[Beyonce Knowles performing at Madison Square Garden last night, kicking off a 100+ date international tour; image via Getty]

The Broome Street building where Heath Ledger once rented a loft for $23,000 a month—and where he was found dead in January 2008—is expected to go into foreclosure later this week. [NYP]

Sometimes a worthless "consumer" will see some very strategic high-concept ad that involves, say, a subservient chicken, and innocently ask, "How does that sell burgers?" And then the creative ad execs will chuckle at this un-strategic dunce, their target audience.

We finally met Bill O'Reilly's stalker-producer Jesse Watters on Saturday. It was a fleeting and civil encounter—jovial, even—but ultimately unsatisfying. We asked him some questions about his stalking, and then he drove away, because he's a coward.

To check your Blackberry or not to check your Blackberry? That is the question, apparently. Two weeks after the New York State Senate devolved into a high school farce in part because Majority Leader Malcolm Smith couldn't resist checking his email during a budget meeting with political power broker Tom Golisano, the Times tries to codify smart phone etiquette today. The verdict: Despite being rude, distracting, and giving us all ADD, perusing your email at all times is becoming increasingly acceptable, because, really, no one wants to sit through that meeting.

If there are two things that define angry sex fiend Post columnist Andrea Peyser, those things are being angry (at people, and things) and liking sexy people (free or not). Today she gets to do both, in one paragraph!

Jew-baiting possible closet-case Senator Mitch McConnell is the new new leader of the Republican party! Sort of!

The guy who pretended to be the father of Rielle Hunter's child with John Edwards is shopping a book! It might be a picture book. All of the pictures are of John and this mystery baby.

You simply cannot turn on your television these days without seeing New York Times editor Bill Keller expounding on something, or explaining something, or being made fun of. He is ubiquitous!

If the thought of spending a few months in the company of LuAnn, Jill, Bethenny, Kelly, Ramona, and Alex excites you, you're in luck: Bravo is still looking for another woman to join the cast of Real Housewives next season:

Today we have a negligent flirty reality star, a TV actor who's doing stuff, another actor who's been weird about stuff, and a fourth person who's, y'know, weird.

Great White Sharks are exactly like Jeffrey Dahmer except they have fins and swim in the ocean and use their jagged gaping jaws as weapons, says a new report from scientists who were never heard from again.

• Employees at Goldman Sachs can expect the "biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year." [Guardian]
• Banks like Merrill Lynch, UBS and Citigroup are "hiking pay for their top investment bankers in an attempt to stop an exodus of talent." [FT]
• Bill Gross of Pimco has "emerged as one of the nation's most influential financiers." How do we know this? Tim Geithner has him on speed-dial. [NYT]
• Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik is suing JPMorgan for allegedly mismanaging an investment account with $1 billion in assets. [NYT]
• Jack Welch is lending his name to a new online MBA program. [WSJ]
• Warren Buffett auctions off lunch every year for charity. The bidding is open, but it's not expected to rake in the fortune it did in years past. [Guardian]

According to Crain's, New York's 100 top-paid executives took home $1.2 billion in compensation last year. And a handful of them, it turns out, are execs who happen to work at banks that received bailouts from Washington: "Number four on the list is Goldman's CEO Lloyd Blankfein, with $42.9 million. Following him is Citigroup's CEO Vikram Pandit, raking in $38.2 million. Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase, comes next in line with $35.7 million. Goldman and JPMorgan, which received $10 billion and $25 billion, respectively, in government aid, have recently moved to repay the funds. Citigroup is still saddled with the $45 billion in aid it's accepted." Topping the list, in case you're wondering, is Peter Kraus of Alliance Bernstein, who was paid $52 million just to take the job. But American taxpayers also had a hand in making 2008 a very good year for Kraus: In addition to his take from Alliance, he earned $25 million for the three months he put in at Merrill Lynch in late 2008. [NYP]

Megan Fox cites confusion in explaining away the infamous flower incident, Ryan Seacrest is developing a Lindsay Lohan reality show, Kate Moss is an absolute pain in the arse girlfriend, and Katie Lee Joel's new man is shagging fashion editors.

• Attorney Bruce Kaye and his wife Deborah have found a buyer for their two-bedroom condo at 15 CPW. The 32nd-floor apartment, which the Kayes bought for $7.8 million last July and put back on the market for $11.9 million in April, went into contract last week. [Cityfile, MRP]
• More moves at the Plaza: Oscar Schafer, managing partner of OSS Capital Management, has gone into contract to sell his 17th-floor apartment, which had been listed most recently at $12.5 million. And Guy Wildenstein has taken $3 million off the price of his Frank Lloyd Wright Suite, which is now listed with Corcoran's Carrie Chiang for $18.5 million. [NYT, Warburg, Corcoran]
• Bruce Lisman, the former co-head of global equities at Bear Stearns, has gone into contract to sell his apartment at 923 Fifth Avenue, nearly two-and-a-half years after he first put it on the market. The four-bedroom condo had most recently been listed at $16.75 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Marc Dreier's two Hamptons properties sold for a combined $10.4 million at auction last week, which is about $2 million less than they were expected to fetch. [Law.com via Curbed]

Meryl Streep celebrates her 60th birthday today. Cyndi Lauper is turning 56. Rob Wiesenthal, Sony's No. 2 exec, is 43. Legendary M&A attorney Marty Lipton is turning 78. Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for NYC, is 63. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California turns 76. Carson Daly is turning 36. Author Dan Brown is 45. Tracy Pollan, the actress and wife of Michael J. Fox, is turning 49. Actress Amy Brenneman is 45. TV personality Jai Rodriguez turns 30. Erin Brockovich is 49. Donald Faison of Scrubs is 35. Kurt Warner, the former Giants quarterback, is turning 38. Singer and drag queen Kevin Aviance is 41. And Lindsay Wagner of Bionic Woman fame is 60 today.

Unless you tuned out completely over the weekend you've seen the haunting video of a young woman named Neda dying on a Tehran street after being shot in the heart. She is now the immortal face of a revolutionary movement.

• Rihanna is expected to speak about her alleged beating by Chris Brown for the first time this afternoon when she takes the witness stand at a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles. [NYDN, NYP]
• Both Katie Lee Joel and her rumored paramour, designer Yigal Azrouel, continue to deny reports that an affair ended Lee's marriage to Billy Joel. But Azrouel seems to have a rep for being something of a ladies man: He's "been known to sleep with fashion editors who can help his career." [P6]
• Sarah Jessica Parker was pulled over in the Hamptons. The trooper told her that her lights were off; she turned them on; and all ended well. Yay. [P6]

Looks like those clever backdoor bailouts orchestrated by the plethora of carefully placed henchman throughout the highest levels of government has paid off—Goldman Sachs will pay out the biggest bonuses in its history after a "spectacular first half."