WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat to become secretary of state in the Obama administration, making her the public face to the world for the man who dashed her own hopes for the presidency, confidants of Mrs. Clinton said Friday.
The accord between the two leading figures of the Democratic Party was the culmination of a weeklong drama that riveted the nation’s capital. President-elect Barack Obama and Mrs. Clinton fought perhaps the most polarizing nomination battle in decades, but in recruiting her for his cabinet, Mr. Obama chose to turn a rival into a partner, and she concluded she could have a greater impact by saying yes than by remaining in the Senate.
Her selection is still to be formalized and will not be announced until after Thanksgiving. It would be yet another direction in the unlikely journey of a onetime political spouse in Arkansas who went on to build a political base of her own and become a symbol of achievement to many women.
The role, though a supporting one, would make her one of the most influential players on the international stage, and it would represent at least one more act for one of the nation’s most prominent public families, as former President Bill Clinton would also become an ad hoc member of the Obama team.
The sometimes awkward dance between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton in the eight days since he invited her to Chicago for a meeting culminated in a telephone call on Thursday. Before the call, Mrs. Clinton was skeptical about the prospect of joining the cabinet, said her confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation. But Mr. Obama addressed her concerns about access, personnel and other issues, leading her to conclude she should take the job, they said.
“She’s ready,” one of Mrs. Clinton’s confidants said. The first meeting in Chicago “was so general” that she needed to have a better sense of how she would fit into Mr. Obama’s administration, and the call helped her “just getting comfortable” with the idea of working together, the confidant said.
Mr. Obama’s advisers said that although no offer had been formally accepted, her nomination was “on track” and would probably be announced after the holiday. Mrs. Clinton’s Senate office broke a week of silence to acknowledge the talks but cautioned that they had not been made final.
“We’re still in discussions, which are very much on track,” said her spokesman, Philippe Reines. “Any reports beyond that are premature.”
Mr. Obama wants to announce the members of his national security team at once. Advisers said he was weighing whether to make retired Gen. James L. Jones, a former Marine commandant and NATO supreme commander, his national security adviser, installing a formidable counterweight to Mrs. Clinton. The president-elect was still trying to decide whether to keep Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on an interim basis or install another choice to run the Pentagon right away.
The choice of Mrs. Clinton pleased many in the Democratic establishment who admire her strength and skills, and they praised Mr. Obama for putting the rancor of the campaign behind him. “Senator Clinton is a naturally gifted diplomat and would be an inspired choice if she is chosen by President-elect Obama as secretary of state,” said Warren Christopher, who held that job under her husband.
But it could also disappoint many of Mr. Obama’s supporters, who worked hard to have him elected instead of Mrs. Clinton and saw him as a vehicle for changing Washington. Mr. Obama argued during the primaries that it was time to move beyond the Clinton era and in particular belittled her claims to foreign policy experience as a first lady who circled the globe.
Advisers said Mr. Obama concluded after the election that the problems confronting the nation were so serious that he needed Mrs. Clinton’s stature and capabilities as part of his team, notwithstanding their past differences. The bitterness that inhabited the Obama team for much of the year has faded with time, advisers said.
And many of the aides working on the transition with Mr. Obama are not campaign veterans with scars from the primaries, but rather former Clinton administration officials like Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, and John D. Podesta, the transition co-chairman, who admire Mrs. Clinton.
For Mrs. Clinton, becoming secretary of state would require her to sacrifice the independence that has come with a Senate seat and the 18 million votes she collected in the primary season. She has found it liberating the last eight years to speak for herself, not as someone’s spouse. But friends said she could still have her voice while subordinating her ambitions to Mr. Obama’s agenda.
“Hillary Clinton will always be seen as her own person,” said Mickey Kantor, a longtime friend who served as commerce secretary in her husband’s administration. “But you know, Hillary Clinton’s a terrific lawyer. She knows how to represent a client, and she’s good at it. And I don’t have any doubt in my mind that she’ll be a team player.”
Mrs. Clinton had to accept that she might never become president, a former aide said. “There’s a very small chance that she could run again,” he said. “You’re not going to be the president, so you want to make sure your next few years, which may be your last in public life, really make a mark.”
