• Anita Lo hopes to re-open her fire-damaged Annisa next month. [TONY]
• Closings: Frederick Lesort's Frederick's Downtown closed up shop last Friday; and the UWS outpost of Blondies has been shuttered by the tax cops.
• Frank Bruni shares his thoughts on Bastianich and Batali's Casa Mono. [NYT]
• A rooftop beer garden called Berry Park is coming soon to Williamsburg. [UD]
• The Eldridge had to do some renovations after a vandalism incident. [DBTH]
• The city is looking to support aspiring chefs by turning a 4,000-square-foot space in Harlem into a big kitchen for foodie entrepreneurs. [NYT]
• The boost its bottom line and make employees more "productive," Starbucks is now looking to limit unnecessary "walking, reaching, and bending." [WSJ]
• Tom Colicchio and wife Lori Silverbush welcomed a son into the world on Saturday. He's named Luka Bodhi Colicchio, in case you're wondering. [People]

Dennis Hof sure is a generous man. The owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Nevada plans to offer hundreds of elected politicians across the country a little pick-me-up with a "government assistance program," which involves him mailing out what he calls "good time party passes" to every senator, congressman and governor in America.

If you missed out on the chance to brag to all your friends that you fell victim to a Ponzi scheme targeted to high net-worth individuals, you may still get to see your name appear on a list of really rich people who now find themselves in a world of trouble.

Hope you don't injury yourself or have to go to the hospital for some reason. A new study indicates that the average waiting time at emergency rooms in New York—288 minutes, or nearly five hours—is among the longest in the country. [Crain's]

• Keith Olbermann took Times reporter Brian Stelter to task last night for reporting that News Corp. and GE had worked out a deal to tone down the rhetoric between MSNBC and Fox News. But he didn't disagree with everything Stelter reported. Conveniently, only the bad stuff about him was wrong. [NYM]
• More bad news for Olbermann: MSNBC now admits it made a mistake by not disclosing that Countdown fixture Richard Wolffe is a paid lobbyist. Naturally, Olbermann had absolutely no idea about any of this. [Politico, Salon]
• Condé Nast is shedding more staff. This time around it appears the media giant's receptionists will be paying the ultimate price. [Gawker, NYM]
• Reps for Bruce Wasserstein met with BusinessWeek execs yesterday to discuss a bid for the magazine. Joe Mansueto, the founder of Morningstar and owner of Fast Company, may be a potential bidder as well. [BW]

The only moneymaking scheme better than the one Bernie Madoff operated for two decades (if only because it's perfectly legal): the one that Madoff court-appointed trustee Irving Picard is now running. Picard's firm is charging $1 million a week to disassemble Madoff's investment firm and is stands to collect as much as $250 million when all is said and done. [NYP]

"I saw Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump having lunch today at the '21' Club," a tipster tells us. "They were with two other people. Not sure who the others were." The tipster didn't see them sipping champagne either, but the couple certainly has plenty to celebrate. Not only did Ivanka break the news on Twitter a couple of weeks ago that Jared had proposed, late last night she sent around word that she and her dad have retaken control of Trump Entertainment Resorts, the string of casinos in Atlantic City that filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year. Fitting they decided to eat at a restaurant with "21" in the name, don't you think?

Willingness to get very, very close to your subjects a plus, too. [Mediabistro]

Bill Clinton came through. Last night the former president jetted off to North Korea to negotiate the releases of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two journalists who have been imprisoned since March after they were accused of crossing over into North Korean territory without permission. Now they'll be going home. Kim Jong-Il has issued a "special pardon" and agreed to release them. [Reuters]

Kimora Lee Simmons owns the word "fabulosity." (Really, she does.) The definition, though, appears to have changed a bit. Back when the going was good, such fabulosity might have included a Perrier-Jouët champagne pedicure. Now? "Fabulosity is being able to buy an outfit for under $100," she explains WWD. Fortunately, her attorney appears to be one step ahead of her. In addition to "mesh shopping bags" and "imitation leather key chains," in the future she will also be free to stamp the "Fabulosity" name on such items as "vinyl and leather pouches for holding disposable bags to place pet waste in."

When Goldman Sachs' chief mouthpiece told us a couple of weeks ago that no one at the bank would be permitted to celebrate the firm's blockbuster second quarter, he wasn't kidding. The Post reports today that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, has instructed all employees of the firm "to avoid making big-ticket, high-profile purchases."

