Fans attending Madonna's July 4 concert in London will be confronted by the surreal sight of a giant tongue licking and spitting out neon-colored icing. "It's not the most appetizing imagery; it's saliva being spit out with bakery products," says its creator, artist Marilyn Minter. Her film, Green Pink Caviar, serves as a backdrop to Madge's opening number, "Candy Shop." Says Minter, "we had to make it as absolutely beautiful as possible so you overlook that."

The artist, who's previously collaborated with Tom Ford, tells us that she's felt solidarity with Madonna since the early Nineties. "She did her Sex book at the same time that I made a hardcore porn series of paintings," she says. "She got excoriated by the press and so did I, as traitors of feminism in a way. We were both pro-sex feminists at the wrong time, in the middle of early political correctness. We tapped into the way feminism was going a little bit ahead of the zeitgeist."

She is now headed off to London now for the concert. The two, she says, have not yet met (although Madonna owns two of Minter's works). Madonna sent her tickets, flowers and a note.

Photo by Ryan James MacFarland.

Where do kids with life-threatening illnesses and Donatella Versace — she of the mile-high heels and skintight dresses — converge? Well (yesterday at least), at the Whitney. On Wednesday afternoon, the designer exercised her maternal muscles at an event for Art Unites, a charitable collaboration that aims to aid children in the US and China by exposure to the visual arts. Along with  Whitney director Adam Weinberg and artist Ellen Harvey, Versace joined a group of New York City kids with chronic diseases to produce drawings on the theme of “friendship.” The kids’ artwork will be fashioned into one-of-a-kind Versace tote bags, with proceeds going to the Starlight Children’s Foundation and One foundation. “After they finished, their faces were so happy,” Versace told us. “And it made me happy to think of the children.”

Beckett in Brentwood? Murakami on Main Beach? It's summer, and that means settling down with a big pile of fresh new hardcovers. We rang up three in-the-know booksellers—Charline Spektor, co-owner of BookHampton (above) in the Hamptons; Margaret Durney, buyer at Explore Booksellers in Aspen; and Steven Salardino, a manager at Skylight Books in Los Angeles—to hear what's selling and what they're recommending. Their picks reflect the heritage of their stores, from lit-heavy BookHampton to Skylight's more bohemian vibe. And who knows, you might pick up more than just the latest release. According to Salardrino, Skylight has become a standard meeting point for blind dates in Los Feliz. "People from Missed Connections on Craigslist come here to meet for the first time or whatever," he says. "They'll ask me, 'Have you seen a tall, lanky guy?'"

What are some of your bestsellers right now?
Spektor:  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith [the Jane Austen classic featuring characters from the undead], Ugly Man by Dennis Cooper and the paperback of David Sedaris's When You Are Engulfed in Flames, which just came out. A book that always does well with us is Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It's become what Catcher in the Rye once was—a literary book that's also a bestseller.
Durney: The Letters of Samuel Beckett —there's something you wouldn't think goes flying off the shelves! Roberto Bolano's 2666. And Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower. One other book that's going to be our bestseller is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, about an Irish woman in America. He's such a muscular writer; anyone would be well served by picking it up.
Salardino: The Help by Kathryn Stockett and, in nonfiction, Robert Wright's The Evolution of God. And Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game is a book with legs—it's going to continue to sell for quite some time.

Are customers generally looking for lighter fare in the summer?
Spektor: If someone wants a great beach read and I give them Anna Karenina, it opens up an entirely different interpretation of what a beach read is.
Durney: The vampire thing is still big, particularly Charlaine Harris's books, like Dead and Gone.
Salardino: During the summer we get a lot of tourists who've heard about the store, so we typically sell more of everything.

Explore Booksellers in Aspen.

Is "chick lit" as hot as it used to be?
Spektor: We look at things as being worthy of reading—something that's fascinating, something that requires a lot of commitment. What's the corollary to "chick lit"? "Dick lit"?
Durney: Jodi Picoult always does well. I'd call that high-end chick lit.

You all operate in well-off communities—do you see conspicuous consumption in book shopping too?
Spektor: Jack Nicholson came into the store once. He was flying to Japan,  and really needed some books to read. We filled up a shopping bag with mysteries and paperbacks that he hadn't read. Those things happen—we're like a candy store, except it doesn't rot your teeth.
Durney: Sometimes interior designers come in and fill up two or three carts of books to go into one of the multimillion-dollar mansions around here. We make $10,000 or $15,000.

