The MTA has passed its "doomsday budget" this morning and a "punishing slate of service cuts" will now follow as the agency looks to make up for a $400 million shortfall in its budget. (Also coming soon: even more painfully crowded subways.) But considering your Metrocard will soon sport the word "Optimism" on the back, you should have no problem keeping up a positive attitude, right? [NYT, NY1, previously]
• Susan Berresford, the president of the $11 billion Ford Foundation up until 2008 and one of the nation's foremost experts on philanthropy, has settled on a new place. Berresford paid $1.855 million for a two-bedroom co-op at 530 East 86th Street. The apartment first went on the market in August 2008 for $2.325 million. [Cityfile]
• Art consultant Allan Schwartzman has closed on the purchase of a 12th-floor apartment at the Jean Nouvel-designed 100 11th Avenue. The former New Museum curator paid $3.78 million for the three-bedroom spread. [NYO]
• Nicolas Sayegh, a co-founder of International Delights, a company that supplies baked goods to dozens of New York hotels and gourmet stores like Citarella and Zabar's, has paid $3.65 million for a 26th-floor apartment at the Miraval Living building at 515 East 72nd Street. [Cityfile]
• Steven Lax has paid $5.25 million for a three-bedroom condo at the Heritage at Trump Place on the Upper West Side. Update: We identified the wrong Steven Lax in the original version of this post. We regret the error. [Cityfile]
Citigroup chairman Dick Parsons couldn't be bothered to go to the White House on Monday to meet the president—he has an extremely active social life, let's not forget!—but the bank continues to enjoy special treatment in Washington, you'll be pleased to hear. On Friday afternoon, the IRS granted a special exemption that will allow Citi to hold on to a $38 billion tax benefit. [NYT]
Judi Giuliani, former mayor Rudy Giuliani's third wife and the woman he started dating when he was still married to his second, is turning 55 today. Actor Benjamin Bratt turns 46. 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl is 68. TV producer/writer Steven Bochco (LA Law, NYPD Blue) is turning 66. Movie director James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line) is 46. Fallen hip hop producer Scott Storch is turning 36. Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri is 42. And Michael Lohan Jr., the brother of Lindsay and son of Michael and Dina, turns 22 today.
• A look around Provocateur, the new club by ex-Stereo partners Mike Satsky and Brian Gefter that opens this week at the Gansevoort hotel. [GS]
• The latest in the Tavern on the Green saga: It's possible the landmark will be forced to shut down completely on Jan. 1 unless the mayor intervenes. [NYP]
• It looks like street cart sushi is not coming to NYC anytime soon. Alas. [ML]
• Speaking of food carts, let this be a lesson to never cut in line for falafel.
• Gourmet's collection of 3,500 cookbooks has a new home at NYU. [NYT]
• On Regis and Kelly today Anderson Cooper professed "his love for a bakery called 'Milk' [sic] next to a Japanese [sic] restaurant called Momofuku." [SE]
Mayor Bloomberg flew his gas-guzzling private jet over to Copenhagen yesterday for the UN climate change summit that's now underway. And it already looks like it was well worth the trek: Bloomberg has been inspired! In addition to announcing plans to revisit the concept of congestion pricing, an idea that failed miserably last year, Bloomberg is once again talking up the idea of setting up a giant windmill farm to generate clean energy. This time around, Bloomberg isn't thinking about planting the windmills in NYC. His new idea? Erect them off 15 miles offshore, so they'll be "barely visible from shore" and city residents won't be able whine about how their views have been ruined. All that's left to do is come up with a few billion bucks to pay for it all, and he'll be good to go. [NYDN, NYT]
• Closures: Design magazine I.D. is shutting down. And while Editor & Publisher revealed last week it's folding, there's now a small chance it'll survive. [E&P]
• More bad news: The New Republic laid off some staff today. [Politico]
• Diane Sawyer's farewell to GMA last week and George Stephanopoulos's debut on Monday both did okay, but neither one topped Today. [NYO, NYT]
• More TV news: CNN's ratings continue to suck; Oprah's Obama special scored big ratings; and Oprah pal Nate Berkus is getting his own show, as rumored.
