Here's your first look at what is expected to be Clint Eastwood's last performance, as a grizzled racist widower taking on an Asian gang in his forthcoming drama Gran Torino. The catch: He's defending an Asian family along with the rest of his quiet, diversifying neighborhood. At first rumored to be the capstone of the Dirty Harry franchise, Gran Torino's trailer instead hints at a kinder, gentler vigilante — a surly old coot whose prostate enlargement defers only to the growth of his chosen weapon from finger-pistol to rifle to the titular automobile itself, a washed-and-waxed piece of vintage American steel not so unlike the growling icon behind its wheel. Which isn't to say Gran Torino looks like it will make anyone forget the rogue San Francisco cop (though after 37 years, "Get off my lawn" is a clever enough permutation of "Do you feel lucky, punk?"), but it may provide just enough nostalgia to bring bullet-riddled closure you didn't even know you wanted. Check all the feel-good fascism after the jump. [YouTube]

FLASH: Original Blogger is 42 Years Young.... DEVELOPING [Wikipedia]

When Wall Street fails, Silicon Valley must step up. So goes the hubristic thinking here. Debt greases the wheels of commerce, and the sale of servers and software is no exception. And that part of the credit industry has hit a rough patch, too, with defaults on equipment loans nearly doubling in the past year. As with other credit markets, this had made traditional lenders nervous. So cash-rich tech companies are venturing into lending themselves. IBM has long had an in-house lending arm, with $24.5 billion in loans outstanding. Cisco lent $4 billion to customers last year. Even eBay is getting into the game through Bill Me Later; it acquired $550 million in consumer loans in conjunction with the purchase of the payments startup.We know how this ends — with tech-company shareholders footing the bill. Cisco wrote off $900 million in bad debt in 2001. It will surely claim to have learned its lessons since then. But as others rush in to help customers acquire their wares, some will surely get burnt. As will investors, who may think they're buying shares in a tech company, only to discover they've put money into a bank.

Peter Kafka is Kara Swisher's latest star hire at AllThingsD. She stole him from Silicon Alley Insider, where he worked with Henry Blodget. At SAI, Kafka always seemed to do fine without invoking the wisdom of the crowd. Why is Kara pushing him to go on and on about nothing? His first post was the standard Web 2.0 "Hello, world." His second takes 400 words to restate its own headline. Peter, here's my first and last free rewrite. Give me credit for not saying "Kafka-esque."

Page Six is reporting that somebody is going through celeb trash in order to "bare their secrets," such as the prescription for Mary Louise-Parker's thyroid medication. Surprisingly, that "someone" is not Page Six themselves. We have to congratulate the garbage trawler—that's great shoe-leather reporting. (Maybe it was Village Voice editor Tony Ortega—that's how he got his got his hot Harvey Weinstein scoop!) Since we sadly have a bit of experience in dumpstering, here's a how-to guide on finding interesting things in the trash—especially since the economy's going straight to hell and you might need to.

Ron Burkle, supermarket magnate and friend of Bill Clinton and sleeper-with of models, used to own a magazine, with his friend Yusef Jackson. The magazine was called Radar. Last Friday, Jackson and Burkle closed the magazine and sold its carcass to AMI. It's not really clear why Jackson and Burkle invested in Radar to begin with, except that they wanted to be media moguls, maybe? Then it turned out that being a media mogul doesn't mean publishing one sarcastic niche title, really. Burkle made his money with supermarkets. It is quite profitable, of course, to own all the supermarkets, because people need to eat. But, you know, it's not very glamorous! And Burkle enjoys flying around on his private jet with famous people, and globe trotting with politicians, and partying, and models. He likes models. One can enjoy this lifestyle with supermarket billions, but isn't it more fun to enjoy it with media holdings? So at some point he and Jackson decided to invest in Maer Roshan's crazy magazine about "pop and politics and pop culture and scandal and pop" or whatever the hell the tagline of Radar 3.0 was. And they gave him 15 issues to do with as he pleased, and he did eventually turn out a pretty good product. But the money wasn't there, because it was a new magazine, and there's not even money for old magazines anymore. And honestly it was probably not as exciting and fun to own a magazine as Burkle thought it would be! It's tough, because he also wanted to secretly own the magazine, and no one who secretly owns things gets the same pleasure Rupert Murdoch does from personally tearing up the Wall Street Journal and remaking it in his image. And Murdoch loves newspapers. There's really never been any evidence that Burkle loves magazines. Murdoch will take a loss for years on something like the New York Post. Burkle didn't give Roshan the five years he said it'd take to break even on Radar before he pulled the plug. Because if it's not subsidizing his lifestyle, it's not worth the cash. He's a capitalist, obviously, and Radar was not a charitable endeavor, but if we had his fortune we wouldn't mind wasting it on the talent Roshan brought together. Back to controlling distribution and sales of food! Unlike media, mac and cheese is recession-proof!

