As the white limousine whipped David Copperfield and a few of his crew members away from the press conference last Saturday at the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel, the magician settled back to relax and reminisce about his childhood.
Copperfield, whose real last name is Kotkin, said that when he was a youngster he saw a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden by Russia's famed magician, Igor Kio. He now owns some of Kio's artifacts, keeping them in his private magic museum.
Asked to comment on government subsidies for the performing arts, Copperfield said, "I can't even imagine what it would be like to have the government pay me to practice."
But there was no time for an explanation as the limousine pulled up to the studios of the television show "Dobry Vecher," where he met the show's host, Igor Igolnikov.
While on Igolnikov's show, Copperfield paid tribute to the Russians' appreciation of the performing arts in general and magic in particular.
"American audiences don't appreciate the performing arts nearly as much as the Russians do," he said.
For his part, Igolnikov asked Copperfield through a translator whether he pays taxes (yes), whether he ever used his talent with illusions in situations not on stage (yes, as a child), who were his heros (director Orson Welles and dancer Fred Astaire) and had he ever seen a magic trick that he couldn't figure out (no).
In Moscow, Copperfield, 40, gave four hefty-priced performances -- tickets for the Kremlin Palace show ranged from $30 for balcony seats to $1,000 for front-row tickets from scalpers -- before heading to St. Petersburg with his fiancee, model Claudia Schiffer.
Schiffer arrived in Moscow Saturday with Copperfield's parents, Hy and Rebecca Kotkin.
At the press conference, Copperfield said he planned to hypnotize his parents to find out what they remember about their long-lost relatives in Odessa, but didn't give further details.
Dignitaries Dine with Mayor Yury
Back at home he has a bodyguard and often wears a bulletproof vest. But Zoran Djindjic's visit to Moscow went by unnoticed last weekend when the Serbian opposition leader quietly joined about 30 other VIPs at Le Gastronome restaurant for lunch Friday.
Djindjic was part of a large international delegation of dignitaries and mayors that Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov invited to the capital's 850th birthday party.
"A weekend is too short of a break to relax and forget about Belgrade," said Djindjic, a former philosophy professor who was elected Belgrade's first noncommunist mayor in 15 years last February. "You need about two weeks."
During lunch, his mind was on nothing but politics back home, especially the upcoming national presidential elections, which, he said, his opposition party plans to boycott.
"Belgrade is not like Moscow," Djindjic said. "We have no money. We have no power. We have no reform government and we have big problems. But if we have some luck, we will become a normal state in 10 years."
Sitting next to Djindjic was Ecuador's first female vice president, Rosalia Arteaga, and her 14-year-old daughter, Manuela.
Arteaga said that, as a female politician, she fights hard to get recognized abroad, especially in other Latin American countries.
"People hear that the Ecuadoran vice president is around," she said. "And they turn to me and ask, 'Where is he?'"
Le Gastronome Hot Spot to Dine
Last year Le Gastronome was THE place to dine among Moscow-based foreign oil executives and ambassadors. Last month, it was the background for a Life magazine photo that appeared at thousands of magazine stands.
Crocodile steaks, goose confit, sushi starters and expensive wines are just some of the exotic foods that the restaurant serves to meet the demanding tastes of New Russians, who now make up 65 percent of the restaurant's clientele, said Le Gastronome's new director, Valery Maximov.
"Foreign guests are the only ones who order vodka and caviar," said Maximov, who added live classical music, a new menu and a new head cook to the restaurant's new image.
As one of the most popular restaurants among Moscow's elite, Le Gastronome doesn't just follow current trends in food selection, but is quite hip on the habits of the new rich as well.
Maximov described a wedding party for 80 people that not only cost $22,000, but the entire bill, he said, was paid in cash. It took 45 minutes to count the rubles, he said.
Singer Feels No Shame
He may not be a pin-up boy, but he sure is popular.
Despite being snubbed by Russian women, well-known pop singer Filipp Kirkorov, the third husband of the famed singer Alla Pugachyova, was one of the guests of honor at a Cosmopolitan bash for sexy Russian men at Le Gastronome on Thursday.
So what if he was a loser? The chubby singer known for sporting wild long hair, big gold chains, clothes from the '70s and a made-up face wasn't outwardly bothered by losing Cosmo's sexy-men contest to 13 other actors and singers. He seemed rather thrilled to claim a special booby prize of a live, caged rabbit.