• Golf Digest says it has no regrets about its new Tiger Woods cover. Which is a tad convenient since it went to press before the scandal broke. [Us]
• Men's Health editor Dave Zinczenko got snubbed by his bosses today. [DF]
• Paramount plans to start selling movie clips on the Web next week. [NYT]
• As for plans to create the "Hulu of magazines," it isn't going to be easy. [PC]
• The guy who stalked ESPN's Erin Andrews pleaded guilty today. [AP]
• Advertisers are totally loving Lady Gaga right now. Her "Bad Romance" video managed to squeeze in ten product placements in under five minutes. [LAT]
• Golden Globe noms were announced today. Just in case you missed it. [NYM]
Ever since Raj Rajaratnam was arrested in October for allegedly operating a vast insider trading ring, lawyers for the hedge fund founder have been busy pointing out flaws in the government's case. Now they'll get to see how it plays with a jury. A federal grand jury formally charged Rajaratnam with five counts of conspiracy and six counts of securities fraud this afternoon. [BN]
Many thanks to the faithful reader in Australia who directed us to this article in The Cairns Post which has some totally vital info on the whereabouts of media mogul Barry Diller's $200 million sailboat, EOS. It's located in lovely Cairns right now—as you probably could have guessed—along with Diller's crew of "two chefs, three engineers, nine deck crew and captains and stewardesses." But it won't be docked there for long! The paper reports that Diller will be climbing aboard the 304-foot beast in January when it sets sail for the Solomon Islands. [The Cairns Post]
Not surprisingly, the Daily News isn't all that impressed with the New York Post's newest columnist, ex-hooker—and now singer and crisis management expert—Ashley Dupre. After dismissing the column as "useless," Joanna Molloy shares a few (great!) ideas on what the Post could cook up as an encore: "Bernie Madoff could write a what-not-to-do with your money column; we could get travel tips from Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano; Sen. Larry Craig could advise on how to meet new people; Mel Gibson could give lessons on tolerance and Lindsay Lohan, on sobriety." [NYDN]
Fashion designer Tory Burch and her ex-husband, venture capitalist Chris Burch, went their separate ways back in 2006. But it looks like the couple is of one mind when it comes to Hamptons real estate. Over the summer, Tory received permission to tear down her Southampton home and upgrade to something bigger and better, a plan she abandoned recently since she's now preparing to move to a much grander—and much more expensive—estate nearby. And now Chris is looking to gussy up his digs in Southampton, too.
Is reclusive money manager and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein looking to raise a little cash to pay off his mouting legal bills? One of the car collector's most prized vehicles, a 2003 Ferrari 575M Maranello, is now up for sale and can be yours for a very reasonable $159,000. John Connolly, the former NYPD detective turned investigative reporter who tipped us off to the sale, tells us that Epstein recently transferred to the car title to his pilot in an effort to conceal its (less-than-savory) origins. And, sure enough, that appears to be the case.
The city is inviting New Yorkers to submit their designs for a "special, limited-edition" NYC-branded condom wrapper that will be unveiled next fall. Perhaps you're looking for something constructive to do over the holidays? Just be sure to avoid using images or text that could be considered "sexually explicit," please. [NYT]
Things are looking up for Gov. David Paterson. According to a new Quinnipiac poll, "only" 49 percent of registered voters disapprove of his job performance. That's a nice bump from a couple of months ago when the figure stood at 57 percent (and a huge jump from his 19 percent approval rating back in May), not that anyone should take this as an indication Paterson actually has any chance of beating Andrew Cuomo if they go head to head in the Democratic primary next year. [NYT, NYP]
"Real Housewives" Kelly Bensimon and Jill Zarin posing for a pic on the LES yesterday after having lunch at Little Giant ... Brooke Shields shopping downtown ... Celine Dion leaving Serge Normant at John Frieda Salon in the meatpacking district, and later stopping off at Dylan's Candy Bar with her son ... Steve Martin eating lunch yesterday at Via Quadronno on Madison Avenue ... Sarah Jessica Parker walking son James to school in the Village ... Cynthia Nixon's partner, Christine Marinoni, walking downtown ... Emily Blunt arriving at the studios of the Today show ... Taylor Momsen on the set of Gossip Girl in the meatpacking district ... Pete Wentz shopping with his son Bronx ... Kate Hudson leaving MTV in Times Square ... and Rihanna shopping at Fendi on Fifth Avenue.
• Jason Rabin, the apparel mogul who sold his company less than two months ago for $401 million, has now unloaded his duplex at 850 Park Avenue, too. Ten months after listing the five-bedroom, 5,600-square-foot apartment for $9.9 million, Rabin and his wife Nicole have sold it to Martha Stewart Weddings editorial director Darcy Nussbaum and her husband, attorney Andrew Nussbaum (left) for $6.225 million. [Cityfile]
• John McColgan and Moya Doherty, the husband-and-wife team behind "Riverdance," have sold their duplex penthouse at 1080 Madison Avenue, albeit for substantially less than they were hoping for when they first listed it for $10.5 million in July 2008. The four-bedroom pad sold for $5.85 million, or $4.65 million less than its original asking price. [Curbed]
• Jay McInerney has paid $1.4 million for a two-bedroom Sag Harbor cottage, which he plans to use as a "writer's retreat" and "children's playhouse." [NYP]
Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, and Citigroup chairman Dick Parsons were all supposed to be in Washington yesterday to meet with President Obama at the White House. But then a tiny patch of fog materialized in the skies overhead and they had to retreat to their offices, victims of a force even more powerful than Wall Street's mightiest: Mother Nature. So how did that go down in Washington?
