Karl Lagerfeld continued his American tour with a Friday-night stop at the Pace/MacGill Gallery in Manhattan to fête his new book, “Metamorphoses of an American.” Stephen Gan, Glenda Bailey, Amanda Harlech, and Olivier Zahm came to check out Lagerfeld’s documentation of model Brad Kroenig in a variety of iconic guises as well as several au naturel shots. We asked the Kaiser to reminisce on his hang-out time in Miami. “I had no time,” he said. “I did the Chanel show, then the big party afterwards. I had no time to go to even Wet Willie’s.” Bummer. With only three days in New York and two shoots scheduled, we can’t imagine he’s going to get much rest here, either. Especially with the crush of autograph seekers and camera phone snappers that greet him everywhere he goes. “It’s pretty much the same everywhere,” said Kroenig, Lagerfeld’s frequent travel partner. “But Tokyo is the most insane. There are actually Japanese girls crying.” Lagerfeld, however, can hardly tell the difference. “I can’t cross the street anywhere,” he said.—Katie Hintz

Photo: JIMI CELESTE/patrickmcmullan.com

Love and peace in the Middle East? Maybe. Israel and Syria are discussing a potential peace treaty for the first time in almost a decade, while heiress/model/etc. Lydia Hearst may be en route to Iraq, where her jet-set (as in helicopter-flying) boyfriend is being deployed. Love is in the air for newlyweds Cash Warren and Jessica Alba, too, who pulled a Chris and Ellen and skipped the whole cake-and-gown bit (we’re a little hurt, but fine). Speaking of hurt, Harrison Ford had his chest waxed Steve Carell-style for a commercial stressing the adverse effects of deforestation on global warming. Tricky metaphor, Ford; next time, try a PowerPoint presentation. Naomi Campbell loves to keep us on our toes; the birthday girl’s choice of deejay for her upcoming Dolce & Gabbana-hosted bash is none other than La Lohan. We thought Charlotte was the record spinner in that relationship, but presumably Campbell knows which Lohan is which. And since we’re on the topic of toes, Roberto Cavalli prefers to keep his well off the ground (and have a leopard-print footrest as close as possible).—Alison Baenen

It was only a matter of time before perennial bachelor George Clooney returned to reign over smoldering singledom; he and his cocktail waitress have supposedly had enough of their motorcycle hi-jinks and Lake Como hiatuses, which is really, truly very sad. Oh, wait a second…we’re over it. That was rough. Another recent development written in the stars concerns the assault charges feisty flier Naomi Campbell is facing. Let’s hope the possible jail time doesn’t interfere with her upcoming campaigns or bring disgrace upon her hard-at-work “supe” friends. Sharon Stone apologized for her less than tactful comments about China’s recent earthquake, but not before Christian Dior pulled all traces of the actress’ offending visage from its Chinese advertisements. Sounds like a Dunkin’ Donuts move; the company made an ad featuring spokeswoman Rachel Ray disappear when irate viewers took offense at her accessories. Hipsters, consider yourselves warned.—Alison Baenen

According to Joan as Police Woman’s Joan Wasser, pretty is the new black. And sincerity is the new irony. And accessible is the new indie. Wasser’s not being glib; far from it. Though she launched her career contributing vocals and violin to such abrasive bands as Those Bastard Souls and the Dambuilders, Wasser has mostly made a habit of turning up wherever the loveliest music around is being made—lending a hand to Rufus Wainwright, say, or joining Antony’s Johnsons crew, or starring as the subject of then-boyfriend Jeff Buckley’s ode, “Everybody Here Wants You.” Or, more recently, debuting her own album of sui generis, torch-inflected, subversively beautiful tunes. Real Life was released last year to reviews that would make a lesser woman get a little big in the head, but Wasser’s been a supporting player in the music scene for long enough to know better. (Humility is the new rock-star attitude.) “I’ve worked for a few genuine stars, and mostly those people are great,” she says. “But of course, the moments that leave the deepest impression are the ones where I was like, I would never treat anyone that way. So I try not to.” The new Joan as Police Woman LP To Survive lands on record store shelves today; here, Brooklyn-based Wasser tells Style.com why soul is the new punk.

There are so many influences operating in your music, it’s hard to find a language to capture it. How do you describe your sound?

I’ve always found it pretty much impossible to describe my music; I’m too close, you know? But there was this one review in The Observer, in London, and I like it so much I’m thinking about adopting it as my shorthand. He said I sounded like—wait, you know what, I’m going to find it and read it to you.

