It looks like Justin Timberlake plans to spend more time in New York now that he's gone into contract on a condo at the Pearline Soap Factory at 414 Washington Street, according to the Post. Timberlake's 3,000-square-foot loft, which was listed at $5.25 million, comes with three bedrooms, 14 floor-to-ceiling arched windows, Sub-Zero appliances, and views of the Hudson River. Photos of the apartment where JT will soon be rocking Jessica Biel's body are below.

For a while it looked as if weekly topless scenes of Robert Buckley would keep Lipstick Jungle in business, but it seems that one man's perfect abs can only do so much: NBC has axed the Candace Bushnell adaptation after a move to the Friday lineup failed to make more viewers believe that massively powerful businesswomen juggling relationships, children, and perfect designer wardrobes would also have time to meet every day for breakfast, lunch, cocktails, and dinner. Of course our sympathies go out to the cast of Brooke Shields, Lindsay Price, and Kim Raver (as well as to the cast of My Own Worst Enemy, which NBC also canceled). But you know who we feel most sorry for? Bushnell's ballet dancer husband. This news is not going to improve her already volatile mood.

If you're gunning for a high-ranking job in the Obama administration, hope you've kept a record of everything you've done over the past decade or so. Potential cabinet members and other top officials in the administration have been asked to fill out this list of 63 questions. You'll be happy to hear, though, that traffic tickets under $50 need not be reported. [NYT]

Can you pick out the ex-husband of the actress, socialite, singer, TV talk show host, political fundraiser, and magazine editor? Click on "More" for the answers.

Last we heard, the typical Bollywood heroine was a coy, traditional woman—not a violent criminal who goes through rich men like party snacks—but apparently that didn't deter producer Shailendra Singh from recruiting Naomi Campbell to sing (in Hindi!) in his new animated film, Jumbo. The scary supermodel will also dance in a promo for the film, which probably won't erase the public's traumatic memories of her own short-lived pop career. [Female First]

♦ Tommy Mottola and his wife Thalia have reportedly sold their 12-acre Westchester estate for $15 million. The 15,000-square-foot Aspen-style home in North Salem was first listed in 2006 for $21 million. [NYP]
♦ Hugh Jackman has closed on the triplex apartment at 176 Perry Street he was in negotiations to buy late last month. Jackman paid between $20 and $23 million for the 11,032-square-foot pad, which was previously owned by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. [NYO]
♦ NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein and his wife, Sony exec Nicole Seligman, are about to close on the Sag Harbor home of author Harry Hurt III and his wife, chef Alison Becker. The price is reportedly $2 million. [NYP]

If American Express pleads poverty and gets a multi-billion dollar handout from the government, maybe we should all do the same and just not pay our next AmEx bill? That's Neil Cavuto's suggestion at least, and while we wouldn't necessarily recommend it, if you do decide to toss your statements into the trash and burly collection agents show up on your doorstep, just tell them it was Neil's idea. He can afford to pay both his bill and yours, too.

Chris Noth is 54 today. Fashion publicity powerhouse (and Hills regular) Kelly Cutrone is turning 43. Whoopi Goldberg turns 53. Gerard Butler is 39. Director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride) is turning 74. Former Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde is 45. Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture turns 30. Actor Neil Flynn (Scrubs) is 48. Joe Mantegna is 61. And the least funny late-night host on TV, Jimmy Kimmel, turns 41 today.

Looks like Christie's is out $6.5 million. At auction last night, Richard and Kathy Fuld's collection of drawings failed to reach the $20 million that Christie's had guaranteed the couple. The sixteen works fetched just $13.5 million, in keeping with the lackluster response to many other lots on the block. (A 1964 self-portrait by Francis Bacon, estimated at $40 million, didn't attract a single bidder.) One of the Fulds' drawings that fetched a decent price was an Arshile Gorky that Matthew Marks paid $2.2 million for, although that still barely hit the low estimate. But just so you know, it wasn't as if there was any connection between Kathy Fuld selling the art and the spectactular downfall of her husband's career. "I've been selling things for the past few years," Kathy told a reporter recently. "But nobody cared until now." [NYT, ABC]

♦ Remember last month when Gwyneth Paltrow said she was trying to be supportive of her good friend Madonna during her divorce? It seems Madge was less than moved by the gesture and now she's warning Gwyneth to keep her mouth shut and "say nothing about me or my divorce." [National Enquirer]
♦ Meanwhile, Madonna has supposedly been telling a "close pal" that Alex Rodriguez sends her poetry and "has the heart of a poet trapped inside an insanely gorgeous body." [P6]
♦ Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson are supposedly planning to "officially get engaged" while they're in Paris this week. [The Sun]
♦ Now that she's back from London (where she reportedly brought 20 pieces of luggage on a three-day trip), Mariah Carey is supposedly organizing her holiday vacation to Aspen, where her plans include rolling around in the snow in a red bikini and decorating her bedroom to look like the North Pole. [MSNBC, The Sun, P6]

