About $12 billion was pulled out of accounts at Bernie Madoff's firm in 2008. About $6 billion of that was taken out in just the three months before the crooked financier was arrested. No wonder Ruth is still shopping at Neiman Marcus. [NYT/Dealbook]

We covered the blondes last week. The identities of these brunettes below!

Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb hasn't had the easiest time as of late. Heavy losses forced him to dismiss a number of employees at the end of 2008 and the $5 billion he managed a year ago had dwindled to $1.8 billion last month. But Loeb is nothing if not crafty and he's since come up with a handful of way to cut costs and raise cash. He started renting out his jet on an hourly basis a few months ago, and he put an extra $5.5 million in his pocket when he sold off his carriage house in the West Village back in March. And now he's done it again.

• NBC chief Jeff Zucker's former duplex at 239 Central Park West (left), which he sold to Marti Meyerson and her husband Jamie Hooper in 2006 for $15.7 million, is back on the market. The 11th and 12th floor apartment is now listed for $17.5 million. Meyerson is the daughter of Morton Meyerson, Ross Perot's onetime business partner and the former chairman and CEO of Perot Systems. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Bob Weinstein and his wife Annie Clayton have paid $15 million for a four-story, 6,580-square-foot townhouse at 39 West 70th Street. [Real Deal]
• Big time art collectors Donald and Shelley Rubin, who made fortune with the MultiPlan health care network, have put their townhouse at 122 East 70th Street on the market with Kathy Sloane for $20.2 million. [NYO, BHS]

Stephen Colbert turns 45 today. Harvey Keitel is turning 70. Stevie Wonder is 59. Vogue publisher Tom Florio is 53. Tim Zagat is turning 69. Legendary divorce attorney Raoul Felder is 75. Writer/director Alan Ball (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) is turning 52. Dennis Rodman is 48. Twilight star Robert Pattinson is 23. Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker turns 43. P.S. 1 founder Alanna Heiss is 66. Former Guggenheim Museum director Lisa Dennison is turning 56. Social fixture Amanda Cutter Brooks is 35. And Miss California Carrie Prejean celebrates her 22nd birthday today.

LA police, responding to an alarm at Lindsay Lohan's home, thought the house had been "ransacked," when in fact it was merely the dwelling of a slob. George Clooney parties like an fratty ibanker.

• George Clooney went out to celebrate his 48th birthday last week, had too much to drink, and ended up hurling in the VIP area. Clooney denies it was him, though, and says he was just "sitting next to someone who did throw up." [NYDN]
• Cops were called to Lindsay Lohan's house yesterday after a security alarm sounded and officers initially thought the house had been ransacked. It turns out Lindsay always keeps her house that way, which means in addition to everything else, she probably could use a good housekeeper, too. [TMZ]
• Marie Douglas-David has been embroiled in a nasty divorce with her elderly husband George David. Now she has a new man. She's dating a Swedish financier named Johan Saxon, and he's only seven years older than her. [P6]
• Lydia Hearst is going topless—again—in a new movie with Jason Behr. [P6]

• Disappointing retail sales figures and a surprising rise in the number of foreclosures are sending stocks lower this morning. [CNN, WSJ]
• The Obama administration is looking into ways to change the way people across the financial services industry are compensated and that includes companies that didn't even receive federal bailout money. [WSJ, NYT]
• Ed Liddy may be jobless soon: Trustees overseeing taxpayers' stake in AIG are seeking a CEO to replace Liddy as well as new board members. [WSJ]
• Speaking of AIG, were officials like Tim Geithner aware of the bonus situation at the company months before the news broke? It looks that way. [WaPo]

Roxana Saberi, a 32-year-old Iranian-American journalist detained in Iran for more than three months, was freed this week after an appeals court suspended her eight-year sentence on charges of spying for the United States.

After reportedly seeking an $11 million advance last year, America's snowbilly sweetheart Sarah Palin has signed a book deal with Harper Collins to write her memoirs. And the world sighs.

Arizona State University sparked a bit of controversy recently for refusing to bestow President Obama with an honorary degree at commencement ceremonies later today, so Jason Jones went down to investigate. Hilarity then ensued.

Fans of Matt Taibbi, frequent Bill Maher guest, 2008 NMA winner and Tom Friedman's worst nightmare on steroids, have long wondered why Taibbi blogs for True/Slant and not Rolling Stone. It's time for some answers!

24 year-old Brooklynite Meaghan O'Connell recently broadcast her desire to bone the JetBlue Terminal at JFK (Who doesn't?) on her Twitter. JetBlue's eagle-eyed Twitter intern caught the remark and responded.

Today Carrie Prejean spoke to America and America responded by gritting its teeth and punching itself repeatedly in the genitals. And tonight Keith Olbermann debuted a new segment, which he promptly used to destroy her.

Kanye West unleashed another all-caps maniacal diatribe on his blog today. What sort of gross injustice could have possibly sparked sufficient ire for him to launch into another fit of pissy prose? Twitter, naturally.

Peter Brant is in the middle of a messy divorce with his wife Stephanie Seymour. But that didn't keep him from the opening party for his new private museum this past weekend. A long list of art world A-listers headed over to his 53-acre estate in Greenwich on Saturday to have a look around The Brant Foundation Art Study Center. (And despite all the personal drama as of late, Brant looked "dashingly handsome," according to the Journal.) Seymour wasn't present, naturally. Not physically, at least. But guests walking around the space did get to see Maurizio Cattelan's sculpture of a naked Seymour clutching her breasts, which, as the WSJ's Jeffrey Podolsky observes, "pokes out like a pair of deer's antlers over the fireplace" in Brant's library. He's not kidding. The rather striking piece of art that Brant will always have to remember Seymour by is below.

• Photog Todd Selby has a fab set of photos taken inside Julia Restoin Roitfeld's Noho loft. If you've ever wanted to take a look at her expansive shoe collection—or peek inside her medicine cabinet—now is your chance. [The Selby]
• Sir Philip Green is still looking to establish another Topshop outlet in NYC. Where, exactly? "Basically, anywhere H&M has a store." [NYO]
• Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone won't be moving into their new $13 million townhouse for awhile. The house is a "shell" and doesn't even have walls yet and will take a year to renovate, says Jacobs. [NYM]
• J.Crew's new men's-only store opened today. [Style.com]

What happens when Apple's famously perfectionist CEO takes a six-month medical leave? Everything at Apple goes to hell. Like the parking lots. Feel better soon, Steve!

Don't take an iPhone to a movie screening, don't Twitter when you should be making coffee, don't buy a 2002 Honda, and don't be Meghan McCain. This and more we learned from Twitter today!

[Cirque du Soleil performers do a show on the Santa Monica Pier this afternoon; image via Getty]