Do be careful before chastising any senior Goldman Sachs execs you happen to come across. Alice Schroeder of Bloomberg News reports beleaguered bankers at the firm have been loading up on firearms recently and "are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank." En garde! [Bloomberg; photo: VF.com]
• Louis Cappelli, the rather colorful real estate developer who's been called "the Donald Trump of Westchester," has found a buyer for the 13-room duplex at 515 Park Avenue he owns with his second wife, bit actress Kylie Travis. The 6,500-square-foot, six-bedroom spread on the building's 27th and 28th floors, which the couple bought for $15 million in 2002, was listed for $29.5 million when it went into contract last week. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Japanese filmmaker Keiko Ibi has gone into contract to sell her 7th-floor condo at 15 CPW. The one-bedroom pad, which Ibi listed for $3.75 million in June, had been most recently listed for $3.485 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Clifford Brokaw, a Goldman Sachs alum and now a managing director at Corsair Capital, has paid $2.9 million for a third-floor apartment at 907 Fifth Avenue. Brokaw and his wife Lea Carpenter scored a deal, too. The one-bedroom pad went on the market for $4.4 million in May 2008. [Cityfile]
Most people who show up at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade have to press up against thousands of other people to catch a glimpse of the spectacle; some have been known to turn up before sunrise to snag a choice spot. But some lucky folks got really lucky this year. Who, you ask? People like Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and hedge fund mogul Dan Loeb, that's who.
Woody Allen turns 74 today. Sex and the City creator Candace Bushnell is turning 51. Bette Midler is 64. Sarah Silverman is turning 39. Current TV reporter (and former North Korean detainee) Laura Ling turns 33. Zoe Kravitz, the actress and daughter of Lenny, is turning 21. Actress Emily Mortimer is 38. Former supermodel Carol Alt is turning 49. John Densmore, the former drummer of The Doors, is 65. Actor Treat Williams is turning 58. Fox News correspondent Rick Leventhal is 50. And Jared Fogle, the "Jared" from a million and one Subway commercials, turns 32 today.
• Tom Colicchio says he has a new restaurant planned for 2010. [Eater]
• Todd English is creating a "food hall" in the basement of the Plaza. [NYT]
• Monkey Bar is getting a bit more democratic. The restaurant now has a phone number commoners can call for reservations. For lunch only, though. [TONY]
• Bouley and Allen & Delancey have some health code issues to sort out. [GS]
• Anthony Bourdain is no fan of street food, in case you were wondering. [ML]
• Fewer bars and clubs are getting permits for all-night NYE parties. [NYP]
• Ever want to look inside Ruth Reichl's fridge? Now you can! At last! [Salon]
• Another ex-Post staffer has filed a salacious lawsuit against the paper. [HP]
• Yet another magazine is no more. Giant gave up the ghost today. [Gawker]
• Rupert Murdoch's son, Lachlan Murdoch, is teaming up with media investor Jimmy Finkelstein to bid on a handful of media trade titles owned by Nielsen, including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and AdWeek. [NYT]
• The guy who runs Clubplanet.com says that if Maxim's owners don't sell him the mag, it will go bust by March. Maxim isn't impressed. [P6, AdAge]
• One sector of the magazine biz that's doing well: Airline publishing! [WSJ]
• Did BusinessWeek just replace Maria Bartiromo with Charlie Rose? [BI]
• The good news for Jay Leno: His ratings seem to have stabilized in recent weeks. The bad: More people are watching shows they recorded on their DVRs rather than tune into NBC's misguided 10pm experiment. [THR, NYP]
• New Moon topped the box office once again this weekend, as expected. [THR]
Because there are no more pressing matters of political import to attend to, the House Homeland Security Committee now plans to hold a hearing later this week into how Tareq and Michaele Salahi slipped by security to attend last Tuesday's state dinner, and some lawmakers are calling for criminal charges to be filed against the fameseeking couple. But what does fellow fameseeker and etiquette guru LuAnn de Lesseps make of Salahis? "I think the people that would go that far in order to be a celebrity really lack integrity and class," she tells Daily Intel. "I think they get nothing out of it. I mean, I think that they make themselves look bad. They're setting a really bad example of behavior." And you were thinking that marrying an elderly count in order to adopt a noble title was in poor taste! [NYM/Daily Intel]
It's been quite a ride for Jesus Luz, the Brazilian model most famous for serving as Madonna's arm candy since the two met in Rio last December (and bonded over their shared enthusiasm for Kabbalah, apparently). A year ago Luz was making $500 a day as a model. These days—and like several other people better known for their connections/last names, not their musical abilities)—Luz collects a tidy sum to spin at clubs around town, and his modeling career has been given a big boost as well:
Remember the amusing lawsuit that a landlord filed against the government of Senegal earlier this month after the African nation agreed to buy a plot of land in Midtown and then backed out of the deal? The suit has been settled, the Observer reports today, and a "Maison du Senegal" will soon be erected on East 44th Street. Get excited! [NYO, previously]
Todd English, the celebrity chef who abandoned his bride-to-be at the alter a few weeks ago, later claimed he ditched her after she assaulted him and sent him to the hospital, and has since been seen "sucking face" with mystery women at random bars around town, says he is "not dating right now." Instead, he's "taking it slow" and hanging out with his friends. Go figure! [NYM]
Anthony Marshall, Brooke Astor's son who was convicted last month of swindling his ailing, socialite mother, doesn't want to go to prison for a year. So he's asking a judge to go easy on him. The rationale? He's not in the very best of health, he served his country admirably during World War II, the jury had difficulty convicting him of first-degree grand-larceny, and "in consideration of his good deeds 'managing' her finances." That last one should go over well, shouldn't it? [NYP]
Famed illustrator Hilary Knight contributed sketches of six "classic" New York restaurants to Vanity Fair. If you guessed that this esteemed list would include the "renowned," "sophisticated" Monkey Bar, which just so happens to be owned by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, give yourself a pat on the back. Update: Michael Hogan of Vanity Fair reports that Carter had nothing to do with the selection. "Hilary Knight came to the editors of VF.com with six sketches of classic bars and restaurants, and one of them depicted the Monkey Bar. Faced with the choice of either publishing a delightful illustration by a living legend or not publishing it in an effort to avoid the dreaded sin of self-promotion, I chose the former." [VF, previously]
Catherine Zeta-Jones leaving her apartment to walk the dog ... Michael Douglas walking with kids Carys and Dylan ... Alec Baldwin chatting with Mary Louise Parker in Central Park ... Mickey Rourke buying a puppy with his girlfriend at a pet shop in the West Village ... The City's Freddie Fackelmeyer shopping at Kmart on Sunday with his girlfriend ... Donald Trump arriving on the set of Wall Street 2 ... Jude Law leaving his apartment in the Village ... Cate Blanchett walking with her kids ... Will Ferrell leaving Chelsea Market with his family ... Josh Duhamel taking a break from filming his new movie to play football ... and Russell Crowe leaving Club Macanudo on East 63rd Street.
