MTA board member’s got a ticket to ride but she don’t care

The exciting text message alert news is going to have to wait because we, folks, have a Beatles sighting. An MTA board member has been spotted by the British tabloids canoodling with none other than Sir Paul McCartney. Scandalous, I know.

The lucky lady in question is Nancy Shevell, a 2001 appointee of then-Governor George Pataki. Shevell, a leading northeast transportation executive, is the Chair of the Capital Construction/Planning and Real Estate Committee. That’s right; as Sewell Chan noted on Cityroom, Sir Paul’s latest flame is responsible for overseeing the first stages of the construction of the Second Ave. Subway.

Chan brings us more on this pressing story:

While the New York tabloids describe Ms. Shevell as married, her husband, Bruce A. Blakeman, a prominent Republican lawyer and a member of the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said in an e-mail message: “I am legally separated from Nancy. The separation is amicable and mutual.”

The Sun, a British tabloid that is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, reported that Ms. Shevell, 47, and Mr. McCartney, 65, spent last weekend together in the Hamptons. According to The Sun, the two ate at an East Hampton restaurant on Friday, visited each other’s mansions on Saturday, and embraced before sharing a breakfast on Sunday at a cafe.

The Sun, for what its worth, ran with the utterly tasteless headline, “Macca and the married cracker.” Murdoch’s mag reports that McCartney was shopping for lingerie before meeting up with his new paramour. Maybe we didn’t need to know that. Scotland’s Daily Record reports that the pair kissed in the shadows of Paul’s pick-up truck.