Aiken Update: Clay-Mation Babymama | Beatles Costumes Sell for $130,000 | Sex, City but No Office Drinking | Rosie Waves True Colors; YSL
Record-industry insiders are scratching their heads at news of weirdo "American Idol" singer Clay Aiken's imminent fatherhood.
The mother in question has been named as Jaymes Foster-Levy. But her real name, I am told, is just Eileen Foster. She's the sister of record producer David Foster, she's 50, and not particularly popular in the music world.
How she got the name Jaymes: According to insiders, when her father died, Eileen became "James" and added the "Y." OK, so that's weird enough.
What's escaped most attention is that Foster was married for 25 years to Leeds Levy, a music world scion and former exec. They had no children.
"If she's having a kid now, it's with a donated egg," says one keen observer of the reproductive process. "In other words, she's simply doing Clay a favor by carrying someone else's egg fertilized with his sperm."
Aiken, at this point, is exhibiting Michael Jackson-like characteristics that should not have been seen again. None of Jackson's children was achieved through conventional means. It's questionable that he's even the biological dad of the eldest two, Prince and Paris. The third, known as Blanket, was conceived through IVF with a surrogate mother.
Beatles Costumes Sell for $130,000
The Beatles remain at the top of the charts, even if it’s just the nostalgia ones.
On Saturday night at the Hard Rock Café, a complete set of four suits wore by the Fab Four sold at auction for $130,000 to a private collector. The suits had been adorning four wax versions of John, Paul, George and Ringo at Madame Tussaud’s, which is what accounted for their excellent condition.
The auction was for Music Rising, a charity started by The Edge from U2 to support musicians hurt by Hurricane Katrina. That’s the same hurricane for which Michael Jackson is one day planning to release a charity single. Q104.3’s legendary Jim Kerr, dressed in a suit and tie no less, emceed the event, which was sponsored by Gibson Guitars.
The Edge — real name David Evans — not only showed up on Saturday, he brought his family and friends. He also donated several of his own guitars for auction. One of bandmate Bono’s guitars was also up on the block.
It’s interesting to note that it took a musician from East London to pitch in for New Orleans. He must wonder, as must Aaron Neville, who performed Saturday night before the auction, where all the American musicians have gone?
The most spirited bidding of the night was for Beatles memorabilia. Not only did the outfits sell high, but so too did original animation "cels" from the film “Yellow Submarine,” several groupings of autographs and some late era Al Hirschfeld drawings of the group.
In the crowd, punk-rock queen Patti Smith chatted at length with old pal Bebe Buell about the real heyday of New York rock. Joan Jett showed up, as did 90-plus-year-old guitar inventor Les Paul, author May Pang and a cadre of musicians including Ron Thal (aka “Bumblefoot) of Guns N' Roses. Fans of that band will be pleased to hear that their long-awaited album, “Chinese Democracy,” is finished but has no release date.
Sex, City but No Office Drinking
“Sex and the City: The Movie” made box office history over the weekend. It’s the biggest romantic comedy of all time, with more than $56 million in the till.
Maybe the funniest part of the weekend though was reading box-office prognosticators changing their minds literally by the hour about how much “SATC” was making, and why: either no men were going or lots of men, or men at gunpoint. No one was correct, either, and all those live bloggers missed out on beautiful weather. (What will live bloggers tell their grandchildren? “I was inside that day, sorry, missed life!”)
The least funny part of the “SATC” phenom, though, was a piece in Sunday’s New York Daily News claiming that New Line Cinema staffers had taken to “drinking in the office” as they awaited the axe from TimeWarner. The piece also blamed these poor staffers for keeping “2,000” fans out of the Radio City Music Hall premiere last Tuesday.
The News may have some legal problems with the first part, since future employers of the dedicated New Liners may hesitate to hire open boozers as described here. Let me reassure you: The few people left at New Line to run that premiere are dedicated and hard-working. The most they’ve had to drink in the office is Snapple.
They’ve also known for some time that their last day would be June 27, but they stayed on to make sure “SATC” got a proper launch. The huge box office hit is evidence of their endeavors.
As for that premiere, as I wrote last week, it was the Radio City staff that panicked and kept out ticket holders. (There were hardly 2,000, maybe 200.)
Spite, Newsers, is a terrible thing to squander. Save it for something really important, not a bunch of nice people who will be out of work in less than a month. There but for the grace of God, as they say. …
PS: The “Sex and the City” soundtrack is No. 2 on Amazon.com. It’s on New Line’s own record label, same as they had a hit with the “Hairspray” CD last year. This is an indie label, and not part of the lamentable Warner M. Group. …
Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” tour hits Radio City Tuesday night with a special opening act: Rosie O’Donnell. It’s the hot ticket of the week. Somehow, though, both Rosie and Cyndi were left off of the New York Post’s extremely odd “50 Most Powerful Women in NYC” list on Sunday.
The list is so wacky — who is Tinsley Mortimer? Powerful? I doubt it. Where was downtown mover and shaker Julie Menin, chairperson of Community Board No. 1 in Tribeca? How about Sylvia Rhone, the only female in charge of a record company? Or Billie Jean King, who’s made the Sports Hall of Fame Museum a reality? The Post actually included former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s hooker instead.
Lauper, by the way, appears on CBS’s “As the World Turns” this week. Maybe it will help the ailing show’s ratings. Since they forced out star Martha Byrne in late April, their numbers have been in steady decline. ...
Yves Saint Laurent died Sunday at age 71. I can’t count all the times I was told he was going to die over the years, so it seems a little unreal.
So many designers owe their careers to him, but none more than Paloma Picasso, whose fantastically successful jewelry and perfume lines were launched with his encouragement.
Laurent’s legacy is rare: The YSL brand remains a synonym for classiness some 40 years after it was created. ...
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