♦ Treasury officials say as many as 1,800 institutions may apply for government investments in the next few weeks. [WSJ]
♦ GM hasn't been so lucky extracting cash: The Treasury has turned down a request by the automaker for $10 billion to help finance a merger with Chrysler. [NYT]
♦ Henry Kravis's KKR is delaying its plan to go public on the NYSE until 2009. [CNNMoney]
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♦ Charles, the West Village spot that's been billed as the next Waverly Inn, is opening tonight. [Eater]
♦ A list of 18 spots ideal for fireside dining and boozing. [The Feedbag]
♦ Danny Meyer says sales are up at his budget-friendly restaurants (Shake Shack) while his pricier joints (Tabla, Eleven Madison Park) are beginning to suffer. [GS]
♦ A look inside West Branch, Tom Valenti's Upper West Side Brasserie opening tonight. [Eater]
♦ It's not too late to make Halloween plans: GoaG has a guide to festivities across the city, including a number you're probably not invited to. [GoaG]
Nikki Finke says that MTV is planning a massive round of layoffs. And they've decided to do it on Tuesday so that the news is totally overshadowed by Election Day. True? We don't know. But it isn't a bad idea. All those hipstery PAs won't know whether to mourn the loss of their jobs or celebrate the election of Barack Obama, and we're guessing the two will cancel one another out. That Judy is a clever one, isn't she? [Deadline Hollywood]
♦ Zac Posen posted a 15-second video online urging people to vote for Obama. Also: He'd really like you to dress for the occasion. "I think blue obviously is the color of choice, and red is a good accent color." Duly noted! [WWD]
♦ Anna Wintour choked up? We can't contemplate the thought. [Unbeige]
♦ Bravo has no less than five new fashion reality shows in the works. [The Cut]
♦ Sarah Jessica Parker has no less than three fragrances to promote these days—Dawn, Endless and Twilight. [WWD]
♦ Chanel creative director (and part-time Vermont resident) Karl Lagerfeld has unveiled Chanel Unlimited, a newline of bags and accessories. [Vogue UK]
Wondering who are New York restaurateurs backing this election season? Not John McCain. Grub Street combed through the data and of the 33 political donations they located, none—not a single one—went to McCain. The most generous contributor was Amy Rubenstein, the co-owner of Peter Luger's (and the wife of PR kingpin Howard) who handed over $5,600 to Obama, Clinton, and Giuliani. The award for most surprising donation? That would be Sirio Maccioni, who gave $2,300 donation to Rudy Giuliani despite the fact the former mayor once confessed that he used to throw up after eating at Le Cirque because the food was so rich. [Grub Street]
New York City's been hit hard by the economic turmoil of the last few weeks. An estimated 25,000 jobs have disappeared on Wall Street alone since mid-September, and some are predicting that as many as 165,000 banking jobs will vanish over the next two years. But it isn't limited to finance, of course. Law firms, media companies, retail: Everyone is jumping on the pink slip bandwagon. In fact, if you run a company and you aren't firing people at the moment, you're liable to look naive and unprepared. After the jump, a rundown of the layoffs that have been announced in the last few weeks in media, finance and technology in the New York City area. Just so you don't waste your time emailing your resume if you happen to be job hunting.
Cranky Times columnist Clyde Haberman has a long list of (really good) questions for the banking industry, like why banks can't seem to figure out how to provide pens that actually work. ("How can people feel confident that their money is being managed wisely if those in charge can't even provide a functioning pen?) But he also has an interesting conspiracy theory to share with the world. It seems Banco Santander, which announced the purchase of Sovereign a few weeks ago, is now advertising itself in the Times as just "Santander." "Want to bet that Santander left out "banco," except in very small type at the bottom of the ad, so that few would see right away that another piece of America had been acquired by a foreign institution?" Click through for Haberman's litany of complaints.
The most important election in a generation is just four days away. Every day brings fresh news about the crumbling American economy. So how are good 'ol Americans coping with these turbulent times? They're buying guns in record numbers, of course! That's what Fox News is reporting, at least, which says FBI background checks are up nine percent from last year. And just in case you weren't aware of it, this increase is all Barack Obama's fault. Decent Americans are just buying up lots of guns now so they have them in case Obama wins the election and he changes gun control laws, in which case you'll have to pry their semi-automatics from their cold, dead hands.