Skylight Books in Los Angeles.

What upcoming releases are you anticipating?
Spektor: South of Broad, by Pat Conroy, which comes out in August. For the politically-inclined, Howard Dean has a new book on health care due in July.
Durney: Tracy Kidder has a new book coming out in August called Strength in What Remains, and in September, David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries.
Salardino: Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice. We're staying open until midnight on Aug. 3, the day before it's released. People across the country do it for Harry Potter; we do it for Thomas Pynchon.

What books are customers embarassed to be seen with?
Spektor: A few years ago, Kim Cattrall and her then-husband came out with a book, kind of a play-by-play about having sex. Soon after we got it, every day at 3:30 we’d see a stream of 13-year-old boys come in. They would bring their snack and juice box, look at the book, then leave.
Salardino: Some people get irked when they are forced to buy the edition of the book that says “Oprah’s Book Club pick.” Or worse is the movie tie-in cover ... people want to read Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road, not Leonardo DiCaprio's. I have also noticed some men get a little shy when they buy Twilight.

Photos: Aspen, Nancy Barker; Los Angeles, Nick Bygon.

When Kelly Killoren Bensimon developed a reputation for being late (among other things) on The Real Housewives of New York City, I wasn't surprised. This is a woman I once saw burst into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a discussion panel on vintage fashion an hour after it started. We were pleasantly surprised, then, when she showed up four minutes early for a recent meeting in the W offices.

The self-described "mother-author-equestrian" came by to introduce us to her latest hyphenate: jewelry designer. With her identically-dressed daughters Sea, 11, and Teddy, 8, in tow, Bensimon showed us the latest designs from her Kelly collection, a collaboration with bling brand Mouawad. The extensive line of fashion necklaces, cuffs, earrings and rings retail in the recession-friendly range of $32 to $336 and hit stores including Kitson and Intermix in two weeks.

As for her Housewives gig, Bensimon told us she has signed on for a second season, knowing full well that she could wind up the villain again. "I think that because I'm so down-to-earth they're like, 'Okay we have to pump her up a little bit because otherwise people are not going to believe'...If they want me to be some kind of crazy socialite, I'm not a socialite. I'm a working girl, a single mom. Listen, it's fine."

What inspired you for this collection?
I love Navajo and I love the idea of taking Pocahontas out of the kayak and putting her into the disco. Everyone knows that she's had enough in her little canoe and now she's out and having fun in the disco. It's the idea that it's Navajo, but also it's pavé and really, pavé that's my forte. I love bling. I love understated flashy.

So, have you always loved all things Navajo?
Well—I saw the [fall 2008] Anna Sui show and I'm like, that is what I want to do. First of all, I have so much respect for her, she's such an incredible researcher, and when I was looking at it, I was like, I love that.

Are the designs on the pendants actual Navajo symbols?
Not really.  All of them are just interpretations. I was like, okay, we should do this with these colorways. I just want it to be fun and great, colorways. I like florals. I like geometric.

What about these snake symbols on the rings and bangles?
I've always been obsessed by the snake. I don't know, maybe it's from Milton, maybe it's dangerous, I don't know what the root is. I just think it's very, very sexy and mysterious, and then in pavé it becomes another level.

And this other design—
That's the pod, which is something that's really going to be the staple of the line. It comes in lariat. I like the lariat because it brings the attention down. Everyone likes up, I like down. I'm like, bring it right here [motions towards her chest]! There are two parts of a woman's body men like, and so we're focusing on one.

Do you think your being on Housewives will help your collection?
I think the show is a great vehicle because it shows a certain aspect of my lifestyle. I think that the chattiness [Ed's note: we think she meant "cattiness"] of the show is just the nature of the Housewives brand, but I think it's really really good to see me riding horses, on vacation, hanging out with my kids, so you can see a portion of my life. Let's be honest. Am I going to parties every night? No. I'm having popcorn parties with my kids. 

We have to ask you—what's going on with your owl collection? [Ed's note: In April, Tuleste Market designer Celeste Greenberg claimed Bensimon cut her out of an agreement to collaborate on producing owl-pendant necklaces.]
That's done. In all honesty, I wish Celeste had come to me and said, "I want press," and I would have given her press in the right way. There's really no suit. It's finished, it's over. It was basically to just get press for her own line and that makes me really disappointed because that means I'm not picking the right people to help. So now, instead of being like, "Oh, let me help you, you're new," you're a stylist or assistant, my instincts are totally different.

Do you have any formal design training?
Not really in terms of jewelry. I just know a lot about accessories from my mom and from traveling. To be honest with you, [ex-husband and former Elle creative director] Gilles [Bensimon] was one that really inspired me in terms of jewelry. He's always really, really, really pushed accessories.

In terms of your own jewelry, we've noticed you love hoops. But there aren't too many in the line.
I know, I'm the hoop queen! And they were like, "Okay we'll do some hoops." But when people go into stores, they don't really buy hoops for some reason, like, they want them smaller. I like them bigger, kind of Italian mama—although I don't make pasta.

Would you ever consider doing more reality TV?
I did sign up for another season.

Even hearing all the things that were said about you after the first season?
Yeah, I mean, listen. I'm open to it. I'm open to you writing about me, I'm open to being on television, I'm open to going into a photography studio and somebody being like, "Okay, we're going to make your hair curly and put huge shoulder pads on you." I didn't realize it was going to be so chatty. [Ed's note: again, we think she meant "catty."] I didn't. I was really caught off guard by that. I just thought it was funny that like people were like, "Oh she says 'like' all the time, therefore she's uneducated." I said, "You know what? If that's what you want to think, go for it."

Is it hurtful, some of the things people said about you after the show?
To say that I'm not sensitive is a lie. Yeah, it's really hurtful when people say mean things, or they're like, "Oh, you're tall and skinny." Those are my genetics! What do you want me to do, cut my legs off? So you either like it or you don't. I'd rather be someone where people have an opinion than to just be complacent and oblivious and kind of like, "Who is that?" I'd rather have people recognize who I am and have an opinion. [Pause] Clearly, they have an opinion.

Drawing courtesy of David Gilmore of Pretty on the Outside.

Between the parties Donna Karan throws for him, the homages to him in Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP newsletter, and his highly-trafficked blogs on the Huffington Post, Frank Lipman is arguably the country's most prominent holistic M.D after Andrew Weil. His most recent book is Spent, about the epidemic of chronic exhaustion that plagues modern culture.  Lipman, who maintains a full-time medical practice in New York, recently found time (between removing acupuncture needles from two patients and heading out to a yoga class) to chat with W.


You are probably best known as Donna Karan's health guru. How did you two meet?
Donna's been a patient for so long—let's see, she made my daughter's Bat Mitzvah dress and my daughter's now 21. It's been close to ten years. (Vogue editor) Tonne Goodman originally referred her to me. But when I started having celebrities come to me, being from South Africa I wouldn't know they were celebrities. My front desk would have to tell me. When Donna first started coming in I sort of knew who she was, but she was pretty meaningless to me.

You've treated David Letterman, which is somewhat surprising considering he seems like he'd be a skeptical, even curmudgeonly consumer of alternative medicine.
I used to give him acupuncture for his neck. He got referred to me by his doctor because he had a chronic problem and nothing else solved it. He's smart, he's very practical, but he's open [to holistic healing practices].

If there was one thing you could instruct all people to add to their diets, what would it be?
Mixed green powder. It's full of phytonutrients and most of us aren't getting enough fruits and vegetables. I'm a big believer in green powders.

One reason that people are so skeptical about holistic medicine is that there is a lot of quackery out there. Are there popular products or practices that you think are completely useless or idiotic?
Absolutely. Those foot pads for detox come to mind.
 
You advocate early bedtimes and lighter meals in the evening. Don't you ever have a big, boozy, late dinner?
Alcohol doesn't do it for me—it screws up my sleep and I feel terrible the next day. So I can't drink much. And I do prefer eating earlier. But I'm not obsessive about anything—it's all about balance. If you're really spent, you need to be more careful about those things. But I'm not a fanatic.
 
You were once quoted saying that your patients Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are in great health—that they're particularly "un-spent." What are they doing right?
They eat well and have a good relationship with food and exercise—they are not obsessive. But more than that, they provide a great support system for each other. They have a great family life and they do meaningful work. They have love in their lives; love, support and family—it's these intangibles which are so important to health. If I could give one piece of health advice to people, it'd be to find meaning and purpose in your life.

Read the related blog: "What We Learned From a Big-deal Diet Doc"

It was no shocker to learn that Prince Michael and Paris were not fathered by Michael Jackson. But today, when we heard the reports that the father might be none other than Los Angeles derm Arnold Klein -- the man who until now was best known as the don of Botox -- well, at least here in the beauty department, the world suddenly got much smaller.

I never met Arnie in person, but you could say we had an intense phone relationship. Every year or so, I'd pick up the phone and could barely get "Hello" out when I'd hear him yell, "Jane, have you heard about what these doctors are doing with this new injectible? It's criminal!" He would then rant for a good 15 minutes or so, imploring me to deliver his message, or rather messages. I'd hear all about who he thought were dangerous dermatologists, the hidden side effects of varied treatments, what he saw as the misuse of Botox (ironic, considering Irena Medavoy's much-discussed lawsuit against him) and much, much more. "No one's talking about the horrible things that [insert treatment] do," Arnie would say. "People need to know about this! You have to write about this! You're the only one I trust!" (I've since heard that he told at least one other beauty editor the same thing.)

Back then, I mostly wanted to get off the phone. But now, I must admit, I do feel weirdly starstruck knowing that he may very well be the father of Michael Jackson's children. I'll be awaiting my annual call....

See our September 2008 story about Klein's former associate of 17 years, dermatologist Sheri G. Feldman. She had a few things to say about him.

P.S.1 celebrated the tenth anniversary of its Young Architects Program on Sunday by unveiling its latest winning design, Afterparty, dreamed up by Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith of the firm MOS. The final product is one part Gothic cathedral, one part Where the Wild Things Are. Think: austere, curving metal frames covered in aluminum mesh and Indonesian palm thatch, sculpted into domes and tall "cooling chimneys." Sunday's crowd was pretty low-key, with visitors lounging in and around the shady structure, but beginning on July 4th the courtyard will transform to the home of PS1's famous Warm Up music series.



Photos by Ryan James MacFarland.

Click HERE to see our previous Gallery Go-Round entries.

Last winter when we stopped by a reading that cult author Neil Gaiman was giving at Columbia of his Newbery award-winning The Graveyard Book, we were blown away by the diehard affection of his many grown-up fans — in fact, there didn’t seem to be a kid in sight. One woman even started sobbing when she got to hug him (evidently, it was her birthday). Lately, Gaiman-mania has only intensified with the musical adaption of his children’s novel Coraline by Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields, with book by David Greenspan. The show is finishing its run this week at the MCC Theater.
 
How involved were you in the making of the musical version of Coraline?
I let them do their thing, partly because I think Stephin is a genius and what he would do was bound to be interesting and unique. I thought it was absolutely brave, smart theater, they made interesting choices that people wouldn’t normally make — beginning with casting a 50-year-old actress as a 9-year-old girl.
 
Why are you drawn to such scary topics?
I think it’s a good thing to create stories that have some kind of cost, some kind of price to them. In the case of Coraline, I began the story for my daughter, who would come home and climb on my lap and dictate nightmarish stories to me about little girls coming up against evil witches. I thought, well, I’ll write her something like that, and then discovered that there wasn’t something like that out there — terrifying stories for kids.
 
You wrote the screenplay for Beowulf and have had your books adapted into feature films. What are your feelings about working in Hollywood?
The enormous amount of money that it costs to make a movie makes people bet on the side of making stuff kind of bland. You’re much better off making something that you like and seeing if there are other people out there who like it too. That’s really how my career has always worked. I just do the stuff that I like, and I hope there are other people out there who like the same thing.
 
What’s your latest pop culture obsession?
The English Doctor Who science fiction series — when it’s at its best it’s some of the best television out there. Also I’ve just discovered 30 Rock, way after the rest of the universe did [laughs]. So my daughter and I have ordered the whole thing on DVD, and are catching up from the beginning.
 


You’re dating another great artist, Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls —
I am, she’s awesome.
 
The two of you recently collaborated on a book, Who Killed Amanda Palmer. Are you doing anything else together?
I nearly said nothing we can discuss in public — but actually, yes. I was asked to make an eight-minute silent film for a series of silent movies being done in the UK right now. I realized that one of the things I love about Amanda is that although she’s most famous for making her music, before that she was a living statue, and is absolutely one of the most amazing pantomime artists I’ve ever encountered, in terms of what she can do with her face and her expression. So I’m putting her in a movie. I’ll write and direct it.
 
Who is behind the project?
I don’t actually know that I can say who’s doing it — but it’s a big, real entity.

You grew up in England, but now you live in Minneapolis. How did you end up living there?
My ex-wife had family from this part of the world. And basically, I discovered I could get a huge Addams family-like mansion with 17 acres for the same cost as a one-bedroom flat in London — and not a nice one-bedroom flat in London — that it seemed like a very, very good idea.

Thanks to photographer Dese’Rae L. Stage for use of her photos, via Brooklyn Vegan.

Last spring, upon parting ways with the new owners of Calypso, the fashion empire she founded with a single boutique in St. Barths in 1995 and grew into a $60 million operation, Christiane Celle wasn't exactly ready for life as a Caribbean beach bum. Instead, she opened Clic, a photography and art bookstore in New York's SoHo this past October. A month later, she debuted a second location in St. Barths, and in the time since, has opened two new SoHo gallery spaces and (most recently) a location in East Hampton.

What made you decide to open Clic?
When I sold Calypso, I decided that I wanted to do something very different. My husband [Antoine Verglas] is a photographer and I've been collecting books and photographs for years so this felt natural to me.

It's a difficult time for bookstores, with even Barnes & Noble shutting some of their locations. Does this concern you?
At somewhere like Barnes & Noble, there is always a section of photography books but you get a bit lost. I thought there was a need for a small, family-owned business for just photo and art books. Some of the books I carry you can find on Amazon.com but with art books and coffee table books I think people want to touch the them and see them in person.

What book will you be bringing as a hostess gift when you visit friends this summer?
One of my favorites is called Yard Sale by Adam Bartos. It's a great book full of all the weird things you see at summer yard sales. He's a great photographer.

Running a bookstore, you probably meet some interesting people.
The other day a man came with a book he had done when Andy Warhol died. He photographed the funeral and everyone who attended and he said, "You don't have my book. You should carry it!"

How is running a bookstore more challenging than running a fashion boutique?
At Calypso, we would just put a dress in the window and then 100 women would come in for the dress.

Do these books ever inspire you to want to design clothes again?
Yes, like when I got books about Chanel and Valentino into the store. I do miss fashion. I miss the traveling. I used to go to India. I used to go to Morocco. I know right now I can't do any fashion because I have a three-year non-compete clause with Calypso but I still go shopping and get excited when I meet new designers.

Have you met any great new designers?
I just met a girl who has a wonderful line called Harvey Faircloth. I recommended her to a friend of mine, who is going to carry the collection at her store. So yes, I'm still keeping an eye out.

What's your next big project?
We have a show opening July 13 at our 255 Centre Street gallery that features prints from a book by Karla and James Murrary called Storefront: The Disappearing Face of New York. It features about 400 images of small stores in New York shot over ten years. Almost half of them have already closed. It just shows that New York needs more family owned stores like ours.

 

Who says male models have nothing to talk about? Jon Kortajarena is known as one of the most colorful guys in the business, and that hasn't worked against him: He's everywhere these days, in editorial spreads and in ad campaigns from Tom Ford to Diesel. We caught up with the 24-year-old Spaniard in Paris yesterday, after the Louis Vuitton Men's show.
 
What was your worst modeling experience?
My first fashion week in Milan, at age 18. I was like, "What am I doing here?" I was feeling so alone. It was freezing cold and I didn't bring the right clothes. And I couldn't communicate because my English was even worse than it is now. Instead of saying, "She is blond," I would say, "She is yellow hair!"
 
What's the last book you read?
I just finished Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. It was very special. I'm in a difficult moment in my personal life now. Heart things. I don't mean medical heart problems—I mean relationships. Love things! So the book taught me about accepting life how it comes. Sometimes you are fighting for things you can't fight for.
 
Didn't you just work as an actor for the first time?
Yes. I can't give details about the movie yet, but it was an unbelievable experience. I felt more secure in front of the camera than in real life. In my normal life I have so many insecurities. I am learning from them, or trying to learn.
 
How much time do you spend at the gym?
Almost none. I really hate the gym. So I go running. When I lift weights I feel like I am hurting myself. I would rather do other things. Swimming sometimes. Why should I be two hours in a gym, suffering so much, with all these people that I don't know and don't want to know?
 
Have you ever fallen down on the runway?
Yes! It happened during, like, my second show! But I was lucky because it was on a stairway that was mostly hidden, so the audience couldn't see anything.
 
Who hits on you most often—women or men?
I don't get hit on a lot. Really. I do see people looking at me but normally it's me who takes the first step. (laughs) I'm the one who walks over to see what's going on.

Photo: Louis Vuitton Spring 2010 Men's collection, George Chinsee.