Two advisers to Mrs. Clinton said she was concerned about establishing her role in the administration before agreeing to the job. She wanted assurances that she would have direct access to Mr. Obama and not need to go through a national security adviser, they said. And she wanted the authority to pick her own staff at the State Department.
This was particularly important because her relationships with members of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy team fractured during the bruising primary season. Gregory B. Craig, a longtime friend of the Clintons who broke with them to back Mr. Obama and helped savage her foreign policy background during the primaries, was selected as White House counsel and removed from direct involvement with the secretary of state.
Mrs. Clinton wanted to avoid the situation that faced another celebrity chosen as secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, who found hawks like John R. Bolton given top jobs under him after he took the job under President Bush.
“Powell had to take neocons like Bolton, and that just created problems,” said one Clinton adviser. “On the other hand, it would be dreadful if only Clinton loyalists worked at State and Obama loyalists at the N.S.C.,” the National Security Council.
It is also not clear how Mrs. Clinton’s selection would affect the role and influence of Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose expertise in foreign policy was a main reason Mr. Obama chose him for the job.
Another complication was Mr. Clinton, whose extensive business and philanthropic activities around the world could pose conflicts of interest. Lawyers for both sides spent days combing through his finances and crafting guidelines for his future activities.
People close to the vetting said Mr. Clinton turned over the names of all 208,000 donors to his foundation and library and agreed to every condition requested by Mr. Obama’s transition team, including restrictions on his paid speeches and his role at his international foundation. The lawyers agreed to notify all of the donors that their identities would be revealed to the Obama team, but it was not clear if they would all be made public.
Mrs. Clinton would bring a distinctive background to the State Department. As first lady, she traveled the world for eight years, visiting more than 80 countries, not only meeting with foreign leaders but also visiting villages, clinics and other remote areas that rarely get on a president’s itinerary.
While Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama agree most of the time on foreign policy, during the campaign she made a point of highlighting their differences, seeking to paint him as unsophisticated. Now those differences will be brought into stark relief as she seeks to become into Mr. Obama’s emissary to the world.
On Iran, for instance, Mrs. Clinton staked a position during the primaries to the right of Mr. Obama. She voted in favor of a measure more hawkish than what even most of the Bush administration had been willing to venture, asking Mr. Bush to declare Iran’s 125,000-member Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization. Mr. Obama did not show up to vote that day but said that if he had, he would have opposed the bill.
Many Iran experts criticized the bill, saying it was similar to Iran’s declaring the United States military a terrorist organization because it carried out Mr. Bush’s orders. Even some members of the Clinton campaign’s foreign policy team at the time privately disagreed with the vote.
But the bigger fight between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama was over the issue of talking to Iran, which Mrs. Clinton could soon find at the top of her portfolio. When during a debate Mr. Obama termed “ridiculous” the notion of not talking to adversaries, Mrs. Clinton sharply criticized him, calling that position “irresponsible and frankly naïve.”
The difference between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama on the issue is more perception than reality, advisers to both now say. Mr. Obama has said he would have a lower-level envoy do preparatory work for a meeting with Iran’s leaders first, and Mrs. Clinton has said she favors vigorous diplomacy and lower-level contacts as well.
“She’s not against talking to enemies; it was a question of how it’s done,” said Martin Indyk, the former United States ambassador to Israel. “That was the critical issue.”
On Israel, the other chronic foreign policy issue that will bedevil the next secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton would bring baggage as well. She is seen as fiercely loyal to Israel, which can be both a plus and a minus, Middle East experts say.
While her pro-Israel record as a senator from New York might cause her to be viewed with suspicion in the Arab world, it could give her credibility to ask Israel to make tough choices for peace.
(Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Chicago, and Jackie Calmes from Washington.)
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Over 32,000 residents of Addis Ababa took part in the 8th Annual Great Ethiopian Run today.
The 10,000 meter road race is organized by Ethiopia’s long distance legend Haile Gebreselassie in partnership with Toyota.
Chala Dechasa won in the men’s field at 28:54:47 today. In the women’s field, Wude Ayalew won for the second time this year at 33:31:15.
Some of the runners where heard chanting ‘Free Teddy Afro’ and anti-Woyanne regime slogans as they passed by government offices.
