Caroline Kennedy, do you seriously want to be a Senator? Don't you know people are going to start asking uncomfortable questions about, say, your marriage?

We've had the privilege of seeing The Wrestler already, and can say with no amount of hyperbole that Darren Aronofsky has fashioned the stand-up-and-stick-a-fork-in-some-guy's-head movie of the year. Sadly, however, it's not immune from controversy:

For the past few days we've been hearing about the long list of charities that lost millions in Bernie Madoff's elaborate Ponzi scheme. But what about Madoff's own charitable contributions? Although he's been widely described as a prominent donor to various Jewish causes, Madoff hasn't been giving away bundles of cash for some time now. In 2007, the Madoff Family Foundation, which listed $19 million in assets at the end of the year, reported handing out $95,000 over the course of the year, down more than 90 percent from the year before when the foundation gave away $1.2 million. Perhaps he had an inkling the end was near and decided to hold on to as much cash as possible?

Now that America has finally elected a new president, our current one has given up pretending he cares about the economy, stuff, or Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

[That's not Liza! That's Bronx Mowgli's (yes, the Bronx Mowgli) dad Pete Wentz in Washington Square Park today; image via INF]

The name of the third person possibly involved in the sad, strange case of Scott Ruffalo, the brother of actor Mark who was shot in the head and killed earlier this month, has been revealed. A man named Kristian Muradaz was arrested after the shooting (but before Mr. Ruffalo passed away) for attempted murder, TMZ tells us. The site also implies that the Russian roulette story, initially provided by fame-seeking (?) other person in the room Shaha Adham may still be in play. Ugh.

We may never learn the true nature of the backroom dealings that led to Jay Leno winning NBC's 10 p.m. slot, but as VF.com notes, he's always shown a ferocious capacity for Darwinian late night survival.

Everybody knows what Bernie Madoff did—hustle a lot of people out of $50 billion. But nobody's really explained how he did it. Now we're finding out his purported "strategy" was obviously fake.

It's not always easy for young children of different faiths to distinguish the singular pleasures of Christmas from those of Chanukah. Now, thanks to Adam Sandler, the distinction is clearer than ever.

• The bloodletting at CBS is underway. [THR]
• Macmillan Publishing and FSG are both trimming staff. [AP, NYO]
• Ad spending for the first nine months of this year fell 1.7 percent. [WWD]
• Katie Couric, Campbell Brown, and Rachel Maddow will appear in the next issue of Vogue. [TVN]
• Sean Hannity's Alan Colmes-less show begins January 12th. [NYT]
• The Disney Channel is taking its act to Russia next year. [NYT]
• The most amusing corrections published this year. [Regret the Error]

Hollywood awoke Tuesday to more graphic evidence of sectarian violence in the SAG ranks, with namecalling, dogma and even allegations of brainwashing feeding the union's race to strike-fueled self-destruction.

Now you can own a souvenir from the biggest financial fraud in history: A Bernard Madoff Investment Securities fleece is up for sale on Ebay for $255. Not recommended attire for services at your local synagogue, obviously. [Ebay via Dealbreaker]

Raffaello Follieri will pay back millions! Oops, he's broke. [NYP]

A week into the scandal, this question's catching on: exactly how criminal was Rod Blagojevich's behavior? Or was it just tacky?

Time's Washington bureau chief Jay Carney became Joe Biden's spokesman yesterday, but he's definitely not a biased liberal, according to Time editor Richard Stengel—an even bigger confirmed media liberal Democrat:

We hope you're satisfied, Nora Ephron: Because of romantic comedies, people have unrealistic and unhealthy expectations of their own love lives, according to a new study. Films like Sleepless in Seattle and Serendipity promote the idea of a perfect love that's fated to happen, in contrast to real life, where apparently the universe doesn't conspire to bring two wholesome and lovelorn individuals together after a variety of amusing mishaps culminating in a run through the rain/car chase to the airport. "If you think that's how things are," says Dr. Bjarne Holmes, who led the study, "you are setting yourself up to be disappointed." Although not quite as disappointed, perhaps, as the teenage Twilight fans destined never to find a boyfriend who can fly and live forever.

Last night was the finale penultimate episode of The Hills' fourth season. There was a big departure and a big wedding. If you're curious about the dim proceedings, journey after the jump.

Adrian Grenier and Jessica Stam hosted Scott Harrison's third annual Charity: Water benefit last night at the Metropolitan Pavillion. Attendees at the event included Richie Rich, Olivia Palermo, Whitney Port, Byrdie Bell, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Rocco DiSpirito, Jenna Elfman, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Jamison Ernest, Cee-Lo, and models Larissa Bond and Masha Rudenko. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG]

Aside from the shoe thrower himself, the other victim of Sunday's shoe attack was White House press secretary Dana Perino, who returned to the White House yesterday with a black eye.

Slate columnist and randy ex-governor Eliot Spitzer showed up at a Slate party last night at—get ready for this, guys—Happy Ending, a former rub-'n-tug spot. Oh, you! Then he gave this soulful quote: