Tweens across America are preparing to go stand out in front of their local Wal-Mart at midnight tomorrow so they can buy the Twilight DVD. Unless they are murdered in a gruesome gang initiation:
Just days before Bernie Madoff was arrested, a Bronx businessman named Martin Rosenman handed over $10 million of his family's money to the now-imprisoned financier's investment firm. Terrible timing, no doubt, but Rosenman quickly argued that he hadn't actually intended to have Madoff invest the cash until the following month, so he was entitled to get his money back pronto, and shouldn't be treated like the thousands of shlubs who'd fallen victim to Madoff months or years earlier. A federal judge ruled against Rosenman in February and instructed him to take his place in line with everyone else, thank you very much. But it seems Rosenman isn't taking no for an answer. Today he filed notice that he intends to appeal the ruling. Best of luck with that, Marty—you'll need it. The court papers are below.
America faces many problems today, but none is as pressing as the epidemic of our children smokin' Smarties. Yes, the media are scaremongering. But are they scaremongering enough?
Remember how New Jersey's Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling was thinking about banning Brazilian waxes for health reasons? Jersey girls no longer have to worry about having to pass through the Lincoln Tunnel to prepare for the summer season. The state reversed course today after salon owners "complained about losing business ahead of swimsuit season." Take the good news where you can get it, folks. [NYP, previously]
The feedback on Facebook's new look, which emphasizes a stream of Twitter-like status updates, is almost universally, howlingly negative. Why isn't CEO Mark Zuckerberg listening to users? Because he doesn't have to, he's told employees.
In your finally Friday media column: a paltry offer for the Seattle P-I, Jake Tapper's a twit, arm fetish redux, Baba Wawa looks towards the end, and newspapers....you know:
While everyone was watching Barack Obama on Leno last night, that increasingly-prickish-seeming McLovin' kid, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, was on Jimmy Kimmel's not-actually-live show last night saying "fuckin'" and not getting bleeped. Not that anyone noticed.
As is our custom on Friday afternoons, we gave a quick call over to Steve Schwarzman to check in and see how he was holding up, especially after this bit of news a couple of weeks ago, which had us as alarmed out as anyone. Alas, we didn't get an answer over at 740 Park, so we thought we'd try him down at the Palm Beach manse. Because if you're not getting paid, might as well head off for a three-day weekend, right? Well, you can imagine how relieved we were when this guy answered. (Click on the video above.) We can't be sure, of course, but it sure sounded like a French guy to us. Steve's famous French chef, perhaps? Quite possibly! Regardless, after a week like this, we're taking this as an encouraging sign that Steve's $3,000 food budgets remain intact and the spending goes on. Which it most certainly has to if we're ever going to get out from this mess.
Happy Sixth Anniversary of the War in Iraq! Sort of! The war began on March 20, 2003, Baghdad time, so we're totally not late. Let's look back at the lies!
Giving a fashion critique of The View is like complaining about Mussolini's lip gloss. Critical analysis: ur doin it rong.
