Dining mogul Steve Hanson has long had a rep as a obsessive micro-manager and tough boss. The man responsible for Ruby Foo's, Blue Water Grill, Atlantic Grill, and a dozen other venues (and who sold half of his company to Barry Sternlicht for $78 million last year) didn't dispel the myth when he sat down with Forbes recently. First, he barks at Wildwood employees that a single chipped dinner plate will make his barbecue restaurant "look like crap." (And you thought most restaurant owners were concerned about bad reviews.) Hanson then rattles off a list of impressive numbers: His famously huge database now contains 3 million phone numbers, he purchased 1.5 million tomatoes last year, and, in case you're wondering, he bought 'em for 20 percent less than the competition. Oh, and how does he decide whether to turn on those outdoor heat lamps? "Hanson sticks his hand out the window of his chauffeured Escalade and tests the air: Yes, it's cool enough that the heat lamps for the sidewalk tables at his uptown Atlantic Grill ought to be turned on. But have they been? He tells his driver to cruise by, so they can check."

Have you heard? Soon you'll be able to call up art wonder Damien Hirst directly to purchase his terribly overpriced, overhyped work. Hirst "is causing even more of a stir with this auction because he's cutting out art dealer middlemen, and selling directly to collectors. Dealers take 40 to 60 percent of an artist's sale, but in this case his two big dealers in New York and London, Jay Jopling and Larry Gagosian, gave their blessings to his radical steps to shut them out." Blessings? Oh, sure, Gagosian sounds thrilled. [NYP]

Voicemail at the Bridgehampton home of Jonathan Tisch and Lizzie Rudnick.

Tim Gunn of Project Runway (and chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne!) turns 55 today. Also celebrating: Designer Cynthia Rowley is turning 50. Anne Hearst—heiress, occasional writer, and bride of Jay McInerney—is 53. ABC News president David Westin is 56. Actor Stephen Dorf turns 35. Famed choreographer Paul Taylor is 78. Multimedia artist Jenny Holzer is 58. And IBM chairman and chief executive Sam Palmisano will celebrate his 57th today.

What do you do if you're the son of restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow and you just graduated Wharton? You sell $20 Kobe hot dogs outside a club in East Hampton, naturally. [Page Six]

• Kyle MacLachlan and Desiree Gruber are officially parents. The Desperate Housewives actor and Project Runway executive producer had a son named Callum Lyon MacLachlan on Friday. [Us]

• Merrill Lynch has announced it will take another write-down of $5.7 billion and raise an additional $8.5 billion in new common stock. The bank has announced more than $45 billion in write-downs over the past year. [NYT]

1) Donna Karan's annual designer garage sale in support of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund was co-hosted by InStyle and Kelly Ripa on Saturday. Betsey Johnson, Lydia Hearst, Euan Rellie, Lorraine Bracco, Jessica Stam, Katie Lee Joel, Debbie Matenopoulos, Hana Soukupova, Charlotte Ronson, and Nanette Lepore browsed stalls manned by the likes of Rachel Zoe and Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, raising $3.6 million. [FWD]

Jay-Z chatting on his phone while getting into a car outside his Tribeca building ... Ethan Hawke and Ryan Shawnhughes pushing their newborn, Clementine, through the Village ... Sheryl Crow playing with son Wyatt on a downtown sidewalk ... Mario Lopez hailing a cab in Chelsea ... Rachel Weisz and Darren Aronofsky on the set of a Vogue photo shoot in the East Village ... Jessica Simpson shopping at Bergdorf Goodman ... Blake Lively and Leighton Meester shooting scenes for Gossip Girl in Brooklyn ... Keri Russell taking a stroll through SoHo ... Kirsten Dunst and Agyness Deyn at a concert at McCarren Park Pool ... Sam and Charlotte Ronson leaving the Bowery Hotel with Lindsay, Dina and Ali Lohan.

