We realized the airlines were hurting, sure, but now they're getting a bit ridiculous. Northwest plans to save money by no longer providing passengers with spoons—just forks and knives—while other airlines are planning to reduce the size of the cutlery in an effort to contain costs. On the bright side, since most airlines don't actually feed you anymore, you probably won't notice the difference. [Telegraph via Recessionwire]
Ohhh girrrl! The Real Housewives of New York are hookin' up. Because it's summer and young man's fancies have turned to sweaty lust, and so have old ladies'. The Countess was seen dancing, while Kelly was spotted flirting with Leonidas.
If you have some free time this afternoon and you've always been curious about where it is that Richie Rich hails from (California, it turns out, not outer space); what his childhood years were like (football wasn't his thing, not surprisingly, but he did excel at figure skating); and what's going in personal life (he got married to his boyfriend recently inside a gingerbread house in Vienna), Richie sits down with ObsessedTV today to talk about all that and more. [ObsessedTV]
Lots of casting news, yet again. James Franco keeps rolling along, as does Liam Neeson. Little Bryce Dallas Howard might be teaming up with her papa, while a bunch of grizzled old thespians are teaming up to teach architecture.
The Treasury Department has given to go-ahead to ten big banks to begin repaying the billions provided to them by U.S. taxpayers. And for what may be the first time in history, they're expressing delight at the prospect of writing checks instead of collecting them. The Treasury Department didn't release a list this morning of the ten financial institutions that made the cut. But the joyous public statements by their CEOs has helped assemble a list, which is believed to include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, the State Street Corporation, American Express, the BB&T Corporation, Capital One, and US Bancorp. [Dealbook]
Today we have a young actor embarrassed by his sleazy girlfriend, a marriage that was consummated very very strangely, and an actress using food to fill the sadness in her soul.
• Richard Gere and Carey Lowell have sliced $1.6 million off the asking price of their seven-bedroom farmhouse in Water Mill. Priced at $8.8 million when it first went on the market in February, the 1.2-acre estate is now listed for $7.2 million. The pricecutting isn't restricted to the Hamptons, however. Gere slashed $3 million off the price of his spread at Palazzo Chupi in 2008 before taking it off the market entirely earlier this year. [Newsday, Stribling]
• David Sidwell, who retired as Morgan Stanley's CFO at the end of 2007, has sold his 26th-floor apartment at 25 CPW for $7.65 million. [Cityfile]
• An art world power couple is bidding goodbye to the Upper West Side. Brett Gorvy, co-head of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's and Amy Gold, who is Christie's director of business development, have sold their three-bedroom apartment at 470 West End Avenue for $2.175 million. [Cityfile]
Hedge fund mogul Phil Falcone hasn't had the easiest stretch as of late. The $500 million he plunked down for a 19 percent stake in the New York Times? The value of his shares have plummeted by nearly two-thirds over the past few months as the paper has struggled to remain solvent. And his recent efforts to dominate the charity circuit haven't worked out as well as he might have liked either. Last week, in what was either a very bold act of generosity or an effort to steal the limelight, Falcone and his wife Lisa announced plans to donate $10 million to the High Line, just days before the railway-turned-park was officially unveiled to the public. Unfortunately for Phil, his sizeable check still didn't entitle him to a front-row spot at the yesterday's official ribbon-cutting ceremony. So Phil did what he had to do to insure his pair of scissors was put to use (and his $10 million didn't go to waste). Evidence of Phil's brash power move below.
Natalie Portman turns 28 today. Johnny Depp turns 46. Michael J. Fox is 48. Embattled restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani is 44. Writer/producer Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing) turns 48. Comedian Jackie Mason is 73. Crime writer Patricia Cornwell is turning 53. Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara turns 93. Screenwriter/director David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible) is turning 46. Guitar legend Les Paul is 94. And longtime basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale is celebrating his 70th today.
• The feud between Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant has gone from bad to worse. After tussling with Brant's bodyguards last week, Seymour was issued a summons on Saturday after she "yanked the keys out of a Brant-hired security guard's car, threw them in the bushes, and then used her Range Rover to block the driveway of the couple's Greenwich estate." Just imagine what's going to happen when the two actually face one another in court. [NYP]
• Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson appear to have reunited. Enjoy it while it lasts! If history is any guide, by this time next week, the couple will have had another messy brawl, LiLo will be melting down on Twitter, and Sam will be running off to another foreign country to get away from her. [Sun, People]
• Madonna has managed to "convinced" three appeal judges in Malawi to let her appeal baby Mercy, or so says the Telegraph of London. [Telegraph]
