Aren't you in for a treat! This Saturday, all sorts of wondrous items will be auctioned off at the Tribeca Spring Preview Housing Works sale, and almost all of the ladies of Bravo's Real Housewives of New York are participating. Alex McCord has donated a "bolero jacket with beads all over it," which she tells the Observer she bought at an estate sale a decade ago but has only worn once. LuAnn de Lesseps chipped in a Furla handbag, and Ramona Singer donated one by Christian Dior. And while Kelly Killoren Bensimon is participating as well—she's donating a dress and this pair of John Varvatos Converse sneakers—she'd also like to point out that, unlike her low-class castmates, her pieces have never touched human skin:

Barry Ritholtz, the feisty stock-market blogger who sparred with McGraw-Hill over a book which criticized its S&P bond-rating unit, has found a new publisher for Bailout Nation.

Openly gay Congressman Jared Polis (D.-Colo.) has a peculiar habit of creating enemies. Silicon Valley's movers and shakers loathe him. His fellow rich Colorado gays shun him. And now the media hates him, too!

When we revealed the details of Michael Wolff's affair with a former Vanity Fair intern last week, Wolff promised his lawyer would be in touch with us, presumably to refute the charges. But it's been several days now and we've yet to hear from him. Does this mean he's not prepared to dispute the account? Or is his lawyer just busy with other matters? We're going to go with the former and "assume the extreme," an approach that Wolff himself suggested in a June 2008 Vanity Fair story entitled "It's the Adultery, Stupid." (An excerpt from the piece, which we edited a touch, is above.) But in the event we did get any of the details wrong, Michael, your lawyer can reach us at 646-723-4542. We're waiting!

RadarOnline was once an intelligent site, written by funny people. Really! Now, it seems to have degenerated into all Octomom, all the time. What's happening here?

[Rocker/drugger/Moss-dater Pete Doherty in Paris; image via Bauer-Griffin]

Martha Stewart's French bulldogs now have their own blog. It's called "The Daily Wag with Francesca and Sharkey." And chunks of it are written in French. Thank us later. [The Daily Wag via Buzzfeed]

Michelle Williams running errands in Brooklyn with daughter Matilda ... Kevin Kline walking to the set of The Extra Man in Midtown ... Kate Winslet taking a walk in the Village ... Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz leaving the Nederlander Theatre ... Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge, and Larry Mullen Jr. shoveling snow outside the Ed Sullivan Theater for a David Letterman segment ... Liev Schreiber getting out of a car in front of the New York Academy of Art on Franklin Street before last night's Tribeca Ball ... and Philip Seymour Hoffman standing on the set of his new movie, Jack Goes Boating, in the West Village.

Just in case you had any doubts that the fourth quarter of 2008 was a horrible one for hedge funds, the bloody 13F charts compiled by Wall Street Folly will help you put the misery into perspective in a matter of seconds. [WSF]

See, Barack Obama speaks to white people like this: "Hello whites, let's talk about budgets!" But he talks to black people like this: "I'm Barack from Chicago, (fist pound)." Politico is racist, for real.

One tipster tells us there are "major layoffs" at Apple. Another writes that "all sales teams have mandatory meetings today" and that "HR booked conference rooms in Cupertino." Is Apple cutting salespeople loose?

Step away from the fashion closet: Sean Avery is returning to New York and rejoining the Rangers. Sadly, another stint at Men's Vogue this summer is not in the cards, since the magazine was dismantled while Avery was off in Dallas. But maybe he'll use this as an opportunity to join Vogue proper and branch out to womenswear. [AP]

It was thievery most foul on The City last night. Of ideas and of increasingly-less-attractive Australian boyfriends. The Wicked Witch of the Upper East (Who Lives on the Lower West) and Jay were the culprits.

Freelancers who've wrestled with local business tax rules know they're a confusing mess. But then, most freelancers aren't married to Gregory Craig, the White House lawyer in charge of sorting through these kinds of messes.

• Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has landed a six-figure advance to write a book about "his rise and fall, and the dark side of politics." [LAT]
• CBS chief Les Moonves says he no longer has any plans to merge the company's news operations with Time Warner's CNN. [B&C]
• Martha Stewart Living is "broadening its editorial focus" to "beauty, travel and fashion" in order to appeal to advertisers. [Mediaweek]
• Jane Velez-Mitchell's show on Headline News has been doing well. [NYT]
• The Philly Daily News will be folded into the Philadelphia Inquirer. [Gawker]
• Thomson Reuters is launching a new video-on-demand service. [NYT]
• Arena, the 22-year-old British men's style magazine, is no more. [WWD]

David Letterman thought it was pret-ty funny to laugh at Alicia Ebaugh's story in the Cedar Rapids Gazette about a man caught sexing a blow-up doll. Why does David Letterman laugh at the unemployed?

Why bother with an ordinary kid when you can order up a designer one? A fertility doctor says would-be parents will be able to customize their own babies at his clinic beginning the summer. The implanted embryos can be screened for skin, eye and hair color as well as gender, which means if this catches on it will only be a matter of time before every woman in the 10021 zip code really does have blonde hair, blue eyes, and a fierce tan. [NYDN]

Stop everything: John Fitzgerald Page—the Worst Person in the World—is doing stuff! Would you like to be in a movie with Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek? John Fitzgerald Page can make it happen:

Awkward or not, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's fairly decent premiere last night got solid ratings, beating his rival Craig Ferguson. He also improved on Conan's average, though that won't last long.

What do you do when you're late to a trend? Mock yourself! Watch Jon Stewart's Daily Show writers, one of whom only started using the banal messaging service on Oscars night, try to catch up.