Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any more useful analysis to be applied to the subject of tattoos' increasingly mainstream popularity, the Times points out that not only are lots of non-punky, non-prisony people getting inked, they're getting tattoos on the neck and hands. This is despite the fact that such visible markings may very well rule out ever working in certain jobs, especially as courts never agree that it's discriminatory for employers to forbid tattoos and other body modifications.

Yes, there really is a "prayer booth" on the corner of 59th Street and Second Avenue. Perfect timing, too! [Animal NY]

♦ Financial news outlets are performing well, not surprisingly. CNBC's Closing Bell saw ratings increase 70% last week. [AdAge]
♦ HBO has optioned the Tom Wolfe novel I Am Charlotte Simmons with Tina Brown producing. [Variety via NYO]
♦ Furniture mogul Eric Villency is teaming up with Cotton (yes, the industry trade group) on a web-based reality TV show. [AdAge]
♦ Sarah Palin got cozy with Rupert Murdoch last night. [Politico]
♦ Thanks to hefty tax breaks, a record 19 primetime series will be filmed in NYC in 2008-9, compared to 12 last year. [NYT]
♦ David Letterman ripped into John McCain last night after the senator cancelled his scheduled appearance. [Gawker]
♦ Should Andrea Mitchell really be covering the financial crisis given her husband is former Fed chair Alan Greenspan? [CJR]

As part of its plan to pathologize (and profit from treating) every single mode of human behavior, the therapy industry has joined forces with financial advisors to help people with money problems, creating, reports the Times, a new field "where budget planning meets psychological counseling." You don't need to be poor or in debt to need such services, by the way: You might be rich and guilty about it (and, not that this is relevant, able to pay for "programs" and "workshops"). Suze Orman, what hath yee wrought?

Anne Hathaway chatting on her cell phone in the West Village and then hopping into a cab ... Philip Seymour Hoffman smoking a cigarette and pushing his bike ... Richard Gere and Chris Rock leaving ABC studios ... Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen holding hands ... Jude Law crossing the street ... Dexter's Michael C. Hall arriving at JFK ... Sarah Jessica Parker holding her son's hand as they walk down the street ... Katie Holmes carrying a doll alongside Suri ... George H. W. Bush walking to lunch ... Taylor Momsen on the set of Gossip Girl ... Alec Baldwin holding an iced coffee outside NBC ... Helen Mirren pushing a cart on the sidewalk .. Clay Aiken leaving the Shubert Theater ... and Ivanka Trump outside the Waverly Inn.

Citigroup may be struggling to remain solvent amid the global financial meltdown, but don't think that the bank's attorneys at Skadden Arps are too busy with the crisis to defend Citi's good name. Yesterday the bank took action against Citi-Mobile, a Glendale, California-based company responsible for some of those ridiculous "mobile billboards" that manage to both clog up city streets and destroy the environment at the same time. The much bigger Citi, which Skadden rather optimistically describes in court docs as "one of the largest and most renowned" banks in the world, is a little bit concerned that the public will think the financial giant decided to buy a bunch of trucks, paint them crazy colors, and make money by marketing roast beef subs and cameras to innocent pedestrians. So they're asking a court to prohibit Citi-Mobile (and its parent company Citi-Advertising) from using the hallowed "Citi" name. Here's a thought: Why not just acquire the company? Citigroup would diversify a bit. And the mobile billboard business can't be any riskier than the financial services industry these days, can it? The full lawsuit after the jump.

♦ Money manager Christopher Browne has a new home. He paid $10 million for a three-bedroom co-op at the Sherry Netherland. Browne, identified in property records as ORVGB LLC, purchased the apartment from the estate of Irene Schwartz. Floorplan after the jump. [Cityfile]
♦ Spike Lee has dropped the price of a townhouse at 124 DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene that he once used as an office. It's now $4.9 million, down from $6 million earlier this year. [NYP]
♦ Retired hockey star Eric Lindros, who played with the Rangers from 2001 to 2004, has listed his apartment at One Morton Square—the same building where Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have been trying to sell their penthouse—for $6.3 million. The listing for the 2,300-square-foot condo is here. [NYP]
♦ Billy Baldwin and wife Chynna Phillips have put their home in Bedford Corners, NY, on the market for $3.895 million. [Real Estalker]
♦ An unidentified European has plunked down $7.82 million for a 3,424-square-foot penthouse at the Setai at 40 Broad Street, setting a new neighborhood record. [NYP]

God, the city is getting desperate. On Tuesday Michael Bloomberg ordered city agencies to cut costs. Now the Parks Department has come up with a way to do just that. It plans to recycle the "doors, toilets, sinks, lights and even soap dispensers" from Shea Stadium by installing them at parks around town. [AP]

Looks like "Anna Wintour is at risk of being usurped by Russian Vogue editor" has officially become a meme, which we guess is what happens when everyone is desperate to talk about/write about anything other than the economy. Page Six's justification for propagating the idea today is that Elle beat Vogue in ad pages in October—hardly surprising given Elle's reality TV supremacy. We're guessing Aliona Doletskaya (left) is enjoying the attention, although she presumably knows full well she'd have to pry the job from Wintour's cold, dead hands.

