NEW YORK — It took a hurricane to get Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen back together again in the same state.
Bundchen left New York after posing for five magazine covers and rode out Hurricane Ian in Miami, while Tom and the other Tampa Bay Buccaneers also fled south to Magic City.
“They are burning up the phone lines trying to find a solution to their marital problems,” one source said.
“They have met secretly together and with their children and have been using FaceTime nearly every day. They are committed to making their family whole and their marriage work.”
Brady has been stepping up as a dad, at Bundchen’s encouragement. Last week, he went to his son’s baseball game and then had all three kids at the Buccaneers’ first home game in Tampa.
“He has been more present for the family than ever and Gisele is noticing,” said my source.
Although Bundchen was listed as a hostess of the recent Caring for Women Benefit at The Pool on E. 52nd St., she was a no-show.
The event, spearheaded by Salma Hayek and her billionaire husband François-Henri Pinault, supports victims of domestic violence.
But Bundchen told friends she didn’t want to face reporters’ questions on the red carpet.
Her old flame Leonardo DiCaprio was there wearing his “dressy” black baseball cap.
Also there were Gloria Steinem, Anderson Cooper, Karlie Kloss, Emma Watson and Queen Rania of Jordan.
The auction raised a million dollars thanks in part to Libbie Mugrabi, who bought two suits from Brioni for $42,000 and donated another $25,000.
Mugrabi told pals at the Balenciaga table that she is giving the suits to her former husband, billionaire David Mugrabi.
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Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz allegedly used a tried-and-true method to woo one pretty young woman — he offered to introduce her to his pal, Leonardo DiCaprio.
The allegation about Katz emerged in court papers accusing ballerina Dusty Button, 33, and her husband Mitchell Taylor, 37, of sexually exploiting dancer Sage Humphries, 24, and other young women, in threesomes.
In federal court papers in Nevada, where the Buttons now live, Dusty states:
“Sage told me that she had met Katz at a modeling party … where he had taken a liking to her and informed her of his vast network of celebrity friends, one of which she boasted about the most to be Leonardo DiCaprio.”
Dusty continued, “She (Humphries) also stated that Katz told her that he could introduce her to Leo.”
DiCaprio is said to have told one acquaintance, “You have no idea how many guys use my name to get chicks.”
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Ramon Hervey II, a pioneer in entertainment management who repped Paul McCartney, Richard Pryor and Bette Midler, has a book coming out.
“The Fame Game: An Insider’s Playbook for Earning Your 15 Minutes,” due in August from Amistad, proves that Hervey, ex-husband of Vanessa Williams, has a sense of humor.
“My memory of Bette’s most scandalous and funny times were her 10-minute segments in her live show that featured her bawdy and scurrilous Sophie Tucker jokes,” Hervey told me.
For instance, “What do you get when you cross a donkey with an onion? Most of the time, you get an onion with very long ears, but occasionally you get a piece of a-- that’s so wonderful, it makes you want to cry!”
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Noel Ashman was in a celebratory mood at his high school friend Will Ryman’s solo sculpture show opening at the Chart Gallery in Tribeca.
The art lovers included journalist Carl Bernstein, Federico Castelluccio of “The Sopranos,” private eye Bo Dietl, Slick Rick and Grandmaster Melle Mel.
The Ashman-produced “Wire Room” had just hit theaters, starring Kevin Dillon, Cameron Douglas and Bruce Willis, in his last role before retirement.
Coming out early next year is Ashman’s movie, inspired by a classic Edgar Allen Poe story, “3 Days Rising” with Mickey Rourke, Ice T and Peter Greene.
Ashman told me, “It’s great to be getting back to work after the stagnation of the pandemic.”
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Jamaica and the family of Bob Marley go together like reggae and Red Stripe Beer.
The American Friends of Jamaica honored Cedella Marley who divides her time between running her late father’s record company and designing clothes.
Also at the event was Skip Marley, who performed with Steel Pulse, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is friends with Rohan Marley after the two worked together to promote legalizing cannabis in New York. Nelson Mandela’s grandson Ndaba, along with legal eagle John Zidziunas, who is partners with Rohan in Lion Order, the cannabis brand, attended, too.
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The crowd was thick at Versa in Midtown as Cristyne Nicholas and George Lence celebrated the 15th anniversary of Nicholas & Lence Communications.
A competing flack quipped it may have been the first time PR titan Ken Sunshine ever waited on line for anything.
Sunshine was working his phone before joining Caroline Hirsch, who is busy gearing up for November’s New York Comedy Festival, entrepreneur Francine LeFrak, Penske Media chair Gerry Byrne, WPIX’s Marvin Scott, Rita Cosby and Cristyne’s Friday night co-host on AM 970′s Radio Night Live, Kevin McCullough.
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Village People’s Randy Jones and NY Yankee Anthony Rizzo are fans of Ethyl’s, the Upper East Side haunt.
Now owners Gerard Renny and Charlie Sub are reopening Ethyl’s in Williamsburg on Oct. 13, curating live entertainment complete with Brooklyn-inspired eats and go-go girls to reflect the heyday of Studio 54.
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Jerry Hall, newly divorced from a prominent Australian, has shown up in Paris to hang out with her daughter, Georgia May Jagger. It’s the first time in seven years Hall has attended Paris Fashion Week.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Richard Johnson has been covering the rich and infamous for decades, and was once called by the New York Times “a journalistic descendant of Walter Winchell.” Having grown up in Greenwich Village, Johnson is proud to call himself a New Yorker.
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