The Buzz

TYRA AND THE TINY TOTS: Supermodel-turned-TV talkshow host Tyra Banks surprised the folks at the Hudson Guild pre-school recently when producers from her show called the center’s director of early child education programs, Janice Samuel-Powell, to tell her they were looking to give a NYC Head Start program a “supreme makeover,” and her school had been chosen. An uber-fan of the show, Powell insisted the producers hang up and call her back to ensure it wasn’t a prank pulled by one of her friends. Turns out it was the real deal. The producers, along with designer Scott Corridan, from the “Design Star” TV show, visited the school for two hours on Wednesday Aug. 22 to film “before” shots of the class to undergo a makeover (to be called the Rainbow Room), with Banks herself showing up unannounced to surprise the kids and tape a few segments. Corridan spent the weekend pulling long hours with his assistants to get the room ready for a Monday Aug. 27 “after” taping, which Banks also showed up for (this time expectedly). She then brought 10 of the children on her show for the next day’s taping at her Chelsea studio (her show recently had moved from Los Angeles to New York City, and is housed in the same building as Martha Stewart’s show). The segment aired on Monday afternoon.

COME TO MY BOUTIQUE: When we learned from Steve Colvin at the Hotel Breslin that Gregory Beyer of the New York Times was doing a story about the tenants there, we thought for sure that the local cutting-edge investment firm, GFI Capital Resource Group, which is working to restore the hotel to its glory days, would be happy to share their vision with the Gray Lady. But when Beyer’s article appeared last Sunday in The City section, it quoted marketing director Linda Novellino as saying that that “the company did not want to comment on the plans for the Breslin or its dealings with tenants.” However, the company did launch a brand new Web site, which touts its “service-oriented culture and intimate knowledge of local markets” and says in its “Development” section: “Some recent projects include...the reconstruction of two boutique hotels in the Chelsea area of Manhattan.” We thank Beyer for the fourth-paragraph mention of Chelsea Now, and want to tell GFI that our offer still stands: let us in for a company profile, and we’ll happily tell your story from your perspective. Though we can’t help wondering how “intimate” their knowledge of the neighborhood really is.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL: When we opened up the New Yorker magazine last week, Chelsea Now was immediately delighted to see the name of a Chelsea icon, the late Bayard Rustin, in the first sentence of the Talk of the Town. The author, Hendrik Hertzberg, wrote of Rustin’s arrest for “lewdness” in 1953 and then paid a paragraph of tribute to his service in “the nonviolent movements for peace and racial equality.” But we were frankly somewhat horrified to see it all as just a lead-in to talk about Senator Larry Craig, most recently notorious for a somewhat similar arrest, as if the the two sides of Craig—the closeted and publicly gay senator—were of similar stature. So, we checked in with Rustin’s widower, Penn South photographer Walter Naegle, who said via email that he was “fine with the piece,” writing that, “Yes, there is no comparing the two men, but their treatment by their respective ‘friends and colleagues’ says something about ‘movements’ versus ‘politics.’” Naegle then referred us to the related blog by Hertzberg, who turns out to have grown up knowing Rustin, a dear friend of his Jewish-activist parents. Hertzberg knew long ago, apparently, that the civil rights hero was a prototypical Chelsean: “As a child, I saw him as a literally towering figure, impossibly tall and sinuous. His appearance was as operatic as his voice, with an electric explosion of pepper-and-salt hair, hawklike features, dandyish clothes, and a beautifully carved cane that concealed (I was thrilled to be told) a sharp sword.” We apologize for our suspicions, Mr. Hertzberg, and look forward to meeting you at the New Yorker Conference next month.