Shitty economic times are a shitty time to launch a startup, Nonsociety's Julia Allison has probably found. Maybe that's why she's been publicly contemplating getting her MBA (Harvard or Stanford, please!) which is the classic career-crisis move. She's obviously stressed and cracking up a bit (we hear that Eater's Ben Leventhal, who she's been trying to date despite his status as a player, caused her to leave a College Humor party in tears on Saturday night). A post last week about how she recently updated her "ex" files is a sign of a deeper problem. But Allison has always been proud to call herself an early adopter, whether it be of lifestreaming or Tumbling or the like. Maybe her personal job crisis is our crisis, too! In fact, we have some advice for her.

We gratuitously mocked Times columnist Nick Kristof's Twitter feed last week. But the truth is that he's in good company. Lots of big-shot media people—including many Gawker "favorites"!—have Twitters, despite the fact that Twitter is proven to destroy journalism. We haven't been paying enough attention to their various tweets about this and that. After the jump, we condense the offering of five famous media twits into bite-sized packages:

Hollywood PrivacyWatch: 12/6 — I was at the Griddle on Sunset on Saturday morning and got seated next to FRED SAVAGE. He was sitting with a super-skinny girl who had two oversized pancakes on her plate while he was eating a tiny salad. Probably appropriately so, as he's packed on a few pounds since the days of kissing Winnie. Was talking super-loud about a new comedy project he's involved with and taking notes on a notepad. He seemed sweet. When he saw me eyeing the woman's pancakes, he said I should bypass my order and eat her leftovers instead. I passed. [Hollywood PrivacyWatch is written by and for Defamer readers; send your sightings to tips@defamer.com.]

Supposedly, Governor Paterson is going to appoint Caroline Kennedy to serve the remainder of Hillary Clinton's Senate term. Caroline Kennedy is basically the only Kennedy left who everyone likes.We like her, don't you? The lady Kennedys have historically been much more tolerable than the men Kennedys of course, and now all we have left of them anyway are smug RFK Jr and sad old Ted and some drunk kids and, uh, Patrick Kennedy. So Caroline: the Kennedy it's still cool to like! Unless you're Hillary Clinton.

[Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes promoting a movie in Germany; image via Splash]

Hugh Hefner's daughter Christie is stepping down as chairman and CEO of Playboy after 20 years. As a protest against the objectification of women. Ha, no, really it's cause nekkid girls come for free on computers now. [Folio]

As hinted at two weeks ago and confirmed Sunday, director Catherine Hardwicke is done with the Twilight franchise, leaving a giant "Help Wanted" sign around the blockbuster's swoony, more wolfy sequel New Moon barely a year before its studio hopes to rush it into theaters. No problem, though — after a helpful consultation with Defamer HR, producers should be able to lock up a qualified helmer by the end of the business day.

Gallerist Larry Gagosian may have to turn to the heavens above to help him sell overpriced art, since it appears his staff isn't getting the job done, at least judging by the memo he sent out to Gagosian Gallery employees in recent weeks. "If you would like to continue working for Gagosian I suggest you start to sell some art... The luxury of carrying under-performing employees is now a thing of the past." [Intelligent Life via Gawker]

Michael Hirsh has a question: where is Joseph Stiglitz? Well, he's in Brazil or something, but where is he in the Obama administration? The liberal Nobel-winning economist, who will be forever in our hearts for the animosity between him and Larry Summers, was right about basically everything, of course, and the Obama administration hasn't even called him, going with Tim Geithner and Summers instead. Now all the whiny liberals are whining about how there are no liberals in the Obama cabinet!

Sorry fans of a rakish and sexually conquering Robert Pattinson. Those Facebook messages in which the swoony, lean Twilight hunk talks about bedding his costar Kristen Stewart aren't from Pattinson. Well, they are real Facebook messages, but they're not Rob's. Ben Coles, who initiated the conversation about the young Stewart, called us up and told us that while he thought he was corresponding with Pattinson at the time, he's since learned he was the victim of some chicanery perpetrated by the person known on Facebook as Randle Patrick McMurphy:

Hey, one more ominous day in the increasingly ominous life of the New York Times Co. The fact that the Times Co. announced plans to mortgage or sell its fancy headquarters building on the same day that the Tribune Co. took a step towards bankruptcy is really bad karma. Check this out, people: The New York Times Co. will eventually go bankrupt if it does not make a drastic change. No amount of fanboy love for Frank Rich or outcry from the journalism establishment will change this fact. Who will step in with a plan to save the paper of record? We will, improbably!