More from AFP:
ADDIS ABABA – Unheralded Chala Dechassa on Sunday won the men’s Great Ethiopian Run, an annual race in Addis Ababa which has revealed some of the world’s greatest long-distance runners.
The 22-year-old clocked 28 minutes 55 seconds to outrun over 32,000 participants, clinching a surprise win over race favourite Deriba Merga, who set the course record in 2006.
‘This victory will provide a platform for my future success. It was very important and I’m very happy,’ he told AFP shortly after crossing the finish line.
Track legend and current marathon record-holder Haile Gebrselassie predicted a new star was born.
‘It was a major surprise, he’s certainly one for the future,’ he said.
Chala had shown a glimpse of his form when he finished second in the Amsterdam marathon last month.
Favourite Deriba Merga, who took fourth in the Beijing Olympics’ marathon, could only manage third on Sunday, 16 seconds off the pace.
Wude Ayalew, 20, kept her crown in the women’s race with a time of 33 minutes and 31 seconds.
The 2008 edition was marred by reported terrorist threats in the capital which prompted the US and Dutch governments to advise their citizens against taking part in the race.
The annual race, regarded as a key stepping stone for Ethiopian athletes, has been held since 2001. Past winners include Gebrselassie and the women’s current Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba.
LONDON, UK – Ethiopia’s tribal junta is demanding that Britain’s museums return some of its most significant religious treasures. President Puppet Girma Wolde-Giorgis has personally intervened in a dispute to get the artifacts, including the Ethiopian royal crown, returned home 140 years after they were “looted” by marauding British troops. [It seems that the 400-pound eating machine has nothing important to do.]
The President Woyanne puppet has written to the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Library and Cambridge University Library seeking the restitution of more than 400 so-called “treasures of Magdala”, which were stolen by British soldiers following a battle in 1868.
In the letter, obtained by The Independent on Sunday, the President wrote: “I must state that Ethiopians have long grieved at the loss of this part of their national heritage. Ethiopians feel that this act of appropriation had no justification in international law. I feel, therefore, that the time has come for the return of Ethiopia’s looted treasures.”
Among the items being held in the UK is an 18-carat gold crown and more than 300 priceless manuscripts, including Christian scriptures. Experts say the issue is particularly sensitive for Ethiopians because many of the artefacts hold deep religious significance for them. These include nine tabots, or sacred wooden altar slabs, which are recognised as so holy that the British Museum has pledged never to display them. When a tabot was returned in 2005 after being discovered in the back of an Edinburgh church, thousands of people turned out to greet its return in Addis Ababa.
The objects were among those seized by British soldiers after the storming of the Fortress of Magdala in 1868, a punitive expedition that followed the kidnap of several Britons. Emperor Tewodros committed suicide after the battle. According to contemporary accounts, British soldiers slaughtered hundreds of poorly armed Ethiopians after the battle, and then “jostled each other” to grab a piece of the emperor’s blood-stained shirt, which they tore from his body. They also looted the citadel and a nearby church, carrying off treasures that included “an infinite variety of gold, and silver and brass crosses”, as well as “heaps of parchment royally illuminated”.
British museums have in the past resisted calls for artefacts from their collections to be returned to their countries of origin, but it is understood that Neil MacGregor of the British Museum and Mark Jones of the V&A have already met the Ethiopian ambassador to discuss the matter.
Museums often argue in restitution cases that the artefacts are better off in Britain because anyone in the world can view them, and the V&A is known to have asked Addis Ababa whether the silver crown of Emperor Tewodros, which it returned to Ethiopia in 1925, is available for public view.
The V&A said yesterday that discussions were still ongoing, even though the President’s letter was sent in February this year. The four organisations involved have also held meetings over the way forward.
The Magdala treasure differs to other restitution cases, such as that of the Elgin Marbles, because it is acknowledged that the treasures were simply stolen. “It was straightforward looting,” a spokeswoman at the Ethiopian embassy in London said.
A spokeswoman for Afromet, an organisation that has campaigned for the restitutions of the items, said: “These museums hold most of Ethiopia’s heritage. It means far more to Ethiopians than it could ever do to anyone else.”
