For denizens of Los Angeles, living in houses as opposed to apartments has always been one of the few advantages of a city where you spend half your life behind the wheel of a car and the other half listening to people talk about weekend box office receipts or the latest and greatest new age routine. But real estate developers are now building more condos, according to today's Times, albeit condos that offer a "New York-style luxury high-rise lifestyle," which means "restaurants open 24/7, outdoor entertaining spaces and patrols by Israeli-trained security guards to foil the paparazzi." Sounds just like New York! Leading this trend? Famous bad mother Candy Spelling who, two years after Aaron's death, is selling her 56,500 square foot chateau-style house, with its famed gift-wrapping room, in favor of an apartment in a new Robert A. M. Stern designed building. But as you can imagine, the move won't be without its sacrifices.

A book about Salman Rushdie co-written by one of his former bodyguards contained "falsehoods," the authors have admitted, and will be amended accordingly. Rushdie threatened legal action after published excerpts of On Her Majesty's Service characterized him as "mean and arrogant," but the enemy-of-ayatollahs novelist hasn't, his lawyer makes clear, asked for any "opinion" in the book to be altered. That, obviously, would be too ironic. [Guardian]

Those Target pop-up stores which are coming to New York in September? They're opening on September 11th, a rather unfortunate date to debut anything, clearly. Even worse? Have a look at what things will look like from above on the 7th anniversary of the attacks. [Jossip]

Have you ever tuned into Bravo's reality series Flipping Out—that's the show that stars psycho real estate investor Jeff Lewis—and seen his housekeeper on the show, Zoila, and said to yourself, "You know, I'd love to have a portrait of her hanging on my wall?" Well, someone apparently did because a portrait of her sold for $10,400 at a Bravo-sponsored auction on Tuesday night. [NYT]

Mike Piazza picked up a $10 million home in Miami recently, but he's still hunting for a new place in New York. According to the Post, Piazza and his wife Alicia are planning to put their Tribeca loft on the market for $6.8 million in September. Piazza picked up the two-bedroom penthouse for $4.1 million in 2004, but now the couple is hoping to expand to a more expansive space. The listing was put on the web briefly earlier this week. It's since been pulled down (and should go back online in the early fall) but we saved the photos for you to look at after the jump.

Answering machine message at Charlie Rose's home in Bellport.

Kim Cattrall turns 52 today, although we're guessing she won't be receiving any celebratory gifts from her SATC castmates. Other people blowing out candles today: Kelis is turning 29, Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is 19 and CBS Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith is 57. Former deputy mayor Randy Mastro turns 52. Google co-founder Sergei Brin is 35. Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL, is 50. Country singer Kenny Rogers is turning 70. Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher is 34. And Brody Jenner celebrates his 25th today, with what we're sure will be a drama-filled party that will eventually show up on The Hills.

• Matt Damon's wife Luciana gave birth to the couple's second child together yesterday, a girl named Gia Zavala Damon. [NYDN]

You know Microsoft is hopelessly out of touch when the opening paragraph of the Wall Street Journal article that's supposed to be touting the tech giant's marketing coup starts off something like this: "Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.'s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld." Huh? Microsoft is hoping to appeal to the Gen Y demo—people in their 20s—by hiring a spokesman who is 54? Better yet: Seinfeld will be appearing in the commercials alongside Bill Gates himself, who doesn't exactly conjure up an image of cool with iPod-listening, Macbook-carrying hipsters on the L train. The $300 million campaign, which will debut on Sept. 4th, will be promoting Microsoft's Vista operating system, which, company officials acknowledge, has generated a "negative public perception." (That's probably because it sucks.) Why did Seinfeld decide to participate? We're guessing it may have had something to do with the $10 million paycheck.

• Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is expanding the probe into auction-rate financing. [Reuters]

• Great news for those who don't want to leave the island: On September 11th, Target will open four pop-up stores, or "bullseye bodegas," in Midtown, Union Square, SoHo and the East Village; the stores will showcase forthcoming Go ranges like Sigerson Morrison shoes and Anya Hindmarch purses. [DNR via The Cut]

Cecily von Ziegesar claims she's "really not a big drinker..." but then says: "If I drink too much, I end up throwing up in a dumpster somewhere, which I've done many times. I think I've thrown up everywhere in this city." Hmm, sounds like her first step is admitting she has a problem! Serena did, and totally turned her life around. [NYP]

Photos of the unusual building in Nolita designed by the architecture firm SHoP. [Curbed]

• Hachette is shuttering Home magazine. [Mediaweek]

• Dining options at the U.S. Open will be even more gourmet this year: chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia in Chicago will offer tapas-like eats at his Wine Bar Food. [NYSun]

Gisele Bundchen leaving her townhouse in the West Village ... Veronica Webb chatting on her cell phone while walking downtown ... Michelle Williams pushing Matilda in a stroller through their Brooklyn neighborhood ... Ed Westwick, Penn Badgley, and Chace Crawford filming scenes for Gossip Girl up at Columbia ... Katharine McPhee waving to fans outside MTV ... Ron Kuby walking down Third Avenue ... Miranda Kerr riding on the back of Orlando Bloom's motorcycle on the street downtown ... and Katie Holmes attending a rehearsal for her upcoming show.

V1 Jets, the company that offers trips to the Hamptons aboard a sea plane (for $495 each way) is the preferred method of transport for Adriana Lima, Petra Nemcova, Pierce Brosnan, Jeremy Piven, and Barry Diller. Or so says Jared Paul Stern at Luxist. [V1 Jets, Luxist]

• Frank Bruni visits Perbacco in the East Village and gives it two stars, describing it as "worthy of its name, which means 'wow.'" [NYT]

Some are predicting that "salary transparency" will become the norm, according to today's Times: "If people are paid what they are worth... there is no reason for people to feel uncomfortable about sharing salary information," says one expert. We can't wait to see how this works out in, say, media or fashion. [NYT]

Very little has ever been revealed about the business dealings of Jeffrey Epstein, the shadowy money manager who will be spending the next 16 months or so in a Palm Beach jail cell after pleading to soliciting an underage prostitute in late June. Long described as "mysterious" and "reclusive," the only client of his who has been confirmed over the years has been Leslie "Les" Wexner, the billionaire founder of Limited Brands. Epstein once boasted to a reporter that he wouldn't even consider taking on a client who didn't have a billion dollars or more in the bank. You can now add a new billionaire to the list of Epstein associates: Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Management. Black recruited Epstein to serve on the board of his charitable organization, the Leon D. Black Foundation. Listed on the non-profit's IRS returns alongside Leon and his wife, Debra: Epstein's name and the address of the waterfront home where Epstein was accused of carrying out his sexual misdeeds with minors. More on this jaw-dropping revelation below.