Ah, yes, the age-old question: Should I bring my entourage of armed bodyguards with me to dinner tonight, or leave them at home and play it more low-key? Fortunately, W has the answers to all your bodyguard-related etiquette questions: "Ehud Olmert faces threats from terrorists and political enemies the world over. Tara Reid need be saved only from herself. Unless you're likely to be abducted, slugged, pawed or rushed by a camera phone–wielding fan, lose the entourage." [W]

• Jeffrey Chodorow's Borough Food and Drink—located in possibly the most cursed space in the city—will close this fall to make way for a "French-influenced American bistro," says Gail Greene. [Grub Street]
  

Those rumors started by dubious fashion bloggers that Marc Jacobs planned to marry his Brazilian boyfriend, Lorenzo Martone, this past weekend? Not true, says Fashion Week Daily, which contacted Jacobs' offices, his stores in Paris and New York, the owner of his favorite restaurant, his business partner, and his publicists in two cities. "Marc did not get married—nor does he have any plans to," says a rep. [The Daily]

• Remember back when News Corp.'s Roger Ailes promised that Fox Business would crush CNBC? It turns out the upstart network is attracting 8,000 viewers during daytime hours, compared to CNBC's average of 250,000 or more. [NYO]

• A month ago, it was rumored that Jonathan Tisch set a record for the most expensive co-op in NYC history when he bought an 11th floor apartment at 2 East 67th for $48 million. The Times confirmed the price tag over the weekend, but today the Observer suggests that the Loews heir overpaid, since the property was listed for about 20 percent less in 2007. [Observer]

The Monticello Motor Club opens this weekend, where for a mere $125,000 initiation fee (plus $7,500 in annual dues), you can speed around a private racetrack in your Ferrari or Lamborghini at 180 MPH without worrying about hassles from the state troopers. Sound like the sort of silly concept hatched during the boom days of 2005? That's exactly what it is, says the Times, adding that despite the tanking economy, almost all the "founding memberships" are spoken for. (Porsche addict Jerry Seinfeld, not surprisingly, has already reserved a spot.) And what do you get for your six-figure fee? In addition to 200 days of track use every year, members gain access to the club's "exotic selection" of cars, can book a session at the spa on the premises (a massage might be nice after smashing into a guard rail), and also have access to "onsite emergency medical support." (We're guessing the latter is one amenity that Jessica Seinfeld is hoping her husband doesn't take advantage of.) Pics of this little haven for boys and their pricey little toys after the jump.

What happens to New York City subway cars after they're been replaced with shiny, new ones? They get dumped into the ocean for the amusement of fish and adventure divers, that's what. Over the weekend, South Carolina environmental officials dumped 44 old cars into the water, the fifth time "retired" subway cars have been used for such a purpose in as many years. The exciting footage of subway cars getting cast off to the bottom of the sea is on your left. [WBTW]

Rachael Ray appears to have finally run out of edible products to produce and/or endorse. So now she's turning to dogs! The daytime host is adding a line of nutritional dog foods called Nutrish (as in "delish") to her empire and is promising that some portion of the proceeds will go to her charity group, Rachael's Rescue, which assists abandoned dogs. Not surprisingly, Ray's detractors have already chimed in, pointing out that Ray shouldn't have had too much trouble coming up with Nutrish recipes considering her 30 Minute Meals have tasted like dog food for years.

Last week, Simon & Schuster filed suit against both Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown for failing to turn in the books they had been contracted to write. You can peruse both lawsuits against Kimberly Jones and Inga Marchand after the jump.

The voicemail recording on Nathan Lane's cell phone.

Michael Bloomberg finally answered the question that has been on the minds of so many New Yorkers: If the mayor knew he was going to die tomorrow, what would he select as his last meal? "I always said if I had one breakfast to eat before I die, it would be Wonder Bread toasted, with Skippy Super Chunky melted on it, slices of overripe banana and fresh crisp bacon." [NYP]