Legendary hip hop DJ Mr. Magic reportedly died of a heart attack this morning. He was the man who brought rap music to the radio, and some of the most famous moments in hip hop wouldn't have happened without him.

Hey, before you became outraged about Roman Polanski and maybe before you expressed an opinion on the non-parole of Susan Atkins, were you outraged about the release of the Lockerbie bomber? You are so predictable! And wrong!

As revealed last night, Late Night host David Letterman could be an especially good boss to some of his more special assistants. The show's staff has long buzzed upon the attentions Dave bestows upon his favorites.

[Taylor Momsen gives the camera a scowl when someone tells her she needs to flip her script on the set of Gossip Girl yesterday. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

If this recession has you down, take heart in the fact that "chief creative officers" at America's biggest ad agencies are still able to charge people almost a thousand bucks an hour.

The jury deciding the fate of Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, and Francis X. Morrissey Jr., the lawyer who handled her estate planning, has been at it for nearly a week now. (So much for those experts who promised deliberations would take an hour or two.) So it's no surprise that everyone connected to the case is pretty worn out and frustrated by now. But how is Marshall, himself, "coping with the uncertainty" that seems to be slowly driving everyone crazy? Pretty well, actually: "At one point last week, Mr. Marshall lay asleep on a wooden bench in the hallway outside the courtroom with a newspaper over his face." [NYT]

We know that a casting call went out this summer for a Law & Order episode (loosely) based on the Curious Case of the Hipster Grifter. A tipster thinks it's tonight's show (the second promo clip). Hmmm. Maybe not.

Jude Law heading to lunch at August on Bleecker Street with his assistant, Ben Jackson ... Eva Mendes and Will Ferrell shooting scenes for The Other Guys on Staten Island ... Kate Hudson going to lunch at Bar Pitti with son Ryder and A-Rod ... Kim Kardashian arriving at JFK, and later leaving the Ritz-Carlton in Midtown ... Taylor Momsen standing on the set of Gossip Girl in Chinatown ... Scarlett Johansson walking to the gym with Ryan Reynolds ... and Ed Westwick eating lunch at Tortilla Flats with Jessica Szohr and his parents.

This celeb likes the thrill of the hunt so much that he's only happy when he's coaxing straight guys into his bed. Also on the prowl, another top star cheating on his famous girlfriend and a starlet who's stalking skinniness.

Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is no friend of Ken Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of Bank of America. Thain worked with Lewis last year to engineer the merger of Merrill and BofA, but was kicked to the curb shortly after the deal was complete and almost instantly turned into the fall guy for the messy merger, at least in the version of events that Lewis recounted to analysts, reporters, and government officials.

Like the viral spread of hip hop fashion from the inner city to the suburbs, piracy is now creeping outwards in a terrifying web-shaped pattern, across the globe. Somalis were just the early adopters. All Spanish sailors, abandon ship immediately.

• A month after he received two offers on his Olympic Tower pad, Nic Cage has gone into contract to sell the 3,550-square-feet apartment. The 48th-floor condo, which Cage bought in 2004-5 for $5.5 million, had been most recently listed for $9.75 million. [WSJ, BHS]
• Well, that was fast. Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has put his penthouse at the Superior Ink building back on the market less than one week after buying it for $25 million. The 6,321-square-foot apartment is now listed with broker Dolly Lenz for a whopping $39.5 million. [Curbed, PDE]
• Artist Bruce Robbins has dropped the price of his three-bedroom loft at 43 Clarkson Street for the second time since first listing it for $4.895 million back in 2008. The 2,800-square-foot apartment, which is located in the same building where fellow artist Julian Schnabel once lived, is listed with Elliman's Darren Sukenik for $3.249 million. [Cityfile, PDE]

Remember Ronald Tackman, the career criminal who was awaiting sentencing on fraud charges the other day, but who managed to slip out of court because he was dressed in a three-piece suit and officers assumed he was a lawyer? Tackman is back behind bars today; the police arrested him in Washington Heights last night. But his escape has already had an impact on the city's criminal justice system. As of today, Rikers Island inmates who are considered escape risks "are to be outfitted in bright orange jumpsuits whenever they travel from the jail to court." [NYT]

It's been a tough year for Annie Leibovitz, but maybe she can start fresh from here on out? The financially challenged photographer turns 60 today. Others celebrating: designer Donna Karan is turning 61. Kelly Ripa turns 39. Lorraine Bracco is 55. Sting is 58. Actress Camilla Belle is turning 23. '80s pop star Tiffany is 37. And two of Hugh Hefner's latest girlfriends, Karissa and Kristina Shannon, are turning 20. A roundup of a few people celebrating birthdays this weekend—including Al Sharpton and Liev Schreiber—is below.

• Kanye West and Lady Gaga's "Fame Kills" tour has been canceled. Was it because of Kanye's little incident at the VMAs? Because tickets weren't selling? No one's saying, although the name of the tour was pretty prophetic, wasn't it? [TMZ, NYDN]
• Kate Hudson isn't a huge hit with Yankee players' wives and girlfriends: "Kate acts like she and Alex [Rodriguez] are married, and no one gets it," said a source. "It strikes them as odd, and it seems suspicious." [MSNBC]
• Lauren Conrad has admitted she can't act. Really. "I think my acting is offensive!" she says. "I'm an awful actor, I'm not super comfortable with it." This it all very true, of course. But points for honesty! [People]
• In a new series of ads for her line of leggings, 6126, Lindsay Lohan can be seen modeling with a stripper pole. Naturally. [NYDN, Daily Mail]

Bloomberg and the WaPo have struck a content deal that will shame the LA Times.

Being a movie star — or motherhood — makes Sarah Jessica Parker look sleepy. TLC learns its Gosselin lesson. Quentin Tarantino loves sequels. And Katy Perry teaches us the power of tit-pics. TGIF, you attractive devils! It's your gossip roundup!

Woody Harrelson recently took some time from banging his bongos to make a big Hollywood movie. It's called Zombieland and deals with the undead, a solid cinematic device. Should we be worried? Yes. But what of the soul's role?

Robert J. Halderman, a producer for 48 Hours, has been named as Letterman's alleged extortionist.

As you may have heard by now, David Letterman took some time out of his show last night to describe how a man tried to shake him down recently, threatening to reveal that the married Letterman had slept with several women on his staff unless he agreed to fork over $2 million. Letterman contacted the authorities and testified before a grand jury yesterday, and the man—who happens to be a producer for CBS News' 48 Hours—was later arrested. But the really awkward part came when Letterman went on the air to describe the extortion attempt to his millions of viewers, and concede that he has been involved with women on his show, a confession he played for laughs at times, leaving the audience wondering at times whether they were supposed to be laughing or not. A clip of the weirdest ten minutes of David Letterman's career is below.