Haven't figured out where to spend the holidays? How does a five-bedroom villa in Mustique next door to Tommy Hilfiger's home sound? Walter and Monica Noel's Caribbean retreat is available for rent for $55,000 a week. With the Noels now thinking about canceling their holiday vacation plans, you might be able to take advantage of the sudden availability if you act quickly enough. Bonus: The home comes with broadband access so if someone else comes along and files suit against Noel in the coming days, you don't have to worry about missing the news! [Business Sheet]

Twitter, the service for posting short updates, has consumed the media elite. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is privately obsessed with it. By the numbers, though, Twitter is an inconsequential nothing.

Congratulations to U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, who has overcome his narrow Election Day deficit to claim victory in Minnesota over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. According to Al Franken.

Andre Balazs' shiny, new Standard NYC soft-launched this past weekend with rates as low as $195 a night. But if you think even that is too much to spend on a hotel that doesn't have a functioning restaurant, bar or gym, Curbed kindly points out that the Liberty Inn across the street is still open for business. And it may be the best bargain in town—$60 for two hours, although you'll have to pay $40 extra for a "romantic interlude room." Just consider the tranny hookers in the hallways and the used needles in the bathrooms a memorial to the meatpacking district of days past. [Curbed]

If there's anything Britney Spears needs right now, it's a reminder that everyone close to the pop star relies on her for their own financial well-being. But how lucrative is it to be her sponge?

Uh-oh: Oprah fell in love with another memoirist, and we all know what happened last time. Herman Rosenblat has twice been on her show for his touching story of the Holocaust and long-lost love.

Hilary Duff Opens The New York Stock Exchange [Splash News]

A French hedge fund founder who lost $2 billion he'd invested with disgraced money manager Bernie Madoff killed himself in his Manhattan office today.

Valkyrie is recovering reasonably well from the crippling stroke of bad publicity that nearly killed it earlier this year. But only part of that is due to slightly better-than-average word on the street.

• Armin Amiri's Socialista was shut down by the yesterday for failing to post "No Smoking" signs. Or did it have something to do with the rat problem? [GS]
• A group of vandals broke in Stephen Hanson's Fiamma last night. [Eater]
• David Burke's Fishtail is serving a late-night menu from 11pm to 1am. [GS]
• A bunch of changes are in the works for the Rusty Knot. [GS]
• The new d.b.a. beer bar has opened in Williamsburg. [FB]
• Billy's Bakery is giving out $1 cupcakes today if you're interested. [Eater]
• A roundup of outdoor bars that have heaters, so you can drink all winter long without having to put on gloves. [FB]

The Sopranos and A Bronx Tale star Lillo Brancato Jr., who three years ago was involved in a bungled burglary that left one cop dead and Brancato himself critically injured, was found not guilty.

Great news for anyone concerned that the upcoming race for City Hall would be a dull one. Michael Bloomberg has tapped Howard Wolfson to serve as the public face of his campaign, a move that should "bring a redoubled pugnaciousness to the mayor's re-election team." [City Room]

The bloody and river-scorching New Yorko-Clevelo War has finally ended. And, just as so many wars before it have been, the whole unpleasantness was resolved with the meting out of free threatre tickets.

Though we were enamored of the backwards type and deer-in-headlights look that distinguished the poster for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, others found it terribly generic. Now, Slashfilm presents Paramount's alternate take.

Hillary Clinton "loaned herself" $13 million last January, when she was losing to Barack Obama in the primaries, and now she has written that loan off, so the 2008 primaries are finally over.

Yesterday, we explored the emotional resentment that the gift of a Paul Smith jacket can dredge up. Then you shared your stories! This season is truly about failing to connect with our loved ones.

Though we understood why Jeremy Piven's ditched Speed-the-Plow co-stars reamed him onstage Sunday, we couldn't fathom what it was that had made Elisabeth Moss allegedly start "sobbing." Then, we saw the Piven-less box office:

The media screwed up many, many times in 2008. As in other years! The ten finest episodes, listed for you below. Merry Christmas, from the media:

As pro-strike SAG members gathered around their mediation menorahs to light a tiny Eric Bogosian head on fire, thereby commemorating the second night of Yea-nukkah, they were met with a shocking development:

Fox Business caught up with Bernie Madoff's sketchy accountant, David Friehling, after he made an appearance today at the Clarkstown, NY police department. Friehling refused to answer a Fox Business reporter's questions, but his son did take a moment to dump water on the network's van. Now that's a classy way to handle the situation, isn't it? [Fox Business]