Norman Mailer turns 84 next week, but when it comes to rumbling with The New York Times, he still has all the spunk of an angry punk.
Mailer (below r.) can’t complain about the front-page rave freelance critic Lee Siegel gave his new novel, “The Castle in the Forest,” in the Times Book Review last Sunday. But the reverential piece only cements Mailer’s hunch that weekday critic Michiko Kakutani is still gunning for him – as is her “clone” Janet Maslin.
Mailer called out Kakutani a while back after she knifed several of his books. He described the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic in Rolling Stone as a “kamikaze” who “disdains white male authors.” He wondered in Esquire what he had done to “put the hare up her royal Japanese a-.”
Mailer tells us, “I learned that daily reviewers at The Times cannot review people who are enemies or friends. So [‘The Castle in the Forest’] was given to [former Times film critic] Janet Maslin. Poor Janet. Is she going to write a good review of me under Michiko’s nose?”
Apparently not. Last Friday, Maslin sniffed that “for all the long-winded, claustrophobic intensity,” the conclusions of Mailer’s “repetitive” novel “turn out to have caca’s subtlety … It’s thinking is so small.”
“Janet Maslin is a Kakutani clone,” says Mailer. “You can quote me on that.”
A Times spokeswoman argues, “Ms. Maslin wrote the review of Mr. Mailer’s book based solely on her own judgment.”
Well, at least the feud lent some intrigue to the party that Mailer’s Random House editor David Ebershoff threw at his West Village townhouse. Joining a crowd that included E.L. Doctorow, Arthur Schlesinger and Judith Miller, author Gay Talese had just deposited his coat upstairs when he whispered to Mailer, “Michiko is up there. She’s a little nervous about coming down. But I told her you’re a forgiving guy.”
Mailer, who’s been the target of a few of Talese’s “whoppers,” replied, “Would you stop that [bleeping] b-?!”
Whatever Maslin and Kakutani think of him, Mailer has a friend in Martha Stewart. On Tuesday, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner taped an interview with the prison-hardened domestic diva (below l.). While some hoped Mailer would share his recipe for the lemon meringue pie he served as an Army mess cook, his wobbly legs confined him to a kitchen table where they discussed his future work.
“I’d like to continue this story,” Mailer said. “But I can’t promise. I could step out of bed and break my ankle.”
“You could still write,” Martha told him. “Break your neck and it’s a different thing.” And not, as she says, a good thing. You can see the odd couple when her show airs on Monday.
Kimora’s the strife of the party
It was supposed to be Alicia Keys’ 27th birthday party, but Kimora Lee Simmons took center stage when she got into a bizarre screaming fight with another woman Wednesday night.
The intimate fete at Bed started out mellow enough, with Keys hanging out with her boyfriend, Kerry (Krucial) Brothers, and pals like Clive Davis, Missy Elliott and Common. But minutes after everyone had sung “Happy Birthday,” a shrill voice shattered the vibe.
“Get out of my face, b-!” shrieked Kimora, according to a witness.
Guests wheeled around to find the designing wife (circled below) of rap mogul Russell Simmons yelling at a woman in jeans and a tan vest. “Kimora said that the woman had thrown a drink at her,” says one attendee. “She didn’t look wet to me. But security grabbed the girl and ushered her out.”
Asked by another guest what the fight was about, the woman said, “She’s jealous of me!”
The woman couldn’t be reached yesterday. Kimora’s rep described her as “a disrespectful fan” who “accosted” Simmons. One source added, “Kimora doesn’t even know this person, but [the woman] constantly shows up at events where Kimora is expected. Frankly, it’s a little scary. Kimora is looking into getting a restraining order.”
Whatever the back story, Keys didn’t seem to appreciate the drama. “When Kimora was leaving, Alicia totally ignored her,” claimed a source. Keys’ rep insisted, “She had a wonderful time.”
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