Somalia, a genuine failed state, ranks alongside Sudan as the world’s most conspicuous candidate for American attention in the early days of Barack Obama’s administration. Last week, capping a series of territorial gains across the country, Islamist insurgents seized the port of Merka, and appeared poised for an offensive against the capital city of Mogadishu 60 miles to the north. Aspiring jihadists, averse to the risks posed in Iraq and Pakistan, are increasingly flocking to Somalia, which is 97 percent Sunni Muslim. At the same time, Somali pirates have become a significant maritime menace, with press reports suggesting that they are driving up prices of goods worldwide. Almost two years ago, U.S.-supported Ethiopian troops ousted the de facto government run by the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic Courts Union (ICU) from Mogadishu, installed an internationally recognized secular transitional government formed in exile, and remained in-country to support it along with an anemic African Union (AU) contingent. But the Ethiopians can’t afford to stay much longer, and their repressive tactics have lost Somali hearts and minds, allowing the Islamists to regain social as well as military traction. Earlier this month, in a brutally populist application of sharia law, a 13-year old girl was stoned to death in the southern Somali city of Kismayu for alleged adultery in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators.
The upstart al-Shabaab–meaning “youth”–faction of the ICU has become a political spoiler. On October 29, the group executed five coordinated suicide car-bomb attacks against transitional government and U.N. targets in different locations around the country, killing about 30 people and accelerating a trend of rising jihadist violence against local civic leaders and international aid workers perceived as pro-Western. Significantly, al-Shabaab targeted the northern city of Hargeisa, the seat of government of the relatively safe and successful quasi-state of Somaliland, even as the transitional government was making progress in Nairobi towards an orderly Ethiopian withdrawal. The threat the ICU posed in late 2006 has thus re-materialized: that Islamists will Talibanize Somalia and nurture a regional base for jihadism that exports insecurity and instability.
If the résumés of his likely foreign-policy advisers are any indication, President-elect Barack Obama does not intend to ignore Africa. Susan Rice, a strong contender for national security adviser, was assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Clinton administration. Samantha Power, also prominently mentioned, wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Problem from Hell, a passionate chronicle of the Rwandan genocide and critique of the United States’ failure to intervene. In the 2,000-strong Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, based in Djibouti, Africa Command (AFRICOM), the United States’ new combatant command dedicated to Africa, has the means of bolstering secular Somali militias (or more Ethiopians) against Islamist forces. But that has not produced sustainable stability in the past and isn’t likely to do so now, and would only stoke Africans’ fears of American militarism. Further, constricted budgets and two wars elsewhere will call for judiciously set priorities.
Soft rather than hard power should be the United States’ instrument of choice on the continent, and in Somalia. So what about an audacious diplomatic American approach to Somalia? The fraught 1992-93 U.S.-led humanitarian intervention, U.S. backing for Ethiopia, and civilian casualties caused by recent American counterterrorism strikes have eroded Somali respect for the United States. But Obama’s singular status as the first African American president substantially renews American diplomatic credibility with all Africans, including Somalis.
Expending political capital on such a knotty problem–over a dozen transitional governments have tried and failed over the past 17 years–might seem imprudent at first blush. But the Somalis’ very recalcitrance has yielded such low expectations that very little would actually be at risk. Moreover, an earnest attempt at conflict-resolution in Somalia would enable Mr. Obama to showcase the differences between him and his predecessor.
Mr. Bush was a self-described “gut player,” uninterested in the cultural subtleties of other peoples, and it showed in a foreign policy that was often ineffective on account of its insensitivity. By contrast, Mr. Obama is surrounding himself with true regional experts, including Africanists who have made it their business to understand Africans and their politics in all their complexities. Somalia’s notorious clan system makes for extreme political atomization, and makes any power-sharing solution an especially daunting prospect. Yet the clan network also disperses power from the bottom up, and, properly harnessed, could systematically limit the trajectory of a top-down movement like radical Islamism.
Mr. Obama’s prospective team also has extensive experience on the volatile international stage of the 1990s, when the Clinton administration pragmatically–and usually successfully–backed high-level diplomacy with the selective, and therefore credible, use of military force in the Balkans and elsewhere. Thus, they understand one of Mr. Obama’s most provocative campaign positions: be open to talking to your enemies.
To be sure, al-Shabaab are bad guys. Members of the group’s core leadership are believed to have trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, it has sought to expel transitional government forces, AU peacekeepers, and Ethiopians troops through insurgency tactics, and supports forming an anti-Western Islamic state. Yet it was a mistake for the Bush administration to include al-Shabaab on the State Department’s list of proscribed terrorist organizations. That move, along with a U.S. airstrike in May that killed Aden Hashi Ayro, al-Shabaab’s leader, needlessly glorified and antagonized the group; pushed it closer to Al Qaeda; spurred it to expand its target set to any Somalis associated with the West, including local aid workers and community leaders; attracted foreign jihadist recruits; and politically inhibited any U.S. moves towards positive engagement.
Conversely, removing it from the list–as the Clinton administration de-listed the Provisional Irish Republican Army to advance U.S.-brokered talks–could induce al-Shabaab to enter into all-party negotiations with an eye to integrating it–and the ICU–into government and thus co-opting them. Although al-Shabaab would likely continue to be a potential spoiler, nudging it into a negotiating framework that offered some political legitimacy would also make it more susceptible to compromising with moderate Islamists, who are in turn more inclined to deal non-violently with the secular transitional government and with the United States. Sinn Fein’s doves, after all, were better able to control the IRA’s hawks once the IRA had been de-listed.
High political dividends could be achieved with relatively low financial and bureaucratic investment by coordinating U.S. efforts with and through the AU’s larger peace and security agenda. Useful precedents include President Clinton’s diplomatic intervention in the Northern Irish “troubles” and President Bush’s in the north-south conflict in Sudan. In both cases, the president’s appointment of a seasoned and dedicated special envoy with influence and gravitas–former Senator George Mitchell and former Senator John Danforth, respectively–ultimately produced formal political settlements on a non-threatening multilateral basis.
The goal in Somalia would be negotiated state-building. Perhaps U.N.-sanctioned special political status for Somaliland that could qualify it for international aid and protection, in recognition of its largely self-generated order and viability, should be on the table to create incentives for the more unruly militias in southern Somalia to reach political compromises. Even if a diplomatic foray by the Obama administration does not yield immediate success, striking a salutary keynote of multilateral diplomacy would help alleviate African worries about AFRICOM and the militarization of U.S. Africa policy. And returning to Somalia–the notorious site of U.S. military failure around fifteen years ago, which drove its sustained disengagement from Africa and emboldened Al Qaeda–would decisively signal a renewed commitment to the continent.
The following is a war propaganda video just released by the Woyanne regime in Ethiopia. Despite what the video tries to portray, first of all, there is no Ethiopian army under the Woyanne regime. It is a Woyanne army that is commanded by one ethnic group. Secondly, the Woyanne army currently is getting its butt kicked by 3,000 ragtag Somali insurgents. So much for the bravado. Juse consider those two facts as you watch this propaganda video, which is part of Woyanne’s preparation for another war with Eritrea.
Ethiopian-born designer Gelila Assefa sips champagne in the kitchen of her Beverly Hills home, wearing a flowing leopard-print James Galanos gown, while her fiancé, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, fries up some steaks. Suddenly, flames shoot out of the pan, and Assefa jumps back, protecting her dress. “We’ll see if it’s fireproof,” he jokes, laughing heartily.
Such is the playful dynamic between the couple, each of whom runs a business while raising their children (Oliver, two this month, and Alexander, six months).
“I’m the happiest woman on the planet. I feel like he’s a gift,” says Assefa, 37. The two first met in 1997 in L.A., where she had studied fashion at Trade-Tech College. After she relocated to New York in 2002, Puck arrived, declared his love, and swept her back to L.A. “It was the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced,” she remembers. “I’m lucky to have him in my life.”
Theirs is a busy life, to be sure. Puck, 57, who also has two boys from a previous marriage, runs a $300-million-a-year food empire that includes the 25-year-old Spago and the hot new steak house Cut, as well as a show on Food Network. He recently made headlines for partnering with the Humane Society on a farm-animal treatment program.
Meanwhile Assefa, who used to design couture gowns, is focusing on her own handbag line, Gelila, which includes simple, classic ostrich clutches and colorful crocodile bags. She takes pains to note that the animals are not killed for their skins but are used as food. “My handbag line is definitely not for a client into labels. I find them vulgar,” she says, wrinkling her nose. “I don’t walk around showing my underwear. Logos should be tucked inside.”
