FAO Schwarz has a new owner. The investment firm that controls the legendary chain of toy stores, David Shaw's D.E. Shaw, has sold it to (Wayne, N.J.-based!) Toys 'R' Us. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but we'll go ahead and assume it couldn't possibly have been more than the most expensive stuffed animal on sale at the store. [Crain's]
Al Roker headed downtown to do jury duty today, as the friendly folks from the Today show explained on TV this morning. Unfortunately, Al decided to document the experience by taking pictures and tweeting from inside the courthouse, which, at least according to TMZ, constitutes a crime of some sort. Al quickly fired back ("I'm not breaking laws... just trying to share the experience of jury duty"), and his rep informed TMZ that he had authorization to do it. But then TMZ countered with the news that you can't actually get permission to take photos inside the jury assembly room, although "if Al got bogus advice, it's not his fault." Al is now clearing up the matter by clarifying that he never asked for permission, but he's stopped taking pictures and he was excused from jury duty this afternoon anyway, so can we all drop it? We'd be happy to. [TMZ]
The Times has tackled the perils of texting on two occasions this week. (See here and here.) Teenagers are so determined to communicate with their peers, they're going without sleep to do it! They're texting in the middle of class and now their grades are dropping! Millions of teenage thumbs are now in need of medical attention! It's "texting anarchy," reports Cindy Post Senning, Emily Post's great-granddaughter. But aren't there times when texting is okay? "What about if they are stuck sitting at a table with a bunch of strangers at a wedding dinner or charity event, and the person on the other end is their spouse, who is being hijacked by Jihadists, and possibly sending their last goodbyes?" Every once in awhile, there are some shades of gray! [The Feedbag]
Remember Stephen Dent, the DuPont heir who used the website SeekingArrangement.com to meet young women for sex, but ended up becoming the victim of three different extortion attempts? A couple involved in one of the plots, Christopher and Dawn Jessop, pleaded guilty in a Connecticut courtroom yesterday. The husband was sentenced to 18 months in jail; his wife received three years of probation. And hopefully Dent has found more useful (and less dangerous) ways to spend his free time. [NYM]
• Say it ain't so, Sue: WNBC may be planning to drop the 5 o'clock newscast, Live at Five, in favor of a "lifestyle show" of some sort. [NYO]
• Richard Branson does not want to buy Playboy. Sorry, Hugh. [Reuters]
• NBC ratings hit a new low last week. [AP/HuffPo]
• Naturally, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker painted a much rosier picture when he appeared on stage at the D7 conference yesterday. [ATD]
• Were you aware that some magazines Photoshop their pics? It's true! [NYT]
• If MGM doesn't come up with some cash quick, it could go bankrupt. [THR]
• Page Six's Paula Froelich took time from promoting her new novel, Mercury in Retrograde, to kick Michael Wolff's ass across the room. [BlackBook]
Claude Wasserstein, the ex-wife of billionaire financier Bruce Wasserstein, resides in a $34 million duplex on Fifth Avenue. But that doesn't mean she wouldn't be willing to drop off four mini-cheeseburgers for you to eat for dinner tonight for $12. Wasserstein has teamed up with three other women—Susie Cover, Marcia Mishaan, and Samantha Schlumberger—to launch a food delivery service called Susie's Supper Club, which promises to "give New York City families an alternative to standard take-out and delivery options." Like the dozen or so other companies that deliver freshly-cooked meals that you need to pop in the microwave for a few minutes before you pass off as your own cooking, customers get to pick and choose items from an online menu. Unlike other services, these dishes are prepared by a chef skilled enough to have once worked as personal chef to the Wasserstein family. Chew on that, ZoneChefs. The full press release is below.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer raised $10 billion with a big bond sale in the UK on Tuesday. Closer to home, it's looking to raise $64.75 million by selling off two of its Gulfstream jets. The world's largest drugmaker has put a Gulfstream V up for sale for $29.25 million; the company is also looking for someone to take possession of an even fancier Gulfstream 550 for $35.5 million. It's unclear when the planes were put up for sale exactly, although both were reduced in price recently. And while there's no indication if Pfizer chief Jeff Kindler would be willing to negotiate a little package deal, if your company is flush with cash and your logo is blue, you'll save a small fortune by not having to repaint them. (They come in matching shades of Pfizer—Viagra—blue, naturally.) Click on the photo above to see the planes that millions of impotent men around the world so generously paid for.
It seems the CIA is looking for unemployed investment bankers and hedge fund managers to put their "intelligence" to work for the good of the nation and track down a few terrorists. Want more info? "Private interviews are set for June 22 at a secret Manhattan location. Don't call, the CIA says, just e-mail your information." The email address to submit your resume isn't listed in the Post article, unfortunately. Presumably you try applying using the CIA's online resume submission form. Although if you're going to be expected to nab a bunch of cunning members of Al Qaeda—and save us all from harm in the process—you should probably be able to dig up an email address, shouldn't you? [NYP]
• Rihanna is close to signing an $18,000-a-month lease for a penthouse at 92 Greene Street. Originally listed at $22,000 a month, the 2,300-square-foot pad comes with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a sitting room, and a 500-square-foot terrace. [NYP, PDE]
• If our tour of disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier's One Beacon Court pad a couple of months ago happend to tickle your fancy, be advised it goes up for auction on July 21 at 1pm. [Maltz Auctions via Curbed]
• A full-floor apartment at the former Stanhope Hotel at 995 Fifth Avenue has sold for $17 million, down a stunning 45 percent from the original asking price of $31 million. [Real Deal]
As expected, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes announced this morning that it plans to spin off AOL, a move that puts the final nail in the coffin of one of the most disastrous mergers in history. But if the mechanics of the deal strike you a little too complicated, The Times Bits blog has outlined it in easy-to-understand celebrity tabloid terms:
New York's 107th mayor—and the most famous drag queen in the city's history—is officially a senior citizen. It's Rudy Giuliani's 65th birthday today. Others celebrating: Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes is turning 74. View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck is 32. Gladys Knight is turning 65. Kylie Minogue is 41. Mark Sanford, the Governor of South Carolina, is turning 49. And singer John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 64 today.
