Ted Leonsis Buys a Chateau; ABC Unearths New Jackie O Tapes
Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: another Hollywood media headline dust-up, famous faces gather to remember Sidney Harman, and another child actor fulfills his child actor destiny:
Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis paid a reported $20 million for Marwood, a "1926 chateau-style mansion on 13 acres of Potomac, Md., riverfront" back in January, but he says he had nothing to do with the ten-page spread on the estate in the new issue of Veranda magazine. The article mainly "focuses on the multi-year renovation overseen by designer Mary Douglas Drysdale" and doesn't even mention Leonsis by name. [The Reliable Source]
Jonathan Lipnicki was precocious and lovable in Jerry Maguire. 15 years later, he's wanted and adored, so much so that he just had to get a restraining order against a former girlfriend. In court papers, the 20-year-old Lipnicki says the woman entered his bedroom, pinned him to his bed, and threatened to "annihilate" him. She now has to stay 100 feet away from him. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Last week, Variety groused that Deadline was taking credit for their Mel Gibson exclusive. Now Deadline is getting in on the headline outrage game, accusing The Wrap riding Deadline's coattails to get the "exclusive" on Jeff Bridges joining the cast of R.I.P.D. It started when they "ripped off" Deadline's story that Bridges was in talks for a role, which only opened up when Zach Galifianakis passed, which Deadline also broke. "TOLDJA needed?" wondered Mike Fleming. (No. No TOLDJA. Please no TOLDJA.) [Deadline]
The "never before seen" material from the Kennedy family just keeps on coming. Now ABC has reportedly sealed a deal to broadcast a special called "Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words." Slated to air in September, the special will feature "never-before-heard audio tapes of conversations between Jacqueline Kennedy and historian Arthur Schlesinger" that were recorded in the spring of 1964. [The Cutline]
Bill Clinton, Yo-Yo Ma, Stephen Breyer, Nancy Pelosi, Walter Isaacson, Steny Hoyer, Susan Collins, and Alan Greenspan were among the notable faces to attend the memorial service for Newsweek publisher Sidney Harman last night in Washington. Clinton praised him as someone who "never forgot the aspiration, the love of family," but the most telling testimonial came from Isaacson, who said Harman was a "polymath...and even knew what that word meant." [The Reliable Source]
