• Ten of the 600 Starbucks that will be shuttered in 2009 are in New York City; six of them are located in Midtown. [NYT]

On her MySpace blog, Courtney Love talks (and by talks we of course mean free-associates at great length) about going to stay at the London home of her close friends Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. And what revelations follow! Gwynnie cooks in an Anthropologie apron, there are cigarettes and an ashtray, "She is a slip of a girl and light as a feather" (guess those daily three-hour exercise sessions and macrobiotic diet aren't a total waste of time), and Chris is not, in fact, devoid of personality as you might have been thinking. He has "a very lovely laugh." But most importantly, Courtney sets something straight, once and for all: Gwyneth's IQ is so high, the figure can't even be named.

If it feels like every week brings news of yet another cash-strapped American company raising money from Abu Dhabi or Dubai or selling itself entirely to one of these emirates, it isn't your imagination. From real estate (the GM building) to finance (Citigroup), cash has been pouring in from the Middle East as of late. But the expressway of money goes in both directions. Today the Times covered many of the banks setting up shop in Dubai. But loads of other prominent New Yorkers are heading East to take advantage of the petro-dollar gravy train. Here's a look at the growing list of prominent restaurateurs, fashion designers, architects, and real estate developers setting up shop in one of the world's fastest-growing—and richest—regions.

Thanks for sending in your tips and juicy bits of gossip. Unfortunately, many of the items you've been kind enough to send our way we can't actually publish on the site since the details are impossible to confirm (and/or we'd have about 10 lawyers on us in a heartbeat if we did)! What does that mean for you? Blind items!

The August issue of W has a delightful little item about Tinsley Mortimer. It seems the Tinz has been doing a little promotional work for her dentist, Dr. Steven Butensky, the man responsible for those pearly whites of hers:

Voicemail at the East Hampton home of Carl and Gail Icahn.

David Remnick wasn't the first New Yorker editor to try and drum up a little controversy with an imflammatory cover: In the Guardian today, British journalist Alexander Chancellor recalls another time that a satirical New Yorker caused a bit of mayhem, namely the 1993 Valentine's Day drawing by Art Spiegelman featuring a Hasidic Jew kissing a black woman. Naturally, the New Yorker editor who signed off on this was Tina Brown. And, as Chancellor explains, she knew exactly what she was doing! Brown "conducted extensive consultations before publication to gauge how fierce the reaction would be. She seemed to decide that the publicity benefits would outweigh the offence caused."

You have questions, we have some answers! The "Most Viewed" section on the right-hand side? The top five people display—these are the five most popular profiles on the site, ranked by the number of times the profile has been viewed. If you click on "More," you'll see the entire list of people in order from most viewed to least viewed. This is changing in real time, so if you notice the order changing, that's because certain profiles are simply getting more traffic than other profiles.

Two members of the Gossip Girl gang are celebrating birthdays today: Chace Crawford is 23 and Kristen Bell is 28. Steve Forbes, who is not on Gossip Girl (but could very well be a fan? Steve?) turns 61 today. Brooklyn Museum director Arnold Lehman will be 64, New York's Adam Platt will turn 50, and Joe Torre will celebrate his 68th. Weekend birthdays: On Saturday, artist Marilyn Minter will be 60, Calvin Butts will turn 59, and ESPN's Stuart Scott will be 43. On Sunday, Gisele Bundchen will turn 28. Other birthdays on Sunday: the Times' Stuart Elliott, composer Michael Gordon, theater producer Rocco Landesman, and former VJ Simon Rex.

Poor Dan Rather. You step away from the news game for a couple of years and all those skills you developed as an anchor over three decades just seem to go to pot. (Look at Tom Brokaw on MSNBC.) Rather turned up on Morning Joe today to talk about the Jesse Jackson controversy, but he didn't just accidentally switch around Obama and Osama's first names like so many other news personalities recently: He mentioned how Jesse Jackson "paved the way for men like Osama Bin Laden." And just seconds after pointing out to Tiki Barber that if you're in the spotlight, your every word will be endlessly dissected by the media. Dissect for yourself after the jump.

