• Scribner won the non-race to publish Laura Bush's memoir. [AP]
• The Times is now selling ads on the front page of the paper. [NYT]
• Movie ticket sales totaled $9.6 bil. in 2008, down 1 percent from '07. [NYT]
• Is HuffPo worth $200 million? Not so much, says Simon Dumenco. [AdAge]
• Publishing companies are cutting perks, in case you haven't heard. [NYT]
• Howard Kurtz profiles Liz Claman, who left CNBC for Fox. [WaPo]
• Michael Phelps will now be pitching Mazdas in China. [Bloomberg]
• Marley & Me was No. 1 at the box office for a second week. [THR]

The voicemail message at Diane Sawyer's ABC News office.

Feeling a little stressed out today? You're not alone! It turns out that January 5th is the most stressful day of the year, at least according to researchers who blame the angst on a combination of post-vacation blues, cold weather, economic worry, and having to endure a long first day back in the office with really, really irritating co-workers. These "experts" recommend releasing the anger with a "short sustained burst of shouting," but if you're looking for a more office-appropriate stress reliever, focus on the bright side and take heart in the fact you haven't gotten dumped yet. Attorneys say they're expecting to see a sharp increase in divorces this week due to the "double whammy of Christmas and the credit crunch."

You might imagine that yesterday's famous author/today's out-of-work wine critic Jay McInerney would attempt, just for the sake of decency, to play down his healthy self-regard when talking about his career, but, oh, you'd be so wrong. In an interview with Britain's Telegraph, Jay envisages the "headlines" when he dies, describes his reaction re-reading Bright Lights, Big City—"I thought, 'Wow, that's pretty damn good'"—and compares himself to Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, and Henry James. Hey, we're sure if Gossip Girl had been around in James' day, he would have put aside writing masterpieces in favor of a bit part. [Telegraph]

Bernie Madoff has been out of sight since a judge confined him to his East 64th Street apartment a couple of weeks ago, but there's been plenty of news to keep Madoff in the spotlight. Today a House panel is addressing why the SEC failed to detect the fraud earlier (particularly since the agency acknowledges it looked into the firm 8 times over the past 16 years), a handful of Madoff victims have come forward in the last week (including hedge fund guru Michael Steinhardt), and the scandal-plagued law firm Milberg LLP now says it's signed up 100 victims as part of a class action lawsuit. The most amusing new Madoff details, though, come from an interview with Julia Fenwick, who worked as Madoff's office manager in London for eight years and was a close friend of Bernie's niece, Shana Madoff. Fenwick says Madoff was "the most anally retentive person I have ever met"—and she's not kidding.

• Christopher Mahan, a managing director at the private equity firm AEA Investors, has sold his 15th-floor apartment at 140 East 63rd Street (left) for $8.4 million. [Cityfile]
• Peter Edge, the president of A&R at J Records, paid $4.4 million for a townhouse at 735 Washington Street in the West Village. [Cityfile]
• Daily Show executive producer David Javerbaum and his wife Debra have lowered the price of their two-bedroom apartment in Chelsea for the second time since listing it in July. It's now on the market for $1.7 million. [NYT, Core]

If you see fewer frightening cleavages on show this spring, now you'll know why: Fewer New York women are accessorizing their looks with plastic D-cups as they choose to spend money on items more essential than $10,000 breast implants, according to Manhattan plastic surgeons who are complaining about a drop in business. "If the procedure is purely esthetic, it's definitely down," says one doctor. [NYDN]

Heiress and social fixture Amanda Hearst turns 25 today. Charlie Rose is celebrating his 67th. Diane Keaton is turning 63. Fashion "expert" Steven Cojocaru is 44. Actor Robert Duvall is 78. Former Vice President Walter Mondale is 81. King Carlos of Spain is 71. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is turning 65. And Marilyn Manson is celebrating his 40th birthday today.

• Start your engines, ladies: Sean Avery and Kelly Klein have split up. [P6]
• Mariah Carey may have collected as much as $1 million to perform three or four songs on St. Barts on New Year's Eve. [R&M]
• Lots of unresolved questions remain concerning the death of John Travolta's 16-year-old son, Jett, last week. [TMZ, NYP, Mirror]
• Get ready to see more of Lourdes Leon: Madonna's 14-year-old daughter has reportedly enrolled in Manhattan's Professional Children's School with hopes of starting an acting career. [Daily Mail]
• The new year isn't shaping up to be much fun for Gwyneth Paltrow. Her new diet bans dairy, gluten, meat, shellfish, nuts, potatoes, condiments, sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. [Telegraph]

If you've got some gossip or useful info you'd like to share with us, please drop us a line at tips@cityfile.com. Thanks and happy New Year!

