Videos - Baird in the trenches with the most searched upon female, the owner of New York's hottest club, the most powerful gossip columnist, an actress from the top rated 2008 cable TV show, and others.

Paris Hilton swans into the Blackberry Pearl launch party at the Frank Gehry designed ICA building in New York on 1/19/2008. Baird Jones dodges security and PR girls to nab an interview about her upcoming appearance in Repo! The Genetic Opera. She co-stars with Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) and Sara Brightman (Phantom of the Opera). Repo! is pure song with no spoken dialogue. Darren Lynn Bouseman, the director, first came to know what he wanted to do in life while performing in "Jesus Christ Superstar" in high school. Watching the physical transformation of people around him was another inspiration: "Every time you go outside and walk down Rodeo Drive, people are looking more and more absurd.” Paris constantly improves herself in the opera. The US military just announced a 250 million dollar body parts growth project to speed progress towards a Repo! future.

Paris' presence might have been expensive for Blackberry. Two months later Paris got paid $135,000 dollars for a two hour appearance starting at 1AM at the club Mahki on the west coast. See her entrance to Mahki with her current boyfriend Benjii Madden of  the punk band "Good Charlotte" who have just sold 9 million records:  Paris is upstaged by a horse. Benji just launched a clothing store selling leather jackets with designs by Shepard Fairey who you can see in the video at the bottom of this page. Paris' hedgefund manager like hourly rates might be related to the fact that Paris Hilton was for years the most searched upon female name in North America and Europe according to Google Zeitgest. Later that night Paris hit Tenjune and a few other clubs.




Paul Sevigny discusses his sister Chloe's marriage prospects at the Members Only fashion line relaunch at the Bowery Hotel on 11/12/07. Baird is concerned that Chloe's HBO TV show about bigamy, Big Love, (click for the theme) may be hurting her chances. Baird suggests that Paul speed up the marriage process by buying the bar, Sweet & Vicious, which Chloe's boyfriend Matt McAuley manages. Paul already owns Beatrice Inn which is arguably New York's hottest bar. Paul, who introduced Chloe and Matt at a bar seven years ago, but does not want to pressure things, passes on the idea. The Bowery Hotel is filled with models over 6 feet tall who are dancing around wearing the relaunched Members Only line. Kelli Delaney, the gorgous blond Members Only designer, is the host of the party. Kelli told me she had to have Paul because because he is the best DJ in the world.

The interview appeared in the NY Post in Page Six

NO TIME FOR LOVE
Nov. 14, 2007 - PAUL Sevigny is worried about his sister Chloe Sevigny's love life, and he blames it all on her L.A.-based HBO show, "Big Love." "Chloe goes out with a wonderful man, Matt McAuley. I introduced them seven years ago," Sevigny told Webster Hall's Baird Jones at the Members Only party at the Bowery Hotel. " 'Big Love' is not helping. It's a lot of sacrifice. She gets maybe one day off in the week and she can't come home for just one day, that's ridiculous. They work her extremely hard. But Matt has a job, too, and can't go see her, so he is stuck in New York. It's a big problem."



Moby discusses with Baird what Ukranian hoteliers expect of rock stars at the 150th Anniversary of Atlantic Monthly. Baird has to fend of the dangerous P. J. O'Rourke, a libertarian and early advocate of gonzo journalism, in order to get the interview. (O' Rourke once edited the National Lampoon among other publications.) O'Rourke is trying to plan his speech with Moby who has to steer clear of mentally trying subjects on account of his hangover.

The party took place on a stage while several thousand people with class B tickets took thier theater seats below in preparation for the awards ceremony and Patti Smith concert. Members of Mayor Bloomberg's elite swat team wearing bullet proof vests stood on banquets amid the guests. In addition to the Mayor the hosts included James Bennet, Christopher Buckley, P.J. O'Rourke, Boykin and his tastefully dressed wife, Celerie Curry, Michael Hirschorn, Arianna Huffington, Moby, Georgette Mosbacher, Azar Nafisi, George Stephanopolous, Andrew Sullivan, Governor Bill Weld and Tom Wolfe.

The guests included: Kurt Andersen, Iris Apfel, Thom Browne, Amanda Burden, Joan Buck, Robin Byrd, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Robert DeNiro, Griffin Dunne, Jonathan Farkas, Cody Franchetti, Meera and Vikram Gandhi, Malcolm Gladwell, Brad Gooch, Michael Gross, Rebecca Guinness , Alanna Heiss (PS1), drag king Murray Hill, Warren Hoge, Amb. Richard Holbrooke, James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Walter Isaacson, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Sonny Mehta, Daphne Merkin, Norman Pearlstein, Dale Peck, Reno, Mr and Mrs Mark Rockefeller, Robert Silvers, Anna Deveare Smith, ABC's John Stossel, James Traub, Ultra Violet, Bettina Zilkha and Mort Zuckerman. Jonathan Marder was the event producer. The interview appeared in both the New York Post and the New York Daily News.