It's not fun being a convicted felon! Just ask Martha Stewart, who had to make a personal appearance at the DMV this week to renew her license since they wouldn't allow her to send in the forms by mail. In case you're wondering, it's a New York license ("They seized my old CT license—for reasons, unexplained"), but look at the lovely, keffiyeh-like scarf she wore for the occasion. Cute and slightly dangerous all at the same time!

• Raffaello Follieri might be in the process of negotiating a deal with the feds, which would put him in prison for five to 6 1/2 years instead of the nine-year sentence he could face if he's convicted by a jury. [NYP]

• Merrill Lynch's $4.65 billion second-quarter loss was almost twice what analysts had predicted; the firm also wrote down an additional $9.5 billion in connection with subprime losses. [Bloomberg]

• The Stanford White-designed townhouse at 127 East 73rd Street has sold for $32.5 million; it had been listed for $38 million with broker Carrie Chiang. Back in February, former Goldman Sachs exec Thomas Montag had been rumored to be the buyer. The home features an elevator, indoor basketball court, steam bath, and climate-controlled wine cellar. [CF]

Star Jones eating lunch outdoors at BLT Market .. Kirsten Dunst with coffee and a cigarette downtown ... Kanye West chatting on his cell in the West Village ... Rachel Bilson cooling off with a smoothie ... 50 Cent showing up to court in Islip, NY ... Aaron Eckhart coming back to his hotel after a sweaty afternoon jog ... Heidi Klum leaving her Village apartment building with zebra print luggage ... Richie Sambora showing up in Midtown with his daughter ... Meg Ryan taking a solo stroll through SoHo ... and Pink licking her arm during an outdoor lunch at Cipriani Downtown.

Have you seen Hillary Clinton's new 'do? Yes, she's sporting a rather unattractive new haircut these days, which a news-starved MSNBC was more than happy to cover in a lengthy segment. (And with commentary from political pundits no less.) "Clinton's hair is apparently shorter than it used to be and she shifted her part from the left side to the right side." The disturbing images after the jump.

Congratulations, Donald! You finally closed on the sale of your Palm Beach manse! We hope you get a chance to have a glass of champagne with the man who will be its new occupant, Russian fertilizer kingpin Dmitry Rybolovlev. We don't know if Dmitry speaks any English, but you'll undoubtedly be capable of bonding over your shared love of all things gold and shiny. Oh, and nice work describing it as a $100 million sale even though you actually sold it for $95 million. You always remember to round up! Remember how you used to insist there were 68 floors in the Trump Tower, even though we all knew there were actually only 58 stories, and you'd simply skipped ten floors to make the building seem taller than it actually is? Yea, it was kind of like that. Good work.

• Marcus Samuelsson has severed ties with the meatpacking restaurant/lounge where he promised to introduce Manhattanites to African cuisine, Merkato 55. [Eater]

More drama for Ashley Dupre! Another Jersey girl, Amber Arpaio, is suing Ashley for stealing her identity and ruining her good name since Dupre used Arpaio's ID when she participated in that infamous Girls Gone Wild shoot. [The Smoking Gun]

Do you read People? Did you do reasonably well in English in high school? Well, then, Zani Gugelmann needs your help! The Greenwich-raised, Bowdoin-educated social fixture doesn't just spend her time attending charity functions, of course. She's a jewelry designer, too, turning out gold and silver earrings, necklaces and bracelets with her Filigrana by Zani line. Yet despite the claims on her website that she has a long list of celebrity clients, Zani seems to have a bit of trouble when it comes to spelling their names properly. Some of them have really complicated Russian names. We understand that! Kurkova, Nemcova, Varekova—who can keep them straight? But Camaron Diaz? Jessica Beil? So zany! The grim evidence—and Zani's 37.5% failing grade—below.