• Bruce Lisman, the former co-head of global equities at Bear Stearns, has cut the price of his apartment at 923 Fifth Ave. The four-bedroom is now $16.75 million, down from the $22.5 million he was seeking when he first put the home on the market in November of last year. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Colombian ambassador to the U.N. Claudia Blum and her husband Francisco Barberi have paid $3.9 million for a third-floor co-op at 936 Fifth Avenue, which happens to be right next door to the other apartment they bought in the building for $3.35 million earlier this month. [NYO]
• Michael Mancuso, the recently-appointed CFO of SPX, paid $2.5 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 137 Reade Street. [Cityfile]

December 24 is when Page Six writers get to use ancient Greek and H. L. Mencken references to write strip club gossip. The holidays can be so beautiful in New York:

Annette de la Renta, the gala staple and wife of Oscar de la Renta, turns 69 today. Designer Kate Spade is 46. Hedge funder Jim Chanos is turning 51. Former banker and Observer owner Arthur Carter is 77. Per Se's Jonathan Benno is turning 39. Heiress Marylou Whitney is turning 83. Ryan Seacrest is 34. Author Mary Higgins Clark is turning 81. Actor Mekhi Phifer is 34. And singer (and new dad) Ricky Martin is celebrating his 37th birthday today.

The Times is totally laying into its publisher's close friend Caroline Kennedy today! And on a day when so many people will be reading political news! Err, hmmm....

• Was the "exhaustion" that sent Samantha Ronson to the hospital the result of a marathon screaming match with Lindsay? [TMZ]
• Walter Noel's five daughters are a bunch of maneaters who used to steal other girls' boyfriends, at least according to one of their former Georgetown classmates. [P6]
• Now that he's dated half the blondes in New York, Lance Armstrong says he's having a baby with his girlfriend, Anna Hansen. [NYDN, PM]
• Star Jones has supposedly gained 30 lbs. recently and is now worried her boyfriend, chef Herb Wilson, is going to dump her because of it. [NE]

"We just thought, let’s try and figure out a fun brand we could put behind some of these casual games." [Times]

• The number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped by 30,000 to a 26-year peak last week. [Reuters]
• AmEx and CIT will get $5.72 billion in bailout money. [Reuters]
• Doubts about Bernie Madoff now appear to date back several decades. [WSJ]
• Liliane Bettencourt, the world's wealthiest woman, is believed to have invested in Bernie Madoff via Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, the money manager who committed suicide at his office yesterday. [Bloomberg, NYT]
• Steve Feinberg's Cerberus, which has suffered several losing months, is now limiting investor redemptions. [Bloomberg]
• Execs at Old Lane, the hedge fund operated by Vikram Pandit before it was acquired by Citigroup, may be leaving the bank to start a new company. [WSJ]
• Hedge funder Larry Robbins is cutting compensation and staff. [NYP]

Rolling Stone overlord Jann Wenner forgot to do some layoffs in his last round, two weeks ago, so he just fired some more people, less than a week before Christmas.

Erica Hill filled in for Anderson Cooper on AC360 Wednesday. Afraid to lose the nation's attention for even a day, CNN's loveliest anchor leaked his yearbook photos to D-Listed. Chistmas: a childlike time!

To the expert eyes at photo agency Vanderbilt Republic, the above two-page New Yorker ad looked odd. Why is only the white girl "heavily retouched to give her perfect skin and rosy cheeks?"

The happy side of being CNN weatherman Rob Marciano? You get women (and men!) hotter than a low-pressure tropical system. The sad part? A drunken night has a very public hangover.

Marie Claire just wanted to wish everyone a "sparkling, joyful and warm holiday," but the magazine's flack forgot to Bcc, exposing precious celebrity email addresses to 582 people. Christmas is ruined!

· In a blockbuster exclusive with Conan O'Brien, Carson Daly confirmed that he is, in fact, a soulless mercenary with no conscience, scruples or remorse about his cultural crimes.

· Soweto Gospel Choir at Disney Hall, Mike Stinson at The Redwood Bar & Grill, and Camp Freddy at The Roxy.

Here in America, the romantic pairing of an underage 15-year-old and an older partner is only acceptable when the teenager gets country singer parental consent. Kate Winslet, though, will not accept this injustice!

Your advent calendars are almost tapped out, but the sweetness is just beginning. TBS & PBS have some excellent offerings for you, while ABC lets the fall custodial interns program tonight's lineup.

It looks like we'll have to think of a new idea for the Defamer Christmas card, because Hugh Hefner and his 19-year-old twin concubines have gone and stolen ours.

There's something extremely wrong with this exchange between Jimmy Kimmel and Tom Cruise, and we're inclined not to pin it all on Tom.

Just in case one list wasn't enough, we present to you a second roundup of what a bunch of celebrities (Robert De Niro, Amy Winehouse), socials (Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Amanda Hearst), art moguls (Larry Gagosian, Aby Rosen), and the occasional billionaire (Jonathan Tisch), and publicist (Nadine Johnson) have planned for the holidays. The full list—which is based on various press accounts, TV interviews, and the excellent research of blogs like Park Avenue Peerage—is after the jump.

Peer into The View, and soon The View starts to peer into you. Before long, you may develop a sudden affinity for pirate shirts and a tendency to shout "William Ayers!"