Caroline Kennedy has a reason to smile today. A new poll shows that David Paterson's job approval ratings have fallen to an all-time low since he took office last year. The governor is viewed favorably by just 40 percent of voters—down from 64 percent in November—and it also gives Andrew Cuomo a commanding lead in a possible primary contest. [NYP]
• Anthony Coniglio, a managing director in JPMorgan's financial institutions group, and his wife Tara have paid $6.2 million for a seventh-floor apartment at 170 East End Avenue. Other buyers in the building include Adam Bronfman, Johan Santana, Dominique Levy, and Michael Fascitelli. [Cityfile]
• Investment banker E. Stephen Benson has lowered the price of his penthouse at 885 Park Avenue for the fourth time since first listing it for $13 million in February 2008. The two-bedroom apartment, which was reduced to $9.5 million last month, is now listed for $8.25 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• New York Jets team doctor Kenneth Montgomery and his wife Leslie have put their six-bedroom home in Roslyn Harbor on the market for between $3 million and $3.5 million. [Newsday, PDE]
The Vanity Fair Oscar party was, this year more than ever, the center of the celebrity vortex, devouring other party-throwers Prince, Elton John, Madonna and adorable twitterering couple Demi and Ashton.
Paula Zahn turns 53 today. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is turning 54. Terry Semel, the man who ran Warner Bros., served as CEO of Yahoo!, and helped bring Courtenay Semel into this world, is 66. Nike co-founder Phil Knight is 71. Sen. Joe Lieberman is turning 67. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice chairman Joseph Rice is turning 77. Actor Billy Zane is 43. Dominic Chianese, better known as "Uncle Junior," is 78. Chad Hugo of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D is 35. Actor Barry Bostwick turns 64. Edward James Olmos is turning 62. And actor Abe Vigoda is celebrating his 88th birthday today.
• As part of the rescue plan currently under discussion in Washington, the government would end up with 40 percent of Citigroup, which isn't quite the same as nationalizing it, but is pretty darn close. [NYT]
• JPMorgan Chase cut its dividend to a nickel yesterday. [AP]
• John Thain spent six hours answering Andrew Cuomo's questions last week. But he'll make a return visit this week now that a judge has ruled Thain has to provide more detail on Merrill's controversial bonus payouts. [Reuters]
• AIG needs more government money. Feel free to laugh or cry about this. [DB]
• UBS may end up going to court as it tries to fight an order to disclose the names of its American clients suspected of offshore tax evasion. [NYT]
• Allen Stanford had ties to Joe Biden's brother and son, apparently. [WSJ]
• A bankrupt Lehman Brothers is spinning off its venture capital arm. [WSJ]
• Home prices in 20 U.S. cities declined an average of 18.5% in December. [BN]
• Federal chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession should end this year and 2010 "will be a year of recovery," if the banking system's stabilized. Reassuring words, provided you still believe anything Bernanke has to say. [WSJ]
• Get the welcome wagon ready: Jennifer Aniston may be moving to New York soon, both to be closer to John Mayer and because she's filming her next two movies here. [Fox 411]
• A bunch of people who attended Madonna, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's Oscars party at Guy Oseary's house ended up leaving early and heading over to the more popular Vanity Fair bash instead. Kate Winslet screamed "Wooo!" at everyone who congratulated her (and later tripped down a small set of steps), a tipsy Natalie Portman flirted with Twilight's Robert Pattinson, and Mick Jagger chatted up every woman that came within two feet of him. [P6, NYDN, E!, Mirror]
• Madonna looked conspicuously wrinkle-free while squiring Jesus Luz around LA last weekend and eventually ran into Sean Penn on Sunday night. After congratulating him on his Oscar win, he pointed in Luz's direction and replied, "Thanks. Another kid already?" [NYDN, DS, Sun]
• Nicky Hilton placed a homeless man under "citizen's arrest" after he pushed her on to the ground outside an IHOP. Seriously. [Us]
Don't get us wrong: We despise the arrogant and overpaid financiers responsible for this economic mess. They, not taxpayers, should pay for their incompetence. But banker hatred is starting to get worrisomely extreme.
The recession hasn't killed the art market, after all. Buyers defied the downturn as Yves Saint Laurent's art collection hit the auction block last night. Record prices for works by Matisse, Brancusi, Mondrian and Duchamp were set, and Christie's raked in $264 million on the first night alone. So who were these buyers spending big bucks? Here's a clue: "Among the last-minute VIP visitors to the exhibition hall, just four hours before the sale, was Russian billionaire art collector Roman Abramovich, accompanied by dealer Larry Gagosian. Christie's owner French billionaire Francois Pinault, was present at the sale." [NYT, BN]
Jeff Bezos turned up on the Daily Show couch to promote Amazon.com's newest Kindle e-book reader. And as this clip shows, he laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Why wouldn't he?
In good times, white dudes like Sandy Weill, Charles Prince, and Bob Rubin ran Citigroup. Now that the world's most tentacular megabank is running aground, who's working the buckets? People of color.
• Winners and losers at the Oscars, including the boring (Angelina), controversial (Tilda), and just plain bad (Beyoncé). [NYT, Telegraph, W, FWD]
• It wasn't the Oscars, but Michelle Obama sparkled last night in a sequined number for the National Governor's Association dinner. [NYM]
• A roundup of 15 top looks from New York Fashion Week. [Pipeline]
• There appear to be some fresh signs of trouble at Barneys. [Racked]
• More on what you can expect to see when Running in Heels debuts. [WSJ]
• Not surprisingly, the fashion job market isn't exactly thriving. [NYP]
• A roundup of what you've been missing at London Fashion Week. [Vogue UK]
