Betelnut is a stimulant popular in parts of Asia. You chew it and get a mild high (although it turns your teeth black and gives you cancer). In Taiwan, sexy babes called "Betelnut girls" sell it from brightly-lit booths. This weekend, though, an artist named Annamarie Ho is recreating a betelnut kiosk here in NYC. So if you're walking on Cleveland Place just south of Kenmare Street and you see this woman sitting in her panties behind a neon sign, and you're wondering why it looks like you've suddenly landed in Amsterdam's red light district, well, now you know. [Betelnut 2008 via BoingBoing]

Whitney Port of The Hills eating lunch with musician Jay Lyon at Extra Virgin on West 4th Street ... Gretchen Mol pushing a stroller ... Spike Lee signing books at the at Virgin Megastore in Union Square ... Paris Hilton posing outside the Letterman show ... Drew Barrymore walking into the Sheraton in Midtown to attend the Clinton Global Initiative ... Eliot Spitzer standing by himself ... Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady leaving Kobe Club on 58th Street ... and Katie Holmes getting out of an SUV outside the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on West 45th Street.

Despite the fact that Candace Bushnell's new novel One Fifth Avenue features a character (descriptive name alert!), Lola Fabrikant, for whom Carrie Bradshaw is an avowed role model, do not accuse Bushnell of being self-referential. "Honey... get over it," she admonished an interviewer who dared to do so. "You gotta grow up. You gotta let go... of aaaaaall the jealousy." In her defense, she was inside a restaurant at the time and testy about not being able to chainsmoke, and the reporter was Australian, so she may have thought he said "self-reverential." And if we don't revere ourselves, who else will? [The Age]

Fortune snagged an interview with Erin Callan, who served as second-in-command at Lehman Brothers until she was ousted in June. What does she have to say about the whole debacle? Callan says she's lucky she got when she did (duh!) and probably overdid it a wee bit with the press. She also mentions that Dick Fuld broke into tears when he fired her. [Fortune via Dealbreaker]

It looks like the real estate woes that have been plaguing other parts of the country have finally made their way to Manhattan. Since last Thursday some 200 properties listed at $10 million or less on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side have cut prices, a 17 percent jump from the week before, according to the Journal. It's not all bad news, though. Trophy properties in the $20 million and up category seem to be doing fine. For now at least!

Spotted in front of Federal Hall yesterday. [EV Grieve]

If you're stressed out about losing your job or not being able to pay your mortgage, you may want to take a lesson from Kathy Fuld, the wife of Lehman CEO Dick Fuld and the man who will forever be known as man who led the firm into bankruptcy. According to art dealers, Kathy has put a set of Abstract Expressionist drawings worth some $20 million up for auction. She didn't waste any time either: Christie's announced the November 12th sale of the drawings just four days after Lehman went bankrupt. The Fulds aren't exactly in the poorhouse—Dick took home $35 million last year—but Kathy's a sensible gal and replenishing the coffers isn't the worst idea in the world when you have a large estate in Greenwich and mortgages on a $20 million Park Avenue co-op and $13 million Florida beach house.

This isn't going to be a fun day for Rudy Giuliani. The Times today has the details on Russell Harding, who served as a senior official in the Giuliani administration before he was convicted on a series of charges, including embezzling $400,000 and possessing child pornography. It turns out that Harding has started up a blog, RudyVeritas.com, and he's made a series of eye-opening allegations on the site, like how Rudy demanded that Judi Giuliani have a full-time NYPD security detail and how Judi was "abusive" toward the officers assigned to protect her. (She also made them carry her purse. Ouch.) But Harding's most salacious allegations detail how Giuliani managed to snag his then-mistress a ridiculously cheap apartment.

Serena Williams is 27 today. Others celebrating: Music exec Andre Harrell is 48, Christina Milian is 27, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman is 62, Olivia Newton-John is 60, and Linda Hamilton turns 52. Two figures on the New York web scene will be blowing out candles this evening: Gothamist co-founder Jen Chung is 32. And Nerve.com founder Rufus Griscom is 41. Weekend birthdays after the jump!

