Carla Bruni Sarkozy is celebrating today—France's First Lady is turning 41. CBS chief Les Moonves is 60. Conservative coumnist Bill Kristol is 56. Soap star Susan Lucci is 62. Badgley Mischka's James Mischka is turning 48. Author Donna Tartt is 45. Literary agent Elyse Cheney is 41. Retired Army General (and one-time presidential candidate) Wesley Clark is turning 64. Rock star Eddie Vedder turns 44. And The Girls Next Door's Holly Madison is 29 today.
'Tis the season of empty gestures! Inaugural pastor Rick Warren rewrote his website so it no longer says gays are poison to his congregation. In fact a whole long lecture about gays was deleted.
• Jeffrey Epstein is a free man—sort of. The billionaire money manager, who was sentenced to 18 months for soliciting a minor for prostitution, is now working at the office of his non-profit foundation five days as a week as part of a work-release program. [P6]
• Mort Zuckerman became a dad for the second time on Friday with the birth of a daughter named Renee Esther. [NYDN]
• Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey's frosty relationship has turned into "outright contempt" since Baldwin mocked Fey's scar at a recent photo shoot and told the photographer to "get ready to do a lot of airbrushing." [Star]
• Suri Cruise gets 100 fan letters each day, you'll be creeped out to learn. [Star]
• The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the third quarter, according the new figures released by the Commerce Department this morning. [MW]
• Lehman Brothers has won bankruptcy court approval to sell its investment management assets, including Neuberger Berman. [DB]
• What did banks do with their bailout billions? They're not saying. [AP]
• A record number of M&A deals were cancelled in 2009. [FT]
• Investigators looking into the Madoff mess continue to focus their attention on a key Madoff lieutenant, Frank DiPascali. [WSJ]
• A Madoff investor has filed suit against the SEC, the first attempt by a victim of the scheme to go after regulators. [Reuters]
The power is yours! Prices are slashed, you can return anything, you can haggle for discounts. Designer gear was flying off the racks at Barneys this weekend. It's all so tragic!
Wow: Condoleezza Rice got $316,000 in bejeweled gifts from the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia last year, three times more than the president. She must be doing an amazing job!
Who'd have guessed that losing your life savings in a elaborate Ponzi scheme would suddenly become trendy? "Because Madoff is said to have only accepted an exclusive group of wealthy investors, saying you got ripped off by Madoff is a subtle way of saying that you've got big money. From those who spend their summers in Nantucket to those spending evenings at the Yale Club, Bernie Madoff has become the new name to drop." [Clusterstock]
· "So funny story—I'm getting paid millions to pump Gucci, the same stinky toilet-water I used to swipe at Macy's and sell to my classmates. Did I mention the gun-running and home-ec hooker ring?"
On the same day a Vanity Fair writer delivered the definitive history of the worst Star Wars spinoff ever, another report suggests that infamous show may soon have competition.
As much as it has become a punchline for those mocking individuals with little talent, The Hills is a significant part of our culture and we must say goodbye to another installment tonight.
We've once again gathered Defamer's blue-ribbon panel of movie-marketing insiders, this time to assess what's gone wrong on the unfortunate new poster for the sci-fi B-thriller Push.
Something about this time of year really brings out the do-gooder in all of us. Take for example David Spade, who reached deep into his man-purse and pulled out $100,000 worth of new police rifles!
Did you know that when the stock market goes down, media bosses get poorer like magic? It's true — and the fact that it's a totally obvious point doesn't make it any less fun!
