Is the financial crisis affecting the very rich? Yes and no. Plenty of people turned up at Denise Rich's triplex penthouse on Wednesday night for a benefit, a pre-cursor to Rich's big annual charity event held every October. (Among those nibbling on tiny fried-oyster sandwiches: Clive Davis, Star Jones, Marty Richards, Howard Lutnick, and Joan Collins.) But Rich now has to count on money from abroad: "She spends all summer traveling around Europe and she brings in a lot of money from Russians and from Dubai," explained Rich's fundraising "specialist." [NYT]

Sarah Palin's fondness of guns, the Bible, and legislating your uterus? It probably won't come as much comfort to learn that it all comes down to biological impulses dictating how her brain reacts to perceived threats, according to research published this week in Science. A group of people was shown photos of objects while attached to an arousal-measuring machine, and the avowed Republicans reacted much more strongly to, say, a large spider on someone's face or a bloodied person.

Nice news to cheer up a rather dismal week: Yesterday New York's favorite gay couple Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler got married at City Hall in San Francisco! After fourteen years together, the Barneys creative maestro (Doonan) and rapidly-expanding designer (Adler) decided on a small ceremony with Adler's mom and sister as guests, where Adler made the most romantic of gestures: he switched off his Blackberry! A "more formal" Jewish ceremony followed at a hotel. The happy couple is now on their honeymoon at Big Sur. Congrats!

It will probably be a fun weekend for Lydia Hearst: the heiress turns 24 today. Others blowing out candles today: Jimmy Fallon is 34. Soledad O'Brien of CNN is 42. Richie Akiva is 32, although the invite to his birthday party said it was his 30th. James Lipton is 82. Former HarperCollins chief Jane Friedman is 63. Defense attorney Barry Scheck is turning 59. And model Victoria Silvstedt is 34. On Saturday: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein (pictured here with Lydia, a first we imagine) will be 54. Financier Joseph Perella will be 67. Sophia Loren will turn 74. Ad exec Scott Goodson will celebrate his 45th. Interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield will be 62. And Jossip's David Hauslaib will turn 25. On Sunday: Jane Rosenthal will be 52. Stephen King will be 61. Bill Murray will celebrate his 58th. Jerry Bruckheimer will be 63. Book publisher Geoff Kloske will turn 39. Natural History museum president Ellen Futter will be 59. Nicole Richie will be 27. Cheryl Hines will turn 43. Luke Wilson will be 37. And filmmaker Ethan Coen will be celebrating his 51st.

♦ It seems like sending out company-wide emails ripping your co-workers is not a good idea: Pat O'Brien has been fired from The Insider. [R&M, P6]
♦ Brandon Davis has been conning his friends out of cash, but whenever anyone tries to get the money back "he starts crying and gets them to feel bad for him." [P6]
♦ Poor Ivana Trump almost had to fly coach this week. But then someone in first class switched seats, so everything turned out okay. Phew. [P6]
♦ Heather Mills is suing her former publicist—the one who very publicly dumped her and called her a "witch"—for libel. [P6]
♦ Anne Hathaway's been crashing on her parents' couch ever since she got booted from Raffaello Follieri's duplex. [In Touch]

♦ The Federal Reserve and Treasury are working with Congress on a sweeping bailout program that would represent the biggest intervention in financial markets since the '30s. Asian and European markets soared on the news. [WSJ, Bloomberg, NYT]
♦ Five banks are now looking at Washington Mutual, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. [WSJ, Dealbook]
♦ Morgan Stanley's John Mack fought for his life yesterday, lobbying for regulatory changes, twisting arms, and discussing deals with potential partners. China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp, is now believed in be in discussions to take a 49 percent of Morgan. [WSJ, Marketwatch]

The Dow soared 410 points today, which is good news and why WSJ.com now has a picture of a trader with a big smile on his face. And Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is now promising to punish the evildoers who are impinging on the ability of 25-year-old Wall Street analysts to pay for $800 bottles of vodka. That's good news, too. The bad: Morgan Stanley may very well still end up in Chinese hands and no one trusts anybody anymore. Even worse: companies are installing treadmills in the office so employees can walk while they work, which may be the scariest thing we've seen all day.

♦ Nightlife impresario Noah Tepperberg (left) says bottle sales at Marquee have slipped 10 percent this quarter. [GS]
♦ Jean-Georges Vongerichten is paying $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit brought by waiters over skimmed tips at his restaurants. [Reuters]
♦ Todd English's Libertine opened inside Jason Pomeranc's Gild Hall hotel last night. [NYO]
♦ The city's best restaurants are in Hell's Kitchen; the best bars are in the East Village. At least that's what Time Out says. [TONY]
♦ Now that Dessert Studio has closed, Will Goldfarb is planning a move to Bali. [NRN via GS]
♦ Armed robbers are targeting Starbucks locations. [NY1 via Eater]
♦ JE Englebert, the owner of Suzie Wong and Prime, may sue the developers of the Gramercy Starck building on East 23rd Street because he doesn't like the small emanating from the McDonald's on the ground floor. [NYP]

Mike Bloomberg went to Washington yesterday to meet with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank. Officially, he went to discuss the crisis on Wall Street, but he may have had other ideas in mind: "Mr. Bloomberg has told several friends that both the Treasury and World Bank positions appeal to him." Unfortunately, Paulson had to cancel his breakfast meeting this morning. And maybe Mike's just playing the tease for the 35th time? "Mr. Bloomberg is known to float balloons—such as his interest in running for president and governor—only to retreat later, after whipping his colleagues and the news media into a frenzy of speculation. That may be the case with his interest in the Treasury and World Bank jobs." [NYT/City Room]

