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Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the day's gossip coverage filtered. Today: Al Pacino is honored by President Obama and spends the following day drinking espresso alone, King's Speech director Tom Hooper thinks he can still be friends with the pregnant fiancée he ditched last month, and Michael Bloomberg's birthday menu included charred and salted toast, flambeed shrimp, and a giant ricotta pie.
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Yesterday was Michael Bloomberg's 70th birthday, and we meant it when we said he should have found time to inhale some transfats and repeatedly honk while driving through a no-honking zone. Apparently his staff had treats planned for him that were decidedly less fun. Just after 7 a.m., a group of senior staffers presented Bloomberg with an aromatic gift of "charred toast" covered in salt at a coffee shop near his Upper East Side townhouse. It should be noted that Bloomberg apparently likes his toast scorched and salt-doused, but to lure him out to the cafe, the staffers booked a fake 9 a.m. meeting with Mike Fishman, head of building workers’ union Local 32BJ," which feels like it has to be a crime of some sort. For lunch, he went to Circo and had flambéed shrimp with number one squeeze Diana Taylor "and six others." A source overheard Taylor telling a member of the advance staff, "Put a candle in a piece of cake . . . It’s his birthday.” Later in the evening, Bloomberg received "a giant mousse and ricotta cheesecake from Staten Island civic activist Dr. Mohammed Khalid." If it tastes half-as-good as the picture of a giant mousse ricotta cheesecake we pulled looks, Bloomberg could be looking at the greatest sugar crash from a New York City mayor since William O'Dwyer. [Page Six]
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In an interview for the March issue of Vogue, cover subject Adele declared, "I am never writing a breakup record again." Considering splits from her boyfriends inspired her first two albums, 19 and 21, this counts as a major career reversal. This puts her in a tough spot: if she goes back on her word and writes a new album about someone she still carries a torch for, her word isn't worth anything. Time will tell. [Vogue]
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Yesterday, The Washington Post reported that an unidentified male East Wing staffer suffered a "life-threatening finger injury" on the job and was being transported to Washington Hospital Center via an ambulance. It turns out, that was a bit of an overstatement. The Post, wisely, removed the "life-threatening finger-injury" line in subsequent updates. It's not something to laugh about, since the man in question could still have one or possibly two fingers amputated. The good news is that one unnamed White House official called the mishap "a minor injury," adding that an ambulance was called due to "an abundance of caution." [The Washington Post and The Hill]
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When last we left designer Tara Subkoff in January, things were in a state of flux: her fiancé, King's Speech director Tom Hooper, effectively ended their relationship after she "just told friends and Hooper that she’s a few months pregnant with his child," according to sources. That doesn't sound like the kind of thing most people can really hope to bounce back from, but then again, Tom Hooper is not most people: he's the guy who stole -- literally stole, with the help of several international cat burglars -- the Best Director Oscar that should have gone to David Fincher last year for The Social Network. Sources say the two still "intend to be friends," and teft open the possibility that the situation could calm down entirely once Hooper is done directing the new film version of Les Miserables, which has been driving more than it's fair share of Hollywood talent to the edge of madness in recent weeks. [Page Six]
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A lady who looked like J. Crew president Jenna Lyons briefly caused confusion at the chain's Fashion Week presentation yesterday.The resemblance was sufficient enough to have "caught the eye of J.Crew execs when [Faux Lyons] happened to be cast in the company’s Madewell campaign." Lyons laughed off the prospect of being overshadowed by a younger, skinner version of herself by noting, yes, "She’s a lot cuter, a lot skinnier and a lot younger than me." That line got some laughs, and she could have easily followed it by saying, "When was the last time this one was photographed painting her son's fingernails in a catalogue picture?" [Page Six]
New Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue cover model Kate Upton was not particularly helpful yesterday in shedding light on whether she is in fact dating barely-serviceable New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. We blame TMZ for finessing the question to Upton like they were in 8th grade study hall. Eventually, she just burted out "I don't know! It's whatever you make it." In light of that non-explanation, we're going to refer back to yesterday's New York Post, which yesterday referred to her as "the former flame of Jets QB Mark Sanchez." [TMZ]
America's loudest living treasure Al Pacino was in D.C. on Monday to receive the National Medal of the Arts at the White House. But on Tuesday in the lobby of the W Hotel, he was spotted "sitting alone and sipping an espresso" on two separate occasions. Sad! Like the scenes in Sea of Love before he meets Ellen Barkin. At least his photo-op with President Obama went well. [The Reliable Source]
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