Rufus Wainwright vs. The Catholic Church
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Rufus Wainwright has a few Catholics angry, Al Gore is steppin' out, and Elin Nordegren is looking for love.
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Human harpsichord Rufus Wainwright has provoked the ire of some in the Catholic community in New York City after calling an old church on 23rd Street that's facing closure "crappy." It seems that Rufus used to go to this church, which is the only one in the city to hold mass in French, to light a candle for his mother, but then he went once and there were no candles so compared to Notre Dame in Paris, this struggling hut of worship is crappy. Well, yeah, the Statue of Liberty is crappy compared to Notre Dame for heaven's sake. It's a silly thing but the New York Post, ever eager to get people's grandmas in Bay Ridge angry, has decided to report on it. It's willing to put aside its bitter hatred of anything French in order to focus on a much bigger beast: A weird gay singer who called a church crappy. To be fair, they do call the song that Wainwright wrote about the church "beautiful," so they're not in total witch hunt mode, but "Star's unholy hit on church" as a headline is a bit intense. Why won't Rufus Wainwright stop murdering priests??? Grandmas from Sheepshead Bay to Bensonhurst (not far, but far enough) demand satisfaction. [Page Six]
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Oooh ooh oohhh. It seems that Captain Planet's wacky uncle, Al Gore, has a new ladyfriend in his life. He's been linked to a wealthy California environmentalist named Elizabeth Keadle, who, when married to her rich husband, was an early investor in Gore's Current TV cable access program. The couple, who haven't been spotted canoodling to my knowledge but likely do canoodle when possible, traveled to Antarctica together in January, along with Richard Branson, Gore's Harvard roommate Tommy Lee Jones, and Jason Mraz. Cool guest list. Presumably Mraz was brought along to croon to the couple and play guitar until his fingers fell off from the frostbite and then he was left there in the frozen wilds, away from humanity, earning Gore another Nobel Prize. In a related story, Tipper Gore was reportedly seen in the supermarket in her sweatpants, buying salad dressing. [Reliable Source]
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As everyone at Facebook gets ready to become gagillionaires with this whole IPO thing, fallen demigods and sore losers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are getting into the hedge fund game. They've started Winklevoss Capital and were seen recently hobnobbing with the financiaratti at a CNBC party. Guests included John Paulson and Alan Greenspan. Haha. 1) Can you imagine anything worse in this world than a CNBC party? Eating dry toast in an empty room would be more exciting than going to a CNBC party. Yikes. 2) Alan Greenspan goes to parties? It seems very odd that Alan Greenspan even knows what a party is. He was probably wearing a pointy paper hat and asked where the Pin the Tail on the Donkey was. "My mom told me to give you this present," he said to the host and then went off in search of sweets. So, welcome, Winklevii! What a fabulous, wonderful world you've chosen to enter. Maybe when you're more experienced you can go to a Fox Business party, where things are wild there. Seriously. Neil Cavuto killed a guy. It's intense. [Page Six]
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Fellas, it seems that Sweden's most famous angry ex-wife Elin Nordegren is single again. She was dating some son of a billionaire ("You dirty, rotten, stinking son of a billionaire!") but she's called it quits because she wants someone who's a little more settled and grounded. That someone could be you! You'd have to move to Florida, probably, which is a major drawback, plus you wouldn't be allowed to wear anything Nike-related around her, but other than that she sounds like quite a catch. Though we hear she might already have a new man in her life, a mysterious suitor with a thick mustache and a big, plastic-looking nose named Smiger Smoods who Nordegren discovered recently wandering around her backyard. [Us Weekly]
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Elizabeth, the Queen of England and Its Other Various Properties, is turning a thousand years old this year, so it is time for the big Diamond Jubilee. This, of course, involves a ceremony, happening in June, in which the Queen is coated in diamonds and roasted in a kiln for several hours. When she is done she will emerge as an indestructible diamond-encrusted Super Queen and will be sent out to dispatch many of the Commonwealth's enemies. Another part of the Jubilee is a party with songs, and one such song now has a video. It is called "Sing" and it is by a guy from Take That and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In the video it is very nice to see impoverished people from colonialism-ravaged Africa and decimated aboriginal populations of Australia and New Zealand sing a sweet song in honor of a faraway old woman who literally eats money like a common goat eats cans. Weirdly done, Britain! Very weirdly done. Anyway, the whole point of posting this is that Prince Harry, the Crown's most trusted sex ambassador, appears briefly in the video banging a tambourine. Enjoy it. [People]
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Ellen DeGeneres and her longtime roommate Portia de Rossi recently sold their $50 million house and have downsized into a modest $18 million house. It basically looks like a wing of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, with all its white and skylights and various things. Though it looks like it's big enough that should Ellen or Portia at any point bring a guy home to entertain, the other won't get in their way. Which is important for roommates. That can be hard. As Neil Patrick Harris can tell you about his roommate, there's nothing more annoying than coming home to a sock on the door. But seriously, go look at this house. Woof. [TMZ]