♦ She's only been on the air a week but Rachel Maddow has already usurped Keith Olbermann in the ratings. [HuffPo]
♦ The New York Times Co. reported today that ad revenue in August dropped 14 percent compared to the same period a year ago and total revenue declined 8.8 percent for the month. [E&P]
♦ A libel lawsuit against author John Grisham has been dismissed. [AP]
♦ Is Al Gore buying a magazine? [Portfolio]
♦ The Atlantic's website has witnessed a surge of traffic thanks to those gross pics of John McCain drinking blood. [Portfolio]
♦ CNBC's Erin Burnett suggests that short-selling is unpatriotic; Jim Cramer says it may be terrorism. [CJR]

Benny Medina's client roster has been shrinking for quite a while now. In 2003, he was fired by Jennifer Lopez, who later filed suit against the Hollywood power-manager for misappropriating money. He lost another major client last year when Tyra Banks dropped him amid rumors success had gone to his head. ("His perk list is bigger than hers. Everything from private jets and votive candles that the staff has to light before he gets to the set," said one source.) Last month, Usher dumped him; last week, Page Six reported that Benny's biggest remaining star, Mariah Carey, pushed him to the side, reportedly because she caught wind that he was courting former client (and Mariah rival) Jennifer Lopez. Benny denied the rumors and headed off on vacation. And it turns out Mariah wasn't acting crazy after all!

♦ Designer/actress/Parisian it-girl Lou Doillon talks to WWD about her more intellectual projects, like her stage debut tonight in Samuel Beckett's The Image at the Alliance Française. [WWD]
♦ Can this week get any more catastrophic? Top Shop's opening is now pushed back till March. [WWD]
♦ Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's label The Row is going to start doing men's clothes. [WWD]
♦ We take it all back: Naomi Campbell did her bit for charity last night with her London Fashion For Relief show, which raised money for The White Ribbon Alliance fund to promote safe childbirth. [Marie Claire UK]

If you thought the fact that half of the banks in America going bust was bad news, you may want to take a seat for this next bit of disturbing info: Two of Paris Hilton's dogs were mauled to death in a vicious coyote attack in Hollywood and she's "been crying all day." And if that info actually cheered you up, well, you're welcome. [NYDN]

Good news for manufacturers of sunblock, bad news for fans of maintaining a year-round mahogany skin-tone: There is no such thing as a safe tan, say medical researchers, who found that even a little exposure is dangerous. Pass that news along to Stewart Rahr (left) if you see him, won't you? He's probably in a good mood today considering he held on to his spot on the Forbes 400 list, but presumably he wants some extra time on this planet to enjoy his riches. [Reuters]

Christy Turlington carrying her daughter in SoHo ... Beyonce dressed up as a police officer on the set of her new music video ... John Mayer walking to the gym by himself ... Blake Lively carrying her dog in one hand and her coffee in the other ... Julianne Moore crossing a street in the West Village ... Taylor Momsen holding a can of soda on the Gossip Girl set ... Sienna Miller grabbing a drink downtown with an unidentified man ... Tom Cruise carrying Suri and glaring at photogs ... Julia Roberts pushing a doublewide stroller ... and Rachel Weisz and Darren Aronofsky holding hands on a walk.

Tech mogul Fred Wilson would appreciate if you never, ever use the word "Silicon Alley" again. [Observer]

It looks like Russian financier Andrei Vavilov isn't the only person unhappy with his Plaza apartment. The unnamed buyer of PH2001 is now suing, too, claiming he was the victim of fraud and deceptive trade practices. He's asking for his $6.5 million deposit back and at least $350,000 in legal fees. Good luck! [NYP]

The Times reported on the front page of the paper today that Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack approached Citi chief Vikram Pandit on Tuesday night about combining the two banks. "We need a merger partner or we're not going to make it," Mack allegedly told Pandit. True? Probably not! Remember when Times said that Zoe Cruz would succeed Mack as Morgan's CEO and then she was fired 19 days later? Exactly. Well, the Times has since backpedaled: "The Times's two sources have since clarified their comments, saying that because they were not present during the discussions, they could not confirm that Mr. Mack had in fact made the statement. The Times should have asked Morgan Stanley for comment and should not have used the quotation without doing more to verify the sources' version of events." Maybe the Times also should try and spell names correctly when issuing corrections? [NYT]

Things at Morgan Stanley are getting uglier by the minute. Shares are down another 25 percent thus far today and hedge funds have been directing their business elsewhere. John Mack is now reportedly stepping up merger discussions with Wachovia. There's also talk of splitting the bank in two, a "good bank" and a "bad bank." Because that idea worked out really nicely for Lehman, didn't it? [Dealbook]

Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans was published this week. Could the timing be any worse? More than a few people won't be seeing their names appear in the magazine this time next year thanks to the events of this week. But at least the notoriously inaccurate list has finally updated its estimate of Michael Bloomberg's net worth! He's now No. 8 on the list with $20 (Previously, Forbes misjudged his stake in Bloomberg LP, which the Wall Street Journal was more than happy to point out last year.) After the jump, the list of people in the New York area who made it on to the list, including some of the people who, in fact, live here despite Forbes's suggestion to the contrary. Stan Druckenmiller didn't pay eight figures for a Fifth Avenue penthouse and send his girls to Spence so he could stay behind in Pittsburgh!