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Oksana Baiul's Wine-soaked Training Regimen

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WHITE RUSSIAN Baiul (Photo: Kathryn Barry)
You may remember Oksana Baiul as the Ukrainian figure skater who took home the gold medal in the 1994 Winter Olympics. You may also remember Baiul as the Ukrainian figure skater who drunkenly totaled her car while doing nearly 100 m.p.h. in Connecticut in 1997. (Our favorite tidbit regarding the accident occurred when Baiul took to Oprah to tell her side of the story. She copped to having had "four or five Long Island iced teas before driving," but denied being intoxicated on the grounds that, "I'm a Russian.") Culturally ingrained high tolerance or not, Baiul was in fine form at last night's opening of the new Sports Museum of America in lower Manhattan. Though she told us she's training every day in New Jersey for 2010 games in Vancouver, we don't think we saw her without a glass of wine in hand the entire evening. That is the type of arduous Olympic training we can get behind!

Baiul, who in her pink plastic jump suit bore a striking resemblance to Courtney Love, seemed to have difficulty answering our questions and finishing her sentences, so we turned our attention to Vanderbilt Tridelt Molly Simms, who we heard was a baseball fan. "My favorite teams are probably the Red Sox and Yankees," she said. Hmm. Molly Simms may want to think about finding a favorite different sport.

30 Rock funnyman and VH-1 talking head Judah Friedlander was at least honest about why he was there. In between fielding drunk heckles from Baiul ("Who made your outfit?" she yelled at him at one point, referring to his trademark T-shirt and jeans), Friedlander told us, "I'll come to (any New York City opening) as long as it's not a Duane Reade, CVS, or Starbucks. You open a fuckin' laundry mat and I'll come promote it." Spoken like a man who knows how to drink for free in this town.

By Kathryn Barry   05/07/08 11:45 AM
Related: Judah Friedlander, Oksana Baiul, Pop
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