Jeanne-Claude, the artist who, along with her husband Christo, turned Central Park into a sea of orange for two weeks in 2005 for no other reason than it looked super cool, has died. She was 74. [NYT]

Some people freak out when a bloodthirsty cameraman from TMZ approaches them, sticks a camera in their face, and fires off a round of zany questions. Tim Gunn handled himself with typical aplomb when a paparazzo picked up his trail at LAX yesterday.

• Another one of the 15 homes around the world that Nic Cage picked up in recent years has been turned over to a new owner. Cage has closed on the sale of his 48th-floor condo at the Olympic Tower, albeit for quite a bit less than he'd been hoping to get. The 3,550-square-foot apartment, which had been listed for $9.75 million when it went into contract last month, reportedly ended up selling for $7.5 million. [NYP]
• Fortress Investment Group co-founder—and former billionaire—Randal Nardone has dropped the price of his condo at 240 Riverside Boulevard for the second time since he put it on the market for $11.75 million in February. Nardone, who plunked down $22 million for a pad at 101 Warren Street last year, is now asking for $9.2 million for the place. [Cityfile, Corcoran]

AOL announced today that it plans to shed one-third of its workforce, or 2,300 jobs, as it prepares to be spun off by its parent company, Time Warner. The most ironic part? The man most responsible for uniting AOL and Time Warner in what has since turned out to be the most ill-advised merger in history, is the happiest he's been in years. Steve Case, AOL's co-founder, just sold his Paypal also-ran, Revolution Money, yesterday to American Express for $300 million. [Bloomberg, NYT]

Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter and the man you can blame for destroying your productivity at work, turns 33 today. Fashion designer Calvin Klein is turning 67. Meg Ryan is 48. Today show news anchor Ann Curry is turning 53. Former GE CEO Jack Welch is 74. Ted Turner is turning 71. Jodie Foster is 47. Restaurant-less chef Rocco DiSpirito turns 43. Model Daria Werbowy is 26. Actress Allison Janney is 50. WNYC president Laura Walker is 52. TV legend Dick Cavett turns 73. Jerry Sheindlin, the former People's Court judge and husband of Judge Judy, is turning 76. Former football player and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad is 60. And Larry King is 76 today, or just 24 years away from celebrating his centennial.

• Down-and-out former pageant queen Carrie Prejean must be getting really desperate: She's turning to Donald Trump for career advice. Trump suggested she "become a major porn star," make tons of cash and then "give it to worthy causes." Clearly, it's this type of forward thinking that has made Trump the business titan he is. [P6]
• Nic Cage's lawyer now says the countersuit by the actor's former business manager—Samuel Levin claims he warned Cage about his "compulsive, self-destructive spending" years ago—is "ridiculous." As for Cage himself, he's in Somalia right now facing down evil pirates since he's under the impression that his life is one big action movie, but says he'll sort everything out once he gets back to the States. [P6]
• Lou Dobbs is taking a vacation now that he's no longer with CNN. Mexico is not on his travel itinerary, in case you were wondering. [NYP]
• Larry King's 10-year-old son is the luckiest boy in all of Los Angeles today: He's been signed to host his own cable TV show. Ain't nepotism grand? [TMZ]
• Amy Winehouse's dad says his daughter's new breast implants are leaking, which is why she's been in the hospital recently. But presumably that's to be expected if you poke yourself with needles all day, no? [Sun]

• The critics: Sam Sifton of the Times surveys the new Oceana and isn't overwhelmed, giving it two stars; the Post's Steve Cuozzo is pretty pleased with A Voce and hands it three stars out of four; Time Out's Jay Cheshes bestows three out of five stars on Travertine; and Gael Greene heads to Jeffrey Chodorow's Tanuki Tavern and is surprised to find she actually kinda likes it.
• The fanciest McDonald's in America is now open in Midtown. [AP, WPIX]
• Marcus Samuelsson will cook at White House later this month. [Eater]
• Openings/closings: Café Gitane's WV outpost has opened; cream puff spot Beard Papa has closed; and fro-yo chain Red Mango seems to be in trouble.
• In addition to his son, JGV is now employing his daughter, too. [NYT]
• David Waltuck has parted ways with Macao Trading Co. [NYT]
• Zach Braff is a restaurateur on the side, apparently. [GS]

Twisted Sisters: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen all dressed up for last night's tribute to director Tim Burton at the Museum of Modern Art.

