Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy got married in a quiet ceremony in France a few weeks ago. Sneaky! [Life & Style]
• Emmy Rossum's husband, music exec Justin Siegel, has filed for divorce. (Their 2008 secret marriage was only discovered when the couple was reported to have split up in August.) Naturally, Siegel is asking Rossum to pay for the divorce and he's seeking spousal support, too. [TMZ, Us]
• Yet another book is coming out alleging that Bill Clinton did inappropriate things. In her new book Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House, Stacy Parker Aab claims Clinton groped her in a hotel room in 2000 and his pal Vernon Jordan tried to kiss her twice. Good thing the poor girl got this all off her cheat a mere nine years after the fact. [NYDN]More

• It's official: designer Esteban Cortazar and Emanuel Ungaro are parting ways. [WWD]
• The 20 biggest scandals in fashionland. [Pipeline]
• Amy Winehouse is planning to launch a perfume? Really? Please say this isn't so. [Grazia]
• What t-shirt you decide to wear in the Hamptons makes all the difference, apparently. [NYT]
• Manhattan is far thinner than the rest of the country. Simon Doonan (5-foot-4, 135 lbs.) on what it's like to travel to other parts of the country: "I'm appalled by people my age who can't get through the airport without a wheelchair." [NYT] More

Happy Birthday | Writer/director Sofia Coppola is 38 today. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is 25. David Byrne turns 57. Cate Blanchett is turning 40. George Lucas is officially a senior citizen: He's turning 65. Actress Amber Tamblyn is turning 26. Director Robert Zemeckis is 57. Actor Tim Roth is 48. ESPN's Suzy Kolber turns 45. Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille is turning 47. And Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block is hardly a kid anymore: He turns 40 today.

• A camera crew followed Rachel Zoe around during Paris Fashion Week, which means the second season of her Bravo reality show is headed your way. [FWD]
• Dov Charney's cash-strapped American Apparel is selling 18 percent of the company to a private equity firm to pay down some of its debt. [BN]
• The hat Aretha Franklin wore to the inauguration in January? More than 5,000 orders have been placed since then. At $179 a pop, no less. [NYT]
• Video of Karl Lagerfeld at Paris Fashion Week. [NYM]
• What's Sofia Coppola up to these days? She's directing perfume ads for Dior, that's what. [NYT/The Moment]
• Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone are on their way to Brazil for a little post-fashion season R&R, in case you're interested. [FWD]
• LA Fashion Week begins tonight! [Racked, Stylefile]

Valentino and Vogue co-hosted a cocktail party to benefit New Yorkers For Children at Valentino's Madison Avenue store last night. Guests included Fabiola Beracasa and Erin Fetherston (left), Fern Mallis, Tinsley Mortimer, Valesca Guerrand-Hermès, Maggie Betts, Paul Sevigny, Bebe Neuwirth, Jennifer Creel, Selita Ebanks, Alina Cho, Kate Schelter, Antony Todd, Tatiana Platt, Kevin Liles, Denise Wohl, Di Petroff, Felicia Taylor, Erica and Geraldo Rivera, Sylvester and Gillian Miniter, Dori Cooperman, Maggie Rizer, Allison Sarofim, Lydia Fenet, Vanessa von Bismarck, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Susan Shin, Tracy Stern, Melissa Berkelhammer, Stephanie LaCava, and, yes, "Real Housewife" Alex McCord and her husband Simon van Kempen. [PMc, Wireimage, VF, SF] More

So everyone knows that the art world's in the doldrums, that even deep-pocketed collectors are holding off buying, and that the only reason people even show up to art openings anymore is to quaff the free champagne. But you'd think that a seven foot-wide portrait of a smirking Bernie Madoff, priced at a mere $100,000, would have some takers, right? Strangely not: Disappointingly for the artist Yan Pei-Ming, his masterpiece, on sale at the Armory Show which kicked off yesterday at the West Side Piers, has so far attracted no interest. More

Leave it to fashion-obsessed Japanese youth to find a way of responding to the recession that involves looking like an entrant in a kiddie beauty contest. "Hime-kei" girls, apparently inspired by Sofia Coppola's (widely-derided) film about Marie Antoinette (it's also been suggested that the local idolization of Tinsree has played its part), dress like very warped versions of 18th century princesses with frilly dresses, fur, ringlets and flowers, a style they happily spend thousands of dollar a month maintaining. It's a phenomenon, says academic Takatoshi Imada, that's "rooted in a rejection of the goals of advancement through hard work in an ailing market economy." And isn't that something we can all relate to right now? 

♦ A sensational robbery was carried out at Harry Winston in Paris last night. Robbers—dressed in drag, no less—made off with $108 million diamond rings, gem-studded bracelets and other jewelry, making it one of the largest such heists ever. [AP]
♦ Sofia Coppola is in Tokyo this evening to unveil her new line of accessories for Louis Vuitton. [WWD]
♦ Courtney Cox is the new face of Avon's women's fragrance, Spotlight. [WWD]
♦ "Save Anna" t-shirts have materialized, of course. [Racked]
♦ More on the party last night for Vera Wang's new boutique in Soho. [WSJ]

Sales are, no surprise, slow at the Frieze art fair in London, where all the art world people—Charles Saatchi, Dasha Zhukova, Dakis Joannou, Gavin Brown, Thelma Golden—have been circulating among celebrities—Gwyneth Paltrow, Sienna Miller, Sofia Coppola, Kate Bosworth, Emma Watson—for whom being seen at an art event is a nice way of distancing themselves from the contents of In Touch. "I come to Frieze every year," Gwyneth told reporters. "It's something I really look forward to." (Of course, she didn't actually buy anything, deciding instead to pose for the cameras and talk about the election.) More