♦ Dick Parsons is the frontrunner to replace Sir Win Bischoff as chairman of Citigroup. [Reuters]
♦ Steve Rattner is shutting down the Quadrangle Group's hedge fund amid weak performance and investor redemptions. [WSJ]
♦ Phil Falcone, Ken Griffin, John Paulson, Jim Simons and George Soros will appear in front of a House panel today. [DB]
♦ Hank Paulson is taking a beating following the news that the Treasury will now focus on struggling consumers, instead of financial institutions. Paulson has become "a reduced figure, damaged by the financial-market meltdown that happened on his watch and by the government's struggles to respond to it." [WSJ, DB, Bloomberg]

This is going to come as shocking news, we're sure, but it seems convicted con man Raffaello Follieri is not having a fun time in prison. His lawyer submitted a letter to the sentencing judge this week and he reports that Follieri has been horrified to find that "the food looks spoiled, the showers are filthy with excrement and the place smells really bad." And he doesn't have a window either, which would suck in any case, sure, but probably sucks even more when your last apartment was a $37,500-a-month Trump Tower duplex.

♦ Barneys unveiled its '60s-themed holiday windows this morning, which Simon Doonan was quick to point out only borrow from "the cheery, upbeat aspects of the '60s! No overdoses, assassinations." [NYO]
♦ Downtown is being totally discriminated against by H&M: Only four stores are getting the Comme des Garçons line tomorrow: 51st and Fifth, 59th and Lex, 34th and Broadway, and 34th and Seventh. [Racked]

♦ Frank Bruni had the economy in mind when he visited Market Table on Carmine Street: The restaurant earns two stars for its reasonably priced menu and comforting atmosphere that's like a "wool blanket, emphasizing good sense over high style." [NYT]
♦ David Bouley's Bouley will be closed tonight in preparation for its re-opening tomorrow at 163 Duane St. [Zagat]
♦ We though the lousy economy was killing off ridiculously silly ideas. Apparently not. The dude responsible for Guest House and Home is opening Greenhouse, New York's "first environmentally-friendly club," tonight. [NYP]

It looks like Michael Bloomberg has won the battle to redevelop Willets Point in Queens. The City Council will officially vote on the matter tomorrow, but key members of the Council announced earlier today that they'd reached an agreement on the outstanding issues that had thus far kept the plan in limbo. Which means by 2013 several thousand New Yorkers will get to watch the Mets play ball at Citi Field without getting off their living room couches. [NYO]

The national debt now stands at $10.6 trillion and the federal government needs to borrow at least $1 trillion a year to keep the country in business. What's the Treasury Department going to come up with that kind of cash? Maybe Hank Paulson was on to something when he delivered a press conference this morning and positioned himself next to a gleaming bottle of refreshing Dasani water. Now Barack Obama just needs to tap a marketing guru and cut a few high-profile endorsement deals. The giant image if the Geico gekko on the side of the White House won't be pretty, but at least you'll have a job to go to tomorrow!

Punch in your zip code and SitorSquat.com will show you all the public restrooms in your immediate vicinity. And, yes, the site offers an iPhone app, so you can take advantage of the service when you're walking down Broadway and your bladder is about to explode. [SitorSquat via Buzzfeed]

Remember Fred Tanne, the lawyer who sued his estranged wife (along with her alleged lover and father) for giving him herpes? Bad news: The STD test results are in and it turns out that Fred and Amy (left) do, indeed, have herpes. The problem is that they don't have the same type of herpes, which means Fred didn't contract it from his wife. Awkward day at the offices of Kirkland & Ellis! [Above the Law]

Here's a one-of-a-kind gift idea for the celebrity-obsessed friend on your Christmas shopping list: A California man named Noel Cruz will happily design a disturbingly life-like doll in the image of your favorite celeb. Cruz's site has pics of his Tobey Maguire, Nicole Kidman, Keira Knightley, and Kirsten Dunst. Or you could just order his Celine Dion figurine and stick pins in it, we suppose. [NCruz.com via Coudal]

Worth reading if you have the time (and you're interested in this sort of stuff): Michael Lewis's lengthy take on the financial crisis, especially the part when he meets up with John Gutfreund twenty years after the publication of Liar's Poker: "Your fucking book destroyed my career, and it made yours." [Portfolio]