"Russians don't understand what a sex symbol is," said the Romanian-born Kirkorov, adding that he considered himself a porn symbol, not a sex symbol.
Sexy or not, Kirkorov was a hit during Moscow's birthday weekend, singing at concerts at Olimpisky Stadium on Friday night, at Red Square on Saturday night and at Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday night for the closing ceremony.
Blonde songstress Patricia Kaas, whose sex appeal hasn't been put to the test, also exercised her lungs on behalf of the birthday bash.
Kirkorov's popularity is not limited to Russians in the motherland. Last year, he sang in a solo concert to a sold-out Russian emigr? crowd in New York's Madison Square Garden and with Pugachyova at the Taj Majal in Atlantic City.
"Americans don't know how great I am," he said, "because the Russian emigr?s don't give them a chance. My concerts in the United States were sold out weeks in advance."
Not all were enthralled by Kirkorov, however, including fellow Romanian Stassi Anastassov, Procter & Gamble's marketing director for Russia. "He's definitely eccentric," Anastassov said.
Other guests at the star-studded evening were even less moved by the Kirkorov's fashionably late appearance. RTR news anchor Svetlana Sorokina, pop singer Alyona Apina, State Duma Deputy Irina Khakamada, feminist writer Viktoria Tokareva and local Estee Lauder head Elizabeth Susskind didn't have much to say.
Party Line Calls
Apparently "word of mouth" in Moscow's English-speaking expatriate community is, well, pretty darn powerful.
Bypassing Red Square and the fireworks, more than 200 people showed up to drink, dance and discuss their lives at the Viking bar and restaurant Friday. Despite the live music, it took a few hours for people to put on their dancing shoes.
"Russians dance every song, whatever it is," said American vocalist Julia Ragoma, who along with a colleague, Damian Marhefka, rock 'n' rolled with the Russian Old Man Blues Band.
There is another expatriate party on the way, said Gavin Sullivan, who organized the Viking bash with Buck Wiley, Aaron Smith, and Kristen Staples. Keep your ears open for the fourth annual trip to Dracula's castle in Romania Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.
If that sounds like a "wild thang," spending Halloween at Dracula's castle is not as popular as you would think because the Romanians don't celebrate the holiday, Sullivan said.
Copperfield, whose real last name is Kotkin, said that when he was a youngster he saw a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden by Russia's famed magician, Igor Kio. He now owns some of Kio's artifacts, keeping them in his private magic museum.
Asked to comment on government subsidies for the performing arts, Copperfield said, "I can't even imagine what it would be like to have the government pay me to practice."
But there was no time for an explanation as the limousine pulled up to the studios of the television show "Dobry Vecher," where he met the show's host, Igor Igolnikov.
While on Igolnikov's show, Copperfield paid tribute to the Russians' appreciation of the performing arts in general and magic in particular.
"American audiences don't appreciate the performing arts nearly as much as the Russians do," he said.
For his part, Igolnikov asked Copperfield through a translator whether he pays taxes (yes), whether he ever used his talent with illusions in situations not on stage (yes, as a child), who were his heros (director Orson Welles and dancer Fred Astaire) and had he ever seen a magic trick that he couldn't figure out (no).
In Moscow, Copperfield, 40, gave four hefty-priced performances -- tickets for the Kremlin Palace show ranged from $30 for balcony seats to $1,000 for front-row tickets from scalpers -- before heading to St. Petersburg with his fiancee, model Claudia Schiffer.
Schiffer arrived in Moscow Saturday with Copperfield's parents, Hy and Rebecca Kotkin.
At the press conference, Copperfield said he planned to hypnotize his parents to find out what they remember about their long-lost relatives in Odessa, but didn't give further details.
Dignitaries Dine with Mayor Yury
Back at home he has a bodyguard and often wears a bulletproof vest. But Zoran Djindjic's visit to Moscow went by unnoticed last weekend when the Serbian opposition leader quietly joined about 30 other VIPs at Le Gastronome restaurant for lunch Friday.
Djindjic was part of a large international delegation of dignitaries and mayors that Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov invited to the capital's 850th birthday party.
"A weekend is too short of a break to relax and forget about Belgrade," said Djindjic, a former philosophy professor who was elected Belgrade's first noncommunist mayor in 15 years last February. "You need about two weeks."
