Posted 03.27.01
We hear that when an international media mogul's staff hired Natalie Cole to perform at a private party a few weeks ago, he reluctantly agreed to let Cole bring one guest. But after he learned the singer wanted to bring her friend, songwriter and controversial Clinton pal Denise Rich, he wouldn't let Rich come, fearing a "press mess." (By the way, the asking price for a performance from Cole, who is repped by William Morris, is more than $200,000, but the mogul got her for a lot less.)
IAN SCHRAGER TALKS ABOUT HIS LATEST
Don't call Ian Schrager's hotels "designer hotels." "When people say 'designer hotels,' I cringe because I don't consider them that," he says in an interview in the latest issue of Business Travel News. "They're hotels that have something to say, that are individualized, that may be subversive to the status quo and give travelers a choice...I'm trying to do hotels that reflect the lifestyle of the people who frequent them and that's what creates the bond with the customer." He also reveals plans for his upcoming Astor Place Hotel in the East Village, which will have 300 rooms and a separate building with dirt-cheap rooms with shared bathrooms for $45 per night.
The man behind the Hudson, the Royalton and the original Studio 54 also addresses people's expectations of his work: "When I opened my first hotel, people expected to see go-go dancers in the lobby and then they only expected to see people who wore black and lived in SoHo. It's a fiction...Believe me, I'm not just for the 18-to-34 year olds. I can't build a business on them."
Inside Your Industry Archives...
We hear that when an international media mogul's staff hired Natalie Cole to perform at a private party a few weeks ago, he reluctantly agreed to let Cole bring one guest. But after he learned the singer wanted to bring her friend, songwriter and controversial Clinton pal Denise Rich, he wouldn't let Rich come, fearing a "press mess." (By the way, the asking price for a performance from Cole, who is repped by William Morris, is more than $200,000, but the mogul got her for a lot less.)
IAN SCHRAGER TALKS ABOUT HIS LATEST
Don't call Ian Schrager's hotels "designer hotels." "When people say 'designer hotels,' I cringe because I don't consider them that," he says in an interview in the latest issue of Business Travel News. "They're hotels that have something to say, that are individualized, that may be subversive to the status quo and give travelers a choice...I'm trying to do hotels that reflect the lifestyle of the people who frequent them and that's what creates the bond with the customer." He also reveals plans for his upcoming Astor Place Hotel in the East Village, which will have 300 rooms and a separate building with dirt-cheap rooms with shared bathrooms for $45 per night.
The man behind the Hudson, the Royalton and the original Studio 54 also addresses people's expectations of his work: "When I opened my first hotel, people expected to see go-go dancers in the lobby and then they only expected to see people who wore black and lived in SoHo. It's a fiction...Believe me, I'm not just for the 18-to-34 year olds. I can't build a business on them."
Inside Your Industry Archives...
