• Arlene Farkas, the ex-wife of real estate heir Bruce Farkas, has dropped the price of her 14-room duplex at the River House, which she first put on the market in November for $15 million after a state appeals court turned down her ex-husband's appeal to retain ownership of the apartment. The co-op is now listed for $13.5 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• The apartment where Josh Hartnett had been living until recently is up for sale (or rent). The 2,200-square-foot pad at 237 Lafayette Street, which is owned by music execs James Dowdall and Rose Noone, is available for $2.1 million. Or you can rent it for $7,995 a month. [NYO, Citi Habitats]

Project Runway host and all-around fashion guru Tim Gunn turns 56 today. Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley is turning 51. Publishing heiress Anne Hearst is 54. ABC News president David Westin is turning 57. Artist Jenny Holzer is 59. Choreographer Paul Taylor turns 79. IBM chairman Sam Palmisano is turning 58. Hotel owner Sam Chang turns 49. Patti Scialfa, the singer, songwriter, and wife of Bruce Springsteen, is 56. Filmmaker Ken Burns is turning 56, too. Actor Josh Radnor turns 35. Stephen Dorff is 36. And Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Gualtieri on HBO's the Sopranos, celebrates his 67th birthday today.

William T. Vollmann is a reclusive, eyebrowless (They were burned off in an accident at the North Pole) pistol-packing writer, and as such he is probably the last of a dying breed: The badass literary figure.

• The love affair that the media once had with Megan Fox is clearly waning. Now that she's promoted the Transformers movie in every possible venue on the planet, a bunch of editors have picked Aug. 4 as "Megan Fox media blackout day." [NYDN]
• Investigators looking into Michael Jackson's untimely death searched Dr. Conrad Murray's house yesterday and left with cell phones and a hard drive. [People]
• Bar Refaeli was seen getting hot and heavy with her new boyfriend, Brazilian playboy Ricardo Mansur, in St. Tropez. [P6]
• Hulk Hogan and his wife have (finally!) reached a settlement in their divorce case. He'll get to keep his collection of bandanas; the couple's collection of blonde hair dye will be divided between the two sides. [Us]

In an interview Bernie Madoff granted on Tuesday to an attorney representing a group of people he defrauded, the infamous Ponzi schemer expressed bewilderment over having gotten away with his crimes for as long as he did.

Colin Powell was the guest on Larry King Live last night and the old lizard asked him about the Henry Louis Gates controversy, which provoked Powell to offer some interesting thoughts about the incident.

Steve Zahn's appearance on the Tonight Show with Conan last night was one of the more delightfully bizarre interviews we've seen in a while. Watch Zahn ramble incoherently about his love of farm animals and hitchhiking in a chicken suit.

[Submit your own Stalker sightings to stalker@gawker.com] July 28th @ 9:30pm: Partied to a performance from Taylor Momsen's band, The Pretty Reckless, with Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford, Jessica Szhor, Matthew Settle, Connor Paolo, and Michelle Trachtenberg for her Sweet 16!

Ha! In a move that's ridiculous and funny and sad all at the same time, the Bloomberg administration is working to rid New York of homeless people by providing them with one-way tickets back from whence they came.

A central figure in the New Jersey corruption/organ-trafficking case has been found dead.

Years from now, way off into the distant future, people will look back at the videos made by Plum TV, those tireless chroniclers of high society cheesedickery, and they, the future people, will wonder, "Why weren't those twatwaffles sterilized?"

Hey remember when CNN management told Lou Dobbs to shut the hell up about the incessantly stupid birther nonsense? Well, they took it back! And Dobbs wasted no time mounting that crazy horse.

For some time we'd heard about someone named John Munson, though we'd never met him. Then on Friday we turned on Jeopardy and saw an ascot-wearing contestant with a phallic signature introduced as a "gadabout". It was John Munson.

With Glenn Beck running loose spouting all sorts of crazy-talk, you just knew at some point he'd say something to cause enough of an uproar that the Fox News brass would have to address it. Beck finally did that today.

The Huffington Post just hired another VIP's child, this one the son of White House senior adviser David Axelrod. Funny how a website famous for not paying bloggers finds room on the payroll for an undistinguished corps of rich kids.

How long as Bernie Madoff been in a North Carolina prison now? A couple of weeks? Well, it sounds like he's settling in nicely. According to the lawyer who visited him behind bars today—and spent four and half hours in his company—Madoff is "buff-looking" and "seems to be working out." And you were worried he'd have trouble fitting in. [ABC News]

• Madonna's "secret weapon" to looking good, at least according to her longtime makeup artist? Her eyelids are dusted with "a mixture of white shadow and flawless, crushed rose-cut diamonds." Certainly sounds expensive! [SW]
• Is Vogue about to undergo a makeover with "a new circle of models" and "an influx of fresh, young photographers"? One blogger says yes; the magazine, however, says no. [Cut]
• Rachel Roy is partnering with Estelle to create a jewelry line. [WWD]
• Coach president Reed Krakoff has confirmed plans to launch an eponymous "lifestyle brand" for the company, as rumored. [FWD]

After a failed romance last year, tears; then fighting and the nastiness; followed by a slow, painful reconciliation starting earlier this year. Yahoo and Microsoft have finally — finally — united with an advertising deal, All Things D reports.

It wouldn't be a Sacha Baron Cohen movie without a lawsuit from a duped interview subject—this time it's from a Palestinian who claims he was wrongly identified as a terrorist. And the real terrorists are making vague threats.

[A trophy buck mounted somewhere in the sprawling woodlands of NYC, shot by photographer Anne Bowerman, who specializes in using expired Polaroid film; via her Flickr]