• It's official: Will Ferrell is the most overpaid man in show business. [THR]
• Layoffs: BusinessWeek's cuts kicked off today; layoffs now loom at Time Inc. as the company awaits word on how many volunteers will accept buyout packages; and there's a bit more detail on this week's cuts at the AP.
• MSNBC's Joe Scarborough isn't exactly on fire at the moment. [NYO]
• Palinitis: The ex-governor's sit-down with Oprah on Monday generated the talk show queen her highest ratings in two years; Fox News clowns Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are now at war over their respective Palin interviews; and people are still talking about that Palin Newsweek cover, for some reason.
• Vivendi has tossed a last-minute complication into the NBC deal. [NYT]
• Times reporter Jodi Kantor has landed a seven-figure book deal. [NYO]
• Breaking! The Emmys are moving from September to August. [THR]
• CNN's Candy Crowley is speaking out about her weight loss. At last! [LAT]

Two reasons to avoid talking on your cell phone as you walk down the street? For one thing, you're a lot more likely to get mowed down by a car, according to two new studies. (Chatty college students took 25 percent longer to cross the street than their peers who weren't on the phone; people over 65 in the same situation were 15 percent more likely to get run over.) Reason No. 2: As one Vanity Fair staffer's recent experience makes clear, you're also much more likely to get your ass kicked. Consider yourself warned. [Daily Finance, Page Six]

Valery and Olga Kogan are back in business! Sort of! As you may recall, last year the Russian tycoon and his wife planned to build the craziest mansion Greenwich had ever seen, one equipped with 15 bathrooms, Finnish and Turkish baths, on-site hair salon, and electric guitar-shaped outdoor patio surrounded by "guitar god" statues.

When political insiders suggested yesterday that the mayor pay more attention to places outside of Manhattan's toniest precincts, they probably didn't have Russia or China in mind. But both those countries are expected to benefit from Mike Bloomberg's latest charitable donation, a $125 million gift designed to improve road conditions in 10 developing countries around the world. But he'll get to this next. Don't you worry. [WSJ]

Condé Nast has shut down six magazines and laid off hundreds of staffers in recent months. But the company's annual Christmas party will return once again this year. Okay, so it's at Aureole next door (a "corporate cafeteria with a soundtrack of smooth jazz in the George Benson style," per the Times), and not at the Four Seasons as in years past. But it's better settling for stir-fry at Condé's own cafeteria or, even worse, nothing at all, right? [NYO]

Last week, MTV announced its newest series, Jersey Shore, which it promises will feature the "hottest, tannest, craziest guidos" in the Jerz. (Think The Hills, but starring people who are tanner and have a whole lot more confidence.) What you can expect to see: all the fist pumping, pecs, and hair gel you can handle, naturally. So how close will it be to reality and how much of it will be the product of imaginative MTV producers? To separate fact from fiction, we reached out to the world's leading expert on guido-dom, Anthony Moussa, a 30-year-old Jersey native who founded the website NLSociety.com (formerly the infamous NJGuido.com), and asked him to explain to us what the lifestyle is really all about. Join us as he discusses man-jewelry, the origin of the fist pump, and how some guidos today are disgracing the culture that so many hold near and dear.

Bad news for bagel-loving Upper West Siders: Helmer Toro, the owner of H&H, was placed in handcuffs this morning:

Supermodel Karolina Kurkova and fiance Archie Drury walking in Tribeca with their new baby ... Daniel Day-Lewis leaving the Plaza Hotel ... Uma Thurman walking her dogs downtown ... Halle Berry leaving Morandi after having lunch ... Elijah Wood carrying lunch on the set of The Romantics on Long Island ... Sandra Bullock walking into her hotel ... Fergie leaving her hotel ... Hugh Jackman jogging downtown and later taking daughter Ava for ice cream ... Taylor Momsen filming scenes for Gossip Girl with Chace Crawford ... Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban holding hands outside their apartment building ... Heidi Montag leaving the Waverly Inn.... and Maria Menounos riding in a pedicab in Midtown because she supposedly couldn't find a cab.

Citigroup has announced that it's raising salaries for several top execs at the partially government-owned bank. Fortunately, the list does not include Vikram Pandit, Citi's incompetent CEO. He'll continue to collect $1 a year for his services, which is still probably a dollar too much. [AP]

Midtown is really, really happening these days, have you heard? At least that's what the owners of restaurants that recently opened in—yes, you guessed it—Midtown are saying! And you can give all the credit to Monkey Bar co-owner and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter since he "arguably foresaw and guaranteed the reinvigoration of the longtime social wasteland between 30th and 60th streets." Now he just has to find a way to reinvigorate that other project he spends time working on every so often! [NYO]

Sure, you may be really worried about contracting swine flu and then spending the next couple of weeks confined to bed (or worse). But do you know who is totally psyched that Americans are in a state of panic about H1N1? Executives at Johnson & Johnson! It's J&J that makes Purell hand sanitizer. And it's making a fortune now that we're all buying the mystery goo by the truckload. It's even offsetting the fact that we're no longer showering as much as we used to.

Victims of Bernie Madoff have another $2 million to spread around. Three boats owned by the imprisoned fraudster were auctioned off in Florida yesterday and brought in about $1 million; a sport-fishing yacht owned by Bernie's former sidekick, Frank DiPascali, reeled in another $950,000. And Ruth Madoff's convertible found a new owner, too: The 1999 Mercedes with 12,000 miles on it sold for $30,000. [Bloomberg]