♦ When Barack Obama mentioned on 60 Minutes that he was reading a book about FDR, what book was he referring to? At least one publisher wants to know. [NYT]
♦ National Geographic is getting into the videogame business. [THR]
♦ Pepsi has dumped its longtime ad agency, BBDO Worldwide, in favor of TBWA/Chiat/Day. [NYT]
♦ Rosie O'Donnell is planning to appear on three episodes of Rachael Ray's cooking show this month. [NYDN]
♦ ESPN has outbid Fox for the broadcast rights to college football's Bowl Championship Series, beginning in 2011. [WSJ]
♦ Maxim has named NBC's Amy Robach as "hottest news anchor." [TVNewser]
♦ Just in time for Christmas, Fox News' Sean Hannity is sponsoring a series of "Freedom Concerts." [HuffPo]
♦ Here's video of a stilted Arianna Huffington filling in for Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last night, in case you missed it. [Gawker]

Wall Street won't have much to celebrate this holiday season. Most firms have announced record losses in recent weeks, thousands of employees have been let go, and even that banking birthright, the annual bonus, appears to be in jeopardy this year. Goldman Sachs announced yesterday that its top seven execs would forgo multi-million bonus checks. UBS followed suit hours later, and there's word that other banks will make similar moves in the coming days. Of course, the impact of the downturn isn't just felt by the bankers themselves. Some unlucky wives, for example, are just finding out that they're going to spend Christmas at the Four Seasons in Maui, instead of the Altamer in St. Barths, since someone decided that $10,000 for a beachfront suite was a little too much money to spend on a vacation right now. Fortunately, we're here to help. Friends, Wall Street cannot lift itself out of this mess alone, even if they happen to have tens of billions of taypayer dollars. If they're going to pull themselves up, we're all going to need to chip in, and then we'll all be rewarded when these financial titans return to their frivolous lives and start spending ridiculous amounts of money on real estate, clothes, and dinners once again. We may not be able to send them big bundles of cash (they've got the Treasury Department for that anyway), but there are countless other ways to help, little gestures that can make life easier for men who could use a little comfort as they experience sudden lifestyle changes, like having to fly commercial for the first time in years. Below: How we're going to lend some assistance to Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Did you dutifully rush out and buy the $22,000 picnic basket featured in Elle Décor a few months ago? Well, the magazine's editor Margaret Russell would like to make it clear that such items will no longer be darkening her pages: "It just seems vulgar, and vulgar is not a word I want to associate with our magazine." Russell, who was moderating an interior design panel with Cynthia Rowley, Bunny Williams, Celerie Kemble, and Annabelle Selldorf last night at the Pratt House, suggests that quilts are now the appropriate "humble" purchase, while Rowley recommends art: "That's the only thing I buy now." After seeing Rowley's home, we slightly doubt that. But we'll take her advice and resist splashing out on even her Target housewares.

Keira Knightley walking in SoHo with her mom ... Natalie Portman filming scenes for her new movie at the Wollman Rink in Central Park ... Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy walking out of a downtown restaurant ... Penn Badgley carrying takeout from Cafe Habana on Prince Street ... Brooke Shields hailing a cab in the West Village ... Naomi Watts pushing her son's stroller in NoHo ... Robin Williams carrying a Juicy Couture bag in the West Village ... Ed Westwick walking on Chrystie Street ... Emma Thompson posing for photographers outside the Letterman show ... Kid Rock leaving the Trump International Hotel ... and Anna Wintour getting out of a car.

Wondering what Paula Zahn has been up to since she was dumped by CNN in 2007 and replaced with Campbell Brown? Well, there was her messy divorce from real estate developer Richard Cohen, but that isn't a subject Zahn has any interest in discussing. ("I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about what I'm doing.") So what is she doing? Since departing CNN, Zahn has done a special for PBS and she'll be co-hosting Ch. 13's Sunday Arts beginning this Sunday, teaming up with Philippe de Montebello to take a weekly look at arts and culture. More importantly: She's headed to Carnegie Hall. The amateur cellist is scheduled to perform at the city's most prestigious musical venue on December 2nd, when she'll play alongside the Sejong Soloists. Okay, that's not as exciting as Anderson Cooper tinkling the ivories or Lou Dobbs on the harmonica. But it isn't every day that you get to see a cable news host dabble with an instrument other than the human voice. [NYDN]