Where are the very rich parking their money with the market in shambles? "Paintings, cars, and bottles of wine," reports the Journal. Guess if you're going to watch the world go down in flames, you might as well do it in style. [WSJ]

The next time you need to beg/borrow/steal some pills for any reason, look no further than your nearest child. A new report reveals that American kids are being heavily prescribed psychotropic drugs for conditions like ADHD and bipolar disorder, with three times as many of them on some kind of psychiatric medication compared to children in European countries. Possible reasons given include the effectiveness of direct-to-consumer advertising, this country's high number of child psychiatrists per capita, a cultural emphasis on drug therapy, and the trend for children to want to make extra money dealing to their classmates. (OK, we made the last one up.)

♦ All eyes are on Washington, of course, as lawmakers reconvene to try and hammer out a bailout. [Politico, NYT]
♦ J.P. Morgan Chase has agreed to pay $1.9 billion to the government for WaMu's banking operations and will take over the company's portfolio of loans. WaMu depositors will still have access to their cash; holders of WaMu equity and debt won't be as lucky. [WSJ, DB]

As expected, Washington Mutual collapsed yesterday, making it the largest bank failure in U.S. history. JP Morgan Chase scooped up the company's assets, so if you were a WaMu customer, you'll be banking with Chase in the future. (Whoo hoo!) If you're a WaMu shareholder, however, you're totally out of luck. [CNNMoney, NYT]

"The status of a rescue plan for the nation’s financial system was in doubt, at least for the moment, on Thursday as lawmakers emerged from a White House meeting with President Bush to say that negotiations have a ways to go." [NYT]

♦ Is Frank Bruni leaving the Times? Possibly, although he says he's not. [Eater]
♦ Eli Zabar has slapped an "energy surcharge" on all purchases at Eli's and some customers aren't happy about it. [NYT]
♦ A look inside Citrine, the new Flatiron club opening in late October. [DBTH]
♦ Now there are two Spitzers down for the count. The Department of Health has shuttered Spitzer's Corner, the LES bar/restaurant. [Bowery Boogie via Eater]
♦ Pork nut/amateur psychic David Chang says in the future we'll make do with less meat and eat more veggies. [Esquire via GS]
♦ Meet the five finalists in the annual Vendy Awards, which celebrates the city's finest food carts. [GS]

It was only a matter of time before something like this turned up. Someone is now selling "toilet targets" on EBay with reviled Lehman CEO Dick Fuld's face on them. It probably isn't a disgruntled Lehman banker fretting over the mortgage payments on his Tribeca loft who came up with the idea, though. The seller is located in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [EBay]

♦ Rihanna appeared in the front row at the Gucci show in Milan yesterday and said she plans to launch a clothing line of her own. [WWD]
♦ Robin Givhan reports on a Tod's dinner in Milan with Gwyneth Paltrow (the face of the brand), Derek Lam, and Thakoon Panichgul, who, reports Givhan, was "still giddy" from seeing Michelle Obama in his dress at the convention, especially since she had bought it herself and hadn't been "styled into it." [WaPo]
♦ The Comme des Garçons line for H&M, which is about to hit stores, kind of negates the point of a mass market-designer collaboration: one of the dresses is $350. [Fashionista]
♦ Jonathan Adler's retail empire will expand to Columbus Avenue by the end of the year. [WWD]

Tommy Hilfiger was supposed to to marry Dee Ocleppo six weeks ago on the Caribbean island of Mustique. But just days before the big event, the duo called off the nuptuals. Now BlackBook says the fashion mogul has reunited with his ex-wife, Susie, and he's moved back into the Greenwich mansion where they're "living together as one big happy family." Which is a little strange considering he was with Ocleppo in San Francisco last week for some sort of gala sponsored by Macy's. Since you'd be hard-pressed to tell the two women apart, we're not really sure it matters, but if you're keeping track of Tommy's love life at home, well, then, consider yourself up to date on the very latest.

Add one more book about the (still unfolding!) financial crisis to your 2009 reading list. Times business reporter/wunderkind Andrew Ross Sorkin sent out a proposal on Tuesday, an auction took place yesterday, and now he's "inches away" from a deal with Viking. [NYO, previously]

What a perfect time to launch a decadent, extravagant product: Double Cross Luxury Vodka is filtered through diamond dust—just what we've always thought vodka was missing. [The Daily]