Columbus Day. We honor some Italian actors: Stallone, expelled from 14 schools in 11 years, worked at the Central Park Zoo. Quit after a lion wee-wee’d on him . . . Elke Sommer won the Miss Viareggio pageant . . . Selena Gomez with the Mexican last name is part Italian . . . Rose McGowan with the Irish last name was born in Italy . . . Jason Schwartzman with the Jewish last name? Mama’s Italian . . . Christina Ricci with the Italian last name? Born in Santa Monica, Calif. Clooney has a house on Lake Como. DiCaprio has an apartment in Verona. And to quote Yankee-born Madonna : “Italians do things better.”
Odds & Ends
Historic Saddle River, NJ — which once housed Nixon and Rosie O’Donnell, whose home’s up for $6 mil but could get $4.5 — has a new Republican mayor-elect. Dr. Albert Kurpis. The GOP’s sinking in DC, but doing OK in NJ . . . Kelly Ripa getting H’wood’s Walk of Fame star . . . Divorce lawyer Arlene Kayatt, ex-columnist for late husband Ed Kayatt’s East Side weekly Our Town, again columning bimonthly . . . Judge Judy, No. 1 on TV after 20 years, gave a thank you-thank God-thank the ratings party for family on the World Yacht, which docked in the Hudson — or Judy would have punished it.
Mane event
Louis Licari, responsible for hairs belonging to Wintour, Ivana, Basinger, Sarandon, Barkin, etc., opens his new 693 Fifth salon Tuesday. Sofia Coppola and Grace Coddington co-host the 6 to 7:30 p.m. cocktail party . . . BEING Columbus Day, Gov. John Kasich’s Ohio posse hit Patsy’s on West 56th before hitting New Hampshire, which, trust me, is light on parmegiane . . . STEVEN Van Zandt — with that head shmatta — and Paul Shaffer — without David Letterman — head the music for B’way-bound “Piece of My Heart.”
Bits & pieces
Gigi Hadid, Tommy Hilfiger, David Foster and Thalía need sprucing? For their Cipriani charity dinner last week, party planner Larry Scott was SOS’d PDQ to “add glamour and save the day” . . . RENÉE Fleming, Valerie Simpson, Baryshnikov, Dick Parsons, Danny Glover jazz up Oct. 22nd’s Jazz Foundation of America benefit “Great Night in Harlem” at the Apollo.
A ‘shepherd’ for those in need
Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya at the American Turkish Society Gala: “My village Erzincan hadn’t much. Everything I became I learned from my little town’s shepherds and farmers going up and down the mountain. I arrived in America with $3,000 in my pocket. I only knew how to make great yogurt.“ ‘Chobani’ in Turkish means ‘shepherd.’ How, with all our technology, we cannot find a way to feed children a cup of soup, give them a clean mattress or help them escape the world’s terrible circumstances. So I created the Shepherd Gift Foundation, where 10 percent of our profits go.”
His pregnant friend, Alida Boer, a former Miss Guatemala, wore a form-fitting blue gown. When’s she due? “I hope after dessert. But, supposedly, in nine days.” At her table, Maggie Norris and, fortunately, Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Duke it out
Somerset County, NJ, may demolish Doris Duke’s historic home, claiming restoration’s needed and “the mansion doesn’t meet architectural or historical context for preservation.” Honoring her legacy include those who knew Miss Duke (once America’s richest woman — Duke University, Duke Tobacco) and are fighting “to prevent losing tangible history. Once gone, it can never be replaced.” Their next meeting is Thursday.
Forest Hills. From a not-very-nice right-winger: “Obama’s proved he can be a successful politician in this country — even if English is his second language.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.