The news just gets worse and worse for AIG. A day after the insurance giant asked for another $40 billion in government aid, it was revealed that the company sent execs on yet another lavish trip to a Phoenix resort last week and tried to conceal its role in sponsoring the event. Resist the urge to get angry: Most of the attendees will probably be unemployed in a few weeks. As for senior management, they'd be well-advised to get in as much pool and spa time now, since as far as we know even the most luxurious minimum-security prisons don't have them. [ABC News]

If you're hunting for a cheapo apartment to purchase in Manhattan, this isn't a bad time to be looking: Prices are falling, the number of buyers is declining, and as long as you have very good credit (or don't need a mortgage), there's never been more inventory to choose from. Below you'll find a list of the 20 cheapest apartments in Manhattan on the market at the moment. A few quick caveats, though: The list only includes apartments in Manhattan below 96th Street, so if you're looking for a deal in Brooklyn, you're on your own for the time being. Also, we've only included proper apartments on the list, which means "fractional-ownership" condos, apartments with tenants living in them or, say, rooftop cabanas, have all been excluded. But don't worry: There's still plenty of sub-$300K apartments to choose from, just as long as you're not too worried about having an actual bedroom and you have no objection to bathing in the kitchen sink.

As if cokeheads weren't annoying enough with their obnoxious personalities and endless occupation of club bathrooms, now they can consider themselves victims of their DNA, too. A genetic basis for cocaine addiction has been found by German psychopharmacology researchers, who say that a particular gene variant causes an increased likelihood of becoming addicted to the drug. Getting hooked on the white stuff is 70 percent genetic, the study suggests—cheerful news for the likes of Lila Grace Moss. [Guardian]

♦ Following a small incident yesterday, MSNBC is reportedly planning to institute a tape-delay on Morning Joe beginning on Monday. [TVNewser]
♦ Vivian Schiller, the head of NYTimes.com, is leaving to join NPR as its new CEO. [Gawker]
♦ NBC political director Chuck Todd is co-authoring a book called How Obama Won that will be published by Knopf before the inauguration in January. [NYO]
♦ Ted Turner doesn't have too many good things to say about Time Warner as he hits the trail to promote his new book. [Portfolio, Gawker]
♦ Why was Cindy Adams so furious about her Wikipedia entry a few weeks ago? It says she's 83 when she's actually 78. [HuffPo]

The Post is hearing rumors that Morgan Stanley plans to lay off 10 percent of the company's 50,000 workforce on Thursday and that "those given the ax shouldn't expect a very generous severance package." [NYP via Dealbreaker]

Rachel Weisz walking by herself downtown ... Liev Schreiber carrying his son Alexander on Lafayette Street ... Natalie Portman on the set of her new film ... Jeff Goldblum leaving ABC studios after an appearance on Regis & Kelly ... Salma Hayek carrying her daughter Valentina ... Ed Westwick walking to the Gossip Girl set in Harlem ... Jamie Oliver, Bill Cosby, Taylor Swift, and Ted Turner posing for photos outside the Letterman show ... Taylor Momsen walking with friends in Greenwich Village ... and Danny DeVito leaving Da Silvano with his kids.

Forget Nate Silver. A "numerologist" by the name of "Mystical Marcy" says she made the most accurate election prediction when she determined "Obama would win by a landslide, long before polls showed him in the lead" and during the "height of Sarah Palin-mania." Mind you she made her prediction in July, weeks before Palin had even been picked as McCain's running mate and when Obama was already ahead in the polls. But you can read the nutty press release for yourself after the jump.

We're not sure what was going on in Lindsay Lohan's drug-addled mind when she described Barack Obama as our first "colored President" in an interview with Access Hollywood's Maria Menounos. But we're going to take this as a sign that she's gearing up for an appearance on the fourth season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

It's such a dilemma: You want to acquire several new designer handbags, but in the current economic climate, will it be seen as tacky, insensitive wealth flaunting? As marketing strategist James Chung tells Forbes: "We're way beyond the days of conspicuous consumption," which means it's more essential than ever to know the brands to buy so it doesn't seem like you're showing off.

It turns out that Greenwich, the enclave that is home to some of the richest people in the New York metro area (like Steve Cohen, whose mansion is pictured to your left), went for Obama last week: "Perhaps most surprising was the result from Greenwich, Conn. The Versailles of the tri-state metro area, the most golden of the region's gilded suburbs, the childhood home of George H.W. Bush, went for Obama by a 54-46 margin—the first time Greenwich went Democratic since 1964. Who knew the back-country estates and shoreline mansions were populated with so many traitors to their class?" [The Big Money]

Glamour magazine's annual "Women of the Year" awards took place last night at Carnegie Hall. Honorees like Hillary Clinton, Nicole Kidman, and Tyra Banks were joined by the likes of Debra Messing, Fergie, Natalie Portman, Tinsley Mortimer, America Ferrera, Jane Krakowski, Salman Rushdie, Condoleezza Rice, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Taylor Swift. Click through for a few photos of the event.

