• Tyra Banks took the stand to testify against accused stalker Brady Green yesterday and explained how she's had to hire a bodyguard and driver as a result of the incident. She also said she's no longer jogging outside and has been forced to hire a personal trainer, but we're pretty sure she had one of those long before Green came along. [NYDN, NYP]
• After 13 years of marriage, Sean Penn has filed for legal separation from wife Robin, news that may not come as a huge surprise given his long list of rumored paramours, including Petra Nemcova, Helena Christensen, Ines Misan, Naomi Campbell and Natalie Portman. [P6, People, Extra]
• Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts' son, Sasha, was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday night for respiratory issues. [People]
• Madonna supposedly wants a summer house in the Hamptons. But she can't find a place willing to put up with her horse-related demands. [P6]
• Meanwhile, baby Mercy's 24-year-old father is demanding full custody of his daughter, since Madonna lacks "good morals." [NYP]

It looks like Bruce Wasserstein's Lazard pulled off the deal of the century. It actually found someone to pay cash money for a piece of Bernie Madoff's investment firm. Boston-based Castor Pollux Securities will pay between $500,000 and $15.5 million for Madoff's market-making business, depending on whether it ever makes any money again. [Bloomberg, NYT]

Barack Obama's people might throw East Coast media elite parties at the Four Seasons, but they totally make up for it with that penny-pinching cabinet member from Kansas.

• Bruce Wasserstein has been keeping busy. In between splitting up with his third wife and marrying his fourth, he found the time to have a baby with a recent Columbia Business School grad, with whom he's now sharing custody of a 10-month-old girl. [P6]
• The LAPD have launched an investigation into who leaked a confidential photo of a battered and bruised Rihanna to TMZ. [TMZ, E!]
• Whitney Port said this week that Olivia Palermo can be "very difficult to worth with," and that she occasionally wants to "slap her." Join the club. [AH]
• Madonna is reportedly planning to use the Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday to introduce Jesus Luz to the world as her new boyfriend. [OK!]
• Portia De Rossi is reportedly preparing to undergo IVF so she and Ellen DeGeneres can have a baby. [SFGate]

GQ held its second annual "Best New Menswear Designer in America" competition last night in conjunction witht he CFDA. Finalists like Andre "3000" Benjamin, David Mullen, Alex Carleton, Robert Geller, Sam Shipley, Jeff Halmos, and Yigal Azrouel were joined by guests like Tommy Hilfiger, Fern Mallis (left), Thom Browne, Jim Nelson, Kelly Cutrone, Phillip Lim, Derek Lam, Peter Som, Rory Tahari, Chase Crawford, Steven Kolb, Ally Hilfiger, Fonzworth Bentley, David Chu, Ryan Leslie, David Lauren, Katie Lee Joel, Glenn O'Brien, Steven Alan, Calvin Klein mens creative director Italo Zucchelli, GQ publisher Peter Hunsinger, and last year's winner, Daiki Suzuki. [PMc, NYO, FWD]

Now that the secret is out, it looks like Bruce Wasserstein and new wife Angela Chao are happy to hit the town and pose for photographers. The happy couple made their first public appearance together at Elaine's last night, turning up at Interview's party honoring Patrick McMullan. And Bruce even ditched his tie for the occasion, which suggests Chao's youthfulness is already having an effect on the 61-year-old financier/media mogul. We'll just have to hope it stops there and we don't see him dressed in tight jeans and studded tees anytime soon.

Who's the lucky bride distracting 61-year-old billionaire New York owner Bruce Wasserstein from the troubles of the media business? She's Angela Chao, a politically connected 35-year-old shipping magnate.

Page Six reported today that billionaire financier (and New York owner) Bruce Wasserstein celebrated his fourth marriage a couple of weeks ago when he tied the knot with a "much younger Asian woman." So who is the "mystery bride"? We hear from a reliable source she's Angela Chao, the younger sister of Elaine Chao, who served as Labor Secretary in the Bush administration. Chao is 35, which makes her a bit young for Bruce. (He's 26 years her senior.) But she's clearly very smart—she graduated Harvard in three years and attended Harvard Business School—and probably very financially savvy, too: Chao worked in Smith Barney's investment banking division before joining her father's Foremost Group, which has interests in shipping, international trade and finance. The only downside we can think of: Unlike Bruce, she's a registered Republican.

Being a media mogul can get tiring. Could the news that New York magazine owner Bruce Wasserstein is marrying a younger woman signal a bit of loss of interest in his marriage to the magazine?