One more good thing to come from the mess on Wall Street: There won't be three banks opening on your block next week. Of course, that also means you may now have to walk half a block to find an ATM. [NY Sun]

Eliot Spitzer has been keeping pretty quiet recently, hasn't he? After months of radio silence, he emerged from hiding this week to answer a few questions for TONY as part of the mag's 40th anniversary celebration. (The London edition's 40th, that is.) The ex-governor provided responses to a handful of trite questions—his favorite place in New York is the Reservoir in Central Park, his favorite New Yorker in history is Teddy Roosevelt—although he took a pass when asked how he feels now that he's no longer running the state. And if he could have a drink with one other notable New Yorker, who would that person be? "These days I prefer hanging out with my kids—having dinner and encouraging them to do their homework and put aside Facebook for awhile." Yes, we imagine keeping the kids away from the Internet is a good idea.

Next week marks the four-year anniversary since financier Martin Zweig put his 16-room penthouse triplex at The Pierre on the market for $70 million. It lost its status as New York's most expensive apartment a few months ago—a unit at 15 Central Park West now has an asking price of $80 million—and given the economy, Zweig probably won't be parting ways with the apartment anytime soon. (It doesn't help that the monthly maintenance is $39,000 and it happens to be a co-op, and the type of person who might be interested in it—like a Russian billionaire—isn't the sort of person who is willing to hand over his financial records to a co-op board.) After the jump, photos of the apartment with 360-degree views, five master bedrooms, four terraces, and enormous living room—a reminder of how the rich lived before the economy crumbled to pieces.

Hopefully BBC America won't waste too much time before importing (newlywed!) Simon Doonan's TV series Beautiful People, based on his memoir about escaping from Reading, England to London, LA, and, finally, New York. The show, which is about to air in the UK is "just the most brilliant, hilarious thing that has ever happened to me," Doonan tells the Guardian. "It's the cherry on the cake of my tawdry existence!"

Michael Lauer, the hedge fund manager accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from investors (part of which he spent on a plane and a race car), has been found guilty of fraud. Good news if you're thinking about bidding on his dilapidated estate in Connecticut, which will be auctioned off by the government on Friday: Lauer may spend up to 20 years behind bars, so you won't have to worry about him showing up at the front door looking for a place to crash. [Reuters]

Please stop asking Michael Douglas questions about the financial crisis! He isn't really an evil, rich financier. He's just an evil, rich actor. Also, try not to address him as Gordon at press conferencees. Because then he'll snap back at you: "My name is not Gordon. He's a character I played 20 years ago." [LA Times via BS]

$700 billion. That's how much the Bush administration is asking for to bail out Wall Street. But did you know that's the equivalent of buying every single American 2,000 apple pies from McDonalds? Thankfully, CNN has broken things down for you, just in case you were having trouble wrapping your mind around such a massive figure.

Barbara Walters doesn't look 79, does she? Must be all that Oil of Olay that keeps her so youthful. Happy birthday, Babs! Others celebrating today: Will Smith is 40. Designer Thakoon Panichgul is turning 34. Our very own Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates, is 65. Heather Locklear is turning 47. Actress Aida Turturro is 46. Catherine Zeta-Jones is 39. Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is 57. Tate Donovan is turning 45. Cheryl Tiegs is 61. And Hugh Hefner's girlfriend, Bridget Marquardt, might as well move into a retirement home: she's 35 today.

♦ Natalie Portman is single. She's split up with boyfriend Devendra Banhart. Best of luck, guys! [People]
♦ The son of famed architect Richard Meier says his dad is gay and he was forced into a mental hospital and disinherited for saying so. Richard's friends, meanwhile, say he's definitely not gay and he's actually quite the ladies' man. [P6]
♦ Clay Aiken pocketed roughly $500,000 for his coming-out cover story deal with People. [MSNBC]
♦ Sarah Palin might make a cameo on Saturday Night Live. Also, Hugh Hefner would love to give her a spread in Playboy. [OK!, Daily Star]

♦ President Bush urged Americans to support the $700 billion bailout during his televised address last night, the first time he's ever devoted a primetime speech to the economy. Meanwhile, thousands of politicians continue to clash over the specifics. [NYT]
♦ Warren Buffet was drinking a cherry coke and eating mixed nuts last Tuesday when he got a call about investing in Goldman Sachs. He hammered out the $5 billion deal in about 15 minutes and then moved on to Cheetos and "licorice pastel candies." [WSJ]
♦ WaMu may not have much time left. [Bloomberg]
♦ Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld reached out to GE CEO Jeff Immelt before the firm filed for bankruptcy. [NYP]

♦ Pat Field's debuted her line for HSN today. The Carrie-like dresses cost $150 a pop and each order comes with a subscription to Vogue. "If only Anna Wintour would go on the air and shill along with Pat Field." [The Cut]
♦ Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen might be feuding, their neighbors might hate them, but their fashion empire keeps expanding: They've just signed a deal with Steve Madden to create a shoe line under their Elizabeth and James brand. [WWD]