T. Boone Pickens Tricked by Dog; Jeremy Renner's the New Bourne
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered.
T. Boone Pickens and his wife Madeleine were stranded outside the Monocle on Capitol Hill Tuesday when their dog (Tommy) hit the lock button on the couple's Escalade--when the engine was still running. Madeleine went back into the restaurant "looking for a piece of meat to cajole the dog," but came back only with a handful of mints. According to Pickens's spokesman, what followed was a "collective effort to agitate Tommy," presumably by throwing mints at the window. It worked. Eventually he stepped on the button to lower the windows and the couple was able to leave. [The Reliable Source]
Hurt Locker star Jeremy Renner is taking over the Bourne franchise from Matt Damon--kind of. He'll appear opposite Damon in The Bourne Legacy, as a fellow assassin reprogrammed by the same shadowy government agency, with an eye towards making Renner's character the lead in future installments. Shia LaBeouf and James McAvoy were also up for the role. [Pop Eater]
Matt Lauer isn't leaving the Today show anytime soon, according to executive producer Jim Bell. Bell called the rumors that Lauer might rejoin Katie Couric in syndication "ludicrous" and "silly speculation." Meredith Vieria fans will also be comforted to learn that her reps and Bell are apparently "still talking" about extending her contract beyond this year. Said Bell: "We think she's fantastic, and hope we'll have her with us." [The Hollywood Reporter]
A photo of Harry Potter star Rupert Grint smoking from a bong is making the rounds. The possibly-fake picture is said to have been taken at a Harry Potter cast party, begging the question: where was Dame Maggie Smith? [Gawker]
Designers Karl Langerfeld and Valentino had "a grand, presidential-style meeting" earlier this week. Where? On the Teterboro Airport tarmac, naturally. Both men had just returned from Europe on their private jets. After the meet-and-greet, witnesses say "an amazing array of luxury suitcases were unloaded [from the planes], along with each designer's beautiful entourage and quite a few dogs." [Page Six]
Alexandra Peers is out as editor-at-large of The New York Observer, the second editor from former editor Kyle Pope's regime to depart the publication in recent days. On Tuesday, news broke that culture editor Christian Lorentzen was leaving the Observer for the London Review of Books. Art+Auction staff writer Sarah Douglas has been hired to replace both Peers and Lorentzen. [Daily Intel]