• Bruce Wasserstein tied the knot with a "much younger Asian woman" two weekends ago, although details about the billionaire's new bride remain scarce. [P6]
• Alex Rodriguez is jealous and embarrassed that Madonna has been spending so much time with 22-year-old model Jesus Luz, since it makes him look like he got "dumped for a younger stud." [NYDN]
• The City's Jay Lyon—who was named Brent Tuhton until he changed it—has scored a record contract with Universal. [P6]
• Could Mark Badgley and James Mischka really be breaking up? Who is going to design our Oscar gown? [NYDN]

New York magazine has dropped columnist Kurt Andersen, reports FWD. Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with the layoffs last month or the salary cuts reported earlier today, which the mag's publicity chief, Serena Torrey, tells FWD weren't really cuts: Staffers are actually going to make more money now, she says. Good, because Bruce Wasserstein can clearly afford it! [FWD]

It can't be fun to have your birthday fall on Christmas, although if you're Jewish—like youthful financier/media mogul Bruce Wasserstein who will be celebrating his 61st birthday tomorrow—we're not sure it matters much. Others who can proudly proclaim they were born the same day as Jesus: Republican sorcerer Karl Rove is turning 58. Helena Christensen will be 40. Annie Lennox is turning 54. Dido is turning 37. Jimmy Buffett will be 62. Literary agent Esther Newberg will be 67. And artist Louise Bourgeois will be celebrating her 97th birthday.

• President Bush announced a rescue plan for General Motors and Chrysler that will provide $13.4 billion in federal loans. [CNN]
• Jamie Dimon and Bob Rubin will go bonus-less this year. [Reuters]
• Not surprisingly, Credit Suisse's plan to pay out bonuses with "toxic" securities has "elicited livid reactions from senior bankers." [WSJ]
• A former Lehman employee has been charged with insider trading. [CNN]
• One person who will profit from the Madoff mess: Bruce Wasserstein. Lazard has been appointed to sell the trading operations of Madoff's company. [WSJ]
• There are two—yes, two—books already in the works about Madoff. [TBS]

William Cohan, the banker-turned-author who published The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co. last year, has a few details on just how much Bruce Wasserstein's investment banking firm is making off the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. For advising Bryan Marsal, the turnaround guru who is now running what's left of Lehman, Lazard is collecting $400,000 a month for the next two years (and then $150,000 a month thereafter). But there's more: Lazard is also getting a $5 million fee for the week's worth of work it did in September advising Lehman on the sale of its headquarters at 750 Seventh Avenue to Barclays. Wasserstein is also expected to receive another $5 million for its efforts to sell Lehman's investment-management businesses, including Neuberger Berman. And there's good reason to assume that Wasserstein is sitting back right now smiling at his current circumstances, says Cohan:

It looks like the Yellowstone isn't the only members-only club having a hard time making ends meet in these precarious economic times. Founding members of the Core Club, the VIP hangout on East 55th Street founded by Jennie Saunders, have been warned that they may not get back the $100,000 they invested in the club when it first opened in 2005.

Important item: Has billionaire Lazard chairman Bruce Wasserstein, the owner of New York magazine, had some plastic surgery? Cityfile thinks so, after examining a current photo vs. one from two years ago. Then again, two years ago Wasserstein was rumored to be seriously ill. So maybe he just got over that? And is it really worth spending all that money to get plastic surgery when you're already 60 and married and not prowling the clubs for hot young things? I guess if you're a billionaire, you can do what you like, thank you. Click to enlarge the pic. [via Cityfile]

Bruce Wasserstein might be looking better than ever these days, but Lazard employees won't get to admire Bruce's new visage in the warm glow of Christmas: The firm has cancelled its holiday party! [Dealbreaker]

We hadn't seen Bruce Wasserstein—billionaire financier, Lazard chairman, owner of New York magazine—for quite some time until he made this appearance yesterday at a breakfast for Fortune. We're very happy to see he appears to be keeping up New York's "Best Doctors" issue: The new Bruce is trimmer, his skin looks is taut and smooth, and those unsightly bags under his eyes have completely vanished. We don't know who deserves the credit for this impressive transformation (Sherrell? Dan? Pat?), but whoever it is, please know that we fully approve of Bruce 2.0!

Steve Schwarzman's 60th birthday party last year may go down as the last, great party before the fall. Days after closing on what was then the biggest leveraged buyout in history, the $39 billion purchase of Equity Office Properties, the billionaire chairman of the Blackstone Group invited 500 people to the Armory on Park Avenue for a party that cost an estimated $3 million. A very long list of notables turned up—Donald Trump, Barbara Walters, Barry Diller, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon—as did many of the people who have now become poster boys for the global financial crisis, like former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal, ex-Bear Stearns chief Jimmy Cayne. Rod Stewart was paid $1 million to perform for the assembled guests; Patti LaBelle sang "Happy Birthday." And the room was designed to replicate Schwarzman's $40 million co-op at 740 Park Avenue. So does Schwarzman have any regrets now the economy has crumbled and he was depicted as a real-life Gordon Gekko in the relentless press coverage that followed?

♦ The Fed is expected to cut interest rates again today, possibly to as low as 1 percent. [WSJ]
♦ The White House is pushing banks to stop hoarding the bailout billions and start making more loans. [AP]
♦ George Soros says the number of hedge funds "will be reduced in size by anywhere between half and two thirds" over the next few years. [Reuters]
♦ GMAC, which is controlled by GM and Steve Feinberg's Cerberus Capital, is now looking to become a bank holding company so it can tap into the $700 billion bailout pool. [WSJ]
♦ Credit card crunch: Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008. [NYT]