Jessica Szohr taking some of her hard-earned GG cash out of an ATM at a deli on the Upper East Side ... Barbara Walters walking down the street by herself ... Beth Ostrosky arriving at Fox for a TV appearance ... Jennifer Connelly leaving ABC studios after an appearance on Regis & Kelly ... Leighton Meester and Blake Lively filming scenes for Gossip Girl on the Upper East Side ... Michelle Williams reading a magazine while crossing the street ... Heather Graham standing on the sidewalk ... Amy Adams posing for pics outside Letterman ... Katie Holmes crossing the street with Suri in the East Village ... and Ivana Trump and Star Jones standing outside La Goulue on Madison Avenue.

Last week, the cover of the esteemed National Enquirer reported that Kelly Ripa was splitting up with her husband Mark Consuelos. Was it true? Not so much! Ripa's reps denied the rumor, and her lawyers jumped into action, too, which probably explains why the Enquirer has since removed from the story from its website. In fact, the relationship appears to be going strong, at least judging by the couple's behavior at the "Marriage is a Beautiful Thing" event on Monday night, which was hosted by Jerry Seinfeld to benefit his wife's charity, Baby Buggy. "Not only didn't there seem to be any tension," a tipster tells us, "but they looked totally in love. At one point, Kelly leaned in and gave him a kiss. Could have been just for show, but it looked pretty real to me." Remember: Once you land the stripper of your dreams, you never let him go!

With the economic crisis putting the squeeze on nearly everyone and with fashion retailers dropping like flies, it's a tough time to be a young designer. So we're glad that Russia Today thought to check in with clothing empress Kira Plastinina—whose latest line was unveiled in Moscow last week—and even gladder that the 16-year-old heiress isn't stressing about her business. "The collection is not expensive, it is affordable," she says. "And I think it is important that fashion is affordable to all girls." We agree, and as for the common assumption that her success is thanks to her juice and dairy magnate father Sergei Plastinin, well, nothing could be further from the truth: "People who know me, my friends and my family, know that I work really hard." And if such hard work is rewarded by, say, Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie being paid millions to sit front row at Kira's runway show, what's wrong with that?

♦ Music manager Chris Lighty, who has worked with the likes of Diddy, 50 Cent, and Busta Rhymes, has picked up two condos in the Chelsea Stratus building on West 24th Street for $5.28 million. [NYO]
♦ Tech exec Michael Sprague has put his five-story townhouse at 73 Bedford Street on the market for $8 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
♦ Giuseppe de Corato, CEO of the fashion company Luigi Borrelli, and his wife, Holly Lang, have sold their apartment at 15 West 20th Street for $2.65 million. The buyers are Greg Sovell, co-founder of the underwear line C-IN2, and Andrew Cohen. [Cityfile]

Have you heard that William Thompson, New York City's comptroller, is running for mayor? Probably not, since the man he's going up against is slightly better known to the public (not to mention slightly better funded). But Thompson is clearly making headway with the city's most prominent celebrities and movers and shakers! His fundraiser last night attracted rapper Kurtis Blow! [NYDN]

We can't imagine why the auto industry is struggling right now: Why, just yesterday, Donald Trump strolled into a dealership in Palm Beach and picked up a Dodge Ram truck! And it's just as good as any car made by a foreign manufacturer, he tells Greta Von Susteren. He then goes on to explain that he usually insists his employees only buy American cars, before backtracking moments later and admitting he buys "both foreign and domestic" vehicles. Good thing, too, because last time we checked, neither Rolls-Royce, Maybach, or Ferrari had been purchased by GM.

Yes, it's Rod Blagojevich's birthday! The disgraced Illinois governor is turning 52, although we can't imagine much celebrating will be going on today. The White Stripes' Meg White is 34. Whitney Museum director Adam Weinberg is 54. Verizon's chief executive, Ivan Seidenberg, is turning 62. Summer Phoenix, the sister of Joaquin and the late River Phoenix, is 30. Kenneth Branagh is 48. Actress Emmanuelle Chriqui is 31. And child star Raven-Symone turns 23 today.

♦ Haven't seen Giuseppe Cipriani around town lately? There may be a reason for that: He's believed to be outside the U.S. since he's on probation and because Andrew Cuomo is investigating how the family managed to keep its liquor license earlier this year. [P6]
♦ Angelina Jolie has been undergoing secret fertility treatments in the hopes of becoming pregnant with twins within the next two years. At least that's what Star says. [Star]
♦ Everyone on Gossip Girl may be hooking up with each other, but at least one relationship isn't going so strong: Blake Lively was spotted making out with a guy who was not Penn Badgley. [E!, P6]
♦ Leonardo DiCaprio lost his wallet at Rolf's on Third Avenue, and Tom Cruise lost his Blackberry somewhere in Toronto. [P6, P6]

♦ Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration are in the final stages of negotiating an auto bailout package. A vote in the House is expected as soon as Wednesday afternoon. [NYT]
♦ Bad news for GMAC: The auto and consumer lender failed to secure additional financial and will not be able to transition to a bank holding company. [CNNMoney]
♦ Yahoo! is expected to hand out 1,500 pink slips today. [CNN]

♦ Rachel Zoe is scary skinny these days, no? [NYO]
♦ On the heels of Zac and Thakoon, Doo-Ri Chung also plans to launch a lower-priced line. [WWD]
♦ Andre Leon Talley's latest accessory? "A $20 black knit cap bearing the name 'Obama' spelled out in sparkly stones." [WSJ]
♦ Victoria Beckham's line at Bergdorf Goodman is quickly selling out, you'll be pleased to hear. [NYM]
♦ What do your nails say about you? [Fashionista]
♦ Henry Holland has a new set of tees with drawings of John Galliano and Agyness Deyn in the buff. [Grazia]
♦ There's a big Charlotte Ronson sale that begins tomorrow. Proceed with caution! [Racked]

