winners are having trouble collecting on the college scholarships they were promised for parading around in their bathing suits.
Technicalities and paper work stopped Miss South Carolina 2004 from collecting her $20,000 scholarship. “What is very clear to me is that the goal is to not give out the scholarships if at all possible,” she said.
That Miss South Carolina attends Wharton. Meanwhile, Miss Teen South Carolina 2007, who could have certainly benefited from a college scholarship, seems to be doing fine without any education.
Say what you will about Donald Trump, at least he keeps it real about what beauty pageants are all about: beauty.
• Sex and the City spoiler alert: Charlotte gets knocked up, Big is emotionally distant, but nobody cares because the SHOW ENDED OVER THREE YEARS AGO.
• Can we tawk for a minute about that meshugana Joan Rivers and her horse-faced daughter, Melissa?
• Stupidity pays: Miss Teen South Carolina stands to make $25,000 as a model for Donald Trump
• Oddly enough, not every bearded Asian man is Judge Lance Ito
• 62-year-old prostitute apprehended by police, mercilessly mocked for her $15/hour going rate.
• Bombing live performances is so now!
Now that she’s no longer wanted by the police or even by E!, Paris Hilton is still in hot demand for reality TV. Donald Trump is courting her via Page Six, calling her possible competition, Britney and Lindsay, “[bleeping] messes.” But her business savvy might take her away from working. According to The Sun, Big Brother is offering her more than $600,000 to lay around, get in caddy fights and humiliate herself under the public gaze. If health care and a 401(K) are included, it could be the perfect job.
• At a very minimum, there are five things wrong with Debra Messing’s outfit. And “unattractive side-boob” is only one of them.
• Unlike a fine wine, Donald Trump’s comb-over only gets infinitely worse with age.
• Boyfriend/pant-stealer Claire Danes, bringing “penis-belt” to a whole new level.
• Paris is in love! Unfortunately, the object of her affections is a dimwitted, wonky-eyed hotel heiress.
• Angelina Jolie is hanging on by a clavicle.
• Unemployed actress Sally Kirkland dons blackface and a Lionel Richie “fro” and poses beside Nicole Richie—presumably because (a) they’re all crazy, and (b) Angelina Jolie was unavailable.
• Meanwhile, the next time Paris Hilton screams, “Why won’t those awful paparazzi just leave me alone?” simply shake your head and remember that she’s a crazy, lying mess.
• Lauren Conrad accidentally-on-purpose broke Brody Jenner’s finger during a heated game of touch football. Natch, Jenner didn’t let it ruin his beer buzz and had resumed his normal activities (read: binge-drinking and spending his father’s money) within hours.
• JLo and her skeletal hubby Marc Anthony claim they couldn’t be more “normal.” Assuming “normal” is slang for “stuck-up rich people, one of whom has a disproportionately large ass.”
Yesterday, we told you Ben Silverman’s hatching a plan to court famous people (and, um, the cast of The Office) for an extra special ratings stunt all-celebrity edition of The Apprentice. And now, we hear Trump’s cordially invited his arch-nemesis, Rosie O’Donnell to participate, with disingenuous promises that she won’t be unfairly targeted and/or fired in the meanest, most dehumanizing way possible.
“If Rosie would like to do it, she would be treated very fairly,” Trump tells PEOPLE. “Don’t forget her show got the highest ratings in December and January when she and I went at it. So I think it would be very good for Rosie. And she would be treated very fairly.”
Persuasive words! But will Rosie take the bait?
Ever wondered how the cast of The Office would fare on an all-celebrity edition of The Apprentice? We sure have! In fact, lately, we’ve been thinking about it a little bit more every day.
As we see it, the annoyingly sycophantic Dwight Schrute would quickly tick off The Donald with his transparent ass-kissing and self-promotional banter. Meanwhile, Jim and Pam would be too busy pranking Ivanka and debating whether or not to make out to seriously compete, while the Regional Manager of the Scranton Branch of Dunder-Mifflin would undoubtedly ruffle Trump’s feather’s with his overinflated sense of business savvy, then offend him with some sort of wayward racist or sexist remark in a misguided (and socially inept) attempt at humor.
Fortunately, programming guru Ben Silverman is already well on his way towards making our Office/Donald Trump crossover premise a reality (show).
Editorial Director
