• Not to be outdone by Gwyneth Paltrow and her GOOP newsletter, Rachel Zoe is launching a lifestyle e-newsletter of her own tomorrow. [RachelZoe.com]
• Is Kanye West designing a line for the Gap? That's the rumor. [Cut]
• Thom Browne has had a rough time recently, but it looks like that may be all behind him. Japan's Cross Company has taken a stake in his company and plans to help him expand. [Style.com]
• It looks like the fashion set will be dividing its time between the tents in Bryant Park and Milk Studios this coming Fashion Week. [Fashionologie, FWD]
• Gisele Bundchen is lending her voice to a new children's cartoon. She'll play Gigi, "a supermodel by day, environmental superhero by night." [Elle]
• Ready for retailers to start Christmas promotions? No? Too bad! [WSJ]
• Related: Retailers have gone discount-crazy, as you may have noticed. [NYT]

• David Burke's Townhouse closes tomorrow for renovations. Cafe Boulud will shuts its doors for a revamp beginning in a couple of weeks. [Eater, TFB]
• Mermaid Inn owner Danny Abrams says he'll open the Mermaid Oyster Bar in the former Smith's space on MacDougal Street next month. [GS]
• Michael Huynh, the man behind Bar Bao and Baoguette, says his Bia Garden, the "city's first Vietnamese beer garden," will open next week. [GS, Thrillist]
• Gabriel Stulman's Joseph Leonard opens next week, too. (Photos here.) When it does, it will be the first restaurant in the city to offer boxed water. [VV]
• A roundup of other restaurants opening this week and next. [TONY, NYM]
• Did Publisher's Weekly jump the gun by posting a pic of Frank Bruni? [TFB]
• If you get an invite to dine at the White House and you're a captain of industry, be advised that you'll be expected to pay for your meal. [NYDN]

Page Six reported yesterday that Steve Schwarzman was spotted living it up in St. Tropez, "staying cool at the VIP Room" while "his wife, Christine, and two blond friends, Michelle Herbert and Gina de Franco, danced together like the Pussycat Dolls." If you took the revelry as a tip off that Schwarzman's Blackstone Group is planning to share good news when the private equity giant releases quarterly earnings on Thursday, you may not have been the only one. Blackstone shares were up 21 percent today, "a surge that one options analyst attributed to investors buying on speculation that upcoming earnings would be better than expected." [Page Six, Reuters]

Donald Trump has endured quite a few financial setbacks in recent months. Is he now looking to free up some extra cash? Real Estalker reports that Trump has put his 10,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills —a home he only purchased a year ago—on the market for $12 million. [Real Estalker]

In this week's issue of New York, Steve Fishman covers the spectacular rise—and spectacular fall—of Steve Rattner, the uber-ambitious financial titan who was tapped to serve as President Obama's car czar but was ultimately forced to leave Washington in shame after he became embroiled in the corruption scandal involving state pension money.

• Funny People debuted at No. 1 at the box office this weekend, although it was still the worst opening for an Adam Sandler movie in five years. [Reuters]
• Mort Zuckerman is selling shares of his real estate company to pump $50 million into the Daily News to pay for new printing presses. [WSJ]
• Lou Dobbs has become a PR nightmare for CNN. Presumably the fact that Media Matters is airing an anti-Dobbs commercial won't help matters. [AP, HP]
• Is the peace pact between Olbermann and O'Reilly a sham? [TDB]
• Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple's board of directors. [BN]

Frank Bruni steps down the New York Times' restaurant critic in a couple of weeks, and his memoir, Born Round, debuts on bookstore shelves on August 20. So it was only a matter of time before Bruni finally unmasked himself and showed to the world the face that has been taped to kitchen walls for close to five years now.

That sure was quick. This morning, the SEC filed suit against Bank of America, accusing it of lying to investors when it announced that newly-acquired Merrill Lynch wouldn't pay out any year-end bonuses. (In fact, Bank of America had already signed off on $5.7 billion in Merrill payouts.) Now the bank has settled the charges—"without admitting or denying the allegations," of course—for a modest $33 million. [NYT]

Ruth Madoff's shopping sprees are going to be a lot less exciting from now on. A bankruptcy judge has ruled the wife of imprisoned fraudster Bernie Madoff cannot spend more than $100 on herself without first informing Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating her husband's investment business. On the plus side, this probably means the new JCPenney store in Herald Square just earned itself a new customer, so that's good news, right? [Bloomberg]

Mischa Barton walking her dogs, Charlie and Ziggy, after getting a cut at Sally Hershberger's salon on Friday afternoon ... Kate Hudson looking at puppies with son Ryder at a pet shop in the West Village ... Courtney Love walking in SoHo ... Drew Barrymore and Justin Long hiding under an umbrella on the set of Going the Distance ... Channing Tatum leaving the Waldorf Astoria ... Taylor Momsen walking through the rain to attend the opening of the Sephora in Times Square ... Selena Gomez listening to her iPod outside ... Russell Brand and Jonah Hill shooting scenes for Get Him To The Greek in Central Park ... and Mischa Barton leaving a party at the Cooper Square Hotel last night.

