Tonight’s debate. Obama will be “less polite,” a Castillian B.S. phrase for “I couldn’t deal with issues last time. I had no teleprompter.”
Pollster Frank Luntz: “The town hall format is specialized. The people do the questioning. If asked specifics on economy, Obama usually shifts into attacking his opponent. Romney’s tactic must be to address Obama simply with: ‘Answer the person with facts. It was a direct question. Where’s the direct answer?’ ”
NEXT month Le Cirque’s Sirio Maccioni opens his new Sirio’s, ground floor of the Pierre, where a few minutes ago lived the eatery Le Caprice. Oct. 24’s the “soft” invitational 6:30 to 8:30 look-see for cocktails, canapés and reservations.
“We’re an everyday kind of trattoria. Open seven days, lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch. Less expensive than Le Cirque, more than our Circo because it’s a Fifth Avenue hotel,” said son Marco.
“Dinner for two, $150. Chef Filippo’s from Milan. The Grand Hyatt. Simple straightforward recognizable Italian food. Spaghetti. Omelet called frittata. Croissants called cornettos. Le Cirque has 72 items. Here, two dozen. The kitchen’s small.”
Sirio: “We’re 90 seats.” Marco: “80.” Sirio: “And tablecloths.” Marco: “No.” Sirio: “We’re not far away or too uptown. Our customers live nearby. We know them. What they like.” Marco: “Our biggest challenge is Sirio.”
It’s exactly where ship’s waiter Sirio, “an illegal alien,” worked his first job in 1974 at the hotel’s La Foret, now a banquet room. “Everything was French food then. Italian was just red sauce. Now Italian is the world’s most popular.”
The hotel that approached Sirio to open this restaurant, underwrote the décor: beige and brown, soft lighting, carpeting, tables not booths, wood panels, pretty windows, leather chairs, Dolce Vita paintings.
So at his age why begin such a new headache? Big sigh, then: “Please. I have a wife. And two other sons had two expensive divorces.”
WITH so many husbands and wives splitting up, a Kentucky couple just celebrated their 83rd wedding anniversary. Reached for comment they said, “Where did we go wrong?”. . . Unveiling Madison Square Garden’s 133-year-old history, Mario Cuomo recalled the then-Brooklyn Dodgers gave him a $2,000, contract, but the following year a minor-league pitch hit him in the head. Exit baseball; enter politics.
ED Asner in B’way’s “Grace” was given notes by the director, who says: “He took two or three but, I tell you, they didn’t go down easy.”. . . Carla Facciolo of “Mob Wives” and mob-related rapper Tony Testa hanging together, having drinks, in Hell’s Kitchen . . . Film debuting Friday is “The First Time.” Made by Jonathan Kasdan, son of “The Big Chill” filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan.
WE just lost Pennsylvania’s Sen. Arlen Specter. On the specter of Middle East warfare, he said our country should be the peacemaker and our president should invite those nations’ prime ministers here. Why? “Because nobody turns down an invitation to the Oval Office.”
DR. Oz has the prescription for every problem. Stanley Steemer just cleaned his rugs . . . Russians taking over our real estate. Also our food. Downtown Sixth Avenue’s Onegin does caviar, borscht, pojarsky, herring-potato-beet salad, dumplings, Chicken Kiev. Heaven! Excellent . . . Sherry Lehman announced securing 2009 vintage Pepin d’Escurac of the Grand Cru caliber. What that is — who knows? — but I guess it’s for whoever doesn’t like Manischewitz.
Norway’s consul general, Ambassador Sissel Breie, hosting a party for “ ‘White Light,’ a monograph on the work of Heiberg Cummings.” And what that is, who knows? I guess it’s for whomever doesn’t like J.K. Rowling . . . You should know real estate lady Barbara Corcoran sells property personally . . . Eve Ensler’s new play “Emotional Creature” is “to honor Malala Yousaufzai. First rehearsal was dedicated to her bravery, her cause and a speedy recovery.”
BEN Affleck’s “Argo” is about six American captives in Iran in 1979. I was there. Exactly then. A guest of His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah Pahlavi’s twin sister Princess Ashraf in her Shah Abbas hotel in upcountry Isfahan.
My emcee comedian husband, a quasi political figure, was president of the theatrical union American Guild of Variety Artists to which every entertainer belongs. It’s sister to SAG, Screen Actors Guild, whose president was Joey’s friend Ronald Reagan.
Joey had performed at Tehran’s Saad Abaad palace for their majesties. Afterward we holidayed. News about happenings in the capital was terrifying. Royal connections plus divine intervention got us a little local plane out of Isfahan and from Tehran hustled out to the US.
My longtime friend Ken Taylor, who has chosen to have a home here, is the Canadian Ambassador hero who rescued our six Americans. Together, we have relived this story of our lives many times.
A plumbing firm’s truck making the rounds bears the name Maxwell’s Plumb.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.