What’s Swirling Around in the Social Ether
Known to scientists as felis concolor, the cougar has made the isle of Manhattan her primary territory. As we await the upcoming reality series Cougars NYC, here we celebrate the mating rituals of the glorious creatures, who stalk youthful prey to boost their fashion careers, raise their social profiles or simply feast on fresh meat.
Photo: Janet Mayer/ Splash News
Kabbalah Cougar
Madonna
PREY: Madge has attracted a cadre of younger stars to Jewish mysticism. Both husband Guy Ritchie, 39, and rumored conquest Alex Rodriguez, 33, follow the faith (A-Rod lunched with Kabbalah leader Rabbi Michael Berg as his marriage crumbled). Suggests cougar matchmaker Janis Spindel: “Madonna is empowered by molding what younger people think.”
HABITAT: Reebok Sports Club on the UWS, her Central Park West duplex—site of her “affair of the heart” with A-Rod.
MARKINGS: Adidas track pants, mythically muscular arms and, most recently, cheekbones to rival those of cosmetically enhanced, Catwoman-like socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein.
CUBS: Fashionista daughter Lourdes, 11; sons Rocco, 8, and David, 2 ½.
Photo: James Devaney/ WireImages
Sports Cougar
Anna Wintour
PREY: The Vogue editrix famously pounced on tennis champ Roger Federer, 27, whom she squired to spring Fashion Week in 2006. “I just like his game,” she purred. She put NBA star LeBron James, 23, on April’s cover, then hired hockey player Sean Avery, 28, (lately linked to Style Cougar Kelly Klein, 51), as an intern. “Everyone in the media is cool to her,” notes Paper magazine columnist Mickey Boardman. “But athletes say ‘hi’ instead of looking away.”
HABITAT: Condé Nast HQ at 4 Times Square, her townhouse in Greenwich Village.
CATFIGHTS: The fur flew when PETA hit Anna with a tofu pie in Paris over her love of pelts. She called Hillary Clinton “mannish,” and—as Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley once told Oprah—“Miss Anna don’t like fat people.”
MARKINGS: Chanel haute couture, sleek bob.
CUBS: Columbia co-ed and Teen Voguette Bee Shaffer, 20; Oxford student Charlie Shaffer, 22.
Photo: G. Gershoff/ WireImages
Party Animal Cougar
Ann Dexter Jones
PREY: Ann is New York’s scene-iest senior. “I enjoy people of all ages and never think about my own,” says the freelance writer, Reiki energy healer and designer of a rock ’n’ roll jewelry line.
HABITAT: Her lair at Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue; anywhere there’s a society photographer and an open bar.
CATFIGHTS: Only with the bouncer at closing time. “I’ll plan on having an early night, but then I’ll start talking to someone amazing and feel revitalized!” she explains.
MARKINGS: Lioness-like mane, Giambattista Valli. “I don’t take clothes seriously,” she says.
CUBS: Music producer Mark, 32, DJ Samantha, 31, and designer Charlotte, 30 (her kids with Brit tycoon Laurence Ronson); DJ Alexander, 24, and actress Annabelle, 21, (from her marriage to Foreigner’s Mick Jones). Of partying with her progeny, Ann says: “I love their company and their friends. But I am no children stalker.”
Photo: Jim Spellman/ WireImages
Life-Imitating-Art Cougar
Kim Cattrall
PREY: A year after her Sex and the City alter ego, Samantha, bedded 14-years-younger Smith, Kim began dating chef Alan Wyse, 28. “I was embarrassed about how close the storyline seemed,” she has said. Anna Holmes, managing editor of female-focused gossip site Jezebel.com, says: “Kim should be proud of who she dates no matter how old he is. Is she supposed to be dowdy and sexless because of her age?”
HABITAT: Courtside at Knicks games; hobnobbing at the Watermill Center near her home in East Hampton.
CATFIGHTS: Along with holding out for a heftier payday to bring SATC to the big screen, Kim reportedly divorced third husband Mark Levinson because “his sexual demands had become burdensome.”
MARKINGS: Painted-on Hervé Léger.
CUBS: None. Kim acknowledges she missed the boat on motherhood.
Photo: Billy Farrell/ Patrick McMullan
Socialite Cougar
Genevieve Jones
PREY: Accessories designer Genevieve (whose baubles are worn by Agyness Deyn) made a splash by cuddling up to Dee Jackson, 21, at the SubMercer last spring. Genevieve first befriended Dee and his twin brother, Ricky, who design belts for Marc Jacobs, months earlier at a Fashion Week party, though she thought they were 14 at the time. Still, “we hit it off right away,” she says.
HABITAT: To the right of Tinsley Mortimer in party pictures; her Lafayette Street apartment, which doubles as a design studio.
CATFIGHTS: Secretive ever since blogs like the now-defunct Socialiterank.com exposed her lack of fancy breeding, the fashionista growls at haters: “I will never be happy with my looks, but no one can question my style.”
MARKINGS: Supershort vintage minis; bejeweled safety pin earrings of her own design.
CUBS: Her pug, Dony.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/ WireImages
News Cougar
Katie Couric
PREY: This traditionalist earned her cougar stripes the old-fashioned way—dating young bucks. She first stepped out with jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, 45, in ’04. Her current squeeze is triathlete Brooks Perlin, 34. “People want their anchors middle-aged, married and boring,” says Portfolio media reporter Jeff Bercovici. “Dating a younger man might detract from her gravitas. If Charlie Gibson showed up with a hot 30-year-old, it would have the same effect.”
HABITAT: CBS Evening News desk on 57th Street; a 12-room cougar den at 92nd and Park.
CATFIGHTS: Reports of diva behavior dogged her 17-year stint at NBC’s Today Show. But she’s clawed back at CBS brass over the network’s third-place ratings, declaring: “I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance.”
MARKINGS: Burberry skirts, caramel coif.
CUBS: Trinity students Ellie Monahan, 17, and Carrie Monahan, 12.