During lunch, his mind was on nothing but politics back home, especially the upcoming national presidential elections, which, he said, his opposition party plans to boycott.
"Belgrade is not like Moscow," Djindjic said. "We have no money. We have no power. We have no reform government and we have big problems. But if we have some luck, we will become a normal state in 10 years."
Sitting next to Djindjic was Ecuador's first female vice president, Rosalia Arteaga, and her 14-year-old daughter, Manuela.
Arteaga said that, as a female politician, she fights hard to get recognized abroad, especially in other Latin American countries.
"People hear that the Ecuadoran vice president is around," she said. "And they turn to me and ask, 'Where is he?'"
Le Gastronome Hot Spot to Dine
Last year Le Gastronome was THE place to dine among Moscow-based foreign oil executives and ambassadors. Last month, it was the background for a Life magazine photo that appeared at thousands of magazine stands.
Crocodile steaks, goose confit, sushi starters and expensive wines are just some of the exotic foods that the restaurant serves to meet the demanding tastes of New Russians, who now make up 65 percent of the restaurant's clientele, said Le Gastronome's new director, Valery Maximov.
"Foreign guests are the only ones who order vodka and caviar," said Maximov, who added live classical music, a new menu and a new head cook to the restaurant's new image.
As one of the most popular restaurants among Moscow's elite, Le Gastronome doesn't just follow current trends in food selection, but is quite hip on the habits of the new rich as well.
Maximov described a wedding party for 80 people that not only cost $22,000, but the entire bill, he said, was paid in cash. It took 45 minutes to count the rubles, he said.
Singer Feels No Shame
He may not be a pin-up boy, but he sure is popular.
Despite being snubbed by Russian women, well-known pop singer Filipp Kirkorov, the third husband of the famed singer Alla Pugachyova, was one of the guests of honor at a Cosmopolitan bash for sexy Russian men at Le Gastronome on Thursday.
So what if he was a loser? The chubby singer known for sporting wild long hair, big gold chains, clothes from the '70s and a made-up face wasn't outwardly bothered by losing Cosmo's sexy-men contest to 13 other actors and singers. He seemed rather thrilled to claim a special booby prize of a live, caged rabbit.
"Russians don't understand what a sex symbol is," said the Romanian-born Kirkorov, adding that he considered himself a porn symbol, not a sex symbol.
Sexy or not, Kirkorov was a hit during Moscow's birthday weekend, singing at concerts at Olimpisky Stadium on Friday night, at Red Square on Saturday night and at Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday night for the closing ceremony.
Blonde songstress Patricia Kaas, whose sex appeal hasn't been put to the test, also exercised her lungs on behalf of the birthday bash.
Kirkorov's popularity is not limited to Russians in the motherland. Last year, he sang in a solo concert to a sold-out Russian emigr? crowd in New York's Madison Square Garden and with Pugachyova at the Taj Majal in Atlantic City.
"Americans don't know how great I am," he said, "because the Russian emigr?s don't give them a chance. My concerts in the United States were sold out weeks in advance."
Not all were enthralled by Kirkorov, however, including fellow Romanian Stassi Anastassov, Procter & Gamble's marketing director for Russia. "He's definitely eccentric," Anastassov said.
Other guests at the star-studded evening were even less moved by the Kirkorov's fashionably late appearance. RTR news anchor Svetlana Sorokina, pop singer Alyona Apina, State Duma Deputy Irina Khakamada, feminist writer Viktoria Tokareva and local Estee Lauder head Elizabeth Susskind didn't have much to say.
Party Line Calls
Apparently "word of mouth" in Moscow's English-speaking expatriate community is, well, pretty darn powerful.
Bypassing Red Square and the fireworks, more than 200 people showed up to drink, dance and discuss their lives at the Viking bar and restaurant Friday. Despite the live music, it took a few hours for people to put on their dancing shoes.
"Russians dance every song, whatever it is," said American vocalist Julia Ragoma, who along with a colleague, Damian Marhefka, rock 'n' rolled with the Russian Old Man Blues Band.
There is another expatriate party on the way, said Gavin Sullivan, who organized the Viking bash with Buck Wiley, Aaron Smith, and Kristen Staples. Keep your ears open for the fourth annual trip to Dracula's castle in Romania Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.
If that sounds like a "wild thang," spending Halloween at Dracula's castle is not as popular as you would think because the Romanians don't celebrate the holiday, Sullivan said.
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