Ethan Hawke walking with wife Ryan Shawhughes and his three kids ... Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey getting out of their Maybach ... a cheery-looking James Franco holding a notebook and cup of coffee ... Diane Kruger hailing a cab ... Steven Tyler dressed in leopard pants outside the Trump International Hotel ... Bill Murray leaving a store with a woman ... Katie Holmes shopping with Suri and her parents ... Rihanna and Chris Brown catching a flight at LaGuardia ... Ashley Tisdale holding hands with her boyfriend at JFK ... and Amy Poehler, Cameron Diaz, and Casey Affleck heading into the SNL afterparty.

Wandering the set of the Today Show this morning, manic actor Tom Cruise tried to live down his 2005 "glib" outburst and reminds us why live TV is not his friend.

Bedbugs aren't just for dirty hovels like Fox News and hipster Bushwick. The filthy bloodsuckers have allegedly infested the very flower of our national womanhood—the offices of Marie Claire:

Have you started handing out Christmas gratuities yet? Were you tempted to give less than last year on account of the economy? The Times reports today on the effect the recession is having on the people who depend on cash-stuffed envelopes this time of year, like doormen, building supers, housekeepers, and nannies. Many New Yorkers, not surprisingly, report that they plan to be less generous than in previous years, although they also fret about the consequences of giving less. ("Will their packages be signed for when they are not home? Will their guests be dropped off at the right floor? Will they have to wait while someone else's toilet is unclogged before theirs is?")

It's become an integral part of modern life: You experience a random physical symptom—a headache, say, or a muscle twitch, or a rash—and whereas in those prelapsarian days before the internet, it might have preoccupied you briefly then disappeared before you'd even gotten around to calling a doctor, now a quick Google search will diagnose it as the first sign of a devastating, and terminal, disease. Cyberchondria is epidemical, a new study reveals, which is not surprising given that web searches tend to offer the impression that rare, fatal illnesses are afflicting people like colds and flus.

Listen, kids: Your dream of growing up to be a famous hockey goon and Vogue intern can all be scuttled by obliquely referring to Elisha Cuthbert as a cum dumpster. Sean Avery has fallen!

There was a bit of good news last week for Stan O'Neal, the former Merrill Lynch CEO who was ousted last year: It was reported that O'Neal was "poised to make a reappearance on Wall Street" with a new job at a hedge fund called Vision Capital Advisors. But there was another, less positive development for O'Neal last week as well. On Friday, O'Neal handed over full ownership of his duplex co-op at 941 Park Avenue to his wife, Nancy Garvey, a property worth as much as $20 million. Why the transfer? O'Neal has been named as a defendant in a series of class-action lawsuits against Merrill, which have accused him of misleading investors about the firm's exposure to risky mortgage investments; moving assets out of his name could be a way to shield them in the event a court eventually awards damages. But the move could also suggest that the couple is in the process of dividing up their assets as part of a divorce proceeding. We'll let you know if we hear more. In the meantime, the apartment transfer document is below.

[Actress Katie Holmes leaving the Broadway theatre where she's performing these days, daughter Suri (perpetually done up like a Victorian doll) in tow; image via INF]

• David Ratcliffe, the CEO of Southern Company, the fourth-largest utility company in the U.S., has paid $2.075 million for a two-bedroom pied-à-terre at 7 Wooster Street. [Cityfile]
• Samir Billan, the owner of the Upper East Side French-restaurant Michelle's Kitchen, has sold his 17th floor apartment in the Rupert Towers on Third Avenue for $1.7 million. [Cityfile]
• Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen appear to be one step closer to building their dream house in LA. They've closed on the purchase of a 3.6-acre vacant lot of land in Brentwood—which they were first rumored to be buying in August—for $11.75 million. [BTL]

Today we have a cheating TV actor, a dirty talking athlete, and a drunken young actor who got a speeding ticket while driving a car that didn't actually belong to him.

The week between Christmas and New Year's, that fallow time when nothing much happens, will this year sparkle with a cultural event certain to unite us all. Yes, December 29th is the launch of MTV's The City, Whitney Port's Hills spinoff in which she works at Diane von Furstenberg, hangs out with Olivia Palermo, and dates some fame-hungry singer dude whose Australian accent may or may not be interfering with everyone's gaydar.

You're having difficulty making ends meet in these challenging economic times. You've got bills to pay. And you're not sure how you're going to come up with the cash to, say, go on vacation or have that plastic surgery procedure you've been thinking about. What to do? Maybe you'll find some inspiration in the story of Sonia Ringoir: The 31-year-old Belgian woman was so determined to have liposuction, she sold off her newborn twins for $15,000. [Times UK]

Tony-winning director Julie Taymor is 56 today. Actor Stuart Townsend (otherwise known as Mr. Charlize Theron) is 36. Adam Brody, who starred in The OC, is 29. Virginia's former governor and now Senator-elect, Mark Warner, is turning 54. And Don Johnson is 59 today.

• Sean Avery may be spending a lot more time in New York in the near future: Hockey's preeminent bad boy has been cut loose by the Dallas Stars just 23 games into a four-year contract. [NYP]
• Jennifer Aniston was supposedly so desperate to have a boyfriend during the promotional tour for Marley & Me that her camp started "shopping for potential dates." [P6]
• David Paterson was not at all pleased with the impression of him on SNL this weekend. [NYP]
• Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber had a second son on Saturday. [People, E!]

• Tina Fey agreed to be Lorne Michaels' awkward circus monkey at gathering of Albany lawmakers discussing TV production tax credits. "She seemed incredibly uncomfortable... Someone said, ‘Do a Sarah Palin!' and she did a Sarah Palin." Cringe. [NYM]

President Bush shrugged off an Iraqi reporter's shoe attack (reaction video after the jump), but the incident raises an obvious question: Who'd imagine it would be so easy to lob things at the president?

• The list of companies, charities and individuals who lost massive sums in connection with Bernie Madoff continues to grow: Mort Zuckerman, Elie Wiesel, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and a charity tied to Steven Spielberg are just a few of the latest victims. [WSJ, NYT]
• Many of Madoff's victims were located in Palm Beach, where the mood is especially grim as wealthy retirees account for their losses. [NYT, WSJ]
• The Madoff saga isn't the only outrageous scheme to have been revealed in recent days, of course. The Times' report over the weekend on how Marc Dreier duped the likes of Sheldon Solow and the bank Perella Weinberg. [NYT]

It's very logical and very sad: Publication shut-downs and layoffs are coming so quickly they can only be effectively tracked at 140 characters or less, on Twitter.

Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman is the latest billionaire revealed to have fallen prey to ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. How many of Rupert Murdoch's papers does it take to cover the story?

For weeks, the Anna Wintour rumors coming out of Condé Nast concerned the Vogue queen's failures and purportedly impending departure. Now someone is spreading word about the Dear Editor's glorious success. Hmm.