Out-of-towners might be out of luck if they visit New York over the holidays hoping to take a double-decker bus tour of the city. The union that represents guides at Gray Line is threatening a strike when its contract expires this month, according to New York. The guides' chief complaint? Pay, naturally (they make $16.73 an hour; they want it raised to $20). But the guides are also concerned with the harsh working conditions, like having to give tours from the top of a double-decker when it's two degrees outside, and the wind chill makes it even colder since they're standing on top of a bus moving at 30 MPH. But their unhappiness about the frosty work environment doesn't seem to have had an effect on Gray Line's promotional plans. The company is now offering tourists the option to eat a "delectable" meal aboard the bus.

Just when it looked as though viewers were going to be cruelly deprived of their weekly life-affirming glimpse into the lives of three mistresses of the universe who always drop everything to be supportive to one other (or to engage in the most idealized cougar-cub relationship ever likely to grace our screens), Lipstick Jungle has won an eleventh-hour reprieve.

♦ Two months after buying a townhouse in Brooklyn, Barbara Corcoran has reportedly purchased two more multiple-residence brownstones in the borough. [Page Six]
♦ Highside Capital principal David Thomas and his wife, Economist correspondent Joanne Ramos, have paid $5.59 million for a four-bedroom condo in the Fischer Mills Building in Tribeca. [Cityfile]
♦ Gramercy Capital COO Bob Foley paid $3.5 million for an two-bedroom loft on the 18th-floor of 15 Madison Square North. [Cityfile]

The board of the MTA will meet today to unveil a set of cutbacks designed to address next year's estimated $1.2 billion budget shortfall. What can you look forward to? Among other things, the end of the W and Z lines, 1,500 fewer MTA employees, and longer gaps between trains at midday and between two and five in the morning. [NYDN, NYT]

The downturn in the economy—not to mention last week's pretty disastrous auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's—appear to be taking a toll at art galleries around town. Pace Wildenstein has slashed 12 percent of its staff in recent days. [AFC]

Chloe Sevigny turns 34 today. Project Runway winner Christian Siriano is 23. Owen Wilson is 40. Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly turns 38. Weeds actress Elizabeth Perkins is 48. Singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik is turning 39. The rapper Fabolous is 31. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett is 46. Former Dynasty star Linda Evans is 66 years old. And scandal-plagued Alaska Senator Ted Stevens can look forward to celebrating his 85th today in the company of his lawyers.

Well, this will certainly soften the blow of a certain Gossip Girl actor thinking he was Vera Wang's husband: Last night, Alexander Wang won the $200,000 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize, awarded by a panel of judges including Diane von Furstenberg, Vogue's Anna Wintour and Sally Singer, Coach's Reed Krakoff, Jeffrey Kalinsky, Theory's Andrew Rosen, and Barneys' Julie Gilhart. At the 5th anniversary ceremony held at Skylight Studios, a crowd including André Leon Talley, Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Wang, John Galliano, Charlize Theron, and Juliette Lewis saw the 24-year-old New Yorker beat out the competition, including runners-up Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai of Vena Cava and Albertus Quartus designer Albertus Q Swanepoel. [WWD, Vogue UK]

♦ Although her life looks like it's finally back on track, a new documentary suggests Britney Spears thinks her new life is like prison and lacks "excitement" or "passion." Hopefully she'll be in a better mood in two weeks when she makes an appearance at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony. [The Sun, OK!]
♦ Could Anna Wintour be planning to retire? Page Six says the Vogue editor is thinking about leaving the mag once her contract is up, and she's even been recommending possible replacements to Si Newhouse. [P6]
♦ Kiefer Sutherland may be planning to move to NYC so he can be closer to his girlfriend, Allure style director Siobhan Bonnouvrier. [Daily Star]
♦ Madonna is reportedly making $10 million to appear in her new Louis Vuitton ad campaign. [P6]

♦ Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says Citigroup should follow Goldman's lead and forgo bonuses for senior execs. [NYP]
♦ Embattled Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang has announced he will step down as soon as the board finds a replacement. [NYT, WSJ]
♦ Mark Cuban's attorney on the insider trading charges leveled against his client: "The case has no merit, and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion." [WSJ]
♦ Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is unlikely to use the rest of the $700 billion bailout fund on any new initiatives, preferring to hand over the remaining pennies—and very big problems—to his successor in the Obama administration. [WSJ]
♦ Andrew Ross Sorkin on extending the bailout to GM: "Taxpayers shouldn't fork over a cent, at least until shareholders are wiped out, management is tossed out and the industry is completely reorganized." [NYT]

It's not just Ferrari dealerships and private clubs that are feeling the pain as hedge funds wither: Property owners in Midtown are now seeing a record number of finance tenants pull up stakes. Ramius Capital spent $22 million on marble office space at 599 Lexington Ave eight months ago and is now now looking to sublease one of its three floors. Old Lane, which was co-founded by Vikram Pandit and sold to Citigroup in 2007, has put 20,000 square feet at 500 Park Ave on the market. The Carlyle Group's Blue Wave fund is unloading its space at 1177 Sixth Ave. Over at 9 West 57th Street, which is home to Henry Kravis's KKR and Leon Black's Apollo Management, there is 30,000 square feet available on the 26th floor now that the Clinton Group is downsizing. And it turns out that Scott Bommer, the founder of SAB Capital, isn't just looking to dump his apartment at the Ritz-Carlton. His hedge fund is looking to dispose of 9,000 square feet at the GM building, too.

Russell Simmons Gets A Glimpse [Celebuzz/Bauer-Griffin]

♦ Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Karolina Kurkova were just a few of the models who took to the stage in Miami this weekend for the Victoria's Secret show where the company unveiled its latest publicity stunt at the celeb-packed event, the $5 million Black Diamond Fantasy Miracle Bra by jeweler Martin Katz. [Vogue UK, E!, ABC]
♦ Prada is gamely adapting to the economy by launching a new line of purses that are all—gasp—under $1,000. [Nylon]
♦ As if today's tiny fashion victims don't have enough to choose from, Jean Paul Gaultier has inked a licensing deal to make children's clothes. [WWD]
♦ Vanity Fair's fashion department tried to go on a $150,000 shopping spree à la Sarah Palin and discovered it's actually kind of hard to blow that kind of cash. [VF]

Arianna Huffington is filling in for Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC program this evening. Until then, the Huffington Post co-founder has been snooping around Rachel's corner office and getting prepared for the show. Arianna's video tour of Maddow's collection of pantsuits after the jump.

♦ New York's Adam Platt hands out four stars to Drew Nieporent's Corton this week, praising chef Paul Liebrandt's cuisine as "technically complex without being exhibitionist." [NYM]
♦ David Chang's Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar opened on Saturday. Grub Street has rounded up the public reception. [GS]
♦ A handful of spots including Marquee and the Tribeca Grand have been denied permits by the State Liquor Authority to stay open late on New Year's Eve. [NYP]
♦ A detailed history of the epic battle between Da Silvano's Silvano Marchetto and Bar Pitti's Giovanni Tognozzi. [Page Six Magazine]

Damien Hirst isn't the least bit troubled about last week's disappointing art auctions, or that one of his own works, a painting of four skulls called "Beautiful Artemis Thor Neptune Odin Delusional Sapphic Inspirational Hypnosis Painting," found no takers. It's actually a good thing! Hirst now says the art market was overpriced up until recently, and that his painting wasn't worth $3 million anyway: "It was bought from me less than a year ago at half the price. In a way it's good. We are looking at more realistic prices. People who bought things are not going to sell them that day. That is what an artist wants, for people to hang the works on their wall." Perhaps this means that Hirst, who is now reportedly worth more than $350 million, is planning to issue refunds to collectors who bought in at the peak? Not so much! "Art is worth what the next guy is prepared to pay," he says. But he does plan to adjust prices when he unveils his next batch of work. "If I want to sell new work, I'll price it lower."