Finally, Wasilla resident Sarah Palin has taken a concrete step towards "telling her story" without the distorting filter of the mainland media and mousy comedians. She's looking for a big fat book deal!

Greetings from the lobby of our Sundance accommodations (last day!), where it's pitch black outside and we're in our pajamas. The announcements are about to start.

The Oscar nominations are being announced! We expect Vantage Point and My Best Friends Girl to dominate in all categories. I'll give my reactions, live, after the jump.

Caroline Kennedy ran a disastrous quasi-campaign for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat before deciding to bow out last night. Initially she refused to answer reporters' questions; when she eventually changed her approach and opened up, she demonstrated such little skill for dealing with the press that even some of her supporters started to wonder if she was up to the job. Kennedy now says she abandoned her bid for the Senate because of "personal reasons," which one Kennedy insider suggested was due to Caroline's concerns about Ted Kennedy's declining health. The much more plausible theory, of course, is that she bowed out when she heard she wasn't going to get the nod from Gov. David Paterson: making the decision herself provided her with a much more graceful exit. It was one of the only wise moves Kennedy and her team have made in the last few weeks. All of the blunders that have embarrassed her since she kicked off her campaign? Here are two people you can already start blaming: Kevin Sheekey and Stefan Friedman.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner mixed well with the gay former mayor of New Jersey, while a Variety movie reviewer had a much harder time stomaching interaction with the real-life "Dude" from The Big Lebowski.

Zsa Zsa Gabor and her publicity-loving husband, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, tell the National Enquirer that they lost "a fortune" because of Bernie Madoff and they may now be forced to sell their Bel-Air home, cars, artwork and jewelry to stay afloat. "I'm going to have to make back that money somehow or we're going to face financial ruin," the prince tells the magazine. Accepting a check from the Enquirer to tell your story sounds like a good enough place to start. [Radar]

It looks like Marc Jacobs is packing his bags and leaving behind the Mercer Hotel suite that he's long called home in NYC. He's not going very far, though. He's reportedly renting a 2,500-square-foot apartment a few blocks away at Andre Balazs' Jean Nouvel-designed 40 Mercer Street for $30,000-a-month. The sixth-floor condo comes with three bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, and at least one cute neighbor, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. What more could you ask for? Marc's new floorplan after the jump.

Look: It's a glorious, bona fide press brawl! Caroline Kennedy's withdrawal from senate consideration touched off the rivalry between New York and D.C. news desks. New York won.

Director Jim Jarmusch turns 56 today. Balthazar Getty, actor, heir, and frequent paramour of Sienna Miller, is 34. Diane Lane is turning 44. Neil Bush, the brother of George and Jeb and father of Lauren Bush, is turning 54. Actress Linda Blair is 50. Steven Adler, drummer and Celebrity Rehab fave, is 44. Pop star Willa Ford is turning 28. And DJ Jazzy Jeff (remember him?) turns 44 years old today.

We hear CBS' 60 Minutes is preparing a profile on Anna Wintour. Though takedowns are the news magazine's claim to fame, we're betting the Vogue editor will emerged puffed up.

• UBS will make a fourth round of job cuts and is closing several divisions. [BN]
• A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Bank of America for failing to disclose the risks associated with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. [Reuters]
• More BoA-Merrill trouble: It seems the bank accelerated bonus payments last month so it could hand out the cash before the bank changed hands. [FT]
• The SEC has filed charges against missing hedge funder Arthur Nadal. [NYP]
• Win Bischoff's goodbye email to Citigroup employees. [Deal Journal]
• A record $152 billion was pulled from hedge funds in the fourth quarter. [DB]
• In other bad news, Microsoft is cutting 5,000, Intel is laying off 6,000, and Sony says it lost $2 billion more than expected last year. [WSJ, CNN, BN]

• Hope you're ready to go through it all over again: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis have all agreed to participate in a Sex and the City movie sequel. [Us]
• Graydon Carter should really consider writing a nutrition cookbook: It seems Madonna's secret to eternal youth is the salmon with lentils at the Waverly Inn. [L&S]
• Still more drama from the inaugural festivities in DC earlier this week: Chris Matthews got pissed about having to wait on line, Sharon Stone was annoyed she had to co-host a segment on CNN with D.L. Hughley, and Halle Berry went into panic mode after her dress got caught in an escalator. [P6]
• Gwyneth Paltrow was spotted on a flight doing yoga in the aisle recently. Is this becoming a trend? [Star]
• Charges against Mathias Guerrand-Hermès have been dropped. [NYDN]

Caroline Kennedy made it official, confirming she would no longer seek a U.S. senate seat "for personal reasons." Those personal reasons likely have a lot to do with Teddy Kennedy.

Barack Obama knew his mangled presidential oath would be used against him forever, so he made America's comically inarticulate chief justice and some reporters come to a do-over party.

He had an affair with a powerful man. He was BARELY LEGAL. Looks good with his shirt off. And his name is Beau Breedlove. Meet Portland's porny scandal boy.

Caroline Kennedy has been telling people she pulled out of senate contention due to uncle Ted's deteriorating health. But that was apparently after she learned she wouldn't get the gig anyway.

Ready for a new, more hopeful era of live-blogging? I sure am. I've been watching two days of inauguration stuff, and suddenly I'm hopeful about everything.

For most swag PR teams at Sundance, snagging John Krasinski for an interview or picture with their product would be a high-profile get. This is not the case for Timberland, however.

It didn't take long for the definitive verison of the restaurant tête-à-tête between critic John Anderson and "Dude" Jeff Dowd to reach the Sundance wires. Not that it makes any less mind-crampingly absurd.

Our eyes have barely adjusted after emerging from the Egyptian Theatre for a packed screening of The Carter, Adam Lough's riveting, all-access Lil Wayne documentary. Here's five things we learned about the rap genius: