Gossip Should Have No Friends

[August 8th, 2007]

FISCAL FITNESS Members of Portland's new money brigade are toasting their VitaminWater to the prospect of a new social club and day spa on West Burnside . According to a business plan Scoop spied, something called "We Village " is in the works. It bills itself as a chic space with a high-end restaurant , a lush day spa and yoga studio , a welcoming social club, and a kids' fantasy fun camp all rolled into one modern, sophisticated and environmentally conscious place. According to its concept manifesto, the village hopes to attract a discerning, "well-moneyed and sophisticated" demographic of "family innovators and style emulators, " whatever that means. It also notes that, ahem, "kids are hot ." (Can we interject, ewww, even though we're pretty sure they just mean spawn-related branding?) We Village's enablers have apparently cast their discriminating eyes on 12,000 square feet of prime ground-floor retail space at the Civic Condominiums at 19th Avenue and West Burnside, only a PGE Park lot away from the crusty, old-moneyed Multnomah Athletic Club. What's more, the Civic is also rumored to be in serious talk mode with a "high-profile Portland restaurateur." Let the speculation games begin!

ROLE CALL Time to get all starry-eyed again. Although word from the Oregon Film and Video office is, "We cannot officially comment on that," Scoop's heard a major motion picture project will soon begin filming both in Portland and Central Oregon . That's fresh off the heels of Diane Lane's Untraceable. According to Variety, which just announced the film project last Friday, the title of the film is Management . A romantic comedy by first-time director Stephen Belber, the big-name stars connected to it so far are Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn (don't you think they'll fit right in at Doug Fir and Saucebox?). According to Variety, "Aniston plays a traveling saleswoman who sells cheap art to small companies and motels...." Sounds like home to us.

WORK IT, GIRLS What a year it's been for Fashion Design Camp. The summertime program, aimed at sartorially inclined young seamstresses aged 8 to 16, was created last summer in a small house on Northwest 23rd Avenue after American Apparel's Tacee Webb couldn't get her daughter, Palace, into the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls. But after an appearance this year on The Rachael Ray Show, the camp tripled in size to 36 girls, attracting participants to this year's camp from as far away as Mexico. The weeklong camp culminated last Friday night in a fashion show of the young ladies modeling their own designs, which could only be described as little bit Bratz, a little bit Baby Jane and a whole lot of "Oh my, what has she done with Mommy's best outfit?!" ?