JASON Statham (above) doesn't mind getting naked on camera, but having simulated sex in a packed shopping mall pushed his boundaries. "Trying to do an aggressive sex scene is quite difficult," the hunky star of "Crank: High Voltage" tells Ocean Drive. "Especially in a public place with a crowd of screaming extras with their little camera phones going click-click, talking pictures of your pasty white ass. I've had my fair share of bedroom antics in films, but they were a little more private."

I'm starting to think that working on the set of "Gossip Girl" is better for your sex life than signing up for Match.com, becoming a millionaire or getting dumped by Madonna since the kids who spend a fair amount of time snogging on camera eventually end up doing it in real life as well.

Co-stars and former undercover lovers, Ed Westwick and Jessica Szhor, have decided to officially take their love public with a romantic weekend in Miami. They were spotted snuggling, groping and kissing all over the peninsula as Jessica was honored by Ocean Drive Magazine.

Poolside, Ed knocked back a few cocktails and Jessica got a little hands-on with her man. But the pairing of Vanessa and Chuck is just the latest romance to jump off the small screen.

Blake Lively and Penn Badgley -- Serena and Dan -- have been dating longer and more successfully than their characters have. But while that duo is splashed all over the celeb weeklies, Leighton Meester has been able to keep her relationship relatively low-key

She's been seeing Sebastian Stan, who plays Carter Baizen on "GG," for quite some time. His character has just reentered the picture, and Blair's life, which is impeccable timing since Sebastian's other gig, NBC's "Kings," received anything but a royal reception when it debuted last week to dismal ratings.

So perhaps Carter is back to stay on the UES. Looks like dating the star of TV's buzziest show has its perks after all!

HIP-hop mogul Andre Harrell recently survived quadruple bypass heart surgery, and his relieved friends celebrated with him the other night at the Upper East Side townhouse of Warner Music chairman Lyor Cohen, where guests included Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, Chris Rock, Andre Balazs, Jason Binn, Jellybean and Caroline Benitez, Harrell's son Gianni, 14, who plays point guard for the Horace Mann basketball team, and Gianni's mom, Wendy. "Andre said he was happy to be alive and happy to have all of them as his friends," said one guest, "particularly Sean Combs, who was there at the hospital when he was put under for surgery, and there when he came to in the recovery room."

AMERICAN Express Black Card holders, beware - this could happen to you. Music mogul Charlie Walk and magazine magnate Jason Binn rushed to Newark Airport the other day for a flight to Italy, where casino kingpin Steve Wynn was waiting for them on his yacht. But Walk didn't get past the metal detector. Sources say TSA offi cials took their sweet time searching him in a small, win dowless room where they lo cated his Black Card, made of titanium, in his shirt pocket. Walk and Binn barely made their flight. No wonder Wynn prefers cash.

WOODY Allen fans, rejoice! "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which opens tomorrow, is the Wood Man's funniest film in decades. At least that was the consensus in Southampton the other night, where the movie - starring Javier Bardem as a sex-obsessed painter in a love quadran gle with Scarlett Johannson, Rebecca Hall and Penelope Cruz - was screened for the likes of Joy Behar, Lorraine Bracco, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Alfie Fanjul, Pete Peter son, Sandy Hill Pittman, Marjorie Gubelmann, Debbie and Leon Black, and Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen. Afterwards at Tus can House, as Robert Wilson and Judy and Al Taubman dined, publisher Jason Binn was joined by Verne Troyer, the minuscule Mini-Me of the "Austin Powers" films, who sat on a couple of phone books.

New York Post
August 14, 2008

WOODY Allen fans, rejoice! "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which opens tomorrow, is the Wood Man's funniest film in decades. At least that was the consensus in Southampton the other night, where the movie - starring Javier Bardem as a sex-obsessed painter in a love quadran gle with Scarlett Johannson, Rebecca Hall and Penelope Cruz — was screened for the likes of Joy Behar, Lorraine Bracco, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Alfie Fanjul, Pete Peter son, Sandy Hill Pittman, Marjorie Gubelmann, Debbie and Leon Black, and Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen. Afterwards at Tus can House, as Robert Wilson and Judy and Al Taubman dined, publisher Jason Binn was joined by Verne Troyer, the minuscule Mini-Me of the "Austin Powers" films, who sat on a couple of phone books.

Add one more to the no-deal ledger.

Richard Ekstract said he isn't going to sell Hamptons Cottages & Gardens and it's three sister titeles.

Several big regional players, including Jason Binn's Niche Media and the Kong brothers' Modern Luxury, declined to bid.

Sandow Media was said to have looked, as did some private equity players, but Ekstract said he didn't think any of the offers were viable.

