Vanity Fair Does the Hunt Story

Ever since we published our story in March about the fight inside Dallas’ wealthiest family, I’ve been waiting to read Vanity Fair’s version, written by Alan Peppard. Yes, that Alan Peppard. Sources tell FrontBurner that Peppard got permission to write for the glossy because he has compromising photos of Bob Mong doing a beer bong with Matt Leinart. Anyway, the wait is over — at least for me. An advance copy of the article from the upcoming June issue found its way to me (hi, Lizzie!). I can’t post the PDF, but I took a picture of the printout for you. You might be able to make out a red box I drew there in that second column of the opening page. That’s my favorite sentence in the whole story:

She disassociated herself from the controversies over her father’s polygamous propensities and his right-wing political views — in a self-published 1960 novel, Alpaca, H.L. proposed a Utopia where extra votes were apportioned to those who paid higher taxes — by pouring her energies into domestic life with her husband, the handsome and athletic Al G. Hill Sr., and their three children.

I’m still trying to diagram it. Wonky editing concerns aside, though, the story’s strongest point is the detailing of Al III’s financial straits. Peppard has some good numbers we weren’t able to get. But, then, our story had more sex. Which magazine did the story better? You’ll have to wait a few days to read for yourself. Hang in there, Hunt family.

Boxing, Politics And Cigars … All For A Good Cause

The testosterone-laden, Dallas commercial-real-estate bacchannal called FightNight marked its 20th year last night, more restrained than it once was, thanks in part to Laura Miller’s anti-smoking jihad. Ironically, Miller was spotted near the VIP pre-party at the Ritz-Carlton Fearing’s–she may have been eating there–while, a stone’s throw away, her old nemesis Ron Kirk worked the bash like a world-champion boxer. There were a couple of those on hand, too, and one of them–Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini–had some choice words about today’s crop of fighters. Jump for more. (more…)

George Bush Moving to Lakewood?

Well, probably not, but each community covered by our sisters and brothers at People Newspapers gets a once-over as a potential spot for POTUS’ pad. Check it out here.

Model Runs, Breaks Foot

A helpful FrontBurnervian points us to today’s Page Six item, which describes how Dallas model Erin Wasson broke her foot during shooting of a Justin Timberlake video. Sez in the item that Wasson’s feet were messed up from years and years of wearing stilettos. See, that’s why I don’t wear ‘em.

Costa Rica, Beware

Our resident residential real estate maven Candy Evans is in Costa Rica on a second-home tour with Ellen Terry, Virginia Cook, and Dave Perry-Miller. She’s pseudo-liveblogging the trip over on DallasDirt. Candy promises to get the agents drunk and confess their secrets.

Nancy Brinker Is 45/100 Influential

That’s not a fraction. Brinker is more like 100 percent influential. Maybe even more so. TIME noticed, naming her one of the 100 Most Influential People. She’s listed as “45 of 100,” but I’m sure that’s just for organizational, not ranking, purposes.

Friday Fun

Today’s Friday Fun is nothing new. In fact, I think it’s been around for centuries. It’s Mah Jong solitaire, and for some reason, I can’t stop playing. I take that back. The reason I haven’t been able to stop playing is because I’ve yet to win a game. (In case you haven’t played before: The objective is to click on matching tiles to remove them, trying to remove them all. You can only click on tiles that are on the border of their level.) There are a lot of versions out there — like this one and that one — but I especially like the full-screen version found here. Have fun.

Leading Off

1. DCAD’s new appraisal of the land intended for a Dallas convention center hotel has increased from $7.5 million to $36.5 million. The Council wants to buy the land for $41 million. Here’s hoping I can convince the Council to use the same math and buy my townhome from me. It’s not on the market, but I’ll put it on if the city’s in the buying mood.

2. Dallas-Fort Worth is the 7th-most-ozone-polluted metropolitan area in the country, which isn’t surprising. What is shocking is that it’s Fort Worth that’s more to blame! Goldurn city.

3. Lots of good Mavs gossip to digest, including Donnie saying Avery was on board with the Kidd trade, no matter what he says, and Mike Fisher’s contention that the short list for new coach is now down to D’Antoni (soon to be out in Phoenix), Van Gundy (pretty please), and the absolute worst choice in the nation, Rick Carlisle.