CHRISSY LAMBERT
In the crowd at Citizens Bank Park for the John/Joel concert: Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Inqlings: Fox29's Shupak is going
Fox29 is going a different way on its traffic reports, and that means the end of the road there for Jamie Shupak.
Contact columnist Michael Klein
Shupak, a freelancer, has been presenting on Fox's Good Day Philadelphia and 5 p.m. newscasts since October. Her service will be up at the end of the month, says a Fox rep.
Shupak replaced Dorothy Krysiuk, who left last year after balking at working split morning/evening shifts, the bane of traffic reporters' existence.
Post-Shupak, Fox29 will take a more cost-effective route: Its anchors will describe the traffic conditions. The station will continue to get information from Traffic.com.
For a good time, call . . .
Bidding on eBay yesterday was at $5,500 for 267-867-5309, a Philly area version of the phone number immortalized by the 1982 Tommy Tutone hit "867-5309/Jenny."Seller Jason Kaplan, 23, of Holland, Bucks County, says he's not selling the number - which he cannot do - but a wireless-phone business and phone loaded with the number. Kaplan, who got it for free, says he was recently accepted to medical school and needs the money. The auction ends at 6 p.m. today.
The number's area-code 201 version sold on eBay for $186,853.09 earlier this year.
I rang up Jeffrey Steinberg of Bala Cynwyd, who owns the 800 and 888 versions and, in a widely publicized deal a few months ago, signed a $25 million, 15-year lease/purchase agreement on the 800 number with nutrition firm Natrient L.L.C.
Steinberg, by day an officer of Rio Capital Management, a hedge fund, says that anyone who'd pay more than $10,000 for the 267 number is "crazy. It's a local number. The [toll-free] number is the only one that's real."
The circuit
Saturday night, Elton John dedicated his early hit "Tiny Dancer" to Reese Witherspoon, who was front and center with her beau and two kids during John's "Face 2 Face" show with Billy Joel at Citizens Bank Park. When the stadium camera crew showed her and her son, Deacon, on the big screen, Witherspoon flashed a sheepish look, indicating that she'd been found out. Her son, riding the shoulders of Jake Gyllenhaal for a few songs, was wearing headphones to protect his hearing. Witherspoon is here through October shooting the James L. Brooks comedy that also features Jack Nicholson, Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson. (Also spotted front and center was Alexa Ray, Joel's daughter, who performed Friday at the Tin Angel in Old City.) The Gyllenhaal/Witherspoon crew left early to beat the crowd, with Gyllenhaal behind the wheel of the SUV.Up and about in Chestnut Hill: Bette Midler visited Morris Arboretum last week to take in its new "Tree Adventure" exhibit, featuring "Out on a Limb," a 450-foot-long canopy walk that's 50 feet above ground level. She was with Drew Becher, executive director of the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), which she cofounded.
Wilson ducked into Parc on Rittenhouse Square last Wednesday for a quick, latish dinner of tomato tarte and spinach ravioli and was overheard asking patrons and servers their recommendations for things to do in town.
Contact columnist Michael Klein
at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com. See his blog at http://go.philly.com/insider. On Twitter: @phillyinsider.