Remember Josh Persky, the unemployed Wall Streeter who used up most of his 15 minutes back in June when he took to the streets with a "MIT Grad For Hire" sandwich board around his neck? Good news! He's landed a job! "After 11-odd months, plenty of interviews and many a TV appearance, the stunt resulted in a job at Weiser LLP, an accounting firm." Is this a sign the worst is over? Not really, but you're welcome to use it to cheer yourself amid the reports today of political corruption, stock losses, health epidemics and whatnot. [PEHub via Clusterstock]

♦ Hayashi Ya on the Upper West Side is implementing a 3 percent tax on diners who don't finish their food. Really. [CBS2]
♦ The Vesuvio bakery in Soho is up for sale. [Eater]
♦ A look inside Emma Hearst's Sorella, the northern Italian wine bar which just opened in Chinatown. [GS]
♦ Braeburn gets two stars out of six from Danyelle Freeman. [NYDN]
♦ A list of the strangest restaurant names of 2008. [Metromix]
♦ Possibly the strangest concept to come to NYC in a long time: At La Cave des Fondus, which opens tomorrow, wine and beer will be served in baby bottles. It's the thing to do in Paris, just so you know. [NYT]

Who's going to profiit from the recession? Here's a start: Layoff consultants, discount department stores, fast food chains, restructuring experts, the financial news media, and meth dealers: "All the big swinging dicks on Wall Street were cokeheads, because coke is a money drug. Now that people are poor, it's all about the Tina, baby. It's the perfect drug for this new American era: cheap, powerful, and terrifying." [Gawker]

The Plaza has been hit with lots of bad press in recent days. (Like here and here.) But the fabled landmark has a plan to redeem its rep! Book three nights through the end of the year (at rates of $875 per night and up) and they'll give you an extra night free! Plus they'll throw in a couple of free tickets to Radio City's "Christmas Spectacular" show, too. Just don't mind the shoddy construction work and fake marble in the bathrooms, please! [WSJ via TRD]

Wendi Deng's 40th birthday party took place last night at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Pianist Lang Lang performed, and Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Billy Joel, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg supposedly made appearances. One person who wasn't there: Rupert's 99-year-old mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, who doesn't appear to be the biggest fan of her daughter-in-law. In an interview with The Age over the weekend, she described her reaction to the news that her son was planning to split up with his second wife:

Have you been wondering why the rich enjoy spending time with other rich people, especially around the holidays? Us neither. But they do, as professional scion of wealth (and accidental inheritance wrecker) Jamie Johnson kindly points out today on VF.com. "Each year," he says, "committee lists for the grand society balls are indistinguishable from those of past years." But why? Well, it's complicated, but in language that plebs might understand: Rich people like hanging out with other rich people because they're familar, and because they revere wealth and therefore each other. And don't forget the most important point: They have good food and booze at their parties! (Or, as Jamie puts it, "An abundance of food, drink, and amusement facilitates fun.") We know, it's nothing short of revelatory.

Don't be alarmed if you start seeing large groups of Chinese tourists circling your block—they're just here to buy up all the property you can't afford! Thanks to falling real estate values market and newly-relaxed visa rules, travel agencies in China are now putting together guided trips to places like New York and LA, package tours specifically designed for house hunting. Organizers of the trips say it's really not that different than Chinese tourists coming to NYC to buy a dozen handbags at Louis Vuitton. "In the past, people who traveled to the U.S. might carry back a large luggage with American goods," says one. "It's just that this time, what they bring back are [papers showing] hundreds of thousands of dollars of a house." But we can't imagine that desperate sellers, who have grown accustomed to seeing empty open houses in recent weeks, will mind a big crowd turning up. Even if they are camera-toting tourists who plan to hit the Bronx Zoo later that day. [LAT]

With the holiday season upon us (and with the first snowflakes beginning to fall), we thought we'd check in with some of the luxe hotels at ski resorts around the country—you know, the ones in places like Aspen that book up months or years in advance—to see how they're faring this year. The answer? Three of the five hotels had availability, an ominous sign given it's high season and Christmas is just two weeks away. The good news, of course, is that if you're one of those people who waits until the last minute to book a trip, you'll have no trouble securing a deluxe room at the St. Regis in Aspen. (Assuming you still have money left in your bank account, that is.) Our survey of the five hotels after the jump.

It looks like David Patrick Columbia is in a bit of hot water. In his column this morning, the social diarist suggested that the real estate brokerage firms Corcoran and Edward Lee Cave were both shutting down. Did DPC just break the biggest story of his life? Maybe not: "It's all nonsense," Corcoran's Pam Liebman tells the Observer. "There's not an ounce of truth to it. Not an ounce of truth to it. And we're going to have our attorneys do something about it." As for Edward Lee Cave's eponymous firm, the real estate vet says there may be some changes to the "corporate structure," but he denies he's closing up shop. [NYO]

♦ What recession? Condé Nast is launching a new magazine in the UK. [WWD]
♦ More on the fallout from the Tribune Co. bankruptcy. [NYT]
♦ Yesterday the New York Times revealed plans to mortgage its office building; now it says it's in talks with lenders about upcoming debt payments. [AP]
♦ Jann Wenner has hired a new chief digital officer. [AdAge]
♦ Is the advertising world sexist? Maybe! [HuffPo]
♦ Jay Leno may earn $40-50 million a year for his new gig on NBC. [MP]
♦ NBC still has some Super Bowl ads available, if you're interested. [AdAge]