Assefa works out of the couple’s five-bedroom home, which houses sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, art by Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, and antiques from L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in Provence. She plans to open her own store in L.A. this fall. “We all have this energy that needs to be addressed in some creative way,” she says. “The handbag line is manageable, to where I can be a mother to my children. That’s my first responsibility. I still want to use my talents without it being too demanding.” Fiercely proud of her heritage, Assefa also serves on the board of the Ethiopian Children’s Fund.
Puck and Assefa always make time to entertain, holding Sunday brunches on their patio for friends such as Sideways actress Virginia Madsen and Sidney and Joanna Poitier, who are godparents to their sons. Tonight they’re hosting a dinner party for guests including author Jackie Collins, husband and wife actors Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy) and Rebecca Gayheart, designer Monique Lhuillier, and Guess CEO Paul Marciano.
Assefa changes into a J. Mendel dress and Jimmy Choo shoes, finishing the look with her “showstopper” Iradj Moini Swarovski-crystal necklace. “I’m definitely not a girl who runs around in Juicy Couture,” she says. “Not even around my house. Sorry.”
Instead, she has a large collection of vintage Galanos gowns alongside current pieces from Lanvin and Olivier Theyskens. Puck chuckles when she claims she’s not a big shopper: “Not a big shopper, compared to who?” Assefa admits she likes to dress Puck. “I buy all his clothes,” she notes. “I like to keep him in classic colors: gray, black, navy. I think men, in general, should wear those colors.”
Guests gather in the living room as they arrive. Puck has prepared a four-course meal of summer vegetables with Maine lobster, tortelloni with corn, Moroccan-style lamb, and a chocolate dessert shaped like one of Assefa’s bags. Madsen bites into Puck’s famous smoked-salmon pizza. “If you are not having sex, you can have this,” she says with a laugh. “In the morning you won’t have to kick anyone out.”
Wine flows throughout the evening, as does the good-natured banter between Assefa and Puck. She needles him for being unromantic, but he proves her wrong with a nudge. “Sunday morning, he brought me coffee, and there was a jewel box,” she explains. “It was a Martin Katz emerald bracelet.”
Romantic, yes; nostalgic, no. “We always look to the future,” Puck explains. “What are we going to do next? A lot of people, as they get older, they get tired. For me, it’s the opposite. I love what I do, so it’s easy.”
By all indications, the guests are loving his dinner as well. The mood is giddy, as everyone trades travel tips and reads one another’s palms. They raise their glasses to toast the hosts. “Everyone just beams at them to see how happy they are,” Madsen says, smiling. “This is the real fairy tale.”
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Over 32,000 residents of Addis Ababa took part in the 8th Annual Great Ethiopian Run today. 
Among the items being held in the UK is an 18-carat gold crown and more than 300 priceless manuscripts, including Christian scriptures. Experts say the issue is particularly sensitive for Ethiopians because many of the artefacts hold deep religious significance for them. These include nine tabots, or sacred wooden altar slabs, which are recognised as so holy that the British Museum has pledged never to display them. When a tabot was returned in 2005 after being discovered in the back of an Edinburgh church, thousands of people turned out to greet its return in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian-born designer Gelila Assefa sips champagne in the kitchen of her Beverly Hills home, wearing a flowing leopard-print James Galanos gown, while her fiancé, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, fries up some steaks. Suddenly, flames shoot out of the pan, and Assefa jumps back, protecting her dress. “We’ll see if it’s fireproof,” he jokes, laughing heartily.
Theirs is a busy life, to be sure. Puck, 57, who also has two boys from a previous marriage, runs a $300-million-a-year food empire that includes the 25-year-old Spago and the hot new steak house Cut, as well as a show on Food Network. He recently made headlines for partnering with the Humane Society on a farm-animal treatment program.
Assefa changes into a J. Mendel dress and Jimmy Choo shoes, finishing the look with her “showstopper” Iradj Moini Swarovski-crystal necklace. “I’m definitely not a girl who runs around in Juicy Couture,” she says. “Not even around my house. Sorry.”