Just like my high school history teacher told us, skipping college and getting a damn job instead is the smartest economic thing you could possibly do. Someone has proven it, using mathematics!
Mayor Bloomberg has come up with a great way to break the stalemate in Albany. He (jokingly?) suggested this morning that senators' personal phone numbers and addresses be made public so residents of New York can call them up three o'clock in the morning and give them a piece of their minds. Cute, but just wait until someone actually takes Bloomberg's advice to heart and wakes up Sen. Kevin Parker in the middle of the night. This could really get ugly. [NYDN]
The Oscars keep shaking things up to feel young again, a bunch of pictures lurch or glide into production, Canadians make big in American TV, and layoffs plague two LA TV stations.
The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago was a hellish haze of violent street battles between self-righteous Commie bastards and self-righteous violent pigs. Forty-one years later, both groups are still self-righteous!
For the first time since her husband was arrested in December, Ruth Madoff is speaking out. (Bernie, as you've undoubtedly heard, was sentenced to 150 years in prison earlier today; Ruth, for her part, entered into an agreement with the U.S. attorney's office on Friday evening that forces her to give up claim to $80 million in assets, but will allow her to keep $2.5 million in cash.) Naturally, Ruth portrays herself as just another victim of Bernie in today's prepared statement and says there were two Bernies: the one she was married to and the other Bernie who responsible for "this horrible fraud." Does her line about life with Bernie being "over" indicate that she now plans to divorce him and/or not bring him care packages in prison? Hard to say, but you can read her full remarks below.
Pretty much everything was robots this weekend. Lots and lots of people wanted to see the robots. But other people wanted to see snarky people fall in love in Alaska. Others still wanted drunks in Las Vegas. But mostly, robots.
Anderson Cooper and Antoine Maisani, co-owner of the East Village gay bar Eastern Bloc, riding bikes in the Village ... Kate Hudson cheering in the stands at Citi Field ... Cameron Diaz walking around the East Village with her cell phone in hand ... Rihanna leaving her hotel in Midtown ... Janeane Garofalo walking her dog downtown ... Shia LaBeouf carrying a Dunkin Donuts cup in Soho ... Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr leaving Lucky Strike ... Jessica Simpson and Ken Paves getting on a boat on the Hudson River ... Megan Fox on the set of the Early Show ... Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson getting in an SUV outside their hotel in Midtown ... Harrison Ford filming scenes for Morning Glory ... Chris Robinson walking with a "mystery date" in Soho ... and Heidi Klum going to lunch with her mom and three kids at the Tribeca Grill.
Today we have an actor with a too-big head, a riot grrl who turned her Glastonbury portapotty into a coke den, an actress with a secretly miserable marriage, and a nice one about charity and people and stuff.
• It turns out Madonna scored a rather sweet deal on the East 81st Street townhouse she went into contract to purchase in April. The Material Girl paid $32.5 million for the 13-bedroom manse, which is about 28 percent less than the $45 million asking price that the house was listed for back in October. [NYT, previously]
• After nearly a year on the market—and three price cuts—writer/director John Ridley has finally found a buyer for his condo at 15 Central Park West. The 2,237-square-foot apartment had been listed most recently for $8.5 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
Bernie Madoff appeared in a federal courtroom this morning to find out his fate for carrying out the biggest fraud in financial history. Judge Denny Chin sentenced Madoff to the maximum—150 years behind bars—telling the courtroom that he didn't believe Madoff's claim that he had cooperated with prosecutors, or that he had divulged all he knew about the scheme. Madoff's victims erupted in cheers after the sentence was handed down, Bernie barely reacted to the news, and now Madoff is off to change out of the "immaculate" suit he wore to court today and put on the prison jumpsuit he'll be wearing for the rest of his life. [CNN]
Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf might be boning, Whitney Port has a new fake boyfriend, Britney Spears dyed her hair and is sporting a ring, Bradley Cooper put Jennifer Aniston in the friend zone and Leo DiCaprio's shoes got stolen.
Actor and Celebrity Rehab alum Gary Busey turns 65 today. Producer Robert Evans turns 79. Comedian Richard Lewis is turning 62. Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America, is turning 42. Top Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr is 57. Web entrepreneur Scott Heiferman is 37. Colin Hay of Men at Work is 56. Race car driver Jeff Burton turns 42. Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter is turning 52. And "Pussycat Doll" Nicole Scherzinger celebrates her 31st birthday today.
• A second autopsy was performed on Michael Jackson over the weekend just as details from the first were revealed: Jackson was just 112 pounds when he died and his "emaciated body was riddled with needle marks and scars, and his head was virtually bald." In the meantime, his doctor, Conrad Murray, has denied giving Jackson any drugs right before his death and says he found a faint pulse when he first discovered him. Jackson's parents say they plan to fight for custody of Jackson's kids and for control of his estate. And plenty of people came out to celebrate Jackson's life at a couple of BET parties this weekend. And now you're all caught up. [NYP, LAT, WP, NYDN]
• Poor Jen Aniston. One minute she's happy and relaxed and supposedly dating Bradley Cooper and now Cooper says they're just "friends." [P6, NYDN]
Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, who gave birth to his two oldest children, Prince and Paris, says that she was impregnated through artificial insemination using sperm from an anonymous donor. Thus, she compared herself to a thoroughbred horse.
