The week between Christmas and New Year's, that fallow time when nothing much happens, will this year sparkle with a cultural event certain to unite us all. Yes, December 29th is the launch of MTV's The City, Whitney Port's Hills spinoff in which she works at Diane von Furstenberg, hangs out with Olivia Palermo, and dates some fame-hungry singer dude whose Australian accent may or may not be interfering with everyone's gaydar.

You're having difficulty making ends meet in these challenging economic times. You've got bills to pay. And you're not sure how you're going to come up with the cash to, say, go on vacation or have that plastic surgery procedure you've been thinking about. What to do? Maybe you'll find some inspiration in the story of Sonia Ringoir: The 31-year-old Belgian woman was so determined to have liposuction, she sold off her newborn twins for $15,000. [Times UK]

Tony-winning director Julie Taymor is 56 today. Actor Stuart Townsend (otherwise known as Mr. Charlize Theron) is 36. Adam Brody, who starred in The OC, is 29. Virginia's former governor and now Senator-elect, Mark Warner, is turning 54. And Don Johnson is 59 today.

• Sean Avery may be spending a lot more time in New York in the near future: Hockey's preeminent bad boy has been cut loose by the Dallas Stars just 23 games into a four-year contract. [NYP]
• Jennifer Aniston was supposedly so desperate to have a boyfriend during the promotional tour for Marley & Me that her camp started "shopping for potential dates." [P6]
• David Paterson was not at all pleased with the impression of him on SNL this weekend. [NYP]
• Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber had a second son on Saturday. [People, E!]

• The list of companies, charities and individuals who lost massive sums in connection with Bernie Madoff continues to grow: Mort Zuckerman, Elie Wiesel, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and a charity tied to Steven Spielberg are just a few of the latest victims. [WSJ, NYT]
• Many of Madoff's victims were located in Palm Beach, where the mood is especially grim as wealthy retirees account for their losses. [NYT, WSJ]
• The Madoff saga isn't the only outrageous scheme to have been revealed in recent days, of course. The Times' report over the weekend on how Marc Dreier duped the likes of Sheldon Solow and the bank Perella Weinberg. [NYT]

• Tim Gunn says he and Heidi Klum are "despondent" over the "horrible, nasty" fight over Project Runway. "We worry that season six will never be seen by anyone," he says. Us, too! [WB]
• Tory Burch's new meatpacking store opened last night with very little fanfare. [WSJ]
• Dolce & Gabbana is launching a makeup line early next year. And rumor has it Scarlett Johansson will be the face of the ad campaign. [WWD, SF]
• Matthew Williamson is in expansion mode. He's planning to launch a menswear line. [Vogue UK]
• Depressed? Single? Go get some Botox! Says Tom Ford: "A little bit of it between the brows can make you look less stern and more approachable. Who needs to frown, anyway?" [Details]

Concern over the economy has led to a 7 percent spike in prescriptions for sleep medications in New York over the past two months, say experts. And now also you know why your co-workers look like zombies when they show up to the office in the morning. [Crain's]

It appears real estate mogul Richard Mack has finally taken note of Manhattan's faltering real estate market. This afternoon Corcoran's Carrie Chiang dropped the price of Mack's townhouse on East 94th Street from $59 million to a more modest $49.95 million. That's still substantially more than what he paid for the former home of Spence-Chapin: Mack picked up the 24,463-square-foot building for a mere $23 million in 2007. Then again this property comes with a view of Lyor Cohen's townhouse across the street, so maybe the occasional Russell Simmons or Tory Burch sighting will make up the difference. [NYO, Corcoran, previously]

• A list of the saddest restaurant closings of 2008. Sad, indeed. [NYDN]
• Rumor has it Macao Trading Co.'s downstairs lounge is opening tonight. [GS]
• Patisserie Claude has reopened under new ownership. [VV]
• Video of David Chang shopping for cookbooks. [men.style.com]
• Philippe Express is offering a meal plan for NYU students. For $1,995. [Eater]
• Not surprisingly, sales of bourbon and scotch are on the rise. [F&W]

If you thought that carbophobes were tedious to be around because they talk incessantly about their noble refusal of french fries, bread, pizza, pasta and all the other food that makes life worth living, it turns out there's another reason: Cutting out carbohydrates actually interferes with mental function and causes memory loss, according to a new study. All the more reason that certain people might want to consider eating a sandwich. [Daily Mail]

A few weeks ago, Mort Zuckerman was doing his darndest to prop up an ailing Citigroup. The real estate kingpin (and Daily News owner) may have taken time out of his schedule to appear on MSNBC four times in one day because he was worried about the impact a Citi bankruptcy would have on the global financial markets—or it may have had something to do with the fact that the bank has long been one of his largest tenants. (You decide!) Whatever it was, though, it appears his mood has shifted. Zuckerman's Boston Properties announced that it now plans to strip the bank's name from the Citigroup Center on Lexington Avenue early next year. "We're tired of the fact that every time Citibank has a problem all of the TV cameras come and photograph the Citigroup Center sign on the front of our building," a Zuckerman lieutenant told a reporter today. The exec didn't indicate what the new name of the building would be—and it's doubtful any company in its right mind would shell out millions for naming rights given the current state of the economy—but if you have any clever suggestions, send them along. We'll pass them along to Mort tout de suite!

