• Stocks appear positioned to rise this morning after tumbling to their worst levels in more than a decade during yesterday's trading session. [CNN, MW]
• More on what the government is trying to do with the billions it's been pumping into AIG. Meanwhile, the insurance giant's founder, Hank Greenberg, has filed suit against his former company and accused it of fraud. [NYT, NYP]
• Citigroup is still hoping to shed a handful of "non-core" assets, including its mortgage and insurance operations, Japanese brokerage, and private-label credit card business. [NYP]

Why did Arianna Huffington agree to do the Rachel Maddow Show with comic and former E! host Hal Sparks? So self-undermining!

Greg Shenkman, CEO of a San Francisco software company, allegedly used work visas to import an Eastern European woman as a sexual plaything, according to a former assistant who is charging him with sexual battery.

CNN doesn't talk about Anderson Cooper's sexuality. The network and anchor have their reasons. Jane Velez-Mitchell at CNN's Headline News is taking a slightly more open approach.

Last time we checked in with Justine Bateman, the Family Ties star was getting territorial about how her Tumblr posts were reblogged. Now she's angrily learning what a "White Whine" is.

Internet porn has devastated old-fashioned smut rags. We now hear a top executive at FriendFinder Networks, the publisher of Penthouse, wants to close the money-losing magazine down. But his boss denies it.

Gavin Newsom, the shiny-haired mayor of San Francisco who's running for governor of California, told Bill Maher Friday night that things won't be that bad if newspapers die. We'll still have blogs!

• No one seems to know why, but a model at the Jill Sander show in Milan appeared on the runway with tears streaming down her cheeks. A new trend? An allergic reaction of some sort? A reaction to the stress and anxiety hanging over the industry? You decide. [WSJ]
• Reviews and recaps of the recent runway shows in Milan. [NYT, IHT, Times UK]
• Barneys' makeup department seems to be holding up despite the recession. [NYT]
• The appointment of Dasha Zhukova as editor-in-chief of Pop is ruffling some feathers, not surprisingly. [Fashionologie]
• Michelle Obama went with Michael Kors for her official portrait. [WWD]
• A roundup of 10 trends from London Fashion Week. [Pipeline]
• The French magazine Femmes is relaunching and the new issue is devoted exclusively to Lydia Hearst, you'll be thrilled to hear. [Fashionista]

"Lawyers for accused swindler Bernard Madoff say a Manhattan apartment and $62 million in accounts held by his wife are unrelated to the investment manager's purported fraud, according to court documents." [NYP]

Someone gave former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich "six figures" to write a book about how he went about selecting a replacement for Barack Obama, in the Senate.

Newspapers are dead. Google and Sharon Stone's ex-husband killed them.

Hooray for this: wonderful quote-machine and buffoonish RNC head Michael Steele is picking a pointless, hilarious fight with Rush Limbaugh.

There was a big snow storm in the Northeast today! But more importantly, there was a big snowstorm in New York today! Take a look at a gallery of the wonderland after the jump.

It isn't clear she ever lived in the apartment—she may have just been gifted the pad as part of a publicity stunt by the building's developer—but Lindsay Lohan's former apartment at the Atelier on West 42nd Street is up for sale for $1.2 million. The listing says LiLo "put 100K worth of the finest upgrades into this apartment." Alas, no word on what these "upgrades" were specifically, but feel free to use your imagination. [Curbed]

Octogenarian gossipmonger Liz Smith continues to chronicle the reactions to the New York Post's shocking move to drop her column, and we will continue to report them as well, forever! Today: Warren Beatty is supportive!

What's in Ruth Reichl's freezer? What disappoints Martha Stewart? Which New York wantrepreneur is about to get a snowball to the face? And why is a CNN reporter freaking out? Twitter has all the answers:

The Obamas are just like us: drinking through this recession, at home! Well, not entirely like us. They're all wearing fancy clothes and they have jobs and Steve Wonder is there.

Whenever you think it's about as bad as it can get, it gets worse. The Dow finished the trading day at 6,763, its lowest level since 1997. How low can it go?

Continuous Lean points out a series of Time Life photos detailing the collection of hand signals that Sherman Billingsley, the owner of Old Manhattan institution The Stork Club, used to communicate silently with his staff.

Esquire editor David Granger loves the Amazon Kindle. Sort of. The e-book reader gives him hope that Internet-shortened attention spans will lengthen enough to spark a renaissance in books and magazines. He's utterly delusional.