Alert: The spat between a society chronicler and acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie has made the cover of the Post! Devorah Rose, a self-made wannabe celebrity (she's described as a "fameball" in this recent NY Tmes Styles piece), says of the former Mr. Padma Lakshmi, "Hanging out with him, you kind of feel like you’re with a 5-year-old genius... You’re at dinner, and he’s eating and basically hanging out with your boobs. His mind is smart, but his actions are infantile. His behavior is beastly." more ›

Kim Kardashian may be a shrewd entrepreneur, turning her Ray J sex tape-infamy into a multi-million dollar family operation that includes boutiques, a line of clothing at Sears, perfumes, and much more. But she's just like us, because, even though she's divorcing after 10 weeks of marriage to NJ Net Kris Humphries, she "married for love... I love with all of my heart and soul. I want a family and babies and a real life so badly that maybe I rushed in to something too soon." more ›

Author Salman Rushdie, whose novel "The Satanic Verses" has been burned at demonstrations and earned him a fatwa, gave his opinion on the now-deflated threats to burn the Koran by Florida Pastor Terry Jones. His thoughts? "I'm not in favor of burning books." Surprising! At the Brooklyn Book festival yesterday, he also chimed in on the Park 51 drama, coming out in favor of the plan. He said, "It's just a stupid argument. Of course they should be able to build a mosque there." And now the controversy can be over and done with, right? more ›

If Salman Rushdie is still upset his "unstable," "bucket of radioactive stress"-carrying ex has been complaining about him, at least he has the shoulder of Min Lieskovsky to cry on. Page Six calls the 26-year-old "Chinese/Hungarian Harvard grad" "stunning" and Gawker looks closely at her Elle Girl article, "How To Date a Male Model," which includes lines like, "I'm addicted to male models. I've dated six of the world's top models, as ranked by Models.com...My secret to dating male models is simple: Tell them they're smart." more ›

Acclaimed novelist Sir Salman Rushdie faced a fatwah, so of course he was going to strike back at Page Six. Yesterday, the Post's gossip section quoted his ex Pia Glenn, who claimed Rushdie was still hung up on ex-wife Padma Lakshmi (well, who wouldn't be) and that he stole a year from Glenn's life. Today, Page Six offers Rushdie's version, which begins: "The reason I broke up with Pia Glenn is that I came to feel that she's an unstable person who carries around a large, radioactive bucket of stress wherever she goes. It was just exhausting to deal with." more ›

A report released Tuesday by the Food Bank for New York City has found that approximately four million New Yorkers—one in two—are having trouble paying for groceries, a 26 percent increase since the last survey in February. The Hunger Experience 2008 Update also found that college degrees are increasingly useless protection against indigence; one out of every three (36 percent) NYC college graduates had difficulty affording needed food this year, up from 11 percent in 2003. Lucy Cabrera, the food bank's president, says, "The results of this report are devastating. These numbers should be a wake-up call for all New Yorkers." The Food Bank NYC sources and distributes food to the estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers who rely on emergency food. Today you've got until noon to help the Food Bank by bidding on one of their cool celebrity decorated lunchboxes. (Just please don't outbid us on Mike D's Jacob the Jeweler box.) more ›

The third annual Lunchbox Auction to raise money for the Food Bank for New York City kicked off last night with a celebrity fundraiser at Milk Studios in the Meatpacking District. Also benefiting The Lunchbox Fund of South Africa, the auction features over 77 lunchboxes custom designed by celebrities (and/or their handlers). Among the more eye catching boxes were avant-garde Chicago chef Grant Achatz's abstract deconstruction of a lunchbox, Tony Bennett's painting of a happy pooch (see below), and Michael Stipe's three lunchboxes with bronze cassettes and a camera embedded in molds of chocolate, salt and jello. more ›

A Gawker reader spotted novelist Salman Rushdie on the 6 train. One commenter asked, "Does an award-winning, socially critical novelist not deserve a seat? And you call this civilization..." Not to mention a novelist with a fatwa! Back in 2000, the Observer reported on Rushdie's man-about-town ways, and one book agent bitterly said, "I was so pissed to be in the restaurant with him. I'm going to be mad, and dead... We can't enjoy our meal. We don't want to die because of his fatwa. It's so passive-aggressive toward people in Manhattan. We have enough trouble here." Rushdie has always liked NYC—his first public appearance post-fatwa was at Columbia in 1991. more ›

Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial Satanic Verses, said that he was disappointed in his publisher Random House for pulling an upcoming novel about the Prophet Mohammed. “This is censorship by fear and it sets a very bad precedent indeed," said Rushdie. The Jewel of Medina is the debut novel from Spokane, Washington's Sherry Jones. It's a first-person narrative of Aisha, one of Mohammed's wives, and includes a mild account of the first time the two have sex. Random House pulled the book when an early release of the novel began to elicit fears that their could be a similar violent response as the ones after the publication of Danish cartoons of Muhammad in 2005. more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Here’s the breakdown: more ›

ART: The 10th annual Tribeca art walk is this weekend. Toast, the Tribeca Open Artist Studio Tour, is a free, self-guided tour of approximately 100 artists' studios throughout Tribeca. Talk to the artists in their own spaces, and of course - check out their art while you're at it. more ›

Since this one usually sells out quick, we wanted to give you a heads up that tickets for The New Yorker Festival went on sale today. more ›

Involver (media and entertainment activist community) and PEN (national organization of writers) present this Wednesday, August 4 at 7:00pm. An incredible lineup of literary legends convene to address contemporary political threats to freedom of expression. more ›

Jane Seymour was Henry VIII's third wife. more ›

With 250 guests, the Lakshmi-Rushdie nuptials included Lou Reed, Steve Martin, Tina Brown, Ismail Merchant, Julie Taymor, Jay McInerney, and Diane von Furstenburg. The Wetlaufer-Welch affair had 75 guests - Vernon Jordan and Matt Lauer among them. Advantage: Lakshmi-Rushdie, especially because their wedding was in New York City, but the Wetlaufer-Welch wedding probably had a better goodie bag. more ›