The Daily Beast picks Fabiola Beracasa for its "Smart People Recommend" feature and then the "New York correspondent" proceeds to recommend reading BlackBook since "it always seems to be the first to tell readers what's next in nightlife, entertainment, fashion, and arts"? It's enough to make your head spin on a Friday afternoon! [TDB]

Add Tom Colicchio to the long list of high-profile chefs who have been slapped with a lawsuit by a disgruntled ex-employee: A former Craftbar waitress filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Colicchio and his company, Craft Worldwide Holdings, for allegedly misappropriating employee tips, failing to pay minimum wage, and withholding overtime pay. (She also claims Colicchio's company refused to pay to clean her work uniform.) The good news for Tom? We're guessing he'll have lots of useful advice to share with contestants when this trend eventually gets incorporated into an episode of Top Chef. [NYT]

Is Karl Lagerfeld doing anything to adjust to the new economic climate? Sort of! The 85-pound designer tells Germany weekly Die Zeit that he's been busy tightening his belt in recent weeks and just moved into a smaller house in Paris. And even though he recently purchased a house in Vermont, he'd like to point out that it's a modest affair. (It's "very Emily Dickinson... in fact it's almost Puritanical.") Of course, since this is Karl Lagerfeld we're talking about, he adds that there are certain things that just cannot be sacrificed. Like his "chambermaid, chauffeur and chef," who are "still musts." And he doesn't have any plans to trade in his three Hummers: "I don't want to drive at the same level as the others." Who does?

If you're looking for a gift for your (fitness-obsessed) boyfriend or girlfriend, you can sign up a top-ranked marathoner from Kenya for a jogging lesson in Central Park. And he'll come back to your place for lunch afterwards, too! [NYT]

• Ben Silverman and NBC have come to terms on a new contract. [B&C]
• Jeff Bewkes is taking over as Time Warner's chairman. [Bloomberg]
• As expected, Newsweek is trimming both staff and circulation. [WSJ]
• Do his 8 Golden Globe nods mean Harvey Weinstein is on the rebound? [THR]
• CBS Interactive is restructuring and making major cuts. [PaidContent]
• Hugh Jackman will be hosting the Oscars next February. [THR]

Given the lengths to which prominent New Yorkers go to control their public profiles, you'd think they would have purchased their domain names by now. It's a $4 investment, which we're pretty sure billionaires like Jonathan Tisch, Steve Feinberg or Edgar Bronfman Jr. can afford, even if this is the greatest depression ever. After all, four bucks doesn't even buy you a glass of wine at a Jeffrey Chodorow restaurant or Noah Tepperberg-owned club. Or a square inch of real estate controlled by Jerry Speyer. Or a square inch of canvas at one of Larry Gagosian's galleries. As you may have read, we've been collecting names over the past few months. It's a bonus for you: Now you just need to go, say, annehearst.com or charlesgwathmey.com or davidremnick.com to get directly to their profiles—no pesky searching involved! We've accumulated more than 100 names so far. If you're interested, you can peruse an incomplete list after the jump.

The endless complaints, rumors, and lawsuits involving Robert De Niro's Ago may finally be coming to an end: Jean-Georges Vongerichten has confirmed that he's close to inking a deal to take over the space inside the Greenwich Hotel and open something new. No word on what the new project will be just yet, although it couldn't possibly be any worse than what's there now. [Eater]

• It's not all bad news for the Plaza. An unidentified buyer just closed on a three-bedroom apartment in the building for $5.01 million. Originally listed at $6 million in April, the apartment was reduced by $500,000 in July. The buyer is listed in property records as Perla Properties LLC. [Cityfile, previously]
• Claudia Blum, the Colombian ambassador to the United Nations, and her husband Francisco Barberi have paid $3.35 million for a third-floor apartment at 936 Fifth Avenue. [Cityfile]
• Bill Royall, president of the college recruiting firm Royall & Co., paid $5.5 million for a duplex penthouse at 4 Sutton Place. [Cityfile]

Has marriage to a vertically-challenged head of state robbed France's First Lady of her sense of humor? Carla Bruni Sarkozy—whose party trick used to be making her boobs dance individually—is now suing a French clothing chain for slapping her famous nude photo on their seasonal shopping bags. It could be worse: A few weeks ago Sarkozy tried (and failed) to ban the sale of a voodoo doll in his image, which has since turned into a big seller in Paris this holiday season. [Telegraph]