Will the economy get any better in 2009? Will Barack Obama see the U.S. through the most challenging political and economic climate in a generation? And what will happen to Britney? Fortunately, the Daily News has all the answers, which it obtained from the only people willing to hazard guesses about any of these things: they contacted a bunch of local psychics.

A couple of weeks ago, teen fashion designer (and Russian heiress) Kira Plastinina announced plans to close "most" of her US-based locations, including the hot-pink branch here in NYC. Today we learn it really is the end of the line: After burning through $80 million of the dairy mogul's cash, the company filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday. But we're pretty sure it's the first time that Bloomberg News has reported on a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing with a quote from a MySpace page. [Bloomberg]

It's been a rough few weeks for Vogue editor Anna Wintour. There were the rumors that Condé Nast chief Si Newhouse was thinking of replacing her with Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue. Then there was more concrete evidence of Vogue's fading relevance: The number of ad pages in the magazine tumbled by nearly 10 percent in 2008, a decline more substantial than most of Vogue's competitors. Yesterday, the Times' Cathy Horyn, one of the few fashion writers daring enough to take on the industry's most powerful figure, laid out some of the magazine's problems with a piece entitled "What's Wrong with Vogue?"

Did you make a bunch of New Year's resolutions? Feeling positive and optimistic about the wonderful life changes you're going to implement? That's sweet, says the Times, but you're totally kidding yourself and you'll likely fail by February—80 percent of Americans do! "It's exceptionally hard to make life changes," according to Alan Deutschman, the author of Change or Die, a book about how rare it is for people to alter their behavior.

• Andrew Rayburn, the entrepreneur and founder of Big Game Capital, has put his three-bedroom pied-à-terre at 165 Charles Street (left) on the market for $8.45 million. [Cityfile, RTP]
• Andrew Cohen, a managing director at Dune Capital, and his wife Suzi paid $7.575 million for a fourth-floor, four-bedroom apartment at 1120 Park Avenue. [Cityfile]
• Art advisor Franck Giraud, who oversees GPS Partners with Philippe Segalot and Lionel Pissarro, paid $4.2 million for a 12th-floor apartment at 30 East 10th Street. [Cityfile]
• Coburn Packard, a former senior VP at Lehman Brothers, and his wife Carrie paid $3 million for an apartment at 101 Warren Street, the Tribeca building developed by Ed Minskoff. [Cityfile]

Christy Turlington celebrates her 40th today. Taye Diggs is turning 37. Kate Bosworth is turning 26. Former Times reporter Judy Miller is 61. Loews CEO Jim Tisch is 56. Restaurateur Michael Lomonaco is turning 54. Marshall Rose, real estate developer and husband of Candice Bergen, is 72. Actress Paz Vega is 32. Cuba Gooding Jr. is 41. Former House speaker Dennis Hastert is 67. And Michael Bloomberg's mother, Charlotte, celebrates 100 today. Weekend birthdays after the jump.

• Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson got into yet another public spat while heading home to LA after spending New Year's in Miami. Lindsay eventually got so upset a flight attendant suggested LiLo disembark. [TMZ]
• George Soros reportedly spent New Year's partying with "two young brunettes" on Paul Allen's yacht, Octopus, off St. Barts. Now at least we know where son Alex gets it from. [P6]
• Queen Latifah was robbed of $10,000 worth of jewelry while on vacation in Trinidad and Tobago over Christmas. [Us]
• Kathy Griffin made a dick joke during CNN's live NYE broadcast with Anderson Cooper. The video is here, in case you care. [NYP]

Just in case you haven't made plans for tonight and tomorrow, here are a bunch of places to eat, drink, party, and be merry. Or just stay at home, go to sleep early, and dream about a healthy and happy 2009.

Citigroup says it won't be paying year-end bonuses to Vikram Pandit, Bob Rubin or chairman Win Bischoff. But we imagine Pandit will still be in good spirits tonight when he celebrates the New Year, particularly since he has that string of lovely holiday lights that he didn't have to pay for. [Bloomberg]

Jay-Z and Beyoncé lounging aboard a yacht off St. Barts ... Lindsay Lohan hanging out on the beach in Miami ... Adrian Grenier swimming with dolphins in Australia ... Eddie Murphy strumming the guitar off the coast of St. Barts ... Gerard Butler out on the town in South Beach ... and Paris Hilton on Bondi Beach in Australia.