Olivia Nuzzi attends LA dinner for pro-RFK Jr. Substacker
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Olivia Nuzzi was spotted in Hollywood last week at a dinner party for a very unlikely pal: Popular pro-RFK Jr. Substacker Jessica Reed Kraus.
Kraus revealed in her Substack, âHouse Inhabit,â last week how Nuzzi, 32, was at Musso & Frank for a dinner honoring her online publicationâs three-year anniversary.
Kraus wrote of Nuzziâs attendance at the intimate dinner for 21 guests: âWhile Olivia may have successfully evaded the press since late September, staying away from HIH has proven far more trying. Details of their rekindling are said to be unveiled in due time, along with how sheâs been spending her time in exile. For now, all thatâs been offered is a snippet from her table introduction, where Ms. Nuzzi allegedly identified herself as âJessicaâs muse and sometimes ghost collaborator.’â
As Sun Tzu, or some Hollywood publicist, said, âKeep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.â
Months ago, Kraus was covering Nuzziâs explosive scandal â but writing sympathetically about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and trashing the former Washington correspondent.
The Substacker wrote of her pal Nuzzi on Sept. 21, 2024: âAs this scandal unfolds, I find myself questioning the very instincts that led me to trust [Nuzzi] as a friend in the first place,â calling her, âa full-fledged Kennedy fangirlâ and âlike a dazed schoolgirl discussing RFK, having lost the ability to view him objectively.â
But Kraus and Nuzzi seem to have ârekindledâ their friendship. Call it water under the bus.
In January, Kraus wrote how Nuzzi attended her annual Christmas party, where another guest reportedly exclaimed to Kraus when they saw Nuzzi emerge from a photo booth, âWhat the fâk is Olivia Nuzzi doing at your party?â
houseinhabit/Instagram
Kraus admitted it was a âfair question,â but that, âall Iâll say is that in the months following the scandal Olivia had spent in hiding, we reconnected on the West Coast. A twist neither of us saw coming, nor prepared to expand in greater detail.â
Kraus previously wrote while covering the RFK Jr. brouhaha last fall: âRegarding the current âsituation,â I hope you consider how difficult it is to publicly address a scandal involving a friend⌠It all began a few months ago, in November 2023, when I unexpectedly formed a friendship with Olivia Nuzzi, the Washington correspondent for New York Magazine. Our bond caught the attention of my audience, who were mostly amused by the unlikely kinship between mainstream and independent media.â
But the Substack scribe also alleged that friends of Kennedy âbelieve Nuzzi set him upâ and even âtricked the married Kennedy scion into receiving her racy messages after he first blocked her number.â
(Kennedy â the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy â denied a fling with Nuzzi, and his camp said the two only met in person once for the profile story.)
Kraus also glowingly covered the inaugural Make America Healthy Again Ball, calling RFK Jr. and his wife Cheryl Hines, âpoised and magnetic,â and adding Kennedy was âtranscending scandal and slander to serve as a figure of resilience, embodying the perseverance of this community.â
Kraus wrote herself last fall, âmy coverage of RFK Jr. has been largely positive, offering a nuanced portrayal of a complex man whom mainstream media delights in tearing apart.â
Nuzzi has been laying low since she left New York Magazine last October in the wake of the scandal, even though New York said an outside investigation found no evidence of bias in Nuzziâs reporting on the one-time candidate during the 2024 campaign.
We reported in November that Nuzzi was seen at a dinner at West Hollywood private club San Vicente Bungalows.
Meanwhile, Kennedy expert Jerry Oppenheimer reported for the Daily Mail recently that âCurb Your Enthusiasmâ star Hines, 59, ordered her husband to move her from California to the Beltway out of fear his self-proclaimed âlust demonsâ would overwhelm his ability to fend off temptation while heâs serving as President Trumpâs secretary of Health and Human Services.
Hines and Kennedyâs reps did not comment when The Post reached out about the story.
âCheryl doesnât feel Bobby can be trusted one iota living on his own, in DC, even part-time, with so many attractive women and Kennedy groupies around, as he gets settled in his powerful new position,â a source told the outlet.
âSo sheâs given him a strict ultimatum â move me or else.â
Kennedyâs philandering ways were well-documented in three diaries exclusively seen by The Post in 2013.
Either way, Kennedy and Hines have looked seemingly happy together in public in the months after Kennedy, 70, was accused of having a digital affair with Nuzzi, whoâd profiled the then-independent presidential candidate in November 2023 for New York Magazine. (Kennedy denied the dalliance.)
Nuzzi reportedly started sexting Kennedy following the story, including allegedly sending him âdemure nudes.â The pair even had âincredibleâ sex over FaceTime, a source previously told Page Six.
Since the scandal, Nuzziâs been keeping a low-profile in LA.
Source link