Gossip Should Have No Friends

[February 18th, 2009]

• AND THE WINNERS ARE...: When Milk director Gus Van Sant walks down the Oscar red carpet this Sunday, Feb. 22, he’ll be accompanied by two queens of the PDX arts community. As first reported by Byron Beck (byronbeck.com), Van Sant has invited cooking maven Emily Crumpacker —who was Leonardo DiCaprio’s personal chef on the set of Body of Lies—to be his guest at the ceremony. Crumpacker declined to tell WW who she’s wearing. “This is such a big night for” Van Sant, she said, “...the entire city should be so proud.” WW has also learned that Gus’ other invitation went to Wendy Burden, the pop artist and widow of Macheezmo Mouse founder Tiger Warren.

• FOODIE FAREWELL: Kir Jensen, the pastry chef behind the Sugar Cube downtown, is closing her cupcake cart. No worries, she’s shuttering the Cube in orderto join the cookie queens of Two Tarts Bakery, 2309 NW Kearney St.

• FERTILIZED: Portland’s first Fertile Ground theater festival has been declared a success. Organizers report over 1,000 people a day attended festival events during the end of January.

• FREE BUZZ: Stumptown Coffee says it’ll hand out free, 8-ounce French Press coffees to customers between 9 and 10 am every Monday from now until the week of Tax Day, April 15. The offer’s good at all four local Stumptown cafes (one per customer, no refills). “It’s our way of saying, ‘Hey, recession: F U,” explains Stumptown’s director of operations, Matt Lounsbury, in an email.

• COMIC GLORY: Local cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, creator of the wry, existential strip Too Much Coffee Man has just had a comic purchased by The New Yorker. We asked him what it was like to meet the gold standard of comic publication. “I just hope it helps book sales,” he says. Wheeler and The Onion published Postage Stamp Funnies, a collection of his weekly strip, last year.

• CORRECTION: In the Feb. 4 cover story “Laika Virgin,” WW incorrectly reported the number of commercial and for-hire spots Laika/house produces. The animation studio creates 60 to 80 spots annually.