"It's off the market for the time being," he said. "To sell cheap is not in my game plan."

A pay day may be getting closer for Richard Ekstract, the 70-year-old magazine entrepreneur who put Hamptons Cottages & Gardens and three other titles on the block.

First-round bids are due this week, though the deadline doesn't seem to be hard and fast.

Sources said that the company was hit with a flurry of new offers when Media Ink first reported that the titles were on the block.

Jason Binn's Niche Media and Michael Kong's Modern Luxury Media aren't believed to be participating in the auction. But Sandow Media, which recently purchased Worth magazine, is said to be still in the hunt.

In addition to Hamptons titles, the group includes Palm Beach Cottages & Gardens, Connecticuit Cottages & Gardens and Westchester Cottages & Gardens.

The group is projected to have sales of $7 million in 2008, and is said to be clearing a six-figure profit.

Potential buyers include Adam Sandow, the CEO of Sandow Media, which recently purchases Worth magazine from CurtCo Media, and Michael Kong's Modern Luxury Media, whichi s backed by Clarity Partners; New York magazine owner Bruce Wasserstein and Jason Binn, the self-styled unofficial mayor of the Hamptons.

CRISTINA Greeven Cuomo, after spending the last few years on the publishing side at Niche Media "selling ads" has gone back to the editorial side.

— THAT Haley and Jason Binn welcomed their new daughter, Celia Rose Binn, into their family yesterday.

Celia weighed in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and will be doted on by her 2-year-old sister, Penny . . .

October 29, 2007 -- BOCA RATON, Fla. - Jason Binn, president of Niche Media, again stole the show opening night at the American Magazine Conference with his now famous dinner party, drawing media reporters and guests as diverse as Dan Rather and the Miami Heat's Alonso Mourning.

Rather told Media Ink that he has every intention of seeing his lawsuit against CBS Inc. through the sworn deposition stage and beyond.

Newsweek Chairman Rick Smith, clearly near the end of his long and distinguished career, told us that he has no intention of writing a book about his days of working with the late Katharine Graham and running the news magazine for the Washington Post Co.

However, if he changes his mind, Media Ink thinks he has plenty of material to draw upon.

He recalled how Graham wanted to fire veteran Newsweek Editor Maynard Parker back in 1984 and appoint Smith as his replacement. But Smith intervened and convinced Graham and the board to keep Parker on board as editor, with Smith vowing to help keep Parker from going off the rails on major stories as he had done several years earlier with the publication of the now-debunked Hitler Diaries.

Parker ended up staying and serving admirably for the rest of his career until his death from leukemia in 1998.

But as riveting as the anecdote might be, Smith said he has no intention of "taking a walk down memory lane" with his own memoir.

"I've seen too many editors write bad books," he said.

Such is not the case with many of the party's other attendees.

New York Times scribe David Carr said he is working on final edits on his memoir about his days of addiction and then his career as an editor, reporter and columnist, which he is writing for big bucks for Simon & Schuter's David Rosenthal.

Carr said he's hoping the book makes it onto the spring 2008 list so it is not running into all the important books that are bound to make an appearance during the election cycle.

People Managing Editor Larry Hackett was one of only a very few Time Inc. people on hand at this year's event.

He interviewed former White House press secretary Tony Snow at the opening session Sunday night.

Snow said he thought the race for the presidential nomination was all but over for the Democrats, with Hillary Clinton all but walking away with it, but not so for the Republicans. He scurried out after his talk and skipped the Binn dinner.

THE gift bags were "green" actually burlap - at the 25th anniversary of Nicole Miller's (above) start in the fashion business.

And they were filled with saplings. Co-host Robert Kennedy Jr., of the Riverkeeper Foundation, told the boisterous crowd at Chinatown Brasserie to each plant their tree - somewhere. Among the green thumbs: Daphne Zuniga, Michael Mailer, Mary Boone, Jay McInerney and Anne Hearst, Tama Janowitz, Robert Pittman, Michelle Hicks, Jason Binn, Ghislaine Maxwell Andre Balazs and ex-wife Katie Ford, and the eatery's owner, John McDonald.

Among the CEO's on hand were Hachette Filipacchi's Jack Kliger, Hearst Magazine's Cathie Black, AmEx Publishing's Ed Kelly, Niche Media's Jason Binn. "This is the first time I've stayed longer than 20 minutes at a party that wasn't my own," said Binn, one of the industry's consummate party throwers.

"That... Jason Binn (whose Niche Media publishes GOTHAM, HAMPTONS, and LOS ANGELES CONFIDENTIAL) just inked a deal to create a Tourneau magazine. The first issue is timed to the expansion of Tourneau Time Dome in Las Vegas, the largest watch boutique in the world."