Paul Sevigny

Neighbors protesting the trendy Beatrice Inn's effort to renew its liquor license were outraged last week to find out that they were effectively wasting their breath.

By the time the issue had come to local Community Board 2 for a vote on Sept. 18, the hip celebrity hangout's renewal had already been approved by the State Liquor Authority .

"Advise us on how to get rid of this place," pleaded one aghast neighbor.

Raymond Lee, chairman of the board's SLA committee, explained that there was really little that the panel could do because -- despite allegations of the popular hot spot's "coke den" reputation -- the Beatrice on 285 West 12th Street had no record of violations with the SLA (an apparent prerequisite for nixing a renewal).  read more »

Martha Stewart has been the victim of natural disasters this summer. First, Ms. Stewart's farm in Bedford, N.Y. was struck by lightning earlier this summer, and now her East Hampton home on Lily Pond Lane was also struck with a bolt, which fried her stereo system and her electronic driveway gate. [P6]

Kirsten Dunst was spotted making out with Drew Barrymore's ex Justin Long at Sunset Junction in LA, where she seems to have returned after a summer spent hanging around New York. [NY Daily News] 

Chloe Sevigny took a seaplane to Atlantic City to celebrate the opening of the new nightclub The Chelsea, which is owned by her brother Paul. Once there, the Sevigny siblings danced until dawn. [P6]  read more »

Today marked the ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the hugely hyped Chelsea hotel in Atlantic City.

Hotelier Curtis Bashaw recently sat down with The Observer to discuss the $110 million project, which aims to lure more young, hip New Yorkers to South Jersey's gritty gaming town and otherwise restore some of the ancient seaside destination's long-lost glamour.

"We do a lot of real estate projects -- we've done ground-up buildings in the city and all sorts of other stuff -- but these hotel renovation projects are among the most challenging and rewarding and pleasurable projects," said Mr. Bashaw, 48, who, alongside his Cape Advisors partner Craig Wood, has combined an old Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn into a single 330-room boutique hotel on the boardwalk.  read more »

Editors' Note: This article has been corrected from an earlier version which misidentified the grandfather of Simon Hammerstein. We regret the error.

This Thursday, Valentine’s Day, The Box, Simon Hammerstein’s Lower East Side burlesque nightclub, will celebrate its one-year anniversary. To mark the occasion, the exclusive watering hole has arranged an evening of special return performances by the past year’s most popular acts—entertainers like Buck Angel and the Porcelain Twins.

Talking to the Daily Transom today about the past year, Mr. Hammerstein, the grandson of acclaimed lyricist Oscar, said the highlight of the past 12 months was “that we had a small little idea and a lot of people checked in and made it pretty exciting.”  read more »

Speaking of Liv Tyler (and when aren’t we?), her husband Royston Langdon, along with so-cool-you-can’t-pronounce-them artists like Ne-Yo and band Arckid, kicks off the Hennessy Artistry tour.  read more »