A disgruntled Amtrak employee tried to recreate the magical moments in Baghdad over the weekend at today's MTA board meeting: He attempted to pull off his shoe and wing it at MTA boss Elliot Sander. The man's footwear never made it airborne—the MTA chief seems to have better security than the president—but we'll give him points for trying. [ABC7 via Curbed]
Today we have Michael Phelps (we think), a wrinkly diva, a time-share selling actor, a miracle of plastic surgery, a stingy pot head, and a band that makes people eat hummus.
Keri Russell shopping for home furnishings in the East Village ... Peter Dinklage walking downtown... Michelle Williams crossing a Midtown parking lot, coffee cup in hand ... John Mayer arriving at JFK ... Sean Lennon walking in the East Village ... Gretchen Mol playing with her son on the set of her new movie in the East Village ... Pete Wentz heading into an appearance at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square ... Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Suri leaving dinner at P.J. Clarke's on West 63rd Street ... and Ashley Olsen walking downtown in sneakers.
"The White House has prepared more than a dozen contingency plans to help guide President-elect Barack Obama if an international crisis erupts in the opening days of his administration, part of an elaborate operation devised to smooth the first transition of power since Sept. 11, 2001." —New York Times
Moments ago, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey confirmed that he will be recusing himself from the ongoing investigation into Bernie Madoff. The Justice Department didn't specify a specific reason for his decision to step aside—early reports have suggested that Mukasey's son, Marc, may be planning to represent a defendant in the case. But we can report a much more likely—and personal—reason why the Madoff case poses a serious conflict for the AG. Mukasey's own synagogue was ripped off by Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
Caroline Kennedy hasn't even been tapped to fill Hillary Clinton's seat in the Senate (yet), but that isn't stopping Cindy Adams from speculating that she's going to become the first female president of the U.S. The logic? "Assume Caroline gets appointed 2009, officially elected to fill out Hillary's term 2010, re-elected to serve her own term 2012. Meanwhile, Barack's elected 2008. Re-elected 2012. Leaves 2016. By then she's a sitting senator, having served longer than Barack. He was in the Senate four years. She'd have been in six years. She'd still only be in her 50s. She can be the first woman president." There you go! Just keep in mind that Adams also predicted McCain would turn the tide at the last minute and end up beating Obama. [NYP]
• Rupert Murdoch may soon have a new neighbor: The 13th floor two-bedroom co-op located directly below his penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue is expected to hit the market shortly with a price tag of around $30 million. [NYO]
• Diandra De Morrell Douglas, the ex-wife of Michael Douglas, has closed on the sale of her townhouse on East 71st Street for $9.38 million, two months after it was first reported that she'd gone into contract on the property. [Cityfile]
• William Taft V, the great-great-grandson of President Taft, and his wife Begum, have paid $2.6 million for a 14th-floor apartment at 255 East 74th Street. [Cityfile]
Hardball host (and potential political candidate) Chris Matthews is turning 63 today. Model/designer Milla Jovovich is turning 33. Peter Briger, the beleaguered president of Fortress Investment Group, is 45. Actor Eugene Levy turns 62. Giovanni Ribisi is 34. R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills is 50. And Penthouse founder Bob Guccione is turning 78.
• Rudy Giuliani is reportedly in negotiations to take over Bill O'Reilly's syndicated radio show when he steps down early next year. Whether Rudy could handle sitting still for three hours a day and what effect this would have on his rumored plans to run for office, remain unclear. [P6]
• Jennifer Aniston is "bizarrely obsessed" with Angelina Jolie, says OK! The proof: She wore a dress that was "almost an exact copy" of something Angie once wore, and she can't stop talking about the couple to friends. [OK!]
• Madonna now says the financial details her publicist Liz Rosenberg released last week concerning her divorce settlement with Guy Ritchie were "misleading and inaccurate." [People, Mirror]
• Anderson Cooper was supposedly spotted shopping for sweaters with a "young Frenchman" at Barneys Co-Op. Wait, what happened to Julio? [P6]
Did you know that superstar chef Daniel Boulud is tangentially connected to Bernie Madoff? Not really, but according to Bloomberg, Boulud did contribute a recipe to the 1996 cookbook that Ruth Madoff co-edited, The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher. (One of Wolfgang Puck's recipes is included as well.) You can pick up a used copy of the cookbook on Amazon.com for $14.95 if you want to sample some of the Madoff family's favorite dishes in your own home. Or you can buy a new copy for $40, with sales of the book going to "benefit the Jewish National Fund." Ha!
• The SEC admitted last night that it failed to follow up on repeated warnings over the years to investigate Bernie Madoff's firm and says it plans to conduct an internal investigation; it also is looking into the relationship between Eric Swanson, a former lawyer at the agency, and Shana Madoff, a niece of Bernie, who later got married. [WSJ, NYT, ABC]
• A look at Walter M. Noel, the founder of the Fairfax Greenwich Group and the middle-man who handed over $7.5 billion to Madoff's firm. [NYT]
• More on Bernie's lifestyle, including his fondness for manicures, steak dinners at the Palm, and trips aboard his boat named Bull. [Bloomberg]
• Morgan Stanley reported a fourth quarter loss of $2.29 billion. [WSJ, CNN]
• To cut costs, Citigroup has announced that it plans to combine its corporate and investment banking businesses. [DB, Dealbreaker]
New Yorker editor David Remnick is badgering his writers to blog more, and to be more vicious/cutesy while they're at it, just like real bloggers! It's absolutely adorable.
The financial sector is heavily and sufficiently regulated! It's a familiar refrain, but last year it was coming from rich-people-ponzi-scheme operator Bernie Madoff, who added that financial criminals were always caught very quickly.
