ANIMAL INSTINCTS RULE AT IRONY-FREE COUGAR-FEST

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08262008/entertainment/meet__eat_126094.htm

By JUSTIN ROCKET SILVERMAN


YOU know an American subculture can legimately lose the "sub" prefix when it gets its own reality show.

The Dog Whisperer, super sweet 16s, dirty jobs - you can now add cougars to the unlikely list of subjects your Nana could plausibly bring up the next time she calls, if only to ask what one is.

According to the producers of "Cougars: NYC," a reality show now in development about the lifestyles of female hunters, a cougar is any woman older than 39 who likes to get intimate with a cub. Single or divorced, mother or childless - it's all good. And if you're a guy younger than 35 you can be a cub - or in my case, a cub reporter.

A large gathering of cougars and cubs was held last week at LES club Libation. Part singles' night, part open casting call for "Cougars: NYC," the club was packed with older women and the young men they adore. A steep $50 cover charge ensured that the guests weren't just Long Island horndogs out for a laugh, but were legitimately interested in the lifestyle.

And the thing is, they actually were.

Stars of the show include Dawn Ellison, 43, who has dated men up to 17 years her junior and writes about the lifestyle at cougarandthecub.com. To her, being a cougar isn't about finding a boy toy to spoil with fancy dinners and mind-blowing sex. It's about an older woman being free to reinvent herself in whatever way she chooses.

"We are looking to shatter the stereotypes that surround cougars and cubs," explains Ellison. "It's important for a woman to realize that she gets back what she puts out. If she positions herself as a smokin' hot mama, it is probably just going to lead to a booty call."

A better approach, advises Ellison, is for cougars not to dress and act like floozies, but to "command and demand respect" by being dignified. That way, "the younger guys are going to stick around for more than just one night. They will be interested in getting to know you on a spiritual and emotional level."

Ellison says she prefers dating cubs to men her own age because the younger guys don't try to control her, telling her what she can and can't do. They are free spirits, willing to date around her hectic schedule.

And it doesn't hurt that they're nice to look at.

The night started off quiet and a bit awkward. But by the time guests were into the second hour of the two-hour open bar, conversation between the sexes (and the generations) began to flow much easier. Soon there was dancing. Then there was groping.

"I like how I can mold younger guys into what I want," says divorcee Jillian Seiden, 46, who was married for 18 years.

"I've grown a lot as a woman since I first met my ex-husband. I know how to make my own fun now."

Some of the cubs were, well, awkward - the type of young men who might not have an easy time seducing women their own age.

But in Cougar Land, they were veritable Don Juans.

"It's a lot more fulfilling to be with a woman of some experience," says 25-year-old Jon Caballero as he shakes his moneymaker to the delight of the cougars around him. "A younger girl expects the guy to do all the work. But an older woman is not afraid to take the reins in bed."

Other cubs were perhaps more mature, there to seek meaningful relationships.

Michael Perry, 35, flew in from Ohio specifically for the cougar casting night. Sipping a cocktail at the bar, he seemed entirely content with the talent swarming around him.

"A younger girl thinks the sky is a different color every day of the week," he says. "I like a woman that knows herself a little more, someone who can embody a classy elegance."

But aren't younger women kind of, you know, hotter?

"Physical beauty is all relative," says Perry. "It all depends on how a woman handles herself."

While some of the big cats at Libation did handle themselves with said classy elegance, others seemed more interested in handling the young prey. These women appeared far more than three sheets to the wind, and got dance-floor freaky with cubs two decades their junior with the same ferocity that a dirty old man might employ with a co-ed.

Among this uninhibited subset was Katherine Morreale, a 42-year-old Brooklynite. Never married, Morreale says she dates both older and younger men, as they are both good for different things. Asked what younger men were good for, she responded with a smile and raised eyebrow.

Needless to say, she was a hit with the cubs.

jsilverman@nypost.com

Sightings: Cybill Shepherd

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08232008/gossip/pagesix/sightings_125650.htm

SIGHTINGS

August 23, 2008 --

CYBILL Shepherd getting her cougar on at new Allegretti on West 22nd Street, where she was having a romantic meal with a young actor . . . HALLMARK Channel honcho Henry Schleiff discussing climate change at Michael's with Rep. Ed Markey, chairman of the new Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming . . . ROD Stewart, Penny Lancaster and their 20-year-old son, Alastair, at the Victoria Gardens amusement park at Wollman Rink . . . DESIGNER Marc Ecko, boxer Miguel Cotto and actor Tony SiricoRAFAEL Nadal and his hitting partner, Tomeu Slava, at "Phantom of the Opera." breaking bread at Nino's restaurant . . .

Trend: A Field Guide to Cougars

http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20080810/Trend+Field+Guide+Cougars

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

Page Six: Older Gals, Younger Guys

OLDER GALS, YOUNGER GUYS

August 4, 2008 --

SINGLE Manhattan women over 40 - start your engines! IiN TV Productions is developing a reality series called "Cougars: NYC," about five older hotties "living the glamorous life in NYC . . . with men 10-plus years their junior."

Producers have picked three gals so far: R&B singer Mel'isa Morgan, WOR Radio ad exec Dawn Ellison and Shahla Husein, v.p. of a medical sales company - all of whom only date guys in their 20s. A casting call for two more women will be held at a singles mixer at Libations on Ludlow Street Aug. 20.

Executive producer Elizabeth Mwanga disputes the negative connotations of the word cougar. "Basically, it's meant to symbolize empowerment. This isn't just horny older women chasing younger guys," she told Page Six. "It's women who are beautiful, successful and hot, who can get these younger guys because they are hot."