Tanya Young Williams, former wife of former Nets star Jayson Williams, who is the former drunk now apologizing for former behavior that got him into court, headlines and jail, says:
“He’s capable of lying and convincing anyone he’s changed and wants to ‘connect with my daughter.’ It’s laughable. I’m sorry for him. Released on her birthday, he hung with friends all day. His one 10-minute call to her was days later. People begged him to at least say hi to his own children on Father’s Day.
“He claims he’s not strapped for cash yet hasn’t supported me or my girls in four years except for our receipt of part of his bail money. Jayson’s been sober before, but it’s only a matter of time.
“There are words like bipolar and narcissistic. I don’t hate Jay, but, as he was diagnosed during his trial, my belief is he’s sick.”
PAY attention. How cinema queen Helen Mirren eats, who knows? How England’s queen eats, I know. On the Thames, barely a crumpet from Windsor Castle, exists the village Bray. Visitors with big mouths — for talking as well as eating — report this tiny suburb-let has a high-class restaurant named Waterside Inn, with a high-class chef named Alain Roux, with a high-class general manager named Diego Masciaga, with a high-class three-star Michelin menu.
This being not in my neighborhood, I frankly couldn’t care less but am told it’s so good that Queen Elizabeth II’s personal butler was there — you ready? — to shlep take-out for the Sovereign’s Sunday lunch. With her Beefeaters, Royal Guards, RAF, equerries, aides, servants and Prince Philip, there’s not one lone human to throw together a tuna on rye for Her Maj?
FACEBOOK’s No. 2 exec, Sheryl Sandberg, got hoisted to its board of directors. Rumors are she and Suckerberg, who engineered that recent IPO, were not getting along. It’s mumbled maybe she’s being moved up before being moved out. Me, I know nothing. Just repeating.
SUBWAY vigilante Bernie Goetz — who lawyer Barry Slotnik got off 25 years ago after shooting four alleged muggers — recently fostered a wounded squirrel.
“It was sickly. I fed him every two hours and gave him four to five hours daily of constant care,” Bernie told me. “I found this litter of four babies in Washington Square Park. The infant runt was starving. I named him Crème Puff, and he was so sweet and well brought up. He’d sit on my shoulder and go for a walk. He’d sleep on me and never want to run away.
“I took him to a vet. He was malnourished and underweight but getting better. When he needed hydration, I took him to an exotic animal center. He must’ve missed me,” Bernie said sadly, “because they called and told me, ‘I have bad news for you. The squirrel didn’t make it.’ ”
CARE to hear where Lady Gaga was? Dining with Elton John at Craig’s in Hollywood . . . Care to hear where Eliot Spitzer was? At Central Park’s 90th and Fifth entrance, running, alone, 5:30 a.m., in shorts and sneakers . . . Care to hear how Gwyneth stays slimmeth? A 10-day Master Cleanse — 12 glasses of water every 24 hours with tablespoons of lemon, maple syrup and a pinch of cayenne.
Care to hear about Keira Knightley’s first big break? “At 12, I was a dead ringer for Natalie Portman. We looked so alike that when I played her decoy in ‘Star Wars: Phanton Menace,’ my mother came into my makeup room and said, ‘Natalie, have you seen Keira?’ ”
Care to hear when Rachel Weisz knew she’d be in movies? “I first suspected I’d be an actress at age 13.”
SYRIA is a small country. Smaller than New Jersey. Ask why Assad remains in power, why this slaughter continues, and Syrian friends say:
“He’s terrible, awful — we want him gone. But we also don’t want the alternative. The Muslim Brotherhood, funded by Qatar, Turkey, al Qaeda, Hamas, are extremists. Terrorists. Not moderates. We are fearful they’ll take over as they have in Egypt.
“Seventy percent of our major cities is Sunni. Some are wealthy, business owners, in trade . . . they could rise up and get rid of the current government because what’s happening is so bad — but even more, they fear the alternative.”
LOUSY joke around CNN. One exec: “We should announce all our changes on the air.” Second exec: “Yeah, but if we announce it on CNN, who will know?”
DOWNTOWN on MacDougal, gossip’s as tasty as Villa Mosconi’s cacciatore. A table of pols dished “The Amateur,” Ed Klein’s new best-selling exposé on Obama. The left, the right, Bubba, Biden, Barack, even dead people are denouncing it and announcing this bonfire of the vanities is mean. A crock. False. Baseless. Lies. Lots of not nice things.
However, this tableful muttered, “But we hear Bill Clinton is really not all that upset.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.