So you do, in fact, read your reviews.

Oh, yeah. I mean, Real Life, that was a record where I felt like I was testing myself as I wrote, entertaining different aspects of my taste and my songwriting sensibility, but the response I got to that record let me relax a little more into my own thing. Does that make sense? It’s like, I could let the songs take me where they wanted to go, because I wasn’t constantly worrying, is anyone going to get this? OK, I found the quote. Ready?

Shoot.

According to The Observer, Joan as Police Woman “is what Chopin would sound like now if he was a modern-day multi-instrumentalist with a passion for Al Green and a voice like Roberta Flack.” I was like, cool, I’ll take that. Is it weird I just read that to you?

Not at all. Do you listen to a lot of soul music? It seems like the one sound that’s not on your very long résumé.

It’s my favorite. My favorite-favorite. That music comes from such a deep, honest place. I mean, now and then I like to listen to some lighter stuff, too, but mostly I want to listen to, like, Donny Hathaway. That shit is just undeniable. And I learn from that, I do. When I first started writing songs, I’d use all this poetic imagery, metaphors and things, and it’s been a process of stripping that away and just getting down to the feeling. You listen to a great soul track, and you realize—when you’re in the feeling, there’s no time for metaphors, there’s no time for, ‘oh, the sky is blue.’ It’s ‘baby, baby, don’t leave me.’ Because if baby does leave, that sky won’t be there tomorrow. It doesn’t matter.

You started your solo career relatively late. Was it something you were always planning?

No? You know, for a long time, I just didn’t have anything to say. Or, maybe the better way of explaining why it took me so long to start writing my own songs is to say, I got to speak through my violin, and that was enough. And once I began to think, maybe it’s time to start speaking with words, it took me a while to figure out how to frame those words within songs. But I’ve been lucky to work with so many amazing artists, including the musicians who play with me now, because all of those experiences filtered through me and made me ready when the time came to do my own thing. Now it’s like, the music is what comes out of me when I’m searching for a sense of peace.—Maya Singer

“We wanted to have some kind of summer event in the courtyard, and when it came to everyone at the store deciding on their favorite brand, we all instantly agreed it was Libertine,” said Maxfield buyer Vincent Ehly last night at an impromptu get-together honoring designers Cindy Greene and Johnson Hartig. Guests included Karen Kimmel, James Bond, Wren’s Melissa Coker, and Rodarte’s Laura and Kate Mulleavy, and cocktails concluded at dusk, just in time for the full moon to appear. Not that one-half of the design duo had any concerns about its behavior-modifying effects. “Whenever I come to Los Angeles around these times I usually shop nonstop for days, like an idiot,” joked New York-based Cindy Greene. “This time, however, the only place I’m going to be is poolside at the Chateau.”—Linlee Allen

Photo: Linlee Allen

For women who have been dealt a bad hand by the hair gods, a blow-out can be a long, arduous process involving lots of upper-arm pain. But in New York, where you can have just about anything done to you, at any time, anywhere, an obvious question arose: Why wash your hair and blow it out yourself when you can pay someone to do it for you, without having to invest time and money in the whole “salon experience”? Thus was born Blow, the downtown blow-dry bar where a $40 blow-out plus chair-side manicure forever changed the meaning of “lunch hour.” With a new Lexington Avenue location (where blow-outs are half off through July), kinky-haired girls from the Meatpacking to the Upper East Side can now keep up smooth, silky appearances—and the entire city can sleep better at night. Blow Uptown, 843 Lexington Avenue, (212) 452-0246.—Celia Ellenberg

Photo: Courtesy of Blow

Topics of conversation at John Galliano run along the same lines every season: Where did he get these boys? Who did this set? How does he get the ideas for this craziness? But Lucy Liu had something different to talk about backstage this time: her much unpublicized painting exhibit in Munich in early March. Turns out she’s been in Paris all week (she also made a cameo at Dior on Monday), “biding time till my art show.” Wearing a gray pantsuit by the designer, she admitted that—even though her TV show, “Cashmere Mafia,” is very fashion-oriented—she has other focuses. “I’m not all about clothes,” she said. “I got other stuff going on, too. And painting is therapeutic.” How did she feel about the show? “He took it THERE!”—Derek Blasberg

Some of us have barely unpacked from the Paris shows, but Dior is wasting no time moving on to the next season. Save-the-date cards for the house’s cruise presentation on May 12, its third in New York, arrived in the mail this week. That’s exactly two months from today—mark your calendars.—Nicole Phelps

