• Kelly Cutrone says normally at this time of year she'd be flying in a chef from India to cook for her. But this Fashion Week she's cutting back on account of the recession. Bring us a tissue! [WWD]
• Arnold Scaasi did not like Jason Wu's gown for Michelle Obama: "I don't think the inaugural gown was flattering in any way... She could have looked much better." Yeow. [NYT]
• Despite the rough economy, Justin Timberlake's William Rast label is holding up nicely. [NYM]
• Anna Sui has landed a book deal. [Fashionista]
• The plywood has been removed outside Topshop in Soho! [Racked]
• Marie Claire is giving away taxi rides to promote Running in Heels. [FWD]
• Istithmar may sell Barneys for less than half what they paid for it in '07. [BN]
• Rents are falling in the garment district, duh. [NYT]
• An alcoholic's guide to Fashion Week. [Pipeline]

You may have noticed a striking ad on page 5 of THR today, prominently featuring what appears to be the human equivalent of an Easter Peep.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe pissed off the prim DC media (and revealed himself to be kind of an ass!) when he demanded that a speech he was giving today be off the record.

We doubt Apple will sign this guy up for an endorsement deal, but Mullah Zaif, a former Taliban official, raved about his iPhone to Al Jazeera correspondent Hamish McDonald during a visit in Kabul.

Count Oscar-greeter emeritus Army Archerd among those laughing his ass off at plans to sneak surprise presenters and attendees into the show via parachute in the dead of night.

Scandal- and bad-hair-ridden ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was spotted at the Flatiron offices of Macmillan, the book publisher. Blagojevich, who loves poetry as much as he loves profanity, must surely have a memoir in him.

• Momofuku Ssäm is opening a new private dining room. [GS]
• Add Le Gamin to the list of spots tacking service charges to the bill. [Eater]
• A report on Craftsteak's new recession-friendly menu. [Feedbag]
• One upside to a bad economy: free restaurant equipment! [Eater]
• A list of restaurants where you can still find peanut butter desserts. [GS]
• Daisy May's has the 5th best chili in America, according to Bon Appétit. [BA]
• It's the end of the world: Starbucks is introducing instant coffee. [AdAge]

In your gale-force Thursday media column: Juan Williams is controversial, more magazines die, Wonkette launches a spinoff, and teen sex remains incredibly popular:

The good news: Harrah's in Atlantic City is handing out 5,000 guest room keys tomorrow from 8-10am at the corner of 48th Street and Avenue of the Americas, and from 12-1pm outside the Jacques Torres Hudson Store at 350 Hudson Street. The bad news is pretty apparent: It's the Harrah's in Atlantic City. [AMNY]

In case you were worried that American Idol had somehow lost its dehumanizing edge over eight seasons, and that there was perhaps some small chance that its castaways won't end up on Celebrity Rehab—fret not.

["The City" star Whitney Port in the West Village; image via INF]

It's been a brutal day in the legal world. More than a dozen firms announced sweeping layoffs today, according to Above the Law. To wit: As many as 200 people at DLA Piper may be out of jobs; Bryan Cave reportedly handed out pink slips to 58 attorneys today; Dechert confirmed that it dropped 19 attorneys across the U.S.; Goodwin Procter sacked 74 people; Epstein Becker and Green dismissed 23 attorneys and 30 staff members; Cadwalader dropped 16 people in London; Cozen O'Connor laid off 61; Faegre & Benson gave notice to 29 attorneys; and as many as 200-300 people could be out of a job at Holland & Knight this afternoon. And this is just since eleven o'clock this morning. (Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, so it may very well get worse.) If you notice lots of men in rumpled suits walking around Grand Central Station in a daze, now you know why.

The return of Ol' Smokey on Lost answered one of the drama's many questions (at least for us): What exactly is the Monster? Guilty of loving too much, that's what!

She's ditched the icky boyfriend and now has an Oscar nomination under her belt for role in Rachel Getting Married. The next step for Anne Hathaway as she seals her Serious Actress rep? She's signed on to play Viola in the Public Theater's production of Twelfth Night as part of its Shakespeare in the Park series. You've come a long way, Mia Thermopolis. [Variety]

There is perhaps no sadder Hollywood story to emerge from the recession than the closure of Motion Picture & Television Fund's long-term care facility and hospital in Woodland Hills.

A second person to lose his life savings to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme has committed suicide. [Times UK via Clusterstock]

Why not spend your hard-earned money on a charity eBay auction to "Spend an Evening with NonSociety.Com Girls in New York"? I cannot think of a single reason. Current price: $102.50. Plenty of fringe benefits:

President Change's message of fresh hope sounds like just about every new-and-improved TV commercial. No surprise, marketers are jumping on the Barack bandwagon. But now the feds have cracked down on Obama-branded schwag.

Laments for Mickey Rourke's pure, bygone beauty usually reflect as far back as his breakthrough in Diner. Yet one filmmaker's attic-rummaging has officially yielded the definitive Mickey-as-he-was resource.

Valentine's Day is approaching, and that's bad news for singles in New York. Restaurants are all crowded and mostly expensive prix fixe menus and there are kissing jerks everywhere. So what should singletons do?