Noel Ashman to Film Life Story, Open Clubs in NYC and A.C.To the canon of classic NYC party movies you might soon be able to add the story of promoter turned club owner Noel Ashman. He tells us that his production company, Co.Op, which he runs with Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Redford, and others, has done two treatments for an as-yet-untitled film loosely based on his life’s story, which involves getting kicked out at the age of 13, having to throw parties to pay his rent, and eventually becoming the owner of clubs such as the second incarnation of Studio 54, Veruka, NA, and most recently the Plumm. Ashman is doing the movie with music producer Che Vicious — it will be set in the mid-to-late eighties in and around the Plumm’s predecessor Nell’s, where Ashman promoted, and may star Plumm investor Jesse Bradford. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Ashman tells us he’s looking at opening new clubs in Manhattan (possibly east of the Plumm) and — trend alert! — Atlantic City.
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Lindsay Lohan Parties With the Old School at the PlummLast week we broke news that late gossip gadfly Baird Jones may not have wanted his memorial party thrown at the Plumm, a club he was helping fellow promoter Ivy Supersonic try to close down. Either way, the party went off without Supersonic unleashing a swarm of locusts, and our sister blog Daily Intel reports that Lindsay Lohan even made a surprise appearance in one of her first outings as a resident of midtown. Then again, we already knew LiLo’s taste in hang spots was a little … dated.
Lindsay Lohan Pays Fitting Tribute To Baird Jones [Daily Intel]
Earlier: Baird Jones’s Memorial Party to Be Held at Club He Secretly Tried to Close
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Baird Jones’s Memorial Party to Be Held at Club He Secretly Tried to CloseYesterday “Page Six” touted a farewell party for Baird “Bucky” Jones, perhaps the most ubiquitous person on the party circuit until he died of a heart attack last month. It will be at the Plumm, but there’s evidence the Yankee-capped art collector and gossip wouldn’t have wanted it that way. Last November Jones called to tell us that the Plumm’s owner, Noel Ashman, was ripping off promoters and paying wranglers thousands of dollars to bring underage models into the club (take this for what it’s worth: Jones himself promoted parties that were “easy on I.D.”). At that time Baird was corresponding with Ivy Supersonic, who goes to court today for vandalizing the club after (according to her) Ashman stiffed her on $1,000 she was owed for promoting a Halloween party (Ashman has refuted that claim and others).
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Momofuku Ko Hoping to Open in Two Weeks; No Malice Palace PrevailsDuring last night’s CB3 meeting, partner Andrew Salmon would reveal only that Momofuku Ko will hit capacity at fourteen, with no waiters and with fixed menus changing daily. “You sit directly across from the cook,” Salmon told the board. He kept the “vaguely Asian” food quiet, conceding only that it would include “all local ingredients … all sustainable development.” Unfortunately, he didn’t take the time to make sure a petition was including in the application, so no motion could be passed. Projected opening date: two weeks’ time!
Celebrity Settings
Kobe Dines on Kobe at Kobe; Nobu Gives Manning a Standing OFashion Week brought the usual celebrity infestation to town last week for glitzy after-parties, but we’ve already covered those. The real question is, where did the “normals” catch a bite? And of course by normals we mean billionaires, Nobel Prize winners, and Super Bowl champs, all of whom made the scene this week.
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Momofuku, Freemans, Spotted Pig Honchos Break Bread With Stephen Starr
Our favorite celebrity sighting of the week was, of course, Lindsay Lohan at Peter Luger on Tuesday night — that’s because we saw her with our own eyes. Of course, we can’t be everywhere and see everyone, so as usual we’ve combed the gossip columns for other stop-ins. We’re sorry we missed Tracy Morgan at the Plumm, shirtless and offering to father babies as usual, and boy do we wish we were a fly on the wall when partners Ken Friedman and Taavo Somer, along with David Chang, dined with Stephen Starr at Buddakan. Is there a Spotted Buddafuku in the works?
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Jennifer Garner Likes the Food at Fiamma More than Padma Did
The week’s most exciting celebrity sighting was that of beer-sippin’ McLovin at Diner. No other celebs were busted getting their underage drink on, but there were other surprises: Rachael Ray rolled into the Orchard with a posse bigger than Diddy’s, and Jennifer Garner liked the food at Fiamma so much she slipped into the kitchen to beg Fabio Trabocchi for recipes. We figure that makes up for supposedly getting dissed by Padma Lakshmi a couple weeks ago. (And yes, there a Padma sighting this week, too…)
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Ben Stiller Crashes a Party at Fiamma, Penélope Cruz Makes Out at
Every Friday a notable New Yorker tells us where they’ve been eating, but where are the rest of them chowing down? Starting this week we’ll sort through the gossip columns à la Ils Vont (RIP) to tell you who’s been seen where (casual sightings only — boring galas, vodka launches, and pluggy appearances don’t count). We’ll eventually compile a ranking of restaurants most often visited by celebs. Not that you care about that sort of thing! Oh, but if you do, won’t you please leave your own sightings in the comments?