To anyone familiar with Elon Musk's brief, troubled career as CEO of PayPal, the troubles at Tesla Motors, his electric-car startup, seem all too predictable. As does his spin on his decision to lay off dozens of employees, close Tesla's Detroit office, postpone a new model, and replace Ze'ev Drori as CEO. Musk blames past CEOs — chiefly cofounder Martin Eberhard — for the company's current troubles.“It’s taken us about a year to correct major errors,” Mr. Musk told the New York Times. Eberhard has a snappy response: “Look at the constant factor at the company through all the years: Elon.” A history lesson from PayPal: Not until Peter Thiel replaced Musk as CEO, and he ceased day-to-day involvement with the company, did it thrive. (Photo by Peter DaSilva/New York Times)

Socialite novelist Tatiana Boncompagni (Gilding Lily) might write about frothy stuff like clothes and parties, but don't think she's sentimental when it comes to family: She's suing her sister Natasha over a forthcoming HarperCollins novel, Hedge Fund Wives, which Natasha apparently claimed co-authorship of following her "input" during the writing process. Tatiana has filed a copyright infringement suit—she says her sister secretly copied parts of the novel during family visits—and is asking for monetary damages as well as a court order declaring her sole author.

Low energy? Have a nutritious boost with this recipe for a Defamer Monday Morning Power-Up Smoothie: · 2 cups weak coffee · 47 hazelnut Coffee-Mate single servers · 128 Sweet n' Lo packets · Container of papaya yogurt with Post-It on it reading "Charlene's. DO NOT TOUCH." · Just the turkey slices from leftover platter of sandwiches · Petrified piece of Costco birthday cake · 1 scoop printer toner Pour all contents into paper shredder. Enjoy with a garnish of box office numbers, after the jump!1. High School Musical 3 - $42 million The biggest opening ever for a movie musical has Disney walking on air (and Vincente Minnelli spinning in his grave), as HSM's familiar cast of nonthreatening triple-threats successfully made the leap to the big screen. In the series's most mature storyline to date, the entire Wildcats team reveals that it's gay. East High's student body quickly rises to the occasion, however, mounting a bake sale to send their beloved basketball-dance team to the Teen Gay Olympics in Vienna, all of which culminates in the showstopper, "We're All in This Together (Lemon Bars For Change)." 2. Saw V - $30.5 million Saw lovers piled into theaters once again for the fifth installment of Lionsgate's Halloween tradition, though budget restrictions wouldn't allow for some of the series's more elaborate killing sequences. Instead, shots of Jigsaw riding his tricycle in front of a green screen were superimposed over stock footage of a pork slaughterhouse in Virginia, with V.O. of actors shouting, "Those aren't pigs! Those are human beings!" added later in post to enhance the chilling effect. Fans agreed it was the best installment yet. 3. Max Payne - $7.6 million Having virtually nothing left to say about Max Payne, we'll just point out that it took in an average of $2,248 per screen this weekend. By comparison, Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom—yet another cult cable show to make the leap to the big screen this weekend—took $32,200 per screen. The lesson? Gamers might be an obvious built-in audience, but never underestimate fans of a black, gay Sex and the City. (Even if the movie's title disturbingly recalls Gay Vito's savage demise). 4. Beverly Hills Chihuahua $6.916 million You know that scene where there's literally thousands of chihuahua extras dancing and singing in Oaxaca? Wagandstuff mounted all of them. 5. Pride & Glory - $6.325 million One thing is for certain in this gritty cop drama: Colin Farrell WILLNOTAPOLOGIZEFUHDOINWHATHEDO! Particularly if what he do is wander in and out of an unconvincing New York accent.

"At Seesmic, a video blogging service, the day of reckoning — when it runs out of the $6 million it raised in May — will come in three years. To make the money last, Loïc Le Meur, the chief executive, recently laid off seven employees, or one-third of his staff, and cut all projects not directly related to the video service." Great messaging, Loic. Now for the bad news: No video blogging service will get its picture in the NYT until Web 3.0.

♦ Campbell Brown is reportedly pregnant. [TVNewser]
♦ Arianna Huffington and Tina Brown aren't in competition. They're best friends! [NYT]
♦ The Robb Report is on the market. The price? "Upwards of $100 million." [Folio]
♦ NBC has exiled the struggling Lipstick Jungle to Friday nights. [Variety]
♦ CNN's new (and appallingly unfunny) political humor show starring D.L. Hughley debuted this past weekend. [NYT]

