Ian Schrager

the co-owner of Studio 54 who reigned over New York's night life during the disco craze until his arrest for skimming club receipts, died Wednesday. He was 45. Rubell, who was convicted of tax evasion at the height of his club's popularity, died of complications from hepatitis and septic shock at Beth Israel Hospital, said publicist Dan Klores, who would not elaborate.

High-profile developer Rick Caruso got his long-standing wish Tuesday: a tax break that could be worth more than $15 million for knocking down Montecito's dilapidated Miramar Hotel and building a luxury resort on the star-crossed site. An eyesore whose boarded-up cottages and weedy lots have irritated neighbors for years, the Miramar was a chic destination in its day. Its last guests left 12 years ago; but even a string of celebrity owners, such as hotel mogul Ian Schrager and Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner failed to revive it. Caruso, developer of The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles and a possible mayoral candidate, has owned the property since 2007, shelving his development plans when the economy soured.

IAN SCHRAGER'S reborn Gramercy Park Hotel, which is to open Tuesday in Manhattan, breaks the restless impresario's own mold. "This is the opposite of what I'm known for," said Schrager, who has collaborated in the past with Frenchman Philippe Starck on sleek, chic interiors at the Mondrian Hotel on the Sunset Strip and the Delano in Miami.

* The Argyle. With the Fenix a-poppin' right downstairs, checking into a room at this venerable hotel is one way to spend a Friday night in fine style. 8358 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 654-7100. * Beach House. Located in the heart of Hermosa Beach's club and restaurant area, this pretty, new hotel sits right on the Strand with nothing separating you and the Pacific but some skimpily clad skaters and jocks. Yeah baby. 1300 The Strand, Hermosa Beach, (310) 374-3001. * Chateau Marmont.

Does an actor get a bonus for doubling as a muse? Then maybe Christian Bale qualifies for inspiring Ewan McGregor's particularly enthusiastic performance as the Iggy Pop-like Curt Wild in "Velvet Goldmine." One night, the boys were filming a love scene. The next, McGregor was flashing the audience as he performed onstage in Todd Haynes' ode to glam rock. Which wasn't exactly in the script.

New York's post-Sept. 11 recovery is getting a glitzy boost from the opening of two upscale hotels in midtown Manhattan. On April 29, three months after New York's first Ritz-Carlton opened, a second will make its debut on Central Park. The 33-story hotel, at 50 Central Park South, is the former St. Moritz, designed by Emery Roth in the 1930s.

Once, when L.A. interior designer Kerry Joyce couldn't find the perfect chair for a client's house, he designed it himself. That chair five years ago soon led to a growing line of furniture (tables, benches, screens, chests) hand-finished by local craftsman James Jennings. Some pieces are original; some are inspired by traditional and contemporary styles adapted to suit Joyce's preference for clean shapes and elegant proportions. "Most of my chairs have personality, a spirit," Joyce says.

The face of the California hotel scene is about to change: * Hotelier Ian Schrager on Tuesday will unveil his $50-million refurbishment of the 88-year-old Clift Hotel, his first property in San Francisco. He has added 49 rooms to the Clift, for a total of 375. He also is working on a $25-million redo of the Miramar in Santa Barbara, which he bought in 1998. His hip hotel holdings include West Hollywood's Mondrian and the Delano in Miami.

Retail developer Rick Caruso has put the run-down Miramar Hotel in his upscale shopping bag. Caruso, creator of the popular Grove shopping village in Los Angeles, said he finalized a deal this week to buy the landmark Montecito hotel from Beanie Babies tycoon Ty Warner.

It was a funky, blue-roofed landmark, a remnant of Southern California's clapboard-sided beach culture and a time when surfers really lived at the water's edge and drove woodies. Almost a year ago, the century-old Miramar Hotel closed. In its final days, a procession of guests paid respects to the old resort, one more time sharing mediocre food in the dining car, bedding down one last night in the scruffy guest rooms that smelled of suntan lotions they don't make anymore.