December 24th 2007 NY Daily News Rush and Molloy column
SIDE DISH
Moby, who stopped by the Village Pourhouse, still marvels at the hotel room service he got in Kiev the last time he played there. "The hotel had no air conditioning," he tells Webster Hall's Baird Jones. "At 4 a.m., I called the front desk and asked if they could send up a fan. The bellhop disappeared and came back and said, 'There are no fans.'" Despite moving his arms in a cooling propeller motion, the techno master was told apologetically, "There are no women in the lobby."

November 3, 2007 NY Post Page 6
LANGUAGE GLITCH
THERE are fans, and then there are fans. Techno maestro Moby told Webster Hall's Baird Jones about the time he was in Kiev after performing: "It was very hot in the hotel and they had no air-conditioning. At 4 in the morning, I called the front desk and asked if they could send up a fan. The guy put me on hold, and came back, and said, 'There are no fans.' We had this long confused conversation and finally he said he was sorry, but there are no women in the lobby. He thought I meant a groupie. Eventually I was able to explain to him that I meant a plastic thing that spun in the air . . . So he was able to finally send up an actual plastic fan."



Josh Lucas, who played the mathematical genius John Nash's rival in "A Beautiful Mind", speaks to Baird Jones. Josh describes his tumultous entry into the world whic describes his tumultous entry into the world which permanently altered the shape of his head. In the backround were multi-million dollar yachts in the very scenic North Cove Harbor next to the World Financial Center in Manhattan. Among those walking the red carpet were director and juror Griffin Dunne, Amy Sacco, and director and juror Mary Harron (American Psycho). As the sea breeze wafted by, 8,200 people watched the competing shorts on a huge outdoors screen on a balmy Sunday evening. The event was sponsored by Target on September 23, 2007. The interview appeared in Page Six
CROOKED SKULL
September 26, 2007 -- JOSH Lucas was asked by Webster Hall's Baird Jones at the Tropfest party at P.J. Clarke downtown the other night how he got his nickname, "Easy Dent." "My parents were living on an Indian reservation, and they believed in naming the child on what happened during the birth. I came out very easily, so easily that the doctor pulled back and dented my head quite severely against the bed post. There is a big dent." Lucas let Jones feel the hollow on the back of his head - "It was huge," Jones told us.

Here is the 2008 festival



Iman, David Bowies wife, talks about the trouble she had getting a prom date at the Safe Horizon's dinner 11/28/2007 at Pier 60, New York, sponsored by Henri Bendel. Event producer Pete Sanders can be seen hovering with a clipboard making sure the interview stays within bounds.

Here is the interview as it appeared in print:
Dec. 3, 2007, NY Daily News, Ben Widdicombe's Gatecrasher column

DANCING FOR DOLLARS
Who would need a bribe to take a supermodel to a dance? Let's ask Iman! "When I had my prom, my father had to pay my ownCNBC's "Mad Money" Jim Cramer yells that a toupe would ruin his authenticity while Richard Johnson, who writes up the item the next day, looks on. Richard had just handed Baird two bCNBC's "Mad Money" Jim Cramer yells that a toupe would ruin his authenticity while Richard Johnson, who writes up the item the next day, looks on. Richard had just handed Baird two beers which fortified Baird's interviewing demeanor. Jason Binn, the host and publisher of Gotham Magazine praises Baird's work ethic. This is how the item ran:


September 27, 2007, New York Post, Page Six

CNBC's "Mad Money" Jim Cramer yells that a toupe would ruin his authenticity while Richard Johnson, who writes up the item the next day, looks on. Richard had just handed Baird two beers that fortied Baird's interviewing demeanor. Jason Binn, the host and publisher of Gotham Magazine praises Baird's work ethic. This is how the item ran:


September 27, 2007, New York Post, Page Six

TOO MUCH GIN
Jim Cramer seems to have no "off" switch. The manic host of CNBC's "Mad Money" was unstoppable at Gin Lane Tuesday night as he schmoozed with Arianna Huffington, Dolly Lenz and Jason Binn, whose Gotham magazine threw the party in Cramer's honor because he and Cramer live in the same building. Cramer freely gave investing tips - he's bullish on Altria and Onyx - and bristled when Webster Hall's Baird Jones asked the balding cable star if he'd ever wear a hairpiece. "I would rather blow my head off . . . Never, ever, ever . . . They are phony. They are horrible. Same with hair transplants. I like cornrows when they are in an Iowa field. I would never even dye my hair. The only thing I have is my authenticity. No, no, no!"