♦ What does Bravo have in the works to replace Project Runway if it moves to Lifetime? There's a Runway ripoff called The Fashion Show. There's also Celebrity Sew-Off, in which "celebrities" will compete in a competition for their own clothing label, which should be totally awesome because we've always wanted to buy jeans designed by Jill Zarin. [THR]
♦ The sponsors for Bravo's fifth season of Top Chef? Campbell's Soup, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Quaker. [AdAge]
♦ Because you haven't heard enough about Bravo today, the NYT magazine profile of Bravo boss Lauren Zalaznick (left) is now online. [NYT]
♦ More details on the cuts and layoffs at Condé Nast. [NYP]
♦ Condé Nast's glitzy Fashion Rocks show is no more. [AdAge]
How do you raise extra funds when you're a restaurateur who is $1.8 million behind in taxes? Overcharge customers for shaved truffles! At least that's what Nello Balan is being accused of doing by a jilted customer who took his wife for lunch at Nello's on the Upper East Sidea few months back and says he was overcharged to the tune of $530 for two plates of pasta that weren't even that good. We're not sure how Balan will be able to blame his accountant for this error, but we're sure there's a waiter somewhere ready to take the fall. [Page Six]
We hadn't seen Bruce Wasserstein—billionaire financier, Lazard chairman, owner of New York magazine—for quite some time until he made this appearance yesterday at a breakfast for Fortune. We're very happy to see he appears to be keeping up New York's "Best Doctors" issue: The new Bruce is trimmer, his skin looks is taut and smooth, and those unsightly bags under his eyes have completely vanished. We don't know who deserves the credit for this impressive transformation (Sherrell? Dan? Pat?), but whoever it is, please know that we fully approve of Bruce 2.0!
Sarah Jessica Parker making phone calls last night at a Barack Obama campaign center ... Macaulay Culkin standing on the sidewalk ... Katie Holmes and Suri wearing matching orange dresses in Central Park ... Philip Seymour Hoffman walking in the West Village ... Ashley Olsen and Paul Rudd posing outside the Letterman show ... Tyra Banks getting some frozen yogurt ... Lindsay Price carrying her dog on the set of Lipstick Jungle ... Keira Knightley walking with her boyfriend, Rupert Friend ... Becki Newton on the set of Ugly Betty ... and Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon outside a Halloween party at Marquee.
Alberto Rottura is the man who cuts Michael Bloomberg's hair. (His cuts cost $35.) He's also the man who tends to the locks of Betsy Gotbaum and Tom Wolfe. One person who used to be a client but no longer shows his face around Rottura's salon any longer? Eliot Spitzer. "Then he got entangled in an escort scandal, resigned and never came back, Mr. Rottura said." [NYT]
If you're dressing up as Sarah Palin for Halloween and you'd like to compare your totally uninspired Halloween outfit to the 46,273 other New Yorkers who are dressing up as the vice presidential candidate, you're in luck! Sarah Palin lookalikes are gathering in Union Square tonight—supposedly!—for a "Sarah Palin Experiment and Pageant"
Lydia Hearst had a little run-in with Page Six magazine earlier this week: After bashing the media conglomerate founded by her great-grandfather in her weekly column, she accused the mag of making the item up and simply slapping her byline at the top. The heiress took her revenge last night. Sort of! Proving originality isn't her strong suit, Lydia wore precisely the same get-up that Britney Spears wore after she was dissed by Page Six way back in 2003. [GoaG, Jossip]
♦ Hedge fund manager Chris Shumway is the mystery buyer behind 104 Gin Lane—the mammoth-sized Southampton mansion that sold for $60 million last March—not Tiger Woods, as was previously reported. Chumway can afford it: He was reported to have made $400 million last year. A larger photo of the home is after the jump. [Newsday]
♦ The owners of a four-bedroom apartment at the Dakota have lowered the price of the spread by 19 percent after four months on the market. The sixth-floor residence, which is owned by an unknown "Wall Street executive," is now available for the bargain price of $19.5 million. [WSJ, Curbed, Brown Harris Stevens]
♦ Diandra De Morrell Douglas, the ex-wife of Michael Douglas, has gone into contract to sell her East 71st Street townhouse for $9.25 million, or $3.3 million more than what she paid for it three years ago. [WSJ]
Condé Nast announced yesterday it planned to scale back publication of Men's Vogue to two times a year. But not before Condé took one last opportunity to rope in Men's Vogue readers to renew their subscriptions! A reader was kind enough to send in this renewal offer he received last week, which offered two years ("20 issues!") for the price of one. But as he pointed out, when a Vogue title stamps "Free Gift Enclosed!" on the envelope and the gift turns out to be a flimsy bookmark, that's a pretty good sign the end is near.
