Yale Freezes Over

Hamilton Nolan · 02/04/10 10:33AM

Yale's endowment has recently plummeted to a marginally less insane multiple of billions of dollars. In addition to layoffs and salary freezes, the nobles of New Haven may soon find themselves subjected to an agonizing bout of extreme survival training.

Spotted

cityfile · 02/04/10 10:25AM

Kate Winslet shopping in SoHo with her son ... Jonathan Rhys Meyers walking into the Mercer Hotel with girlfriend Reena Hammer ... Bono and wife Ali Hewson at a bakery on Madison Avenue ... Channing Tatum getting in an SUV at JFK ... Ashley Olsen arriving at ABC studios for an appearance on Good Morning America ... Blake Lively carrying her dog inside her coat on the set of Gossip Girl ... Paris Hilton getting out of a car in front of the Late Show with David Letterman ... Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz attending a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden ... and John Travolta leaving the Plaza with Kelly Preston and daughter Ella.

Feel the Power of "Violin Hero"

Frank Cozzarelli · 02/04/10 10:12AM

This video featuring kids going crazy for "Violin Hero" seems like something the Trans-Siberian Orchestra would produce after a three day bender of Pop Rocks and YouTube videos.

Lost Explained By People Who Have Never Seen Lost

Mike Byhoff · 02/04/10 09:41AM

Lost fans are rabid, but there are just as many people who haven't seen it at all. So Newsweek decided to have their employees who have never watched it before try to explain what's going on. And it's hilarious.

How to Turn Bronze Into Gold

Hamilton Nolan · 02/04/10 09:32AM

The six-foot high 1960 Alberto Giacometti sculpture "Walking Man I" sold yesterday for $104.3 million, the most ever paid for a work of art. Unless you consider credit default swaps to be art, in which case this is trifling. [WSJ]

Producer-Actor-Composer Couple List on 5th for $25 Mil

cityfile · 02/04/10 09:20AM

• Actress/TV producer Polly Draper and her husband Michael Wolff, the jazz pianist and composer best known as the bandleader on the Arsenio Hall Show, have put their full-floor apartment at 43 Fifth Avenue on the market. The 13-room, five-bedroom spread is listed for $25 million. [Curbed, AW]
• Texas-based restaurant kingpin Bradley Blum, who's headed up operations at Olive Garden and Burger King and now serves as CEO of Romano's Macaroni Grill, has picked himself up a pied-à-terre. Blum paid $3.7 million for a two-bedroom apartment at the newly-renovated 141 Fifth Avenue. [NYO]
• Paul Greenwood, the former money manager and Islanders co-owner, has put even more property in Westchester up for sale. In addition to the 16-acre estate in North Salem that he listed last month, Greenwood, who was accused of securities fraud last year, is also looking to sell his 300-acre horse farm nearby for $29 million. [NYP, V&W]

Freeze Frame

Whitney Jefferson · 02/04/10 09:00AM

Can you guess what movie this image comes from? Check back for the answer at 4pm today.

LiLo's Pack Rat Problem; Stewart vs. O'Reilly

cityfile · 02/04/10 08:36AM

• As if Lindsay Lohan didn't have enough problems in her life, it seems she's a "secret hoarder," too. In an interview with the Style Network's Niecy Nash, LiLo's shows all her "stuff," which includes a bedroom filled with shoe boxes and a living room that's been turned into a giant closet. On the plus side, if Sam Ronson ever goes missing, at least the police will know where to start looking. [Us, DM]
• Tiger Woods is supposedly leaving sex rehab in Mississippi by the end of this week, which means he's changed his ways or he's planning on playing in a golf tournament in Arizona in two weeks and he's not going to let his compulsive sexual habits get in the way of that. Elin Nordegren has already flown down to pick him up. Just so there isn't an incident involving a flight attendant in the first-class lounge on the way home. [Radar, NYP]
• Season three of the Real Housewives of New York debuts next month and now word comes that creepy couple Alex McCord and Simon van Kempen may be booted before season four. It's supposedly because "viewers don't have a positive reaction to them" and Simon threw a fit when he found out he wasn't going to be paid as much as the housewives because, well, he's not a housewife, although you're excused if you thought otherwise. [NYDN]
• Precious star—and Academy Award nominee—Gabourey Sidibe would really, really like for Justin Timberlake to be her Oscar date. So, Jessica Biel, if you could step aside and make it happen, that would be great. [People]
• Jon Stewart sat down with Bill O'Reilly last night. Highlights here. [Gawker]