• The toughest reservations in town are at Frank Pellegrino's Rao's in Harlem and David Chang's Momofuku Ko, in case you're keeping track. [GS]
• Big clubs and bottle service are out and cheap, dingy dive bars are in, according to the Times, pointing out that Marquee's revenues are down 22 percent so far this year. Possible evidence to the contrary: "table service" at Marquee's new sister spot, Avenue, will run you a minimum of $350. [NYT]
• Related: Marquee appears to be NYC's "most fined" nightspot. It's handed over $100,000 to the State Liquor Authority over the past year alone. [NYP]
• New York's Eat Cheap issue is out. A highlight: Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite's "handbook" to the Neapolitan pizza "revolution." [NYM, NYM]
• Restaurants that recently opened, or will be opening soon. [Eater]
• A roundup of New York's "82 most notable burgers." [GS]
• The Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons landed in Manhattan today. [AMNY]

Everyone who works for the White House has to wake up so early and they work so hard and they're all so tired! This story gets rewritten every four or eight years. [WP]

Because they'll say "blow job," like Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel just did on MSNBC.

Right now Bernie Madoff is heading to the prison where he'll spend the rest of his life. Just which prison he's headed to, though, is still a mystery. Late this afternoon, an unidentified source told the Post that Madoff was headed to Otisville, the facility that he'd requested since it's within driving distance of NYC (not to mention renowned for its tasty kosher meals). CNBC, however, has been reporting that its source is telling them that Madoff is going to the medium security federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. CNN is following the Post's lead and going with Otisville. The Post's sister paper, the Wall Street Journal, is backing up CNBC and reporting that "a person familiar with the situation" has indicated Madoff is North Carolina-bound. Presumably we'll find out his destination for certain in a few hours when he shows up and makes his grand entrance. Or maybe this is all part of Bernie's plan to deliberately confuse prison officials and he's behind the wheel of a stolen car and speeding for the Mexican border? Developing!

Veteran media reporterDylan Stableford has been laid off from Folio magazine. Media reporting: it sucks.

[A drunken Reese Witherspoon zooms away from the Hollywood Bowl with Jake Gyllenhaal, after seeing Jenny Lewis and Ray LaMontagne; image via Bauer-Griffin]

When are you the most greatest individual in the entire Philadelphia metropolitan region, you can't be walking around with just any cell phone. Today, Arthur "Zoolander" Kade reveals the hot "Special Edition" phone he's getting, when he can afford it.

Marc Ecko's financial troubles are nothing new. Back in March, it was reported that the hip hop designer was looking to refinance more than $170 million in debt, but was having so trouble doing so that it was looking increasingly likely that his empire would have to be dismantled to pay back in creditors; a month later, his publicist confirmed that Ecko was looking to get out of the blingtastic office he's occupied for the last few years, a 280,000-square-foot space on West 23rd Street that comes with a half-size basketball court. It seems things haven't improved much since then. Ecko's office, which apparently costs him a stunning $9 million a year to lease, is now officially on the market. But Ecko's pain may be your gain. The listing on the website of commercial leasing firm FirstService Williams says the "price is negotiable." If you're looking for new office space and you think having an in-house basketball court would be perfect for some of those "team-building" exercises the people in human resources keep talking about, you'll find a few photos of the space after the jump.

Who says foreign investors are done handing money to risky Americans? Russia's Digital Sky Technologies just started cashing out employee shares in Facebook, a $100 million investment. The move was expected; the implications will take longer to settle in.

Marc Dreier may get to see the light of day again, after all. Although prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence the scheming lawyer to a Madoff-like 145 years behind bars, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff handed him a 20-year term this afternoon. Dreier is 59, so he'll be a free man before he turns 80. Of course, that will still give him plenty of time to befriend big, buff black men, although presumably they won't be quite as harmless as former client Michael Strahan. [AP]

Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton was asked last week by England's House of Commons to testify about the rampant wiretapping that he allegedly oversaw when running Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers. He's not going to show.

Back in 2005, John Roberts said his job as a justice was "to call balls and strikes," like in baseball. This was the most insidious statement ever uttered by a SCOTUS nominee, as today's Sotomayor hearing showed.

Paula Froelich, the long-time No. 2 on the New York Post's Page Six gossip column, just gave two weeks notice, a source says. She recently published a novel Mercury in Retrograde, and there's no word on what she's doing next.

Comedy Central's new show "Michael & Michael Have Issues" features Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter making so much meta-humor you may just fall down and die. It will also feature—in a true breakthrough—live-action ads! Uh...meta?

We've long noted how Hollywood is out of ideas. Now, we fear a new crisis is upon studio executives: they are running out of cartoons, TV shows and toys to transform into movies. Here are the only remaining viable properties.

A lawyer for Dolce & Gabbana flack Ali Wise—who was arrested last week on charges of eavesdropping and computer trespass—says it's not illegal to hack into someone else's voicemail without permission. Really?

Mark Zuckerberg was photographed in intimate conversation with Microsoft's former CTO in Sun Valley last week. The Facebook founder might simply have been quizzing Nathan Myhrvold about Zuckerberg doppelgänger Bill Gates. But there's a more interesting possibility.

Bernie Madoff's only remaining purpose in life is to be exploited by the media. Who will land the first jailhouse TV interview with the villain? We handicap the possibilities, below.

Senator Al Franken(!!!) is giving his opening remarks in the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings. If he says anything intentionally or unintentionally funny we will let you know. Oh, a protester just got kicked out. (Coleman?) [Photo: AP]

A tipster just forwarded us the following email from the Wall Street Journal's Robert Thomson. There's a party on in mere MINUTES. And bring your party hats, because Rupert Murdoch's in the hizzouse!