Journo-nerd Bible the AP Stylebook—which last year unconscionably got rid of "riffraff" and "malarkey"—has been updated again. Things the AP just learned about in 2008: baba ghanoush, Twitter, and water sports.

Anti-abortion radical Catholic Mullah Randall Terry threw a press conference with free chicken wings and Guinness for journalists, yesterday. It did not boost attendance, really.

Magazine ad revenues are tanking, and many magazines are now selling ads on their covers, despite the fact that it's "not allowed." Seems like a clear-cut case of economics trumping ethics. But what happens when the cover ads are magic??

East Hampton may be home to some of the richest people around, but the town itself is on the verge of bankruptcy. It's now facing an $18 million deficit by the end of the year, partly because most of the officials responsible for managing the town's finances over the past few years have turned out to be crooks. (In what is becoming a tradition of sorts, another local official was arrested this week—he served as budget officer until recently—and was charged with seven felonies.)

Out of all the celebrities to resemble, North Korean loonmonster Kim Jong Il would not be the first choice of most guys (it would be this guy). But one dude does resemble him, and fooled the world media. Accidentally.

[Nick Jonas flanked by his two brothers, Joe and Kevin, outside the Letterman show yesterday; image via INF]

• BlackRock has reached a deal to buy Barclays Global Investors for $13.5 billion, making BlackRock the world's largest money management firm. [WSJ]
• Lawmakers grilled Bank of America chief Ken Lewis in Capitol Hill yesterday, although he defended his decision to go ahead with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch and placed blame on Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson. [NYT, WSJ]
• John Paulson's hedge fund, which made $3+ billion betting the housing market would collapse, is now scooping up lots of distressed debt. [BN]
• Goldman was an investment bank before becoming a commercial bank. Now that it's free from the bailout, it may go back to being an I-bank. [Reuters]
• US households lost $1.33 trillion of wealth in the first 3 months of '09. [DB]
• Foreclosures fell during May, not that things have improved much. [CNN]

Today we have a married actor who stepped out on his wife with a boy hairdresser, an Academy-recognized actor who powered through a heart attack, and a closeted cutie who's got problems with his cheating live-in lover.

Friday morning special: Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein and his wife Laura have finally put their old apartment at 941 Park Avenue on the market. The couple paid $27 million for an apartment at 15 Central Park West in 2007, and settled into their new digs last year. But the couple's old apartment on Park just hit the market today. The five-bedroom duplex, which is listed with Sotheby's Royce Pinkwater for $15 million, comes with grand foyer, 30-foot living room with wood burning fireplace, paneled library, formal dining room, master bedroom suite with office and two baths, two maid's rooms, and bath and laundry area. Unfortunately, pictures of the co-op aren't online yet. But you can have a look at the floorplan below. [Cityfile]

Chris Brown and Rihanna attend Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Paris Hilton has a raunchy rebound hookup with soccer star Ronaldo, Paul Shaffer almost played George Costanza on Seinfeld, Megan Fox has genetically-deformed thumbs and Madonna adopts another African.

Today, the New York Times reminds us that some members of the filthy rich continue to be filthy rich, recession notwithstanding. They're just hiding their spending places where regular people can't see it: in their homes. Designer Clive Christian's extremely high-end wares—think over-the-top chandeliers and the sort of Liberace-inspired designs that would appeal to someone like Celine Dion—are selling better than ever.

Blow a kiss in Adriana Lima's direction. The supermodel turns 28 today. Others celebrating: Yankees star Hideki Matsui is turning 35. Deputy mayor Kevin Sheekey is turning 43. David Rockefeller is 94. Sports Marv Albert is turning 68. Real estate broker Michele Kleier is 66. Hunter College president Jennifer Raab turns 53. Kendra Wilkinson is turning 24. And George H. W. Bush celebrates his 85th birthday today. Weekend birthdays—including those of the Olsen twins and Donald Trump—after the jump.

Simon & Schuster will announce today that it's struck a deal with Scribd.com to make around 5000 digital titles available for sale on the site, a move that sends a clear "screw you" message to Amazon and their little Kindle.

• Paris Hilton reportedly broke up with boyfriend Doug Reinhardt after she saw him partying with a "Texas beauty queen" named Kendhal Beal. The heiress responded by throwing a fit (and some fruit and ice in Beal's direction). But don't you worry about Paris. She's got her dependable sister by her side. And she's already moved on to someone new, namely soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. [P6, People]
• Madonna will be performing her Kabbalah rituals today with an extra bit of enthusiasm: Malawi's highest court has overturned its previous ruling and has granted her adoption of Mercy James. Justice to the people! [DM]
• Dr. Drew Pinsky of Celebrity Rehab is offering Lindsay Lohan six figures to appear on his VH1 reality show. But only because he cares deeply about her well-being, not because he's interested in ratings or anything. [NYP]

Al Qaeda may be aggressively growing its ranks by recruiting European white men to carry out attacks, a move New Yorker writer and Al Qaeda expert Lawrence Wright says allows the group to "transcend its stereotype." [The Stimulist]

Bonnaroo music festival patrons seek relief from the heat in a fountain at the four-day arts and music festival in Manchester, Tennessee, which kicked off yesterday. [AP Photo/Dave Martin]

"Broadway Bret Michaels" broke his silence tonight regarding his near-decapitation at the Tony Awards. He's feeling fine now, though he thought he'd lose his teeth, and he's upset he missed the afterparties. He also released photos of his beat-up face!

Tonight The Daily Beast re-printed an essay George W. Bush wrote ten years ago for P.O.V. magazine to commemorate his father's birthday titled, "The First Son." Just for kicks, we ran it through some of those online writing analyzers.

Well you just knew that Shepard Smith's off the reservation intellectual honesty at Fox News would backfire—Conservatives are going after him, some demanding Fox fire him, for the heresy he committed by making comments critical of right-wingers yesterday.

Just as some had speculated, New York-based forensic scientist Michael Baden announced this afternoon that he has reviewed the case of David Carradine and ruled out the possibility of suicide, to which we say, duh!