CNN Staffers Get Stuck; Steve Martin Gets Familiar

Adam Martin
CNN Staffers Get Stuck; Steve Martin Gets Familiar

CNN journalists run late to a party, Steve Martin is the life of the party, Aldon James can't stay away from a party, and Russell Simmons makes too many promises at a party. It's a festive installment of the Smart Set.

  • An auction house seeking to buy a pair of Queen Elizabeth's used underwear from the estate of Joseph de Bicske Dobronyi, who found them on a plane in 1968, has put its quest on hold until after the April 29 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Auction house head Charles Hanson told TMZ he was waiting "Out of respect and courtesy for a person of such dignity and rank." [TMZ]

  • CNN staffers, including Wolf Blitzer, were late to the birthday party for their colleague Piers Morgan last week because they were stuck at the Congressional Correspondents' Dinner thanks to a "valet issue." Morgan, who was also at the dinner, reportedly arrived at the party first, traveling by Towncar. [Page Six]

  • Steve Martin made a cameo appearance at the Saturday Night Live after-party at Primehouse early Sunday, standing on a banquette and roasting host Elton John in a musical number that John quickly joined, Page Six reports. John's claim to fame after he hosted the show and appeared as the musical act on the same night: "I'd like to say that with all the costume changes I didn't get my penis caught in a zipper once. Maybe next time." [Page Six]

  • Aldon James, who was voted out of his post as head of the National Arts Club amid a financial investigation of the organization by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, has been spotted hanging about in a "sober and muted" fashion in the club's dining room. That would make sense, given that he lives in one of the club's apartments. Still, a new batch of security guards now manning entrances and exits is raising eyebrows among the club's elite membership. [Gatecrasher]

  • More reports are surfacing of politicians behaving badly at Geraldine Ferraro's funeral last week. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg asked to be moved closer to the front after he was seated in the eighth row, while Sen. Chuck Schumer, who couldn't get off his phone immediately after the funeral, was actually seen texting during the service. [Page Six]

  • Russell Simmons, the Def Jam founder and now author, should bring a few copies of his book with him if he's going to use it as a flirtation device. Gatecrasher reports that he passed a copy of his book to an attractive young woman at the afterparty for the Cinema Society and Coach screening of Source Code. But the mogul faced an awkward debacle when he remembered out loud immediately after that he had promised the copy to actress Tika Sumpter, who was also at the party. [Gatecrasher]