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Tags: Crosby Street Hotel / Hotel Construction / Manhattan Hotels / Firmdale Hotels / → All Tags

Crosby Street Hotel Construction Update: Getting Set for September

Where: 270 Lafayette St [map], New York, NY, United States, 100013

Is it bad that we have become so jaded and doubtful of a hotel's ability to open up as scheduled in this day and age (and by "day and age" we mean, of course, time and place: recession in the big city) that when we hear of a hotel on track to open a few months away, we sort of just sit back and wait for the delay announcements to come in? You know, for the delays to be delayed. Yeah, that's kind of bad, right?

Because it is, rather sadly, the first thing we thought when we'd heard the Crosby Street Hotel was still on track for an end-of-September opening (pushed back from March). The property is the first US outpost for London-based Firmdale Hotels, whose name was in papers this weekend because profits — yikes — had fallen 64%.

We checked in on the opening date, though, and a rep for the hotel promised the NYC property was still lookin' good for a September '09 go-time — and construction, per this shot the hotel sent us, seems to be coming along nicely. Also, we hear Firmdale has hired an artist who has been taking shots of the hotel's construction progress for the last year and they are "going to screen the result in their private cinema" when the hotel opens up.

Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Madonna / Hotel News / → All Tags

Madonna and Sean Penn Catch Up at the Greenwich

Where: 377 Greenwich Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 100013

Possibly celebrating her divorce from Guy Ritchie (but more likely just sitting down to catch up), the ubiquitous Madonna chit-chatted over drinks with her first ex-hubby, Sean Penn, at Robert DeNiro's Greenwich Hotel Wednesday night. We wonder if the two of them picked the Greenwich 'cause Sean Penn was just in a movie with him (the underhyped What Just Happened — no, we don't know much about it either).

The always-informative Page Six puts the whole evening in context for us:

Madonna...had drinks at the Greenwich Hotel with her first ex-husband, Sean Penn, Wednesday night after attending a Gucci event with mega-manager Guy Oseary. Guy had reason to celebrate too, as his Maverick Films exec-produced "Twilight," the teen vampire movie, appears headed for blockbuster status.

Yeah, producing Twilight is a reason to celebrate for reals, especially considering such culty traveling fangirls all this Twilight hype seems to be generating. And yet another reason for Madge to celebrate: she was allowed into the Greenwich Hotel, which is more than some of us can say.

PS: what does Madonna drink when she goes out "for drinks"? Do they stock Kabbalah Water at the hotel bar?