Finally, we have an all-encompassing, shrink-wrapped theory of Gladwellian cogency to account for everything malignant in our society, including the financial meltdown, Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop.com, Olivia Palermo's nasty attitude toward Whitney Port, the disaster wrought by Bernie Madoff, the unrepentance of aging philanderers, and Alex Rodriguez's photo spread in this month's Details (left). It's all because of narcissism!
• Former Refco chief Phillip Bennett's penthouse duplex at 1001 Park Avenue (left), which became the property of the U.S. government after Bennett pleaded guilty to bank fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and was sentenced to 16 years in prison, has gone on the market for $5.9 million. [NYO, PDE]
• Martin Payson, a former vice chairman of Time Warner, and his wife Doris, have paid $5 million for a 10th-floor condo at 170 East End Avenue. [Cityfile]
• Andy Warhol muse Jane Holzer has gone into contract to sell her apartment at 23 East 74th Street. The five-bedroom spread, which went on the market for $22.5 million last June, had most recently been listed at $16.9 million. [NYO]
It looks like Bernie Madoff's sketchy accountant is going to be the next person to go down in connection with the scheme. The Journal is now reporting that David Friehling has been charged with securities fraud, aiding and abetting investment adviser fraud and four counts of filing false audit reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He faces 105 years in prison if he's convicted on all of the charges and is expected to be arraigned in federal court later today. [WSJ]
Queen Latifah turns 39 today. Dane Cook is turning 37. Maroon 5's Adam Levine is 30. Theodora Richards, the party-loving daughter of Keith Richards, is 24. Vanessa Williams is turning 46. Hedge fund manager Scott Bommer is turning 43. Discovery Channel star Mike Rowe is 47. Michael Reagan, the radio host and adopted son of Ronald Reagan, is turning 64. French writer/director Luc Besson is 50. Veteran actor Peter Graves is 83. And Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, is celebrating his 58th birthday today.
• Following conflicting news reports, it now appears that Natasha Richardson was pronounced brain dead sometime yesterday following her skiing accident in Canada on Monday. She's now reported to be at Lenox Hill on the Upper East Side, where her family members have gathered to hold a vigil and say goodbye. [NYP, People, NYT]
• Rihanna and Chris Brown might be "taking a break," although neither one says it's a "formal breakup," whatever that means. [E!]
• Lindsay Lohan's driver crashed her SUV into a wall outside the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles at 3:30 am Tuesday morning. [E!]
• Graydon Carter has already started inviting friends to visit Monkey Bar, the restaurant he's opening on East 54th Street. [P6]
• Just what the world needs: Justin Timberlake recently returned from Mexico, where he's been working on launching his own brand of tequila. [P6]
Given how much anger has been stirred up by the bonus debacle at AIG, it was only a matter of time before some previously anonymous exec at the insurance giant walked out his front door to find a reporter and photographer standing in his driveway. The Post uncovered a few names yesterday and then headed up to Connecticut to, you know, say hello and ask a few questions. None of the three—James Haas (left), Douglas Poling, and Jonathan Liebergall—were willing to say much, not surprisingly, although AIG may end up making a few extra bucks out of the saga: Considering they've now been publicly identified, we're guessing all three will be looking to take out much more generous life insurance policies today. [NYP]
• The AIG mess rolls on. Lawmakers are up in arms. Voters are pissed. Tim Geithner is on the defensive. President Obama's agenda has been disrupted. And AIG chief Ed Liddy will get to see some of the emotion first hand when he turns up on Capitol Hill later today to face the music. [NYT, WSJ, BN]
• Billions used to bail out AIG may end up benefiting the hedge funds that made big bets that the housing market was going to crumble. [WSJ]
• As the pressure mounts on Tim Geithner, here's a roundup of all the things he's gotten wrong, just in case you need a little refresher. [BI]
• The State of New Jersey has filed suit against Lehman for fraud. [CNN]
• Citigroup's chief economist is leaving the bank to take a senior position at the Treasury Department. Somehow this is entirely fitting. [DBK]
• The fact that Citi has four new board members may not bode well for Vikram Pandit and his chances of remaining in charge of the bank. [NYP]
• Warren Buffett owns 20% of Moody's, so when he talks about the broken financial system, you won't hear him talk much about rating agencies. [NYT]
• In the FT, Hank Paulson says it's time to reform the financial system. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for coming to that conclusion just now. [FT]
Arianna Huffington is guest-editing the Metro free throwaway newspaper today. It's unclear why, exactly, but the "Arianna Says" commentary bubbles are hilarious.
Making the best of it: LeAnn Rimes' husband wasn't there to get her through cold Orange County nights, so she strayed; Nadya Suleman had to settle for just two of her eight babies.
We can't guarantee your card will make it through: Bernie Madoff is being held in isolation at the moment, and it's unclear if isolated prisoners have access to their mail. But it's worth a shot, no? To improve your chances, be sure to follow the prison's official rules: For instance, any letters that contain money will be sent back immediately. (But you weren't really going to send him more cash, were you?) Simply print the card out, write a personal message, apply a stamp, and drop it in the mail. Just don't hold your breath waiting for him to write back. [Previously]
We'll concede that former Valleywag Nick Douglas is, in our limited experience, among the wittiest Twitter users out there, and an entertaining chronicler of internet culture. But, really, $50,000 for his book of re-tweets?
That's what our New York publishing source tells us Douglas netted as an advance from his publisher, HarperCollins, for TwitterWit, his collection of other people's microblogging posts. Though he's not writing much original content for the project, Douglas assured us that slogging through submissions — want your tweets to LIVE FOREVER? click here — was pretty, uh, draining, "like watching five hours of porn: your sense of humor dies halfway through."
