Marco Rubio Vets Himself; Sarah Jessica Parker Escapes From Manhattan
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning, we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Marco Rubio is doing some self-vetting in the hopes of improving his chances of being the GOP ticket this year, Newt Gingrich is soaking his supporters, and Sarah Jessica Parker has found two lovely townhouse in Brooklyn she wants to buy and squash together.
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It looks as if Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is "feverishly positioning himself" to be the GOP vice presidential nominee. He's moving up the release of his biography from September to June to get ahead on a none-too-flattering unauthorized book set for publication in July. (Publication of that book, The Rise of Marco Rubio, by The Washington Post’s Manuel Roig-Franzia has also been moved up.) Rubio's political committee has also "spent more than $40,000 for investigators to research for negative attacks that could surface against him." This month, he asked the Florida State Ethics Committee to "closeout a complaint that he misused Republican Party and campaign money" to run up excessive food and travel bills on GOP credit cards. [Tampa Bay Times via Politico]
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Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign has finally hit upon a way for this quixotic White House run to pay off. Rather, than say, letting supporters stand next to the man they've decided to give their vote and energy to and have a picture taken for free, the Gingrich camp is now charging 50 bucks for the privilege. It's "a nominal donation," insists campaign spokesman R.C. Hammon, who notes that when Wall Street types meet with, say, Massachusetts Moderate Mitt Romney, the routinely pay $2,500 to have their picture taken with the former governor. Of course, that's an actual fundraiser, in a conference room, with fresh cold cuts and multiple fruit platters in case anyone gets hungry. Gingrich is just charging $50 for his photo out there in the territories. To be fair, the price is less than that of an autographed Darryl Strawberry baseball or a baseball bat bearing the signature of Boston Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury. [Daily Intel]
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It looks like Sarah Jessica Parker is closing in on a deal to move out of the West Village.(That's big, right? It seems big.) Apparently Parker and husband Matthew Broderick are buying not one but two townhouses in Brooklyn. The two properties, currently selling for a cool $19 million, would apparently be "combined to create a 7,000 square foot 'urban mansion.'" [The New York Observer]
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When Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence returns to running around the forest with her crossbow in the film version of Catching Fire, the second novel in the series, she will be much more well-compensated for all the leaping and ducking behind foliage. Lawrence received $500,000 for the first film, but apparently her contract was full of escalators "that kick in when the movie crosses certain box-office thresholds (which by all accounts it already has crossed)" As a result, Lawrence apparently "stands to bring in more than $1 million by the time the film finishes its theatrical run and can expect greater rewards going forward." We should certainly hope so. That's not much of an escalator when you're talking about a movie that made $185 million on its opening weekend. It's like a tiny, any escalator. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Russian billionaire Vladimir Doronin is apparently close to getting a divorce from Ekaterina Doronin, "his estranged wife of 24 years." The trouble is, Doronin apparently plans to cite Naomi Campbell, her soon-to-be-ex-husband's girlfriend, as the cause of the split. Apparently Campbell's "devastated" that she's being blamed for ruining the marriage, and sources say it doesn't even make much sense, since Doronin apparently had "a 7-year relationship in between separating from his wife and meeting Campbell." For her part, Ekaterina Doronin has long denied that she was ever estranged from her husband to begin with. So expect this one to get messy. [Page Six]
Miley Cyrus would very much like the world to know that she is not engaged, despite wearing a shiny bauble on her finger in recent days that looked remarkably like an engagement ring. She tweeted no, it's topaz, and besides, she's been wearing it since November, which should have been obvious if any of us had even bothered to look. [TMZ]
Bobby Brown was arrested on suspicion of DUI on Monday. We know, we know -- this was the most inevitable celebrity arrest of 2012. That being said, it would have been nice if it didn't happen. For his sake. He's been through a lot these last few months. He was taken to Van Nuys Jail and quickly posted bail. [People]
Here's a fun one: Jamie Lynn-Sigler -- aka, Meadow Soprano -- is dating Washington Nationals infielder Cutter Dykstra, the son of much-profiled former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra, who is currently serving a three year bid for grand theft auto. The two have apparently been dating for several months and are very happy. Dykstra -- who is adamant his father did not steal his signing bonus -- is a longshot to make the club, but if he does, the star power at Nationals will no longer just be confined to Ben Bernanke. [Page Six]
Friday was the last day on the job for New York Daily News managing editor Bob Sapio, according to sources. He was a senior executive before being given a weird non-promotion to managing editor in November. Sapio had more than 40 years experience with the paper. A source said his departure was "a long time coming." [The New York Observer]
