• Ralph Cioffi, the former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager who will stand trial this fall for securities fraud and conspiracy in connection with the collapse of the fund, has gone into contract to sell his 7,000-square-foot home in Southampton. The estate had been listed most recently for $11.875 million. Given Cioffi's desperate circumstances, it's expected that the final price will be below the $10.7 million that Cioffi paid for the home in 2007. [WSJ, Sotheby's]
• The couple who paid $9 million for hedge fund manager James Torrey's East 66th Street duplex in April, former Merrill Lynch exec John Heimann and his wife Maria-Cristina Anzola, have sold their old apartment at 141 East 72nd Street. The four-bedroom co-op was purchased by Ada Zambetti, the widow of Stella D'Oro CEO Felice Zambetti, for $5.625 million. [Cityfile]
• Billionaire pharmaceutical mogul Michael Jaharis has paid $6.7 million for a 3,335-square-foot apartment at 1049 Fifth Avenue. [NYO]

Super-publicist Peggy Siegal is turning 62 today. David Hasselhoff turns 57. Donald Sutherland is 74. Producer Mark Burnett is 49. Phyllis Diller is 92. Defense attorney Peter Neufeld is turning turns 59. Linda Gibbs, the Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services, is turning 50 today. Comedian Beth Littleford is 41. View producer Bill Geddie is turning 54. Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, is 58. Author and blogger Cory Doctorow is 38. And old-time TV host Art Linkletter turns 97 today. A list of people with birthdays this weekend—including Chace Crawford, Ian Schrager, and Steve Forbes—is below.

Britney Spears spent two days in Atlanta with some mystery dude, Michael Jackson's doctor is being investigated for murder, Brad Pitt puts Ashton Kutcher in his place, Renee Zellweger prepares to get fat again, and Madonna's tour suffers a tragedy.

• The "unspecified medical condition" that led the police to take Mischa Barton to the hospital on Wednesday? She was placed under a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold, and she ended up missing the New York premiere of her new film, Homecoming, last night. [NYDN, P6]
• Britney Spears is dating her agent. But she's also spending alone time with her record producer, too. So she's keeping busy, clearly. [P6]
• Bethenny Frankel says she's hosting a new show called "Skinny & the City," but the woman who already owns the trademark to the name is going to see what she can do about that. [NYDN]
• Two people died in France after a set being constructed for an upcoming Madonna concert collapsed. It's all Madonna's fault, naturally. [People]
• Rubina Ali, one of the stars of Slumdog Millionaire, says she thought Nicole Kidman was "strange" after working with her on a commercial recently. [Us]
• Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's relationship is on the rocks, reports the National Enquirer once again. But the couple has come up with the perfect way to rekindle the romance: They're hoping to film a sequel to Mr. & Mrs. Smith. [NE]

Remember when Lindsey Graham told Sonia Sotomayor, "unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to be confirmed?" Well those days are gone, now that Graham has emerged as Sootmayor's chief tormentor, something that's sparked Jon Stewart's ire.

Barack Obama delivered a fiery speech, perhaps the most impassioned public speech he's ever given, a speech that touched on the subject of personal responsibility in the black community, at the NAACP's annual meeting last night.

Last night we told you about the resignation of Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller. Rumors speculating about his motivations for leaving have been swirling on media blogs, so Spanfeller spoke up rather emphatically to try and set the record straight.

Mischa Barton was supposed to be in New York tonight to attend the premiere her of her new movie, Homecoming, which was directed by Morgan Freeman. However, she won't be attending after cops were called to her home last night.

July 16 @ 8:49pm: Snapped this picture with my Iphone of Chelsea with Marc [Mezvinsky] and some other guy. They stayed for 15 minutes, decided not to eat and moved on. [Submit your own Gawker Stalker sightings to stalker@gawker.com]

Ah, Columbia J-School, the antiquated educational institution where the young and naive go to chase their crazy Woodward and Bernstein dreams. Sadly, the students there are an unsanitary horde of crumb-infested vagabonds, according to a school memo forwarded to us.

"This is a story of boy meets girl," begins the wry, probing narrator of (500) DAYS OF SUMMER. And with that the film takes off at breakneck speed into a funny, true-to-life and unique dissection of the unruly and unpredictable year-and-a-half of one young man's no-holds-barred love affair.

Oh Pat. Rachel Maddow had crazy ole "Uncle Pat" on her show tonight to discuss the Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination and Buchanan went over the dark side with a "white people built this country and deserve more" rant.

CNBC, the nation's preeminent financial news network, aired an investigative special last night! Did they venture deep into the Heart of Darkness to investigate the welfare queens at Goldman Sachs? Well, no, they investigated the porn industry, naturally.

Life sucks. Everyone knows this. Of course, life sucks most for the models. All those castings and photo shoots and cocaine-fueled orgies and whatnot! How do they do it?! Well, things are finally looking up, thanks to the "Model Lounge."

Twitter seems only to have grown more furious at the tech blog that published its internal documents, accusing TechCrunch of lying and hinting at legal action. Bizarrely, TechCrunch is refusing to fight back.

• Eyebrows are no longer cool, apparently. Time to invest in a new pair of tweezers! [NYT]
• The CFDA and Vogue announced the 2009 Fashion Fund finalists today. [Vogue, Cut]
• Back in May, it was rumored that Stefano Tonchi, editor of the Times' rapidly shrinking T magazine, was heading out the door. Now the rumor is he's taking a top job at Vogue. [FWD]
• No, Baywatch wasn't filming in Soho today. The dudes dressed as lifeguards were promoting the new Hollister store on Broadway and Houston, which officially opened today. [Racked]

Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, the real estate tycoons behind RFR Holdings and the owners of Lever House and the Seagram building, had been planning to build a Shangri-La hotel on Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street. That was before all the economic messiness, of course, and last month the project was dealt a death blow when several banks foreclosed on the property. Now the already bad situation is getting worse.

In the the upcoming film Big Fan, comedian Patton Oswalt makes his dramatic-lead star-turn as an obsessive sports fan whose chance encounter with his hero unexpectedly ends in violence. Does that sound bad? The trailer looks surprisingly good!

Well, Jay Penske is assembling quite a stable at his burgeoning online media company; first he bought Nikki Finke, Winchellian Hollywood blogger, now he's bringing on Bonnie Fuller, the notorious diva celeb-mag editor. Watch for sparks.

So now that the Potter kids are on top, it's likely that news about our favorite over-boiled sex pot Megan Fox will take a backseat to the prim Emma Watson. And that's sad.