• A recent Elle photoshoot with Britney Spears turned out to be a bit messier than expected. [P6]
• A photographer has filed suit against Chris Brown. He's claiming the singer's bodyguards beat him up when he tried to take pics of Brown in March. [Us]
• Is Anthony Weiner engaged to Huma Abedin? [P6]
• Jay-Z is supposedly in talks with Lyor Cohen to set up a new record label at Warner Music. [NYDN]
• Chace Crawford may be having a fling with 19-year-old Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Esti Ginzburg. [P6]
• Jane Fonda knows how to travel. She pretends she's injured so she can cruise through security in a wheelchair, apparently. [NYDN]
• Get ready: Prince Harry arrives in NYC tomorrow. [NYDN]
"Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit weathered almost six hours of grilling from shareholders at the bank’s annual meeting on April 21. He had a lot of explaining to do: The company lost $27.7 billion in 2008 and stayed afloat only with help from a $45 billion government bailout. Even as his bank was floundering, Pandit in 2008 earned $38 million in salary and stock, No. 3 among the best-paid CEOs of the top 50 U.S.-based financial companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In February, Pandit told a congressional committee that, starting in 2009, he would take just $1 in annual salary until the bank is profitable again. 'I get the new reality,' he said." Clearly! [Bloomberg]
• Famed hedge fund manager Art Samberg has announced plans to shut down his firm, Pequot Capital Management, after an investigation into possible insider trading at the firm was revived. [NYT, WSJ]
• One person sweating bullets about Pequot's collapse: Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, who was tied to the mess when it first surfaced in '06. [BI]
• Citigroup is negotiating with the SEC to settle claims it misled investors by not disclosing the extent of its troubled portfolio of mortgage assets. [WSJ]
• Top Obama officials are pushing to create a "banking czar" job. [WSJ]
• The government program designed to help banks get rid of the bad loans on their books "is stalling and may soon be put on hold." [WSJ]
• The new H&M at 86th Street and Lexington opens at noon tomorrow. [AFB, Racked]
• Scarlett Johansson is replacing Penélope Cruz as the face of Mango. [WWD, SF]
• For the first time, the CFDA is tacking on a "Popular Vote Award" to this year's show. As the name implies, it will allow the public to weigh in, shockingly. [WWD]
• What's Kate Moss's novel going to be about? "A young model's life as she goes from a nobody to an A-list star." Sounds familiar, no? [NYDN]
• Marc Jacobs hosted a 30th birthday party for fiancé Lorenzo Martone last night at the not-yet-open Avenue. Julia Restoin Roitfeld and Genevieve Jones (above) were among the 150 people on hand for the occasion. [W]
• Francois Payard says he'll be forced to close his Upper East Side flagship (and lay off his 74 employees) if his landlord insists on doubling his rent. [Crain's]
• Daniel Boulud's DBGB held a preview last night for industry peeps and, sure enough, loads of industry types turned up. Commoners will get a chance to try out DB's latest venture when it opens to the public on June 8. [TFB, GS, Eater]
• Ipuddo, the EV ramen spot, gets one star from Bruni in today's Times. [NYT]
• Yama on Houston has closed; the lounge Stay caught fire last night. [Eater]
• A bunch of Hamptons bouncers have been busted for dealing drugs. [NYP]
• Nobu in London still serves endangered bluefin tuna because the chefs there insist on it. Or at least that's how Nobu GM Richie Notar explains it. [TFB]
New York's Tim Murphy paid a visit to Times Square to check out the new pedestrian mall and do a little man-on-the-street reportage. And it turns out that everyone seems to have their own idea of what the city could have done to make the space more appealing. (Some of the suggestions: adding "more greenery" to make things "more aesthetically pleasing"; setting up a snack bar; and laying down some sand for outdoor volleyball games.) But it's nice to see that you don't have to actually sit in any of the crummy plastic chairs that the city has provided. Put down a picnic blanket and fire up your iPod, and you'll forget you're smack-dab in what was once NYC's busiest intersections in no time at all! [NYM/Daily Intel]
More than 1,000 hedge fund managers gathered at Lincoln Center today for the Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference, an event that raises money for charity as well as gives other members of the industry a chance to gleam investment recommendations from some of the brightest financial geniuses around. (Those who paid the $3,000-per-person fee this year were treated to talks by the likes of Jim Chanos, Mark Kingdon, Stephen Mandel, Peter Schiff, and Peter Thiel.) Last year's conference was a particularly dramatic affair. David Einhorn, the founder of Greenlight Capital, used the event as an opportunity to explain why Lehman Brothers was headed off a cliff. Those who heeded Einhorn's advice did well for themselves, of course: The bank went bust just four months later. Einhorn spoke at the annual confab once again today, although it's too soon to know if the poker-loving hedge fund manager took aim at another financial firm this time around. In the meantime, though, Einhorn's lawyers seem to have done just that. They've been busy trying to crush the other Greenlight Capital.