We've reported on a number of companies (Citigroup, Travelers, Bristol-Myers) that have been looking to unload their expensive corporate jets in recent weeks as the U.S. heads into a deep recession. Dan Loeb, the prickly hedge fund manager best known for castigating CEOs for their profligate spending, demonstrates another path to reducing costs in these challenging economic times: He's renting his plane out to other people. Yes, for $5,800 an hour, you can take 12 of your closest friends for a ride on Loeb's Gulfstream IV-SP, a fact you'll be reminded of every time you look out of the window since the "TP" stamped on the tail reflects the name of his hedge fund, Third Point. (You can contact Key Air if you're interesting in making a reservation.) After the jump, a few photos of the interior and the creamy leather seats where Loeb sits in front of his laptop and drafts those vicious letters of his.

Andre Balazs may be having trouble filling rooms at his collection of boutique hotels and his Standard NYC will open this week without a lucrative bar or room service operation in place, but it seems he's come up with a new way to keep the cash flowing: He's unveiled a series of limited-edition Standard T-shirts. Balazs commissioned three artists to design the $55 tees, and they're now on sale in the lobby of his hotels as well as on the Standard website. [notcot.com]

Cindy Adams, Page Six's also-ran aging gossipeuse, got scooped about ten years ago by the internet, but hasn't let it stop her or slow her. No, she's pressing on, writing columns about topics like the weather today and her insidious celebrity gambling problem. It's true! She has so many famous friends and so many dark impulses to throw her money down a well of anxiety and despair. And she's not betting on ponies. No, she's wagering on strange, ineffable things. Like home repair and Broadway musicals.

Everyone knows that girls can't metabolize their alcohol like boys! That's why they're always staggering out of Mansion at 4 a.m., vomiting, crying, and curling up on the sidewalk like baby deer. In the last ten years, the ones who didn't drink much are now drinking, and the ones who already drank are drinking more, reports New York Mag. Their article on women and drinking is basically a public service announcement: What is happening to America's girls?

Our (self-described) "ruthless" overlord Nick Denton has gone on record predicting "a decline of up to 40% in advertising spending during this cycle." Thousands of media jobs have already been lost due to low ad revenues, and major ad agencies are predicted to be making large layoffs in January. And, of course, everyone is "terrified" that the collapse of the auto industry will hammer the ad industry in its wake. So how do the newly-released forecasts for ad spending next year look? Pretty optimistic, all things considered:

Neither the White House nor Barbra Streisand were much inclined to release a proper photo of the beloved entertainer kissing beloved soon-to-be-former president Bush at the Kennedy Center Honors yesterday, so America will have to make due with these scattered pictures of the smiles they left behind. [Update: You can no cllick to watch the video!] The singer's name itself has long been shorthand for everything wrong and out-of-touch about Hollywood Liberals, while Bush is, as we all know, like Hitler but worse. How much worse? Oh, it's all too painful to remember. Good thing we can just look up some of her best anti-Bush statements on the Google and present them to you, below.

Remember when you were in like sixth grade and your teacher asked you to read Number the Stars and you quietly thought to yourself, "jeez Louise, how many of these Holocaust books are there?" and then you felt terrible and never said anything to anyone? Well I do, and Page Six certainly does! They did a bit today about how there are just so many Holocaust movies this winter. There are a lot!

♦ The Tribune Co. is now hovering dangerously close to bankruptcy. [NYT]
♦ Media companies have let 30,000 people go thus far this year. [AdAge]
♦ Christie Hefner is stepping down as CEO of Playboy. [Bloomberg]
♦ It's now official: David Gregory is the new host of Meet the Press. [NYT]
♦ The New York Times Co. says it plans to borrow $225 million against the value of its new office building to "ease a potential cash flow squeeze." [NYT]
♦ More on the changes to NBC's executive ranks last week. [Variety]
♦ Ad agencies are bracing for a round of deep cost cuts. [NYP]
♦ Wowowow.com, the site featuring writing by the likes of Liz Smith and Lesley Stahl, has raised $1.5 million from Bob Pittman, among others. [NYP]
♦ Four Christmases was No. 1 at the box office this weekend for a second week in a row. [Reuters]

Maggie Gyllenhaal shopping in the West Village ... Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson saying goodbye to Charlotte Ronson outside the Bowery Hotel ... Gisele Bundchen leaving lunch at Extra Virgin on West 4th Street ... Naomi Watts with a friend outside Think Coffee on the Bowery ... Joan Cusack crossing the street ... Katie Holmes leaving her Village apartment, and later shopping with Suri at FAO Schwartz ... Robert Buckley walking in the East Village ... Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr heading to the Gossip Girl holiday party at Haven on East 51st ... Victoria Beckham leaving the Donna Karan store in the meatpacking district, and later heading to dinner at Nobu.