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Updated: October 22, 2009, 4:38 pm	Share    Print    Email

Bethenny Frankel will finally walk down the aisle with boyfriend of 11 months Jason Hoppy. Images courtesy of PatrickMcMullan.com

Southampton - O Tempore! O Mores! In days past, June was widely regarded as bridal month and nine months later a blessed arrival would be announced but times have changed and folks are tying the knot at all different times of the year. My inbox is filled with dish about upcoming nuptials, baby bumps and births. Not that they usually occur in that order these days.

Ivanka Trump walks the aisle this weekend.

Top on the list is the news that "Real Housewives of New York City" star Bethenny Frankelwill finally walk down the aisle with boyfriend of 11 months Jason Hoppy. My spies tell me Jason pulled out all the cliché romantic touches (which we love anyway) in his proposal to the raven haired author. Rose petals strewn around her apartment and Jason on bended knee to pop the question and presented her with a knockout eight-karat diamond sparkler. Hard to say "no" with that kind of bauble dangling in front of you. In any event, Bethenny whose search for true love has been well chronicled on the show said "Yes" and the pair will make it official as soon as the "Skinny Girl" author comes up with a recipe for a fat-free wedding cake.

No sooner do I write this in my notes than I learn that Bethenny has been disguising a little baby bump and that she is several months preggers. I hope Vera Wang has some smashing maternity gowns for the petite writer.

The big wedding, and I mean Big as in Trump-style big, will take place at the Donald Trump owned National Golf Club in Bedminster this weekend when the beauteous Ivanka Trump says "I do" to young publishing scion Jared Kushner of New York Observer fame. It will be a very private ceremony for their nearest and dearest - some 500 I hear which doesn't sound very private to me. But then the well liked pair has lots of pals in the real estate, fashion and media communities so it's hard to trim the list.

Jeremy Sisto ties the knot as well.

Ivanka who clearly combines the best traits of her dad realtor Donald and mom the indomitable Ivana, has a best selling book out "Trump Card," a very successful high fashion jewelry line and continues to acquire and develop projects and properties for the family business and is certainly more of a "real girl" than people would believe judging by her wedding registry list which the New York Times published last week. She and fiancé have a wedding list of the usual silver serving pieces at Tiffany's but they're also signed up at house wares retailers Crate & Barrel and Williams-Sonoma. Their wish list includes such ordinary items as cookie sheets, a rolling pin, the KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer, spatulas, measuring cups and a Bundt cake pan. Don't know when she'll get around to baking but it's nice to know if I'm invited I can get away with two $4.95 Williams-Sonoma spatulas - well make that three - and know that I have given the couple something meaningful. I mean every time she is whipping up a cake, she'll think "Oh that Jennifer - such taste and style."

On the other side of the coin, there were the totally unannounced nuptials of "Law & Order" star Jeremy Sisto to Addie Lane. Jeremy in ripped jeans and a sweatshirt slipped into New York's City Hall for a quickie ceremony with only the couple's baby daughter and the nanny present. How they avoided New York's infamous paparazzi who comb the wedding lists at City Hall as much as they do at Central Bookings for that perfect shot is amazing to everyone. That is except for the couple who friends say were thrilled to have gone unnoticed.

Heidi Klum and husband Seal welcome new baby.

One wedding you won't have to shop for is the fairy tale wedding between "Sex and the City 2" characters Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson) and Anthony Marantino (Mario Cantone), at which Liza Minnelli not only performs but also officiates at the ceremony (and you thought her wedding to David Gest was weird). The fabulous fantasy wedding sequence filmed at Brooklyn's Steiner Studios an over the top silver, white and gold affair with a ceiling scraping wedding cake reported cost $1 million to shoot. Minnelli who was much inspired knocked out a 10-minute song and dance routine in between puffing cigarettes and taking whiffs of oxygen from a nearby tank! The piece de resistance is Carrie, a/k/a Sarah Jessica Parker, playing Best Man! Can't wait to see who will catch the bouquet!

On the baby making front comes news that "Project Runway" hostess Heidi Klum and hubby singer Seal welcomed a new addition to their brood. On Friday, October 9 they welcomed their fourth child and second daughter Lou Sulola Samuel into the world. Friends say the baby is gorgeous beyond belief and the couple is deliriously happy. The birth of baby Lou, who joins siblings Johan, two and half, and Henry, four, and Leni, five, comes one week after the "Project Runway" star filed a petition to legally take on her husband's last name, Samuel. The couple was married in 2005.

The Legendary Lauren Bacall to receive an honoray Academy Award.

Here is some long overdue good news for all you movie and theater fans of the brilliantly talented Lauren Bacall. After years of being passed over by the Academy Awards, the East Hampton star who appeared in sultry roles in film noir movies as "To Have and Have Not," "The Big Sleep" and "Dark Passage" and had long ago earned her Hollywood immortality, will get an honorary Oscar this year. The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted last week to honor Bacall with an honorary Oscar, along with other Hollywood figures.

The 84-year-old Bacall (and looking darn good), who was married to screen legend Humphrey Bogart until his death in 1957, has never received an Oscar, although she was nominated for her supporting role in 1996 movie "The Mirror Has Two Faces." Betty, as she is known to friends, made her screen debut opposite Bogart in the 1944 movie "To Have and Have Not," the first of more than 30 films she starred in. The Board of Governors also voted to award honorary Oscars to producer and director and king of low budget but money making movies Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis, and to give the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award to producer and movie executive John Calley.

Jon Bon Jovi will be all over NBC.

While this is great news for all, I am personally upset that the great Bacall will not have her big moment and video tribute at the actual Academy Awards ceremony. Instead all four will receive their awards on November 14 at an event in Hollywood. Organizers of the Oscars decided to hand out those statues ahead of the Academy Awards in March and ease the time crunch for the telecast of the glitzy show. While I am all for keeping the show less than seven hours I think the Board is cheating longtime fans of the Hollywood legend in watching her accept the award with her usual sexy sarcasm and sardonic smile.

For the next two months you might want to call NBC the JBJ Network. That's JBJ as in East Hampton (and New Jersey's) favorite troubadour Jon Bon Jovi. To tie in with the release of his latest album "The Circle" on November 10, the savvy rocker signed an exclusive deal that will have his music all over the Peacock Network. Jon will be seen exclusively on shows on outlets owned by NBC Universal. These appearances will include the "Today" show, "The Tonight Show," "The Jay Leno Show" and "Saturday Night Live" - and even an interview on the "NBC Nightly News" with Brian Williams. He'll also appear on "Inside the Actors Studio" with fellow Hamptonite James Lipton on the Bravo channel of NBC Universal. For all this he gets to be called NBC's "artist in residence" for the two-month period - and that means he can't do any other TV appearances.
Jon is reported to have been the man behind the idea which he proposed to NBC chief Jeff Zucker, another Hamptons neighbor and a regular with Bon Jovi at Nick & Toni's and Jon's Blue Parrot. Zucker loved the idea of the crossover with all NBC properties and shows and instantly said "Yes."

The line-up of appearances will include a concert outside the studio plaza in Rockefeller Center on the "Today" show on November 25; "Saturday Night Live" on December 12; and an interview on "Inside the Actors Studio" on November 16. Bon Jovi noted that the Bravo show, which usually centers on actors, will cover the history of his band as performers and some of his film work.