• Diane Sawyer made her debut this evening as anchor of ABC's World News; Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the night's big attraction. [AP]
• Avatar pulled in $73 million at the domestic box office (and $232 million worldwide), although it would have made more if it hadn't snowed. [LAT, NYT]
• Yelp walked away from a deal to be bought by Google over the weekend. [TC]
• Radio giant Citadel Broadcasting Corporation has filed Chapter 11. [NYT]
• Jay Leno's already bad situation appears to be getting worse. [B&C, NYP]
• Howard Stern is in the middle of tense contract talks with Sirius XM right now, which is why he's threatening to leave the satellite radio company. [AP]
• Twitter will turn a profit in '09, although it still isn't worth $1 billion. [BN]
• Kim Kardashian plug products on Twitter for $10K/tweet. No joke. [AdAge]
• Useless year-end awards: Taylor Swift was named the AP's "entertainer of the year"; Madonna was deemed the "most famous celebrity of the decade."

This hasn't been an easy year for Condé Nast (or any magazine publisher for that matter). But the company now has a bit more bad news to contend with in the form of a hacker who gained access to Condé's network this fall and swiped 1,100 files from GQ, Vogue, Teen Vogue, and Lucky, a number of which were later posted online. Condé isn't sure who was responsible for the breach, although it's since managed to get several of the sites that posted the files—a list that includes five alternate covers for GQ's December issue—to take them down. (One of the blogs that posted some of the offending content, fashionzag.blogspot.com, still has thumbnails of the five covers posted, although the links to the larger images no longer work.) Even more concerning, though, is that Condé Nast reports the hacker continues to have access to its network, and it can't guarantee more material won't be posted on the Web in the future. The company filed a copyright lawsuit against the unknown hacker(s) last week; the suit appears after the jump.

Divorce lawyers in England claim that Facebook is cited as a factor in up to 20 percent of the divorce petitions filed in the UK these days. [Telegraph]

Private jets are now "making a comeback," according to the Wall Street Journal. One thing that isn't: sampling caviar and champagne while in flight. "I'm here to tell you no one is eating lobster," says the owner of a catering company that supplies the corporate jet industry. "A quick turkey box lunch to slam down while flying to meetings is the order of the day." Let's all take a moment to commend the CEOs who are foregoing life's little pleasures and bravely soldiering on regardless, shall we? [WSJ]

So how did that topless protest in Brooklyn turn out on Saturday? It was ruined by the snow and freezing temperatures, not surprisingly. [The Brooklyn Paper, previously]

Over the weekend, Rush & Molloy reported that money manager Jeffrey Epstein recently settled a lawsuit that had been brought against him by one of his alleged victims, an unnamed woman who says the pervy billionaire forced her to be his sex slave from the ages of 15 to 19. The terms of the settlement weren't disclosed. (Word has it Epstein has offered other accusers "a minimum of $150,000" in the past.) But his legal problems are far from over: A dozen other women, who all claim Epstein took advantage of them when they were minors, still have lawsuits pending against him.

Remember the "botax" that Congress was thinking about including in the health care bill, which would impose a five percent tax on cosmetic surgery procedures? It was dropped from the bill over the weekend as part of a concession to the American Medical Association, which had lobbied hard against its inclusion for obvious reasons. The nation's tanning salons don't have as much of a presence on Capitol Hill, apparently, because the 10 percent tax on "indoor tanning services" was kept in, and is expected to contribute $2.7 billion to fund health care reform over the next decade. [NYDN, WSJ]

A judge just sentenced Brooke Astor's conniving son, Anthony Marshall, to one to three years behind bars, and he will be required to report to prison on January 19. [NYT]

If you're feeling a little down in the dumps, perhaps it will make you feel better to know that you aren't the only one. According to a new study published in Science, residents of New York were the most unhappy in the nation, right behind Michigan. [NYDN]

Emmy Rossum and Adam Duritz hanging out in Washington Square Park on Saturday ... Leighton Meester and Sebastian Stan kissing in the street in front of Five Points ... Hugh Jackman playing in the snow with his kids as Cate Blanchett's sons played nearby ... Rachel McAdams walking with Jude Law's assistant, Ben Jackson ... Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick walking home from a play ... Ed Westwick shopping at Armani Exchange ... Sienna Miller walking downtown ... Catherine Zeta-Jones leaving the Walter Kerr Theater on West 48th Street ... Howard Stern and wife Beth Ostrosky watching a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden ... Amanda Seyfried walking her dog in the meatpacking district ... Britney Spears and boyfriend Jason Trawick arriving at JFK ... and Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Lance Bass taking a stroll in the meatpacking district.