Reality TV brat PC Peterson is said to have deeply upset his grandfather, financier Pete Peterson, over his obnoxious performance on Bravo's NYC Prep. But just because his grandfather is a billionaire doesn't mean PC was necessarily raised living in the lap of luxury.

• Private equity exec Chandler Evans has dropped the price of his duplex penthouse at 1165 Park Avenue (left) for the third time since listing it for $24.9 million last September. The four-bedroom spread, which Evans bought for $23 million in June '08, is now listed for $17.95 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Developer Gerardo Capo gone into contract to sell his 12th-floor condo at 15 CPW. The two-bedroom pad, which Capo bought for $3.5 million in April 2008, was most recently listed for $6.25 million. [Cityfile, IT Properties]
• Famed choreographer Paul Taylor has put his longtime home at 27 Vandam Street up for sale so he can move closer to his dance company's new rehearsal studio on the Lower East Side. Taylor's 20-foot-wide townhouse, which he purchaed for $140,000 in 1970, is listed for $4.75 million. [NYT, PDE]
• A unidentified buyer is picking up the 2009 Hampton Designer Showhouse. The home was listed for $8.495 million. [Newsday]

Martha Stewart turns 68 today. Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback and father of Gisele Bundchen's fetus, is turning 32. Martin Sheen is 69. Tony Bennett is turning 83. Model Evangeline Lilly turns 30. Art-collecting heir Adam Lindemann is turning 48. Model Brooklyn Decker is 22. Sen. Roland Burris is turning 72. Mamie Gummer, an actress and the daughter of Meryl Streep, is 26. Actor Isaiah Washington is turning 46. And Salt-N-Pepa's DJ Spinderella turns 38 today.

• An Italian photographer is accusing Naomi Campbell of sending him to the hospital after she allegedly clobbered him with her handbag and scratched his eye with her nails. Naturally, this sort of behavior is totally unlike Campbell and couldn't possibly be true. [Daily Mail]
• Billy Joel is supposedly "completely distraught" over his breakup with Katie Lee Joel and is now trying to "rekindle the relationship." [P6]
• It looks like Mischa Barton is recovering nicely. She's "smiling again," according to the Sun. And Vanity Fair reports she made her "first appearance on the city’s social circuit" last night. [Sun, VF]

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• Di Fara sells the city's most expensive slice of pizza. (The price was just raised to $5.) A symptom of the recession? A sign the recession is over? Something else? Now even the mayor has been forced to weigh in on the subject. [NYT]
• The Oyster Bar in Grand Central has lost its liquor license. [Eater]
• Closings: Centovini on West Houston will close tomorrow; Brooklyn's Bonita closes in August; and Baraza on Avenue C has already closed its doors.
• The insanely messy legal feud between Philippe and Mr. Chow continues. [GS]
• The perfect complement to a summer lobster roll? Lobster ice cream. [GS]
• The critical deets from yesterday's "beer summit": The president drank a Bud Light; Joe Biden had a Bucklers; Henry Louis Gates opted for a Sam Adams Light; and Cambridge cop James Crowley sipped on a Blue Moon. [NYP]

Fallen publicist Ali Wise didn't get fired from Dolce & Gabbana. She's "taking the summer off." Naturally! But she already has "new projects" planned for the fall. So don't count her out just yet! [Twitter]

The Daily News reported today that Kanye West had annointed himself the "new King of Pop." In a big block of text—in all caps, of course—Kanye says it never happened. As you were. [NYM]

"The Manhattan social scene is dead in the summer," which explains why Vanity Fair has introduced its very own board game called Socialitopoly. "Hunker down in your Park Avenue pad, grab your sterling-silver Maybach roadster, Christian Louboutin shoe, or Panama hat," the site advises. Guess this means if you were hoping to play along with a "Little Graydon" piece, you're on your own. [Vanity Fair]

For whatever reason, this morning's opening of the new JCPenney store at the Manhattan Mall in Herald Square brought together Michael Bloomberg and Kimora Lee Simmons. Stylist dutifully reports that Kimora wore a "royal blue and orange colorblock top that tied at the back with a slim black pencil skirt" for the occasion. Alas, no word (yet) on Mayor Bloomberg's wardrobe particulars, although the tie certainly looks familiar. [Stylist]