Ex-IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is under swanky house arrest at 153 Franklin Street, surrounded by all the blingy mob movie art a Yankophile could hope for. Back at 71 Broadway, he had been visited by not-so-well-wishers and creepy neighbors, but there's one new neighbor who isn't planning on bringing over a fruit basket anytime soon: actress Kirstie Alley. She did tell the Post that she wasn't nervous about living next to him: "There are walls between us. It’s America, and you’re not guilty until proven guilty." Imagine The Odd Couple meets Prison Break: do we smell a sitcom?
Other new neighbors sounded quite annoyed Strauss-Kahn gets to live in the luxury, $50,000-a-month digs: "He must really be suffering in there with the spa and private theater," Annette Goodman, rolling her eyes, told the News. "It's the height of hypocrisy. House arrest does not mean a luxury townhouse." But Alley was less harsh in her estimation of the situation: "I love our system of justice...Who knows what really happened? Hopefully, the truth comes out." One truth has already started to emerge from the miasma of the DSK scandal: Strauss-Kahn is a very questionable tipper!
The Post says that he's been receiving orders of water (Poland Spring, not Evian), food and patio furniture in anticipation of the holiday weekend. He's rejected messengers carrying shark-shaped balloons, three men dressed as Rabbis, and worst of all, he stiffed one of the messengers whom he did receive. "They never tip," said Danny Cotto after dropping off a box from Espresso Coffee. But the tipping scandal is more complicated than that, for the News points out that he paid a $25 tip to the deliveryman who dropped off $242.790 worth of steaks and salad from upscale Landmarc. "It's a good tip considering I just walked around the corner. I'm just doing my job," said deliveryman Ramon Leal. Guess we won't be seeing Strauss-Kahn's signature popping up on the Bad Tippers site just yet.
