the provacateur doing his best to eradicate any remaining supporters of Roman Polanski's effort to get the world to overlook the fact that he raped a 13-year-old girl in 1978, in an interview with The Atlantic.

Lee Abrams, Tribune Co's futurist genius executive who has guided the company on its current path to wild success, has himself a TV special coming up! It's called "History of the Future, Hosted by Lee Abrams." What is it? Boogidyboogidy!

• Tom McGeveran took over as editor of the Observer after Peter Kaplan made his exit this spring, but now he's headed out the door as well. [NYO]
• Layoffs: The cuts at Condé Nast continue though they should end soon; the layoffs at Forbes this week were deep ones: 1 in 4 editorial staffers were let go.
• Newsday's website erected a pay wall today. Good luck with that. [E&P]
• The Michael Jackson movie This Is It sold $2.2 million in tickets on its opening night, which is pretty good considering it was a Tuesday. [LAT, NYT]

Last November, the AP decided it would be reducing its budget 10% this year—costing up to 400 jobs, we heard at the time. How's that going? Michael Calderone estimates they may need hundreds more layoffs before January. [Politico] *Clarification:

For proof that Silicon Valley is home to an especially clubby concentration of wealth, just take a short walk down a stretch of Palo Alto road. The one where Facebook's young paper billionaire lives next to a young YouTube millionaire.

The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power is taking bets on which celebrity will be the next to turn their backs on L. Ron Hubbard. John Travolta leads the pack at 9:4 odds, and Tom Cruise is at 50:1. Place your markers.

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, is a towering genius of finance, Obama hanger-on, savior of Wall Street, and irritable dick. He's also long liked to wear tight jeans, as his 1974 yearbook page makes clear.

Washington DC is worried that its losing sports teams will make the city the butt of jokes. Hey, don't forget about your poor schools, violent crime, young racist tools, and fat Republicans everywhere, either. It's a whole package. [WP]

[Reese Witherspoon gets very excited whenever she is around cute things. Maybe they had a pet segment when she was on Good Morning America today. Image via INF]

You have heard, probably, about how Connecticut Senator Joe "Wallace Wimple" Lieberman inserted himself into the health care debate by announcing that he'd join a Republican filibuster against Harry Reid's bill. But no one has explained why!

Ivanka Trump is denying Cindy Adams' report yesterday that her wedding invitations contained a "marketing flyer" for her dad's golf courses. (Not sure if it it's better or worse, but earlier this month the Times described it as an "insert" that "offered guests a free round of golf at one of Mr. Trump's courses.") In any event, Ivanka is probably happier to hear that the press has responded much more enthusiastically to her dress. Ivanka looked "sensational" and the gown "made a fresh statement," says Cathy Horyn of the Times. "Maybe she'll have an influence on brides." Or on the direct mail business. [NYT, NYM]

Getting sober is nothing to joke about, but it is the cause for some very, very serious reality television moments. Just ask Holly Montag, who refutes accusations that she is a drunk with slurry, drink-in-hand dances.

The Way We Live Now: Sulking about moodily. Night school is kicking our ass. We can't pay the train fare to work. And what's the point, even? There's no hope for employment. Unless you star in a music video.

Michael Jackson concert film This Is It grosses $2.2 million on opening night.

Gawker scored a copy of Jamie Dimon's high school yearbook from 1974, which means you can now see what the CEO of JPMorgan Chase (and America's most powerful banker) looked like during his Johnny Cash days. NB: If you graduated from Brooklyn's Thomas Jefferson High School in 1971, we'd love to hear from you. [Gawker]

What's Mario Batali dressing up this Halloween? "Mario will be a 'dictator,'" a spokeswoman says. "He ties a piece of butcher twine to his belt on one end and a Yukon gold potato on the other." Points for cleverness! [Previously]

I believe this is a 1929 ad for ExtenZe. [Copyranter. Click to enlarge.]

At left is President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on October 20. At right are Robert Kennedy (standing) and John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office in April 1962. White House photographer Pete Souza likes Obama too much.

Due to an unfortunate Halloween costume construction accident, we were unable to watch New York magazine-PR reality drama The City last night. Thankfully, we our favorite freelance society reporter was there to fill us in.

The layoffs at Forbes, which we first reported on three weeks ago, arrived today, and we hear from inside the magazine that they're "real big.... huge," with a rumored 50 or so editorial staff let go. (Updates: LA+London bureaus gone.)