(several times), but this is the first time I’ve gotten a real feel for Chicago. I’m impressed! We stayed at the tiny chic Talbott Hotel. Located in Chicago’s Gold Coast on a beautiful tree-lined street, it’s in the middle of the action. Although time was short, we managed to take in the Loop, seeing many significant skyscrapers, from early buildings of 19th C. architect Louis Sullivan to contemporary showpieces. The multitude of European-style parks and Beaux-Arts public buildings near Lake Michigan, were standouts. Big and bold, downtown Chicago, boasting both the Chicago River and a Great Lake, makes even Manhattan pale in comparison. Driving north on Lake Shore Drive, which becomes bucolic Sheridan Road, we saw luxury high-rises turn into forty miles of historic lakeside mansions. Our sightseeing ended in the platinum village of Glencoe–the hometown of my great friend Michael Bloomfield. No time for the Frank Lloyd Wrights–they were in another direction–but dinner at Il Mulino, a terrific Italian in the Victorian Biggs mansion, was a special treat. Will be back.
On Sundance channel,Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno, a series of short films about the mating habits of animals, is really outrageous. She takes great delight in announcing the most intimate specifics of beastie anatomy, while appearing in simulated breeding rituals with construction paper animals. Coy, camp and filled with inter-species soft core, the shorts are a lot of fun and have won film awards and, more fittingly, made “clip of the week” on Talk Soup, twice!
Everyone will agree that Naomi Campbell is one of the greatest models, but, as a person–perhaps not so much? In the last few months she has been in the news many times: slugging her billionaire boyfriend Vladimir Doronin’s limo driver; hitting a camera as she walked off an interview when queried about receiving a blood diamond from Liberian despot Charles Taylor; rumors of her engagement to Vlad; and, now, an upcoming Oprah appearance to clear the air. Who can forget the thrown phones, the run-in with Heathrow cops, Tyra crying that Naomi tried to ruin her career, street-cleaning sentences and anger-management rehab. And that she dated Mike Tyson a million midnights ago? A Daniel Craig look-alike, Doronin has been seeing Naomi for two years, so I guess it doesn’t faze him. He sat in the audience, with Campbell’s mother, to lend support during the Oprah taping. I must see that show.
UPDATE from Oprah: The drugs, the tantrums, the tears–and her new life in Moscow–were all addressed. She came off very well: I believe Naomi’s story of trying to be a better soul!
Google does. They know how to innovate. Cutting their carbon footprint at the company’s northern California headquarters, a herd of goats have been employed to take the place of noisy, polluting old Toros to keep the campus looking trim. Of course they have a wrangler to trail after the animals.