Jay Penske — the owner of WWD, Rolling Stone, Deadline and Variety, who also just snapped up the Hollywood Reporter — unwittingly gave an extra gift to some former employees at Pastis on Wednesday night.
We hear that the racing scion noticed that two former staffers he’d fired years ago were eating near his table. A spy told us that Penske “came over to them and said, ‘I’m sorry we aren’t working with each other anymore.’ ” But “they didn’t look happy.”
The source said that when the waitress came by and told them that Penske picked up their tab, the duo tacked on a $110 bottle of Taittinger champagne.
Penske, we’re told, was dining with execs from Peloton and IAC. Justin Theroux and Mark Ronson were also spotted eating at the Meatpacking hot spot.
The Post’s Keith Kelly reported at the end of September that Penske Media Corp. paid $225 million to create a new company with MRC, the Hollywood Reporter’s parent company. The price tag is for a controlling stake of the new entity, called PMRC.
The deal was said to result in hefty layoffs among non-editorial staffers — which sounds like a lot of restaurant tabs to pick up!