♦  If Sarah Palin was on the cover of Elle, what would she look like? "Two words," says Joe Zee: "Blowout and contact lenses." That's actually four words, Joe, but we get the point. [Daily Intel]
♦  Today in bizarre publicity stunts: Wal-Mart is opening a pop-up store in Times Square, and will also have a truck "roving around the city to celebrate the launch of AC/DC's new album." [Reuters via Curbed]
♦  Kelly Cutrone won't be appearing on Whitney Port's new show on MTV: "I didn't really feel like it was a great idea to be on a spinoff of a spinoff of a spinoff." [The Cut]
♦  Sofia Coppola's goal in designing for Louis Vuitton was "to create the perfect bag that doesn't exist." The result is the $2,190 "SC" purse. [IHT]
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♦  Kate Betts sits down with Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld for an interview, which was also filmed if you can cope with seeing Karl's ponytail up close. [Time]
♦  Suzy Menkes celebrates 20 years at the IHT, and fashion stars including Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace, Alber Elbaz, Anna Wintour, and John Galliano offer their video tributes. [The Moment]
♦  Sofia Coppola is designing a line of handbags and shoes for Louis Vuitton. The company must have searched far and wide to find this unknown talent so deserving of a break. [WWD]More

Spotted | Sienna Miller walking through SoHo with a cigarette in her mouth ... Kelly Ripa running on a treadmill for a segment on Regis & Kelly ... Sofia Coppola pushing her daughter in a stroller ... Joey Fatone and a friend walking back to their hotel ...  Kate Winslet giving her son a piggyback ride ... Jon Bon Jovi and his wife on a street corner in SoHo ... Matthew Broderick riding a scooter with his son ...  Katie Holmes walking to a waiting car ... Kirsten Dunst posing for photos with fans at Yankee Stadium ...  Sandra Bernhard hailing a cab ... Parker Posey sipping iced coffee and walking her dog ... Dylan Lauren and Mickey Boardman posing with a giant Swedish Fish at a party at Dylan's Candy Bar ... and John Mayer making his way into Butter.

» The Liv Tyler-hosted party for Hearts on Fire diamonds at the Rose Bar was the hottest ticket in one of the busiest social weeks of the year: Leonardo DiCaprio, Alexandra & Theodora Richards (who DJed), Keith Richards, Elizabeth Banks, Catherine Keener, Mena Suvari, Dave Navarro, Ellen von Unwerth, Tara Subkoff, Alan Cumming, Tinsley Mortimer, Adrian Grenier, Sean Avery, Emma Roberts, Monet Mazur, Richie Rich, Ingrid Sischy, Jamie Burke, Russell Simmons, Lauren Santo Domingo, Diego Garcia, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict all stopped by. [The Daily/Paper]

» Too many people wanted to squeeze onto the Mini Rooftop for the V magazine party on Wednesday night, leading to a scrum outside the velvet rope. Those who made it through and caught a performance by Swedish popstar Lykke Li: Agyness Deyn, Irina Lazareanu, Barbara Bush, Doutzen Kroes, Hilary Rhoda, Joy Bryant, Leigh Lezark, Fabiola Beracasa, Sean Avery, Rachel Zoe, Cecilia Dean, Anne Slowey, Natasha Poly, Raquel Zimmerman, Christopher Bollen, and Derek Blasberg. [The Daily, NYO, Style.com]  More

» The scene at Michael Kors was inevitably the central portion of the fashion industry/magazine world/reality TV venn diagram: Nina Garcia, Rachel Zoe with her client Joy Bryant, Heidi Klum, Joanna Coles, and Joe Zee drew the limelight away from Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Blake Lively, Bette Midler, and Kors' mom Joan. On the runway the (smiling!) models, who were told "you are the most glamorous beach bums in the world," showed off middle-of-the-road, cheerful outfits with polka dots and gingham aplenty. [NYO, NYDN, IHT]

» Doesn't Harvey Weinstein have any clout in this town anymore? At the presentation of his wife Georgina Chapman's label Marchesa—as usual a load of frou-frou formal dresses with no connection to trends or the real world—A-list celebs were conspicuous in their absence. The lack-lustre guest list included Tinsley Mortimer, Fabiola Beracasa, Beth Ostrosky, Rachel Zoe, Joy Bryant, Guiliana Rancic, and Amanda Bynes (whose name we're even embarrassed to type). On the plus side, however, the new president of LVMH, Renard Dutreil, was there, raising the possibility that he's eyeing the label for his fashion roster. [Guardian, Wireimage, WWD]More

Spotted | Petra Nemcova (left) taking a stroll through the Village after lunch at Da Silvano ... Sarah Jessica Parker leaving her townhouse in the West Village ... Jeremy Piven taking a walk downtown with a mystery blonde ... Whitney Port eating a salad with friends ... Uma Thurman walking down the front steps of her West Village townhouse ... Nicole Richie leaving Starbucks with baby Harlow, and later leaving her hotel en route to a dinner with Mary-Kate Olsen ... Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry going shopping at Calvin Klein ... Keira Knightley heading inside for a taping of the Charlie Rose Show ... Helena Christensen and Sofia Coppola arriving at Bryant Park for the Marc Jacobs show ... and Jennifer Lopez and Victoria Beckham posing together for photos outside Marc's show before going to dinner.