‘Tiger’ tale roars back to TV
CAT’S cranky? Dog chews furniture? Your canary’s a monotone? Forget it. Comes now another TV series about Joe Exotic. Real name Joseph Allen Maldonado Passage (once Schreibvogel), the mullet haircut dude who owned an Oklahoma zoo for wild tigers. The kind that tore an arm off a person trying to pet one.
Beside his Netflix saga comes now two additional series taken from the Texas Monthly story “A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild.” CBS one stars Nicolas Cage, who’s also an offbeat creature lover and has his own watery exotic menagerie for a shark, octopus, croc and two cobras.
Joe Exotic cannot play himself due to currently being in the can. Feds say he’ll be tied up for 22 years. Why’s he behind bars? His nemesis, Texas’ Carole Baskin, CEO of animal sanctuary Big Cat Rescue, won a judgment against him. He responded by trying to do her in. In NBC one, she’s played by Kate McKinnon, whose real-life animal is one overweight cat.
Who plays the tigers, this I don’t know.
Shop right
GEOFFROY van Raemdonck, Neiman Marcus Group CEO, about shopping’s future and particularly luxury retail’s Statue of Liberty — Bergdorf Goodman:
“Bergdorf opened to customer traffic Aug. 14. Services include free same-day white glove delivery in the Hamptons via BG’s lavender branded van. Today’s buyer is not hunting a status symbol for any special occasion or their rank in society. It’s buying now what makes them feel good.
“We’ve instituted BGConnect, an original do-it-yourself digital sales assistance. NMConnect is Neiman’s. Phone, text, e-mail us and our people do it for you. Send you things you’ll like. Taken care of at home, you don’t need physical surroundings.
Customers now tailor their experience from in-store appointments to matching with a dedicated stylist to curbside pickup. The human factor is important. Not self-service. We ship it to you. Even a sample. Needs adjusting? Come in, we’ll alter.
“This new client application allows sales associates access to the entire inventory. They can style, share an online cart digitally with customers, provide proactive advice, engage with the customer’s information, close the transaction remotely. Proven so effective, it was a source of $100 million-plus of revenues at BG and NM during the pandemic.”
What about the furloughed staff? “It’s taken fortitude. This new relationship — curators, advisers, trusted confidantes, 14,000 associates, proactive, accommodating, engaging — developed instore. Now we can style a whole outfit. Some customers want an appointment. Some don’t. Some with a whole floor to themselves can disappear into a world of Bergdorf’s. We saw increase in comfortable shoes, casual wear, oversize maxi dresses, lounge wear, cotton and cashmere robes, tops to look good on Zoom, beauty products delivered curbside. Now they don’t buy multiple things. More discerning.”
Ever happen that New York might someday not have Bergdorf Goodman?
Geoffroy: “No. Never. Bergdorf ’s and Neiman’s are institutions. We need to be there for you. There will never be any chance — never — for there not to be Bergdorf ’s.”
A LADY on how to rid your uninvited bears, deer, raccoons, coyotes, wild turkeys: “Cameras surround the house. I now scold groundhogs by hollering loudly into a sound system on our security candid camera.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.