She may not have made it onto Vanity Fair’s women-in-comedy cover, but Casey Wilson is one female that fans of “Saturday Night Live” will soon find familiar. The 27 year-old is the newest member of the “SNL” cast, and though Wilson has some time to bide before she can make signature characters, like her quadriplegic stripper, a Saturday-night standby, her comedy bona fides suggest that “SNL” may have a Fey-level phenom on its hands. This summer, Wilson’s “Bride Wars” script starts shooting in Boston, with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway in the leads; she and her co-writer and frequent partner-in-comedy June Raphael will both take small roles in the film. Wilson will also be clocking screen time with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in Nora Ephron’s new flick. In other words—when success comes in Hollywood, it comes at a gallop. Here, Wilson talks to Style.com about saddling up for the ride of her life.

Not like you’re a disinterested party, but, pace Hitchens, are women funny?

Well, obviously I think so. And I have to tell you—”Saturday Night Live” has this reputation as a real boys’ club, but my experience has been totally, completely the opposite of that. I walked into a situation where not only are the female writers and performers absolutely as important to the show as the men, they’re arguably more important. Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph—when they speak, everyone listens. Because they’re freaking hilarious.

Was it always your goal to be on “Saturday Night Live”?

Pretty much, yeah, but it wasn’t like I went straight for it. Feeling like I was ready to send in my tape took me a while. After I graduated from NYU, June [Raphael] and I started doing this two-woman show, which we wound up taking to the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, which in turn landed us a literary agent, which then led to our moving to L.A. and working on stuff like “Bride Wars.” We thought everyone would love us as actors, but the industry was basically like, no, you’re writers.

How did you manage to turn that impression around?

Well, June and I were still performing together, and I did some improv and some one-off shows; I kept myself in it. And I’d do the occasional audition, as well. But, I don’t know, there was some kind of fearlessness I was missing—in order to succeed as a performer, and maybe especially as a performer of comedy, you have to have crazy nerve. Molly Shannon, for example, is someone I’ve always really looked up to, because her comedy is so physical and wild and unembarrassed and brave. If you’re going to be part of a nationally televised show that airs live and do sketches that haven’t even been brainstormed a week earlier, you really can’t be afraid to fail.

What got you over the fear? Or are you over it?

I hesitate to even mention this, because it seems like kind of an ‘oh poor you’ thing to talk about in the context of an interview, but OK, so—my mom died a couple years ago, very unexpected. I went into lockdown for a while, just leaning on the writing; that felt like the safe thing to do. About a year and a half later, I started going out for parts again and getting back onstage. And nothing had changed except that I felt like, screw it, I might as well do whatever the hell I feel like doing. There’s nothing to lose. And then things started to move very fast.

Are you comfortable with how fast your career is moving right now? Or is the sudden success freaking you out?

Maybe because I have a sense of the process that got me to this point, I mean, the “Bride Wars” rewrites, the meetings, the improv nights, I’m not sure it does feel like sudden success. Everything related to “SNL,” that was very sudden—from the time I found out I was joining the cast to the time I could read on a blog that someone watching the show thinks I’m fat, that was about 30 days. That blog part, that could’ve moved a little more slowly. But hey—it’s all material, right?—Maya Singer

Photo: Courtesy of “Saturday Night Live”

The last time fans saw Uma Thurman on screen, in “My Super Ex-Girlfriend,” she was playing a superhero. Her newest role, in “The Life Before Her Eyes,” where she plays a regular woman dealing with survivor’s guilt after a Columbine-like massacre, couldn’t be more different. At the Cinema Society and Nicole Miller-hosted screening of the flick at IFC Center last night (with an after-party at the Soho Grand), a vintage-outfitted Thurman lamented on one of the dramatic performances she did in the rain. “It was such a powerful scene,” she said. “But it was very wet and damp!” Guests Helena Christensen, Narciso Rodriguez, and Chris Benz came out to see the actress play a grown-up version of Evan Rachel Wood’s teenage character. “Evan is the cornerstone of this film,” said director Vadim Perelman (who also directed “House of Sand and Fog”). “When I saw the premiere of ‘Thirteen’ she was 15 years old, and I thought by the time I make this movie she’s going to be the right age—a high school senior.” But Wood doesn’t want to play in the kiddie pool too long. “I actually told myself that this would be the last time I play a high schooler,” she said. “So I’m going out with a bang.”—Katie Hintz

Photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage.com