1/26 — JESSICA ALBA and CASH WARREN courtside at the Clippers/Trailblazers game last night. Everyone knows that Cash is Baron Davis' buddy, so shouldn't they go to a game when Baron actually PLAYS? [Hollywood PrivacyWatch is written by and for Defamer readers; send your sightings to tips@defamer.com.]
• Reed Business has cut staff across its numerous publications. [NYT, THR, FB]
• Carlos Slim Helu's loan to The New York Times Co. is "an ominous move" by a "capitalist with loyalties to a foreign state," says the Seattle Times. [E&P]
• Pastor Rick Warren is launching a magazine. [WSJ]
• More on Conde Nast's new web strategy. [NYP]
• Meet the Huffington Post's new cast of celebrity bloggers. [Jossip]
• The Senate has voted to delay the transition to digital TV until June 12. [BN]
Arthur Nadel, the Florida-based money manager accused of defrauding clients to the tune of $300 million and then suggesting he'd committed suicide when he was first indicted, is now in custody. Nadel surrendered to the FBI today in Tampa. Yea, sure, we were hoping for a more exciting conclusion to this story, too, but we'll cut him a break since he's 76. [Bloomberg]
Simple patriotic pornographic clothing firm American Apparel is beset by trouble! Now the SEC is investigating the company. Because of fishy leaked emails. Which we have for you, below!
Virgin doesn't have a problem mocking current events as part of its own ad campaigns. (Perhaps you saw Virgin Mobile's Eliot Spitzer-themed ad last year?) But clearly Virgin America isn't quite as happy when other people do it. The company filed a lawsuit against the advertising blog Adrants.com yesterday over a fake ad the site posted on the day Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River. The spoof (left), which appeared below the headline "The Hudson Crash: Just One More Reason to Fly Virgin," was later updated to make it clear the ad was a parody. (It was eventually removed from the site entirely, although you'll find a cached version here.) But that hasn't stopped Virgin from suing Adrants and the site's founders for defamation, trademark infringement and dilution, false designation, and false and deceptive advertising. "Virgin America deplores the fact that anyone would try to take advantage of the crash of flight 1549," the company said in court documents. (Here's looking at you, Ken Cole!) You can take a look at Virgin's full lawsuit after the jump.
Depending on your perspective, it's either a reassuring indication that the global recession can't be as bad as all that, or the kind of tasteless display of decadence that no longer has any place in the new economy: Couture fashion week in Paris is currently underway with shows as lavish as ever, even though you'd think that dresses costing a quarter of a million dollars might have a slightly shrinking client base. Dior designer John Galliano, who put on a show yesterday that cost around $3 million, points out that his job "is to make women dream. Of course I'm aware of the credit crunch, but it is not a creative crunch—not at the house of Dior, anyway."
Today we have a big-mouthed adulteress, a coke-addled old rocker, a pregnant tween star, and an STD-riddled young fella.
A handful of news outlets have been reporting that Michael Bloomberg is officially the "most generous living man in America," having given away a total of $235 million over the course of 2008, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Bloomberg didn't come in No. 1 on the list, though. As NY1 tells it, "Bloomberg actually ranked ninth overall on the list. He was topped by eight others who died last year and gave greater amounts away in their wills." We're guessing this news will come as a big surprise to the still-living couple that came in at No. 3, Pete Peterson and his wife, Joan Ganz Cooney. [NY1, NYT]
Your best bet for remaining in America and being satisfied with your lot? Don't be an uneducated white woman. Men, non-whites, and the college-educated are all happier than they were in the early 1970s, according to a new study. Americans, though, are hardly the happiest people on the planet: The US ranked 16th on the happy list; Denmark was rated the most cheerful nation and Zimbabwe came in dead last. Guess we'll see you in Copenhagen next week! [LiveScience]
Bernie Madoff is locked up in his Manhattan apartment, he no longer has access to his assets, and he's been stripped of his cars, too. But there's a little Madoff loot stashed away just waiting for Bernie to come and collect it, assuming he gets there before the feds do. A search of the Unclaimed Funds database maintained by New York State's Office of the Comptroller shows that Bernie and Ruth Madoff are owed half a dozen interest checks and dividends from a handful of banks and property firms. Okay, fine, it's probably not a lot of money and whatever is contained in the accounts will probably have to be turned over to the government so it can be distributed to Madoff's victims. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and considering the funds have been sitting there for 15 years now, there's always a chance they'll never find out! Bernie and Ruth's unclaimed riches after the jump.