It looks like Donald Trump has found a rather morbid way to capitalize on the press surrounding the murders of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother, and nephew. The publicity-seeking mogul now says he's been "protecting" Hudson by allowing her stay in a suite with her family at his Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago free of charge since October 24th. It might have been a kind gesture on Trump's part if he weren't blabbing about it to People magazine (especially since she's supposedly holed up in his hotel for her own safety), and if his other recent charity case, Ed McMahon, wasn't still waiting for the handout that Trump promised him back in June. But these are precarious economic times and Trump's Chicago property is reportedly near bankruptcy. So should we really be surprised he's stooped to this?

New York City's dirtiest bars, according to one blogger: 1. Mars Bar in the East Village; 2. American Trash on the UES, 3. Billymark's West on 29th Street; 4. Rawhide in Chelsea; 5. Welcome to the Johnson's. The full top 10 list is here. [Meet Live Now via EVG]

You would think that a 24-hour medical clinic in the middle of Manhattan would be full of people all the time, but at the new, round-the-clock facility in Chelsea operated by Beth Israel, only four patients showed up between 10pm and 6am the night a New York Times reporter was there. At least you know that the next time you're awake at 4 in the morning wondering whether that thing on your leg is a malignant melanoma, a flesh-eating virus, or a mosquito bite, you can find out without subjecting yourself to hours in the ER. [NYT]

♦ Edgar Bronfman Jr. has closed on the sale of his 8,000-square-foot home in Amagansett, which he originally purchased for $12.5 million in 2005 and listed for $15.8 million in 2006. The final sale price was just $12.67 million, which means after adjusting for taxes and inflation, Bronfman actually took a $1 million loss on the property. Photos of the home are here. [Page Six]
♦ Albert Hammond Jr. has reportedly gone into contract to sell his 1,200-square-foot co-op at 141 East 3rd Street, which he picked up for $770,000 in 2005 and put on the market for $1.199 million back in August. [NYM]
♦ Lisa Kerkorian, a former tennis pro and the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, has lowered the price of her Bridgehampton home. After more than a year on the market, it's been reduced from $12.7 million down to $7.995 million. [Newsday]

For the brave souls who earn a living dressing up as Santa, this should be the beginning of the busiest time of the year. That isn't the case this year, unfortunately. The Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, a group that represents 700 red-suited men, reports that bookings have fallen off a cliff in recent weeks as department stores and civic groups cut back on their holiday budgets. [WSJ]

It's Leonardo DiCaprio's big day: The actor turns 34 today. Stanley Tucci is 48. Demi Moore turns 46. Jane Pratt, the founder of Sassy and Jane magazines, is 46, too. Carson Kressley is 39. Calista Flockhart is turning 44. Senator Barbara Boxer is 68. Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick is 43. Writer Mary Gaitskill is 54. Interior designer Mariette Himes-Gomez is 66. And Trey Smith, the son of Will Smith, is turning 16 years old.

♦ Guy Ritchie met up with sons David and Rocco in London yesterday for the first time since October, but only after agreeing to follow a list of rules issued by Madonna, which included no new friends, no fast food, no newspapers, and no TV. [Us, Mirror]
♦ Back in the US, Madonna supposedly threw an "intimate dinner party" at her apartment so she could introduce Alex Rodriguez to a group of her friends. [Mirror]
♦ One week after Tim Robbins experienced a few problems trying to cast his vote in the presidential election, officials now say they pinpointed the issue: Robbins turned up at the wrong polling location, which he might have known if he'd bothered to vote in the mid-term elections. [NYDN, P6]

More than a month after the New York Sun went bust, the final vestige of the neocon paper seems to have come to an end: The NYSun.com website has been down since yesterday. Guess you'll have to go elsewhere to get your stale news from mid-September!

♦ With so many companies looking to tap into the $700 billion bailout, it's clear there won't be enough to go around, and a lot more work (and cash) is going to be needed to fix the problem. [WSJ]
♦ The latest company to convert itself into a bank to tap into government funds: American Express, which earned approval from the Fed to become a commercial bank yesterday as it seeks to cover rising credit card defaults. [Bloomberg]
♦ GM's possible bankruptcy was a major topic of conversation at the White House yesterday when Barack Obama met with George Bush. Meanwhile, shares of GM fell to $3.36 yesterday, its lowest level since 1949. [WSJ, Bloomberg]