Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Sep 12, 2011

More 9/11 follow-up:

With all the coverage of 9/11's 10th anniversary, little noticed was the resurgence of downtown Manhattan 10 years after the 9/11 attacks.
The residential population has doubled; two skyscrapers are rising at Ground Zero, due to open in 2013; and the national memorial is open. But the cost of rebuilding the trade center and surrounding areas run to $24 billion. One World Trade Center alone cost $3.2 billion to build.
Security concerns contributed to the building's being redesigned three times in the last 10 years. Yet, after years of delays, the progress of the rebuilding has given hope to many. (Maiman)

Idle gossip & unconfirmed rumors:

We've got another royal wedding in the works, but this time a musical prince is playing the groom. An insider close to SIR PAUL McCARTNEY tells In Touch Weekly the BEATLES legend is set to marry NANCY SHEVELL within a matter of weeks --if not sooner. Word is the ceremony will be a small, intimate affair at his English estate followed by a fancy shindig in the Big Apple. This is Paul's third trip to the altar --he lost his first wife, LINDA, back in 1998 after 29 years of marriage and had a brief, unsuccessful union with HEATHER MILLS from 2002 to 2008. (Lee)

Gossip Central:

KELLY RUTHERFORD loves her some Hermes (pronounced air-mess). Star magazine snapped a pic of the "Gossip Girl" actress with her Hermes bag on one arm and her four-year-old son, HERMES, in the other. (Myers)

"Project Runway’s" finale runway show was Saturday. Nine of this season's contestants showed their collections - six of them were decoys. So the audience wasn’t told which of the designers were in the top three. But based on the collections, Fashionista.com says the most likely finalists are: ANYA AYONG CHEE, LAURA KATHLEEN and KIMBERLY GOLDSON.
The celebrity judge joining HEIDI KLUM, MICHAEL KORS and NINA GARCIA was designer L’WREN SCOTT. And celebrity-spotters got to see JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT and ANDIE MACDOWELL in the audience. (Bartha)

Chic Sh*t:

A TV spot for Uggs of Australia featuring quarterback TOM BRADY is scheduled to break tonight on Monday Night Football when Brady's New England Patriots play their first regular-season game against the Miami Dolphins. The commercial is promoting Uggs boots for men and is shot mostly from the knees down.
Though more recently-famous for the furry versions worn by teenage girls the world over, Uggs invented its sheepskin booties for Australian surfer dudes to keep their tootsies warm between sets, and migrated to the U-S in the late 1960s. The ad shows Brady stomping through life in a variety of Ugg styles, and none particularly like the much-copied sheepskin style.
PS: Brady doesn’t need to pay for any footwear these days. On the field, he typically sports Under Armour footwear; he signed on with that brand a year ago. (Kaye)

Broadcast, cable and video news:

The Miss Universe pageant is tonight, and this year, the contestants have been warned to wear underwear.
Apparently one of the contestants --Miss Columbia, CATALINA ROBAYO, to be specific-- left an important piece of equipment at home while doing publicity photos and an inadvertent shot caught her, well, going commando.
Miss Universe Pageant President PAULA SHUGART told Fox News (who else?) she was horrified after seeing a too-explicit shot in one of the local tabloids. “There were several girls in short dresses which is a little concerning, but when I saw the picture... I was very, very surprised. Our supervisors talked to all of the contestants about dressing appropriately, and one of our PR people spoke to [Catalina] and apparently she said she was wearing underwear. But regardless, it created quite a stir here for a few days.”