• Two weeks after it was reported that Richard Gere had found a buyer for his condo at Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi, city property records indicate he's closed on the deal. Gere sold the 3,500-square-foot pad for $11 million, which is $1 million less than what he paid for it and $6.995 million less than what he was seeking when he first put the apartment on the market last year. As for who will be moving into Gere's former pad, he/she remains a mystery for the moment: The buyer is listed on the deed as Mercator 360 LLC. [Curbed]
• Brian Brille, Bank of America's former head of investment banking and its newly appointed Asia-Pacific chief, has closed on the sale of his 5,473-square-foot apartment at Trump Park Avenue for $14 million. Brille went into contract to sell the third-floor condo in October. [Real Deal, previously]
• Martin Begun, the husband of real estate marketing guru Louise Sunshine, has gone into contract to sell his 36th-floor apartment at One Beacon Court. The two-bedroom condo, which Sunshine's real estate broker son, Sam, listed for $6.75 million last month, is being picked up by a former JPMorgan investment banker who already owns an apartment in the building. [NYT]

Brooke Astor's scheming son, Anthony Marshall, heads to court today to find out if he'll do hard time for his crimes. Will the 85-year-old get an early Christmas present and get a judge to grant him his request to serve out his sentence at home? Will he spend the next year behind bars? The answer should come any moment now. [NYP, AP] Update: The judge just sentenced him one to three years behind bars, and Marshall will be required to report to prison on January 19.

Samuel L. Jackson turns 62 today. Kiefer Sutherland is turning 43. DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is 59. Ray Romano is turning 52. Andy Dick is celebrating his 44th. Jane Fonda is turning 72. Former talk show host Phil Donahue is 74. French actress Julie Delpy is 40. Jane Kaczmarek of Malcolm in the Middle turns 54. Former Mets pitcher Roger McDowell turns 48. Holly Peterson, the socialite and author of The Manny, is turning 45. And retired tennis champ Chris Evert turns 55 today.

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• Irving Mill off Union Square is closing its doors on January 1. It will be replaced by a downtown branch of the BBQ restaurant Brother Jimmy's. [GS]
• Table 8 and chef Govind Armstrong are parting ways with the Cooper Square Hotel. Scarpetta's Scott Conant is expected to take over the space. [P6]
• Paul Sevigny, co-owner of the late Beatrice Inn, may have his eye on the Civetta space or the Puck Building for his next nightlife venue. [NYDN]
• A Q&A with Per Se's Thomas Keller and departing chef Jonathan Benno. [GQ]
• If you're interesting in making your own honey, you'll be happy to hear the Health Department has proposed lifting the city's ban on beekeeping. [NYT]

Photo: Flickr/wanderingtheworld

• Charlie Gibson signed off as anchor of World News for the last time tonight. He's bidding goodbye to ABC News after a 34-year run. [ABC News, AP]
• More advertisers are fleeing from Tiger Woods; Tag Heuer is the latest. [NYP]
• The New York Times says its newsroom layoffs are done with. [Gawker, NYO]
• Twitter was hacked by last night; it's still unclear who was behind it. [LAT]
• Google is reportedly in talks to buy Yelp for as much as $500 million. [NYT]
• How much will Avatar rake in this weekend? That's the big question. [NYM]
• Time Warner Cable and Fox are embroiled in a big feud right now. [NYDN]
• Want to watch 3D movies in your living room? That's coming next. [WSJ]
• Is Dr. Drew Pinsky a real doctor, or does he just play one on TV? [TDB]

Was today National Divorce Day or something? (No, April 16 is.) It sort of seemed like it was, though. Beyoncé's mom served her dad with divorce papers today. Ivana Trump filed to divorce Rossano Rubicondi this afternoon. LeAnn Rimes' husband served the country singer. And Jon and Kate Gosselin's divorce was finalized today, too. Elin Nordegren isn't there just yet, she's one step closer: Today she retained a lawyer to handle her divorce from Tiger Woods. Here's hoping your day wasn't nearly as eventful. [LAT, AP, People]

Oh, dear! Some people are suggesting that Gwyneth Paltrow broke the law this week when she used her GOOP e-mail newsletter to recommended a hotel in Marrakech, since she didn't pay to stay there, and that's no longer permitted under new Federal Trade Commission regulations. But how was she supposed to know that? The laws are totally different in England and Spain! [Daily Finance, Jezebel]

Some bicycle-loving Brooklyn residents are furious about the city's recent decision to eliminate a bike lane in Williamsburg. (It was done to appease members of the neighborhood's ultra-Orthodox community, who objected to the spandex-clad cyclists in their midst, apparently.) The biking enthusiasts aren't standing down, though.