stephen baldwin

t{
PEOPLE of
the YEAR
RGy
LAND RESIDENTS
A COUNTDOWN OF THE 20 ROCK
WHO HOGGED ALL THE HEADLINES IN 2007.
}
If you thought moving to Rockland County meant you were escaping all the
hubbub, scandal, and celebrity of that mega-metropolis to our south, think
again. Simply skimming this list of newsmakers should make that clear. As
we discussed the candidates for People of the Year at Rockland Mag HQ, we
often debated where to draw the line. In the end, our method was hardly
scientific, but we chose these residents for one simple reason: They were the
ones who most affected the news in 2007—for better or worse.
by ted mann illustrations by ismael roldon
STEPHEN REDMOND
New City natives Keith Bulluck, of the
Tennessee Titans, and Adam Rodriguez,
of CSI: Miami, may have helped to up
their hometown’s celebrity cred. But it
took rapper Stephen Redmond (a.k.a.
Lucky Me) to finally give the Rockland
municipality its own song. The music
video for “I Love New City” (viewable
on YouTube) doesn’t just feature
local landmarks like New City Bowl,
it’s also as addictive as those illegal
drugs mentioned in the song’s refrain.
PREDICTION FOR 2008 Seeing as how
Redmond has already milked this tune
dry (see the five YouTube “response”
videos), it’s time for a new rap. Check it
out: Spring Valley rhymes with bling tally!
20
THE RIVERSPACE GANG
19
At first we were going to salute Deborah Darbonne, who, as chair of Friends
of the Nyacks, helped save the Helen Hayes space from extinction. But also
critical to the birth of Riverspace were co-artistic directors Elliott Forrest
and Darrell Larson, who lured in acts like They Might Be Giants, Mia Farrow, and Lewis
Black. Then, of course, there were locals like Piermont singer Tom Chapin and Nyack
actor Bill Irwin, who helped with fund-raising. And we can’t forget Dara Falco, the new
managing director. Ah, you get the idea. Great team effort! PREDICTION FOR 2008
No events are official yet, but a partnership with Rivertown Film (which counts Ellen
Burstyn and William Hurt as advisors) means they won’t be hurting for programming.
72 rockland magazine december 2007
STEPHEN
18 BALDWIN
After a busy 2006—during which Baldwin
led a public crusade to stop a porn
store from opening in Nyack; wrote his
own born-again memoir, The Unusual
Suspect; and starred in a slew of lowbudget films—the Upper Grandview
resident spent much of 2007 focusing
on his spiritual side. As self-appointed
leader of the evangelical, extreme-sportsbased Breakthrough Ministry, St. Stephen
preached the Good Book out of the back
of his van and was even appointed as a
“cultural advisor” to President Bush. Alas,
his acting career wasn’t as enlightened.
While brothers Alec and Billy had hits
with 30 Rock and Dirty, Sexy, Money, the
best Stephen could do
was Celebrity Bull
Riding Challenge.
It was painful
to watch, and
we’re not just
talking about
Baldwin’s broken
rib and shoulder.
PREDICTION FOR
2008 Let’s hope that
was his last celebritythemed reality-TV
travesty. Why not
try teaming up with
fellow man of faith
Mel Gibson?
y
BJÖRK
Why do we love the quirky, genre-bending
Icelandic songstress so much? For starters, she
lives in Rockland. And in 2007 alone, she had
almost too many bizarre moments to count. Still,
we’ll try to recap a few. In March, there was her
hilarious unplugged cover of “No Limit” (“No,
no, no, no, no, no ...”) at the Paris club Baron.
Later came “Earth Intruders,” the spacey
electronica ditty off Volta, the album she released
earlier this year. Oh, and we can’t forget her
April performance on SNL, the single most
mesmerizing (and weird) musical-guest gig the
show has seen since—well, Björk last appeared on
it in 1997. PREDICTION FOR 2008 Another film
role like 1999’s Dancer in the Dark? One-upping
her 2004 Olympics performance (remember
the 10,000-square-foot dress?) at the games in
China? Your guess is as good as ours.
