Before winning his multiple Emmy awards this week, the Welsh star of “Widow’s Bay” Matthew Rhys was spotted in downtown Manhattan.
Rhys, who is in a long-term partnership with actress and “The Americans” co-star Keri Russell, was with Welsh Cabinet Minister for Culture Heledd Fychan, Director of the Gotham Center for New York City History at the CUNY Graduate Center Peter-Christian Aigner, and Professor of History at CUNY Queens College Ted Knudsen.
They were promoting Echoes of Revolution: NYC, a multimedia 90-minute walking tour in downtown Manhattan that brings to life New York’s defining role in America’s founding — set in the Assassin’s Creed III universe.
Rhys seemed to particularly enjoy toppling the statue of King George at Bowling Green and said, “As a Welshman, I was born to do this.”
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Frederick Anderson, left, and John Galliano. (Getty)
Frederick Anderson is a big fan of the work of fellow designer John Galliano, but he agrees that the Metropolitan Museum of Art shouldn’t have chosen to honor the British couturier with its show at the Costume Institute.
“It was a bad idea for this year,” Anderson told me. “Maybe five years from now.”
Galliano was sacked as creative director of Dior in 2011 and found guilty of verbally abusing a Jewish woman and her paramour, an Asian man, in a restaurant in Paris. In a separate incident, he was videotaped declaring his love for Adolf Hitler.
The Costume Institute’s boss, former Vogue editor Anna Wintour, thought Galliano’s apologies and the passage of 15 years was enough. It wasn’t.
Anderson called Galliano “brilliant” and said, “I just wish he didn’t have this tragic flaw. Alcoholism changes your thoughts and your behavior, but I don’t become a racist because I drink.”
Anderson threw a show as part of NY Fashion Week at Nebula that featured Canadian folk singer Allison Russell crooning her song “Eve Was Black.”
Now he’s working on the Blue Jacket Show for prostate cancer awareness in Los Angeles on Sept. 29.
Among the models will be Ricco Ross of Netflix’s “Beauty In Black,” Everett Osborne of “Sweetwater,” professional football players Rodney Peete and J.R. Redmond, R&B singer Jon B., pro cyclist Dante Young, pro skateboarder Theotis Beasley, Anthony Hill of “Grey’s Anatomy,” and Sam Asghari, the ex-husband of Britney Spears.
Some are rookies at strutting the catwalk. “It’s impossible to get them to walk the first time,” Anderson said. “But then it’s like, ‘When’s the next show?’”
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Martin McDonagh attends the premiere of ‘Wild Horse Nine’ at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14. (Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Does Oscar-winning writer/director Martin McDonagh not know the meaning of the title to his “Wild Horse Nine”?
He told a packed preview audience Tuesday night, “That’s for the audience to decide.” Hmmm.
The tale of two CIA hitmen, played by Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich, who travel to Easter Island, has already won over audiences in Toronto, Venice and Telluride.
The movie heads to the Hamptons International Film Festival next month.
“It’s the Oscar frontrunner in several categories,” PBS movie critic Bill McCuddy tells me. “Buy a farm and bet it on John Malkovich, everyone else can stay home.”
One funny side note: McDonagh told the crowd he didn’t want to meet any real CIA guys for research “because I wanted to live.”
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Bentley Meeker, the lighting artist who has worked for President Obama at the White House and did the weddings of Robert De Niro and Chelsea Clinton says a homeless person camped out on a sidewalk off the West Side Highway tried to set his $250k Mercedes G-Wagon on fire. Meeker called the cops, who he claims told him there was nothing they could do about the attempted arson because they didn’t see it happen.
A homeless encampment of up to two dozen people has been on the sidewalk in front of his office all summer, Meeker says. One homeless man chased an employee down the street with a metal pipe when the staffer refused to give him a cigarette, he recounted.
Many question Mayor Mamdani’s policy mandating that social workers must spend a week offering the homeless housing and social services before removing them.
“My job is to provide a safe place for my employees to come to work, and sadly this is becoming a dangerous situation for me and my team.”
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Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Shaboozey and global rock star Yoshiki will perform at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park in front of 60,000 people on Sept. 26.
Keys said, “There’s nothing like standing on that stage in the middle of Central Park, in my city, with people who love the world enough to show up for it. Every time we come together, something shifts, making sure every voice gets heard, and giving people the power to shape what comes next.”
Yoshiki, the Japanese composer, pianist, and drummer, also headlined the organization’s first-ever event in Tokyo in June.
The concert, which has been held annually in NYC since 2012 and is dedicated to ending poverty, will be hosted by Hugh Jackman and feature appearances by Marcus Samuelsson, Bill Nye and Katie Couric.
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Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Ramona Singer in the Hamptons in June. (Photo by Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Ramona Singer — who stars in the new reality show “The Golden Life” alongside Kelly Bensimon, Luann de Lesseps, Dorinda Medley, and Sonja Morgan — is in a new relationship with a “silver fox” banker who introduces himself as George Johns.
The loved-up duo, who were on the party circuit all summer in the Hamptons, are now in the city.
The former Real Housewife of NYC told pals, “I’m living my best life. I have no regrets and I’m happy and super excited to travel around the country this fall and have fun! My daughter’s 35, but I feel 30.”
The extroverted TV siren then proved her point by jumping on a table to dance at a private party last weekend.
Earlier this week, Singer was at another fête that boasted a mirrored dance floor that several of the ladies said made dancing difficult, knowing the mirror reflected their private areas.
Ramona laughed it off and playfully picked up her long gown, pretending to give everyone a peek à la Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct.”
“The Golden Life,” which also features “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell, is currently filming in NYC.
Ramona said, “We were originally only going to film 10 episodes, but it was such good TV, they extended it to 20.”
Insiders predict the show, which was also filmed in the Hamptons, will next move to Palm Beach.
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Kim Kardashian, Olivia Munn, and Paris Hilton are just a few of the celebrities who have had children by surrogates.
Though popular for decades, the method has always been controversial, and a new case is asking the question: whose baby is it? In California, surrogate McKenna West chose to have Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed’s baby despite their request for an abortion after learning the child would have a potentially deadly heart defect.
West is now fighting for custody, citing the parents’ refusal to confirm whether they will have the baby undergo surgery. While the parents have stated, “He’s the love of our lives,” many parents have had trouble connecting with surrogacy babies.
Michelle Grace, the author of the forthcoming children’s book, “I’m Right Here,” which addresses this issue, said, “I grieved missing the nine months of pregnancy, a time that feels deeply sacred and foundational. “Finding the connection I longed for did not happen easily. Rebuilding what I felt we had missed was a difficult and painful journey, but it ultimately led to the most beautiful bond of my life.”