Waris Ahluwalia talks about his new movie at Elise Overland's Fashion Week show in the Penthouse of Milk Studios on 2-1-2008. Having worked recently as a character actor in series of films with Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Isabella Blow, Tony Schafrazi, Natasha Lyonne, and Michael Rapaport, Waris has had a lot of inspiration. This is how the interview ran in Ben Widdecombe's GateCrasher column in the New York Daily News:

SHAKESPEARE IN UNDYING LOVE
February 5th 2008. Why has it taken this long for someone to make a film called "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead"? "It is a sweet love story between vampires and Shakespeareans set in present-day New York," says turbaned party fixture and jewelry designer Waris Ahluwalia (a favorite of director Wes Anderson), who appears in the film. He told Webster Hall's Baird Jones at the Elise Overland fashion show: "Jake Hoffman and Devon Aoki are also in it. Jake is almost a vampire slayer - he is Dustin Hoffman's son, and he looks a lot like his dad. He has a lot of that energy." The pic by writer-director Jordan Galland (tag line: "Don't let your ex-girlfriend suck the life out of you!") is due at the end of the year.

Kelly Cutrone who plays the frazzled boss in the hit show "The Hills" talks about her discovery of the last Warhol movie star at the Richie Rich cohosted Irregular Choice store opening on 1-12-2008. The March 2008 season opener of "The Hills" was the most watched 2008 cable show to that point with 4.7 million TV viewers. Additionally, there were 1.8 million MTV.com streaming viewers the following day. Kelly's first appearance was in the following episode "Back to La", Episode 320 at 7min 30 sec. Kelley also talks about Linda Stein, the manager of The Ramones and realtor to the stars, who was found bludgeoned to death by her personal assistant. "Death is part of life", she advises, 4 weeks before Baird's sudden disappearance.

Kelly married longtime Andy Warhol assistant Ronnie Cutrone at 21 and founded the PR firm People's Revolution. Working in The Hills has been like Facebook times one hundred for her, filling up her email inbox. Here is how Ben Widdicombe wrote up the interview in his Gatecrasher column in the New York Daily news:

PAUL MORRISSEY MAKES A RETURN TO FILM
January 28th 2008. The last survivors of Andy Warhol's Factory are getting together again, in director Paul Morrissey's first fiction film in almost 20 years. The untitled movie had its genesis when publicist Kelly Cutrone, who was married to Warhol's late assistant Ronnie Cutrone, discovered a male model in Mexico. Morrissey, after meeting the model through photographer Bruce Weber, cast him as the reincarnation of Jesus. The film also stars Warhol regulars Geraldine Smith and Viva. Smith, star of Warhol's "Bad," told Webster Hall's Baird Jones, "I play a lesbian who is married to this girl for a green card. I have a broken leg, and I am on crutches because I had an accident. I am obsessed with these three-legged dogs, and I become crazy hysterical." Or, as another insider puts it: "I don't think there is a plot. But in a Paul Morrissey movie, is there ever?" 

Baird Jones interviews Joe Franklin, the "King of Nostalgia" at The 3rd Annual Artery Festival launch party on 10-14-2007. Joe Franklyn invented the TV talk show interviewing over 10,000 guests over 43 years, including 5 U.S. presidents. Julia Roberts appeared on TV for the first time on Franklin's show. A hulking dreadlocked security guard tries repeatedly to block the interview without success. John F. Kennedy's reputation as a humanitarian is somewhat tarnished. The interview appeared in the New York Daily News in Ben Widdecombe's GateCrasher column :

DEADLY SERIOUS PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Sunday, November 25th 2007. Next October's presidential candidate debate in Hempstead, L.I., will be the first in the state for 48 years. And let's hope nobody dies this time! Broadcasting legend Joe Franklin was recording his talk show in the studio next to Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy when they squared off in 1960. "I had a man drop dead on my program once," he told Webster Hall's Baird Jones. "I think I said I was so old I went back to when the Dead Sea was only sick. It was a bad joke. I thought [the guest] was laughing; he started to snort and then he fell on the floor. "Nixon and Kennedy came racing in and tried to revive him. It was at the Channel 7 building. They tried to revive the man from the floor, but he was gone." So who seemed more concerned, the Democrat or the Republican? "Nixon and Kennedy could not have cared less about the heart attack," Franklin shrugged. "They were so used to it."




Shepard Fairey discusses the bombing of his Dumbo grafiti art show three days after the fact with Baird Jones. They are at Shepard's follow up E Pluribus Venom show at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery on June 26, 2007. Jonathan Levine, in a white jacket, intervened from behind briefly, looking concerned about where the interview might be going. The bomber's supporters handed out anarchist (actually situationist) leaflets. Seven off duty members of the NYPD can be seen guarding the show and party bus, dressed in thier finest Chrisian Lacroix and Hermes ties. Nymph like gallery girls looked on intently. The opening was covered extensively in the press: Jonathan Levine Gallery - Press