Clinton Pal Knocks 'Shrill' Hill at Mag Party

If John Catsimatidis wants to be the next mayor of New York City, he'd better work on his discretion. The Red Apple Group CEO and Hellenic Times owner turned up at a party for Russia! magazine last night, where he shared his views on Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful presidential bid. A friend of Bill Clinton's Catsimatidis blamed the New York senator's failure to clench the nomination in part on her, um, strident oratory style. "No one wants to be yelled at by a woman," he said. Did that mean he found her "shrill," someone asked? Yes, he said.

There was more, but some of it was off the record. Ask him yourself. He'll probably tell you.

In keeping with the theme of the evening, Catsimatidis noted that his wife is Russian, as were a surprising number of the guests. (Two reporters from the New York Observer, though fluent in Russian, were trying to interview Russians in English because, they said, they found the accents funny.)

Russia!, by the way, is a great little magazine, as I've said before, and it comes along at just the moment to fill part of the vacuum created by the demise of The Exile, another English-language publication that provided a critical and humorous look at Russian government and culture. (I particularly recommend the story on the enterprising Russian porn star-slash-singer who has started a porn academy, a political party focused on gay and transsexual rights, and a modeling agency that promises to have "the very thinnest models.") Michael Idov, Russia!'s editor in chief, says the magazine's print run will increase from 35,000 to 54,000 with the next issue.