Hotelier/Uma Thurman squeeze Andre Balasz commissioned a children's book as part of the marketing program for his new SoHo condo loft development, 40 Mercer St, which was designed by French deathstarchitect Jean Nouvel. It's called--get this--Jacques et Jill:

In "Jacques et Jill," a charmingly oddball tale illustrated by Girard Nicolas, two Chihuahuas fall in love in SoHo and make cute, without shedding a hair, frolicking around 40 Mercer, a 40-unit condo with all the trimmings of a five-star residential hotel. The book opens with Jacques darting from Moss, Balthazar and other SoHo landmarks [darting? good luck with that. When your streets are clogged with hordes of fake Vuitton-shopping daytrippers... -ed] to a condo's private roof garden (with its own resistance pool) and a posh marble bathroom with six-foot soaking tub. On the last page, the canines watch the sun set, leaning over the glass balcony of the penthouse duplex. Loaded with sexual innuendo, "Jacques et Jill" is a bedtime story for spoiled, grown-up kids.

It's not clear if or where the book is available, although I do know you missed the signing last week. A shrewd negotiator will ask that a copy be included in the sale price of his condo, which were running $1.9-5.9 million in May. So far, half have sold.

Jack and Jill Went Up the Private Elevator [nyt]
40 Mercer St [40mercersoho]
Curbed commentary on 40 Mercer [curbed]