A little progress has been made in Washington, believe it or not! In case you haven't spent the last four hours watching testimony in front of the Congressional committee looking into the AIG mess, you may be happy to hear that the insurance company's CEO, Ed Liddy, says he's asked the AIG employees who collected big bonuses to give half the money back. Okay, so it means we're only 50 percent of the way closer to a solution to this saga. But Liddy says that some employees have already agreed to the arrangement. And some really generous ones have even offered to give up all the cash!

Two AIG executives fingered by the New York Post as recipients of blood-money bonuses donated to the presidential campaign of Sen. Chris Dodd, who is fighting off claims of coziness with the toxic insurer.

Flackery: "K-Y® Brand INTENSE™...is a female arousal gel scientifically shown to enhance female pleasure." Okay. "I hope you may be interested in trying and giving away [the product]". That's more like it! Slutty.

2009 is a terrible time to be young, if you're the type of young person who wants a job in the media, as opposed to the drug distribution industry. The "entry level" is...closed.

It looks like Alex Rodriguez's prowess on the baseball field doesn't extend to the real estate market. The Yankees third baseman, who struggled to unload his Trump Park Avenue condo and has yet to find a buyer for his Coral Gables manse, failed to get his first choice when it came time to rent an apartment at 15 Central Park West, too. Financier Henry Silverman and his much-younger girlfriend ended up snatching the $40,000-a-month, three-bedroom pad A-Rod wanted at the last minute, so he's since been forced to suffer the indignity of renting the smaller $30,000-a-month condo next door instead. And he couldn't even negotiate a discount! Poor thing. [NYO]

Beyonce leaving the Pat Field store on Bowery ... Sarah Jessica Parker carrying a copy of the New Yorker while walking to the set of her new movie ... Claire Danes walking downtown with Hugh Dancy ... James Franco shooting scenes for a new movie in Long Island City ... Katie Holmes walking by herself downtown ... Gretchen Mol pushing her son in a stroller in the West Village ... Blake Lively carrying her dog Penny to her trailer on the set of Gossip Girl in Brooklyn ... Clive Owen crossing the street ... and Kim Kardashian and mom Kris Jenner leaving Nobu 57.

[Actress Angela Joleman filming the movie "Salt" in New York today; image via Splash]

We'd heard whispers of it, but never thought it would actually happen. But it has. Sweet Jesus take the wheel, it has. The Real Housewives of New Jersey will premiere on May 12th. Meet the ladies:

This map of where famous sitcoms were set—on TV, that is, not in real life—isn't the most precise thing in the world. (We're going to assume the placement of Sex and the City on the Upper East Side is because Charlotte's character lived there?) But if you're a TV location scout and you're looking to showcase an NYC neighborhood that has yet to be ruined by round-the-clock shoots and national TV exposure, it should be a good place to start. [Danmeth.com via Lisanti]

Poor Tucker Carlson. His career was sidelined by Jon Stewart in a cruel sneak attack five years ago, and he's never gotten over it. Now he's trying to start a beef with his former tormentor.

"Dear Mr. Charney," begins the most misguided letter ever from a third grader to someone she looks up to. What are they teaching in the schools now, porno sex for the kids?

Iran continues to dislike Hollywood, it would seem. Actor Armin Amiri, who briefly appeared in the Iranian-flag-ripping movie The Wrestler, recently learned that his father was arrested in Tehran.

NBC capo Jeff Zucker, today: "CNBC is a spectacular organization and in particular Jim Cramer."

Tricia Walsh-Smith's 15 minutes were up many moons ago. And yet we still can't help but watch the clips the spurned divorcée sends our way, which may be because if given the choice between another angry hearing about how a financial conglomerate managed to hoodwink taxpayers and video of a half-drunk, fortysomething British woman prancing around a pool in a bikini, we'll go for the latter any day. Tricia's latest (and possibly greatest) is above in the event you're in need of a little laugh today.

Barack Obama has some distant relative from a place called "Moneygall," in Ireland. Maureen Dowd joked about that in an interview that ran on Monday. Days later, she couldn't come up with a better line.

Cannibals will soon roam the earth, as will comedians. Jennifer Aniston and dogs are Mother Nature's favorite creations. Audrina Patridge will never, ever die. Your in-town-for-pilot-season friend will never, ever leave.

NYC has a new subway hero—this time, an attractive young male actor. Let the starmaking machine commence! Chad Lindsey selflessly rescued a fellow rider; now we must all rescue him from Off-Broadway anonymity.

These are difficult times for Condé Nast. AdAge reported yesterday the publishing giant is planning to slash the ad sales group managed by Richard Beckman; today, Keith Kelly of the Post reports some of the company's flagship titles have seen a 30 to 40 percent decline in revenues, and the company has "taken a dagger to its corporate pension plan" in order to reduce costs. Meanwhile, the Observer's John Koblin reports chairman Si Newhouse and CEO Chuck Townsend have asked editors to trim their discretionary budgets (which includes items like messengers, first-class airfare, and car services), and says a broader round of job cuts is inevitable. Of course, it's hard for any editor to trim his or her own staff—and it can be difficult for top execs to take a step back and see the absurd spending when they're so close to it.

All Americans are currently home sharpening their hatchets, consumed by burning class rage, thinking of how they can't wait to gut those AIG bonus bastards like a fish. And now we know some names!

Today we have a poorly-endowed hip hip star, a cocaine crazed Brit, a cocaine crazed American, and a singer/actor couple who want to make a (sure-to-be-terrible) movie together.