And you thought PC Peterson lived a charmed existence. It seems things did not go well for the NYC Prep castmember when he turned up at last night's launch party for Three-O vodka, hosted by Kim Kardashian: "Jessie and PC from the show turned up and tried in vain to join their friend Ally Zarin from The Real Housewives of New York inside. Publicists refused to let them in because they were underage—even though Zarin, who also is not yet 21, was partying away inside." [Daily Intel]

Frolicking in beach sand will sicken you with fecal contamination. Just give up.

Exciting news! For the ninth year in a row, Travel & Leisure has named New York the "Best City in America." It's the magazine's readers—not its editors—who determine the rankings. And clearly we have a ways to go if we have any chance of winning the title of "World's Best City." NYC came out just eighth on that list. The winner? Udaipur, India. Naturally. [NYDN]

If failing print publications go online-only, what can struggling websites do, short of closing? Turn into microblogs, naturally. It seems to be working for AdWeak, the advertising world's own Onion.

Mediaite henchperson Rachel Sklar: "No one is paying me to tweet this out from my personal Twitter. I just happen to like this sponsored post. [LINK]." For fuck's sake.

Yesterday, the New York Times' blog about the Fort Greene neighborhood published a post on a "secret underground climbing gym" in Brooklyn. Today, they took the post down. For a preposterous reason! Now it's getting way more attention.

What a wonderful summer it has been, for fans of the dragged-out meltdowns of prominent Republican politicians! We should perhaps pause to recognize the contributions John Ensign, Mark Sanford, and Sarah Palin have made to our American language.

Back in 2004, Arianna Huffington didn't have a well-funded, fast-growing internet publishing empire. So she could afford to call the hiring of foreign workers a "crime against America." You'll never guess what Huffington is doing today.

Trapped office workers forced to run Internet Explorer, we are hearing you loud and clear: our new comments are not loading for you. The tech team is hard at work coming up with a fix.

• Desperate times, desperate measures: The New York Times is thinking about charging a $5 monthly fee for access to its Web site. [BN, NYP]
• Jay-Z is close to signing a book deal with the Spiegel & Grau imprint of Random House; the book will include "the stories behind his lyrics." [NYO]
• Moneyball lives: Sony Pictures is attempting to salvage the movie by hiring Aaron Sorkin to polish the script and adding Scott Rudin as a producer. [NYT]
• A list of prominent media/web people and their public speaking fees. [PC]
• The media moguls in Sun Valley may not be interested in buying Twitter, but there is some good news: The British royal family has signed up! [AP]
• Discovery Channel has been promoting "Shark Week" by sending out bloody swim trunks and personalized obituaries to reporters. Charming. [Movieline]
• Depressing news: Ryan Seacrest makes a lot more money than you do. [THR]
• Great news: NBC's Jeff Zucker says we may have reached bottom. [B&C]

ABC News has come up with video purporting to prove that Barack Obama did not lasciviously check out a woman's ass in Rome yesterday. We undertook a Zapruder treatment and determined that he probably did, but had no choice.

In your famous Friday media column: exclusive thoughts from Steven Brill on the future of paid online newspapers, Rebecca Dana gets a new job, newspapers die and thrive, and Bill Keller will never be on the Daily Show again.

If you're in need of office space and you're not at all superstitious, bear in mind that Bernie Madoff's old office is now available. One of the three floors that Madoff's firm occupied in the Lipstick building is now available for lease. The 17th floor space is 16,182 square feet and comes with lovely river views. If you move into the former CEO suite, you won't even need to bring a TV: "Only a pair of built-in cabinets and a wall-mounted television, easily 10 years old, remain." [AP]

[Madonna performing in Paris; image via Bauer-Griffin]

Supernatural-obsessed youngsters are delicate creatures to cater to. Just ask the producers of Harry Potter and Twilight. The juggernauts often square off in ideological combat, but when it comes to their movies, they mostly stay far away from each other.

Barry Diller is cornering guys in the bushes, Harvey Weinstein is "stress eating" and Tom Freston's wife is letting it all hang loose. Here's a gallery of the summer fun you're missing at Allen & Co.'s annual Sun Valley schmoozefest.

The Way We Live Now: Broke as a joke from coast to coast. They're selling heroin in Maine. They've sent everyone on furlough in California. And in the Midwest, you can't even leave salt outside without enterprising Americans swiping it.

Peggy Noonan is not sad to see Sarah Palin go. In fact, the Reagan speechwriter and well-respected prose stylist and American public intellectual would like Ms. Palin to continue to go even further, away from politics.

Over the past couple of weeks, Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall has asked a few figures in fashion about their plans for the summer. What Chanel Iman, Fern Mallis, Thom Browne, Minnie Mortimer Gaghan, and Bonnie Morrison had to say below.

Just when you were about to give up on life, there's a Hipster Grifter news update! Kari Ferrell had more charges filed against her out in Utah yesterday. Let's learn about them!