Ellen Barkin's Unrocking New Year's Eve; No Prenup for Katy Perry
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Ellen Barkin runs afoul of the NYPD on New Year's Eve, the East Coast media descends on a tiny Iowa diner, and Russell Brand and Katy Perry are the latest famous people not to have a prenup.
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Ellen Barkin says she was thrown to the ground by a New York City police officer on New Year's Eve after she tried to intervene during the arrest of an Occupy protester in the West Village. Her boyfriend Sam Levinson captured video of the incident, which seems to support Barkin's subsequent claim on Twitter that she felt the cops "harassed" and "threatened" her. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NYPD didn't respond to requests for comment on the incident. [New York Post]
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Today, in people not having prenups: Russell Brand and Katy Perry apparently didn't hammer one out before they got married in 2010. Under California divorce law, Brand could be in line for a payout of "al least $20 million" from his soon-to-be-ex. The lesson, as always: if you're rich, famous and insist on not having a prenup, at least protect yourself by not getting hitched in California. [New York Daily News]
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Kanye West, who as of last week didn't have a New Year's Eve party to DJ, got a last-minute gig at the opening of 1 OAK, a new nightclub located in The Mirage. West arrived at the club "just minutes before minute," spun some music, and then spent "much of the rest of the night" flirting with a "stunning brunette" who was definitely not rumored new squeeze Kim Kardashian. [Page Six]
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ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent Jim Sciutto is leaving the network after 13 years to become U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke's chief of staff. Locke apparently made the offer last month, after the subject came up "organically" during a conversation with Sciutto, who says he was trying to cultivate the former commerce secretary as a source. [TV Newser]
Mitt Romney was accompanied by so many members of the press during a campaign stop at the Family Table diner in Atlantic, Iowa yesterday that servers "gave up delivering food" until the press horde moved out. Among the notables following the former Massachusetts governor, per Politico's Mike Allen: New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, Boston Globe editorial page editor Peter Canellos, New York magazine's Jason Zengerle, NPR's Don Gonyea, New York Times reporters Ashley Parker and Jeff Zeleny, and Dan Balz, Karen Tumulty, and Philip Rucker of The Washington Post. [Politico]
Sean Combs -- who's been spending lots of time with Cameron Diaz of late -- was spotted in "deep conversation" Rihanna during a New Year's Eve party at his Miami mansion. That could have had something to do with the fact that Rihanna's most recent ex, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, was at the bash as well, with a "huge entourage" in tow. [Page Six]