17
MICHAEL TAUBER
As the developer behind the Tartikov Rabbinical College, he sparked a powderkeg controversy in Pomona (see “Culture Clash,” from our September issue, at
lohud.com/rocklandmag). Homeowners are worried about flooding the small
town with up to 9,000 new residents, the Hasidic community is anxious about
discrimination, and some activists are simply PO’d about overdevelopment and
the loss of old fishing spots. Over the summer, Pomona turned down the Tartikov
group’s proposal. PREDICTION FOR 2008 The fate of the project is now in the
hands of the federal courts. Should they agree that the developer’s civil rights
were violated, Tauber may just get his college after all.
15
FROM LEFT: VINCENT DISALVIO/TJN; AP PHOTO/GARY HE;
PATRICK ANDERSSON, COURTESY RIVERHEAD BOOKS; MARK VERGARI/TJN
SHALOM AUSLANDER
16
Ever since first hearing this
Monsey refugee’s tales of his
Hasidic upbringing on This
American Life and in the pages of The New
Yorker (“I was raised like a veal”), we’ve
had a hunch he might just be the second
coming of Philip Roth. And with the 2007
release of Foreskin’s Lament, we’re happy
to say: Called It! PREDICTION FOR 2008
Luckily, Auslander isn’t a Rothian recluse,
and he’ll continue touring with the book
(he’s already booked the 92nd Street Y for
January 24). Given his stage presence, a
more fitting literary analogy might be: the
David Sedaris of Orthodox Jews.
lohud.com/rocklandmag 73
SKIP STORCH
14
In September, the 50-year-old Nyacker broke a world
record by swimming three straight unassisted laps around
Manhattan, in 32 hours, 52 minutes. Yes, that meant
eating meals, resting, and, um, relieving himself while treading
water. PREDICTION FOR 2008 Storch hopes to be inducted into
the Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. Why stop there? The world’s
pogo-juggling record is just begging to be broken.
13
LORRAINE BRACCO
Nobody felt the bursting of the local real-estate bubble quite like Bracco, a.k.a. the
shrink from The Sopranos. While the mob series was wrapping up its final season,
she tried unloading her two-acre Sneden’s Landing estate. Yet over the course of
2007, the asking price was hacked away like Richie Aprile’s corpse in the butcher
shop—as of September, the initial asking price of $4.4 mil has been lowered to
$2.9 (call Mason Sammett at 359-4940, if you’re interested). Bracco also lost the
Best Supporting Actress race at the Emmys to New Caanan’s Katherine Heigl.
But there is some good news: Late in the year she was cast in a pilot for Lifetime;
she got a chance to appear on Oprah (albeit to talk about her infidelity to Harvey
Keitel); and her brand of vino, Bracco Wines, is already selling tens of thousands of
cases. Salud! PREDICTION FOR 2008 Long Island Confidential, the new Lifetime
show, doesn’t promise to be nearly as edgy as The Sopranos, but the wine
business will continue to boom. Two-Buck Bracco, anyone?
AL PACINO
12
DEBORAH BRENNER
Like Lorraine, this Tappan resident also took on the
male-dominated wine establishment with her 2007
book Women of the Vine. Whether or not you’re a cork
dork, the collection of profiles of female winemakers,
sommeliers, wine writers, and wine-club founders is sure
to inspire local women. PREDICTION FOR 2008 Shortly
after the book debuted, Brenner formed Women of the
Vine Cellars, which aims to unite award-winning women
winemakers under one label. Could a Bracco-Brenner
partnership be in the cards? We’ll drink to that.
74 rockland magazine december 2007
The “whoo-ha” man gave us something to “ooh and ah” about with
his return to the big screen as casino kingpin Willie Bank in Ocean’s
Thirteen. Pacino, who lives in Sneden’s Landing,
also had the Internet buzzing about his next
two projects: Dali & I: The Surreal Story and
Righteous Kill. In the former he’ll play the famed
artist during his final years—also known as his
melting-clocks phase—while the latter, a crime
thriller filming in Norwalk, also features
Robert DeNiro. And Al wasn’t the
only Pacino making news in 2007;
daughter Julie, a recent Tappan
Zee High grad, also earned her
fair share of headlines as one of
the school’s softball superstars.
PREDICTION FOR 2008 The
Dali biopic may earn Pacino
his second Academy Award.
But it’s Righteous Kill—the
first reuniting of the PacinoDeNiro dramatic dream
team since 1995’s Heat—
that we’re dying to see.
11
JOHN SHIELDS
10
The openly gay mayor of Nyack (one of only a few in the state) has been an
advocate for same-sex marriage, new downtown parking, and less development
in the region. It came as no huge surprise that he ran unopposed for re-election
this year; we’d want no one else leading the way in this progressive Hudson Valley village.
PREDICTION FOR 2008 After making the cover of The Advocate for performing gay
weddings, Shields may take his movement to Albany to legalize the practice statewide.
ELLEN BURSTYN
BILL MURRAY
The Sneden’s Landing smart alec may like to joke about retiring, but
if 2007 proved anything, an out-of-work Murray is a restless Murray.
While playing golf with Will Smith in March, he ripped off his shirt and
began running up and down the fairway flapping his wings (he later
explained that he’d been stung by a bee). Then in May—at the opening
of good friend Peter Kelly’s X20 restaurant in Yonkers—he celebrated
by hoisting the restaurateur onto his shoulders
and doing a victory lap. And then picking
up another Kelly, brother Ned, for a
second lap. In July, he showed up
for his graduation from Regis
University 30 years late ... and
accepted his honorary diploma
wearing shorts. And in August,
the weirdest incident of all: Police
in Stockholm, Sweden, pulled him
over for a DUI. The vehicle? A golf
cart. PREDICTION FOR 2008
Fortunately, Murray is back making
movies again! Keeping him out of
trouble right now is City of Ember, a
fantasy flick in which Murray plays
the mayor of a brightly lit city with a
failing generator. It’s set to arrive in
theaters by October 2008.
8
The 74-year-old film icon lit up the small
screen this year with a memorable stint on
the polygamy soap Big Love. But it was
her new memoir, Lessons in Becoming Myself,
that landed Burstyn a seat on Oprah’s couch.
In the book, she shares the story of her abusive
childhood and her troubled former husband,
who stalked her for years, and eventually killed
himself. The Nyack resident also told the big O
about her recent Buddhist “street retreat,” in
which she slept on NYC sidewalks, ate in soup
kitchens, and begged for money. So remember,
next time you see a panhandler outside Vertigo,
you could be looking at an Academy Award
winner. PREDICTION FOR 2008 More Oscarcaliber parts, including roles in Greta and The
Loss of the Teardrop Diamond.
7
FROM LEFT: TOM NYCZ/TJN; AP PHOTO/CHRIS PIZZELLO;
MARK VERGARI/TJN; ANGELA GAUL/TJN
GEORGE DARDEN
9
At the height of the summer’s immigration
debate, this mayor of Spring Valley pulled into
the parking lot of a Route 59 mall and said to
some undocumented day laborers, “Do you
work?” He hired them at $10 an hour to clean
out a building slated for demolition. When he
was later criticized for this, he said simply, “I’m
the mayor of all the people in Spring Valley,
not Jamaicans and Hatians and Jews ... all the
people, and they’re included. We’re going to try
to make sure they’re productive.” PREDICTION
FOR 2008 Although hiring illegals is, uh, illegal,
the mayor isn’t about to admit any wrongdoing.
We expect he’ll continue his efforts to provide
jobs to all immigrants, aliens or not.
lohud.com/rocklandmag 75
MASSAGE PARLOR
MADAMES
6
Orangetown was red with
embarrassment when several
massage parlors turned out to
be offering more than typical back
rubs. In April, local police raided the
Asian Therapy Center on Middletown
Road and arrested two women on
prostitution charges; the next month
they rounded up four more women
after an undercover sting operation at
Eastern Health Spa. PREDICTION FOR
2008 Let’s just say we’ll be extra careful
when planning our next Rockland
Magazine spa feature.
PETER KELLY
5
Kelly was already a legend in
Rockland thanks to Xaviars,
Freelance, and Restaurant X—all
perennial Zagat darlings. But when he
took down celebrity chef Bobby Flay
on Iron Chef America, all of a sudden he
became famous to a national audience.
Then the May opening of X20 in Yonkers
further cemented his rock-star status.
As for those people just discovering our
hometown hero: What took you so long?
PREDICTION FOR 2008 It would be tough
to top 2007, but we do have two ideas:
First, how about an X20 in Haverstraw?
Second, after making mincemeat of Flay,
it’s time to do battle with Mario Batali.
76 rockland magazine december 2007
HAYDEN
PANETTIERE
Oh, to be young, rich, and
synonymous with the most
memorable TV catch-phrase of the
year. “Save the cheerleader, save the
world” didn’t just turn Heroes into
NBC’s only new hit show, it also made
Panettiere—the indestructible, cutoff-a-toe-it-grows back cheerleader
character—into a household name.
She’s since appeared on the covers of
Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and
Vanity Fair, all before turning 18. After
recently moving from Palisades to
L.A., she also became a spokesperson
for Neutrogena and the “Got Milk?”
campaign. Of course, with that kind
of positive exposure also comes the
other kind—daily videos on TMZ.com
and nonstop blog buzz about her
rumored boyfriends. Only problem:
This fair-skined blonde isn’t your
typical teen-star train wreck. She
doesn’t drink, smoke, or have run-ins
with the law. By all accounts, she’s as
pure as the driven snow. PREDICTION
FOR 2008 Provided she doesn’t
get caught up in any of the usual
Hollywood trappings (like, say, that
other kind of snow), Panettiere has a
bright year ahead, with the continued
success of Heroes and a role in the
upcoming Julia Roberts film Fireflies
in the Garden.
4
DR. JEFFREY OPPENHEIM
3
Early in 2007, the neurologist and mayor
of Montebello led the campaign to ban
smoking in cars with kids under 18.
(Kind of makes Mike Bloomberg’s NYC nosmoking-in-restaurants laws seem tame, by
comparison!) Oppenheim also pushed for
a law requiring cyclists to wear helmets,
led the fight against new FAA flight paths
over our towns, and made Montebello ecofriendly by wiring up village hall with solar
panels (hence the “green” mayor nickname).
PREDICTION FOR 2008 Next up for the über
do-gooder: fixing the Tappan Zee Bridge, saving
the rain forest, and, of course, world peace.
GREAT CHINA BUFFET’S GARLIC MAN
2
We all love that grape-crushing scene from I Love Lucy,
but there is such a thing as taking it too far. Case in point:
the Nanuet restaurant worker who was caught crushing
garlic by stomping on it in an alley with his boots on. Since the
September incident, the worker was fired, the establishment
has tried changing its name to “Grand Taste Buffet,” and the
Rockland County Health Department handed down multiple
fines. PREDICTION FOR 2008 Paging Gordon Ramsey. We have
a candidate for the next season of Restaurant Nightmares.
FROM LEFT: TON MYCZ/TJN; GARY SIMONETTI/TJN;
DAN BARETTO; VINCENT DISALVIO/TJN
ROSIE
O’DONNELL
No need to roll your eyes. Aside
from Britney, Paris, and Lindsay, few
tabloid regulars exhausted the public’s
patience quite like O’Donnell. From the
never-ending feuds—with Trump, Ripa,
O’Reilly—to the now-infamous splitscreen showdown with View co-host
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the South Nyack
resident became a better fight-maker
than Don King in 2007. Even after she
quit the daytime gabfest (three weeks
before her contract was up), Rosie
continued churning up controversy in her
wake, even going so far as to suggest in
her new memoir, Celebrity Detox, that
Barbara Walters should retire. But putting
aside all the bilious rhetoric for a sec,
one thing separates the former Queen
of Nice from the aforementioned tabloid
bimbos: O’Donnell’s public showdowns all
stemmed from a passionate defense of
her liberal views (on Bush, the Iraq war,
gay rights, etc.)—and not from, say, a
lack of panties or repeat DUIs. Her tirades
might have been over the top, but her
political courage does make her a role
model of sorts. That said, if she ever takes
your parking spot at the Palisades Center,
don’t even think of starting a shouting
match—she’s way out of your league.
PREDICTION FOR 2008 She may have
lost The Price is Right hosting gig to
Drew Carey, but we predict a return
to network TV, as the co-host of the
newest British import, Boiling Point.
1
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