Sienna Miller stepping out of the Gramercy Park Hotel ... Jonah Hill leaving the Bowery Hotel ... Adam Brody and Jessica Szohr leaving dinner at Cafeteria in Chelsea ... Hilary Duff filming scenes for Gossip Girl in SoHo ... Rihanna arriving at the 34th Street Heliport ... Lou Reed eating breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien in the West Village ... Jennifer Aniston walking downtown ... Snoop Dogg arriving at the Trump International Hotel ... Julia Roberts shooting scenes for Eat, Pray, Love in the East Village ... Channing Tatum and wife Jenna Dewan posing for photographs outside their hotel ... Shia LaBeouf walking by himself in SoHo ... and Drew Barrymore hiding her face from photographers after eating lunch at the Bowery Hotel.

It's only been a week since Janice Min actually exited Us Weekly. So how's it going now that the magazine's longtime editor-in-chief has left the building and the tabloid's No. 2, Michael Steele, is in charge? Judging by the fact Us is now soliciting cover ideas from its Twitter followers, we're going to say things could be going better. [Twitter]

You probably don't even notice when you get into a cab and the driver is breezily chatting away with his wife in Queens or his cousin in Dhaka, but he could be putting your life in danger. According to a survey by the National Highway Transportation Board, drivers who talk on the phone are four times as likely to cause a car crash. But good luck trying to get your cell phone-happy driver to put down his phone and focus on getting you to your destination in one piece.

If you walked down West 18th Street this morning and you saw a long line of women standing outside the Metropolitan Pavilion dressed in outfits from 1999 (or crouched on the ground applying makeup), it's because producers of the Sex and the City sequel are holding an open casting call for extras until 4pm today:

Famed architect Charles Gwathmey died yesterday at the age of 71. The cause was esophageal cancer, according to his stepson. [NYT]

• Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Thani, a member of Qatar's royal family, appears to be turning bullish on the Manhattan real estate market: He just raised the price of his apartment at Trump Park Avenue by $4 million. The three-bedroom pad, which al-Thani bought for $6.1 million in 2005 and put on the market for $14 million in 2008, was reduced to $10 million in February. It's now priced at $14 million again with broker Carrie Chiang. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Developer Alexandre Bosoni and his wife, Maria, have closed on a penthouse at 170 East End Avenue that they went into contract to purchase in 2006. The couple paid $11.6 million for the 4,900-square-foot pad. [Cityfile]
• Valerie Rozen, the daughter of former Goldman Sachs partner Bob Mnuchin, paid $4.8 million for a sixth-floor apartment at 433 East 74th Street. [Cityfile]
• Actress Tuesday Weld has dropped the price of her mansion in Montauk. The 1.2-acre waterfront estate, which went on the market for $9.9 million two years ago, is now priced at $7.75 million. [Newsday, T&C]

Per a tipster: "Yesterday I was walking up Madison Ave and I saw Jay-Z and his bride. It appeared they just had lunch at Nello's. Armed with security... Beyoncé looked stunning!" Spot someone famous (or not-so-famous) yourself? Direct your pics to tips@cityfile.com.

The 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, turns 48 today. Judith Kaye, the first woman to serve as chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, is 71. Fashion designer Anna Sui is 57. Robert A.F. Thurman—Columbia professor, Buddhist scholar, and father of Uma—is turning 68. Robert Lieber, the city's deputy mayor for economic development, is 55. Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales turns 54. Legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas is 89. Retired pitcher Roger Clemens is turning 47. Actor Billy Bob Thornton is 54. NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon is turning 38. Law & Order's Richard Belzer is 65. Denim designer Scott Morrison is 37. Frank Vincent, the actor who played Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos, is 70. And '90s model Marcus Schenkenberg turns 41 today.

• Cameron Douglas, the son of Michael Douglas, was arrested at the Gansevoort Hotel last week. The crime? He had about $18,000 worth of meth with him, which he was planning to sell. [NYP]
• Mischa Barton's return to the party scene this past weekend wasn't entirely drama-free. She got upset and talked "frantically" as she recounted an episode with a stalker. Then she had a drink spilled on her when she went to a party at the Cooper Square Hotel. [P6]
• So much for Bethenny Frankel's plans to star in her own reality show. She says she'll be back for the third season of Real Housewives of NYC. [People]