Around Town: Kim Kardashian Honored at Huffington Post 2011 Game Changers
“Make no mistake, Kim Kardashian runs one of the biggest brands on the planet: herself,” Cindi Leive told the crowd at the Huffington Post 2011 Game Changers event on October 18. “She could have been honored in fashion, style, media, wedding planning, world domination, but, in fact, it’s business where Kim Kardashian really made her mark in 2011,” the Glamour editor added, before presenting the newlywed with the honor.
Kardashian’s empire includes her reality TV show, clothing and jewelry collections, fragrances, skincare products, fitness videos, books and an accessories Web site. Leive also reminded the crowd at NYC's Skylight Soho that Kim’s wedding was the most-watched event ever on E!
Kardashian often credits her success to her late father, but on this evening honored her mother. “I’m going to honor my mom tonight and thank her for instilling in me, my sisters and now my brother, a really strong work ethic,” she told the audience. “And I know sometimes reality TV shows are looked at as being kind of silly and crazy, and we’re definitely all of that. But at the end of the day, we have so much heart, I think, in my family, we’re genuinely all so obsessed with each other, that it’s so much fun to get up every day. I mean, my job is to see my family and hang out with my family.”
Kim also gave a shout-out to Kathy Lee Gifford, her little sister’s godmother, for advising her to figure out what she loves to do, and to try to find a way to make money doing it, so that it doesn’t feel like work.
“We were obsessed with fashion,” Kardashian said. “Fashion, out of everything that I do, has been so exciting and so much fun, and so I just encourage other people. You know, forget about the reality show—that’s definitely given us the platform to be able to really love what we do—but if you can find something that you’re really passionate about and really figure out a way to make money at it and be happy, then it’ll never feel like work.”
Of course, Kim's fellow high-achieving awards participants, like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Arianna Huffington, Nora Ephron, Dr. Oz, Gayle King, Jann Wenner and Brian Williams are not exactly in need of career advice.
Later in the week, some other famous people—Woody Allen, Ethan Coen and Elaine May—took their careers in a new direction. Each penned a one-act play that together make up the show Relatively Speaking, which had a splashy Broadway opening on October 20.
Gina Gershon, F. Murray Abraham, Regis and Joy Philbin, and Max Minghella and Kate Mara were among the crowd at Manhattan’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Waris Ahluwalia claimed it was his first Broadway opening, and that his pal Natasha Lyonne invited him along to try to broaden his scope. “I’m excited,” the designer said before curtain.
With three plays by three big-name writers and John Turturro directing, the cast was almost as big as the audience. Marlo Thomas, Ari Graynor, Danny Hoch, Steve Guttenberg and Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge Simpson!) were just a few of the actors bringing the plays hilariously to life.
Kavner, who has appeared in seven of Woody Allen’s films, said that as the playwright, Allen was extremely hands-on with this project. “He’s been there every night after the show, giving notes, working on it, tweaking it, making it better, doing cuts. And he worked beautifully with John Turturro, our director. It just was a great combo plate, and I was just really thrilled to be a part of it,” she said at the Bryant Park Grill after-party.
Ari Graynor had not worked with Allen previously, and she was a bit more starstruck. “It’s been the most amazing thing seeing him at every show, right before we go onstage, he’s backstage,” she said. “It was a thrill, to say the least.”