I've always thought Scribd, the online document-posting startup, was set up mostly so its investors had an excuse to throw parties. They may not have that excuse much longer, if FuckedStartup's report that Scribd is running out of money is accurate. At a time when any number of startups are running out of money, why fret about Scribd's bank-account balance? Because Scribd was manufactured in angel investor Paul Graham's Y Combinator startup factory.Graham, who sold a company to Yahoo in the '90s, had become microfamous for Y Combinator, which provided both a social club and seed-stage funding. The summer (and winter) camp for young entrepeneurs spun off any number of companies, which then got venture-capital financing, and then a quick exit courtesy of Google or Yahoo's shareholders. In the bubbly years when Yahoo and Google were snapping up startups freely, Y Combinator's offspring thrived, or appeared to thrive. Got an online PowerPoint clone? Google will buy it! Graham still seems to be living in his someone-will-buy-it dreamland; he recently proposed that companies hire "chief acquisition officers," to specialize in consuming the fare he dishes out. But the giants of the Web have put acquisitions on hold, and few others are stepping up to the plate. Is Scribd, once described as Graham's "greatest success," in trouble? We don't know that for sure. We do know that hiring 20 people to create software that lets people post PDF documents to the Web always seemed silly. Having a cocky 20something Harvard grad as CEO may work for Facebook, but we don't think Trip Adler is the next Mark Zuckerberg. But Scribd itself isn't the real story. It's whether Paul Graham's magical startup machine is grinding to a halt.

While it is a joyous event that comedians Amy Poehler and Will Arnett delivered their first child, Archibald, over the weekend, we recognize that this development has some downsides, too (though perhaps not the ones implied by the above "circle of child life and death" feature that is currently gracing the front page of Yahoo!). For starters, this marks Poehler's end on Saturday Night Live, as the new mother will be segueing to her still-untitled NBC sitcom after some well-deserved maternity leave. Just as devastating: Poehler's unplanned absence from this week's live taping of SNL forced the audience to sit through a third, hastily scheduled Coldplay performance. Still, at least Poehler ducked out before she had to take part in the painful Barack Obama skit that Lorne Michaels pointlessly lured Maya Rudolph back for. Take a look, after the jump:Click to view

Billionaire Carl Icahn has said he's selling his 177-foot yacht for $37.5 million to trade up to an even bigger boat. Well, this might just be a the bargain he's looking for: Saddam Hussein's former palace at sea, the Basra Breeze, is now on sale for $31 million. That's not all that much money considering the 272-foot vessel is bulletproof, comes with its own operating room, is fitted with surface-to-air missiles, and has enough china to serve dinner to 200 guests. The bad news? "The décor is a monument to 1980s bad taste," and it will probably cost another $30 million to refurbish. [Times UK]

What is the saddest thing about the death of Radar? Its current weird zombie TMZ state? The way they locked everyone out of their computers and kicked them out on the streets? Here is a sad and oh-so-poignant symbol of how basically we are all fucked, in this industry: Wonkette founding editor and terribly famous, talented, and successful blogger Ana Marie Cox, who is often on TV and who still writes for Time, has set up a personal fundraising drive whereby donors can pay for her to cover the end of the McCain campaign and receive, in exchange, AMC's AIM screen name and, for big spenders, a post-election dinner! This is, appropriately enough, a political fundraising method, where donors get special access and personal attention for their cash. All it is missing is cute names for each tier, like Bush's "Rangers" and Hillary Clinton's "Hillraisers." As a model for the future of professional journalism, it is perhaps worrying! But you know we're all "marketing" our "personal brands," right? Now we are microtargeting, too. And once we are finally out of work, when Nick Denton decamps to his secret underground fortress to ride out the End Times, we will gladly email you, personally, 200 words on why Rachel Maddow is so popular in exchange for a hamburger. But who will donate to the commenters? The system is unsustainable!

Once upon a time if a reality TV star was lucky enough to be granted a full 15 minutes of fame, he or she would grab every single money-making opportunity, regardless of where it came from. But Christian Siriano, the diminutive winner of Project Runway season 4, catchphrase coiner, and assymmetric haircut standard-bearer, represents a new breed: He's not for sale to just anyone. Well, not quite.

Last's night's Mad Men season finale took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but the real action was happening to the AMC series' gorgeous and successful women. While the men of Mad Men cower in their apartments, bang tables in anger and hide under desks, the women have taken center stage to become the show's centerpiece. Yes, Mad Men has stopped living up to its title, and might deserve a new one for its third season.For show creator Matthew Weiner, nothing screams feminism like the raging hormones of a woman with child. He describes how the pregnancy of Betty Draper (January Jones) affects the character's growth:

This year's Celebelection™ cycle reached its otherworldly apex over the weekend when hard-hitting Extra pundit Mario Lopez grilled Barack Obama for his takes on the senator's ailing grandmother (hint: sad) and the tragedy afflicting Jennifer Hudson's family (hint: still sad). Clearly there's something missing from the clip passed along to us — perhaps Obama's official reaction to John McCain's post-debate grabassery, or more important yet, his take on the diplomatic crisis befalling The View — but with any luck, Lopez's searing third-degree will be restored in time for the show's broadcast tonight. An entertained America is an educated America. [Extra]

While many turned to Google to learn about Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, others reportedly accessed personal information about him from Ohio government computers.

We've been dedicated to the idea that Details is in fact a gay magazine for some time, and more proof has arrived. Earlier this month we reported that the men's magazine sold its subscriber list to the gay themed Advocate, and now there's further evidence:Our tipster subscribes to magazines under different names to see who's selling their subscribers list where, and he received this solicitation in the mail: