THE QUEEN RULES: I don’t know who is telling the truth in the juicy discrimination case between Leona Helmsley and her gay former Park Lane Hotel manager Charles Bell, but I can tell you about my family’s dealings with the hotel queen.
On more than one occasion, my dad called Helmsley one of the toughest businesswomen he had ever met – tougher than some of the men he dealt with.
When Helmsley did 21 months for tax evasion in the early 1990s, a rumor circulated that she had asked my dad for protection while she was behind bars. Dad laughed at the story and called it “absurd.” Helmsley was more than capable of looking after herself in any situation, he said.
But she also looked after others. Helmsley is a public relations and “damage control” expert. She also is a perfectionist. Many years ago, when my brother got married at The Helmsley Palace, Leona took care of all the details herself. She put on an amazing soiree that included flying the Italian flag atop the hotel. This lady knows everything that goes on in her hotels, and if she says she saw leather-clad men partying in her hotel, I’m inclined to believe her.
Helmsley has been interrogated six ways to Sunday, by the feds, the IRS and everyone else. I don’t think a former employee upset over his pink slip, and other gay things, is going to win this argument.
LOVELY LIZ: Last week, I hosted an impromptu birthday dinner for legendary gossip glam gal Liz Smith, at the equally legendary East Harlem eatery Rao’s (thanks for not saying no, “Frankie No-No”). There to toast Liz was my witty Post colleague, Linda “Sassy” Stasi, p.r. powerhouse Matthew Rich, “sexy” CNN host Paula Zahn (still with a leg cast from a skiing accident at Thanksgiving), socialite Lynn Knickman, soap hunk Jack Scalia, talk show hostess Caroline Rhea and “Good Morning America” producer Sue Carswell.
We enjoyed a delicious, hearty meal – accompanied by raucous and at times risqué conversation. None more so than Rhea’s confession she is “secretly in love” with Bill Clinton. “Tell me, is there a female at this table that could keep her hands off Bill?” Rhea asked.
Just days earlier, Rhea had successfully bid $22,000 at a charity auction to play golf with the former president. Since then, she told us all, Rhea has been by the phone waiting for confirmation of their date. “I’ve been like a high-schooler,” she said. “Each time the phone rings, I’m hoping it’s Bill!”
To cap the evening, Gov. George Pataki stopped by the table to wish Liz a spectacular year and greet all of us with a hearty “hello” and gentlemanly charm. We then all tucked into the extraordinary birthday cake (32 scoops of chocolate raspberry ice cream) as Liz opened some raunchy birthday gifts (that’s another story).
To a woman who is my friend and mentor – a glam gossip gal who “always dishes the dirt,” I say, “Happy, happy, La Liz!”
LAUGHING HOUR: Claire Danes tells me she bonded with Meryl Streep during the shooting of “The Hours.” “Meryl was always focused and open to any surprises – most of all, she was never afraid to make mistakes,” Danes said.
Claire also was thrilled to learn that despite Streep’s accolades, she has a huge sense of humor: “Meryl has a hearty laugh and tells tons of funny stories. She kept the entire cast entertained.”
HE’S NO PUSSY: After playing Tony Soprano’s right-hand man, then suffering the ultimate wiseguy indignity of being whacked and sent “to sleep with the fishes,” Vincent Pastore has resurfaced in the new CBS drama “Queens Supreme.” He plays a newsstand owner who befriends and advises Queens judge Oliver Platt. “It’s not the kind of friendship that comes with any strings – or danger,” Pastore says. “But it produces great chemistry.” It must. The show’s producers have signed Pastore to seven episodes. Bella Fortuna!
VICTORIA’S SECRET: Public relations guru Dan Klores looks like he has a Sundance Film Festival hit with his “The Boys of Second Avenue,” which I’m told has been snapped up by Showtime for an October screening.