A boatload of Bernie and Ruth Madoff's personal possessions go up for auction tomorrow. And the competition is expected to be fierce. According to the company handling the proceedings, 1,100 people have already registered to submit bids online. (Each had to hand over a $1,000 refundable deposit in order to participate.) And contrary to what you might have expected, Bernie's satin Mets jacket probably won't fetch the most money tomorrow.

The gigantic new Apple store on the Upper West Side will open its doors to the public at 10am tomorrow morning, so if you happen to be in the area and you see a line of people stretching down Broadway, you'll know what they're all there for (as well as how far some people will go for a free Apple t-shirt).

You knew that Mike Bloomberg went to extraordinary lengths to get himself elected to a third term, spending close to $100 million to blanket the local airwaves with commercials and stick flyers in the mailbox of every New Yorker. It turns out his campaigning extended far, far beyond New York as well:

It seems New Yorkers are so broke these days, you can now find ATM machines that dispense cash in $5 increments. [Business Insider]

Naomi Watts leaving the Smile Cafe on Bond Street ... ... Hugh Jackman walking downtown ... Miley Cyrus leaving Bergdorf Goodman through the back door ... Sienna Miller coming home from the gym and later walking her dog in SoHo ... Elijah Wood getting lunch at The Market & Cafe in Greenport, New York ... Levi Johnston leaving the Portofino Tanning Salon on the Upper West Side ... Derek Jeter filming scenes for The Other Guys at Nathan's on Coney Island ... Chris Brown arriving at the studios of Wendy Williams Show in Midtown ... and Liev Schreiber carrying a cup of coffee in SoHo.

• Hedge funder Steve Stuart, who left Fortress Investment Group in 2007 to found his own firm, has finally found a buyer for his 35th floor apartment at the Park Laurel on West 63rd Street. The four-bedroom condo, which Stuart bought for $5.4 million in 2004 and put on the market for $10.8 million in October 2008, sold this week to an unidentified buyer for $7.4 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Prolific real estate investor Michael Hirtenstein is the mystery buyer who has agreed to purchase financier Armon Bar-Tur's townhouse at 92 Charles Street. Hirtenstein picked up the four-bedroom home, which was most recently listed for $14.95 million, for "about $13.5 million." [NYP]
• Longtime Dakota residents Connie Chung and Maury Povich are preparing to leave New York. The couple has gone into contract to buy a 12,500-square-foot home in Washington, DC for $8.98 million, although Chung says they're not planning on moving into the new home until 2010 or 2011. [WSJ]

Fashion publicist and MTV reality show fixture Kelly Cutrone turns 44 today. Chris Noth is turning 55. Whoopi Goldberg is 54. Gerard Butler celebrates the big 4-0 today. Jimmy Kimmel is 42. Film director Garry Marshall is turning 75. Former Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde turns 46. Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy is 55. Veteran TV reporter Peter Arnett turns 75. Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture is turning 31. Joe Mantegna is 62. And NBA star Ron Artest is turning 30. A handful of weekend birthdays are below.

• In what may be the weirdest celebrity extortion attempt ever, a German male model named Edis Kayalar has been arrested for trying to blackmail Cindy Crawford and her husband Rande Gerber with a "sexy" photo of the couple's then 7-year-old daughter "in revealing clothing, bound to a chair and gagged." Apparently, the pic had been taking by the girl's former babysitter during an innocent game of cops and robbers and she used to date Kayalar. [NYDN, People]
• All those phone calls that Michael Lohan recorded may ultimately land him in jail (again). A 2005 protective order obtained by Dina Lohan banned him from communicating with her by email or phone until 2011. [TMZ]
• Spend enough time on Twitter and you, too, may find yourself dating a beautiful young starlet! Emmy Rossum says her relationship with Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz "began with a Tweet," believe it or not. [People]

• The team behind Coffee Shop in Union Square is taking over the iconic Empire Diner in Chelsea. A name change and revamped menu will follow. [CN]
• Team Momofuku is now serving lunch at their new Midtown location. [ML]
• A chat with Danny Abrams, who just opened his new Mermaid outpost. [VV]
• Michael Psilakis is planning a pop-up food cart in the meatpacking district. The food will be free and it's all part of a promo campaign by Ketel One. [TONY]
• Troubling news for those who love rating raw oysters year-round. [NYT]
• Gwyneth Paltrow's famous friends list their most memorable means. [GOOP]
• A roundup of food-related events taking place this weekend. [SE]

Erin Lucas didn't return to The City for a second season, sadly. But just because she isn't playing Whitney Port's best bud on MTV on Tuesday nights doesn't mean she's been sitting around twiddling her thumbs. Louis Vuitton debuted its new ready-to-wear boutique and 2010 cruise collection at Saks Fifth Avenue on Tuesday, an event that turned the store's third floor into a lush indoor garden. It was amid the flora and fauna that party correspondent Douglas Marshall caught up with the TV starlet to chat about what she's up to now, what she's got coming up, and her former castmates from The City.

• John King will be replacing Lou Dobbs at 7pm on CNN. [WP, NYT]
• CNN execs had been looking to part ways with Dobbs for many months now, although CNN president Jon Klein is denying that all the anti-Dobbs fervor had anything to do with his leaving. Meanwhile, Dobbs' departure is expected to leave up to 30 people without jobs. [TDB, NYT, AP]
• Dobbs' first post-CNN interview will be with Bill O'Reilly. Naturally. [DF]
• Iconix, the apparel company that owns Candie's, Badgley Mischka, and Rocawear, among other brands, is in talks to buy Playboy Enterprises. [BN]
• Bloomberg LP is ducking out of paying severance to BW staffers. [AdAge]
• A dozen staffers were laid off at Newsweek today. [Gawker]
• Martin Scorsese will receive the DeMille award at the Golden Globes. [LAT]
• Katie Couric is assembling media power lists now, apparently. [Forbes]

Britons are the ugliest people in the world, at least according to the stupid dating website BeautifulPeople.com. (Not that we necessarily disagree, of course.) [Reuters, Telegraph]

Manhattan's very first Costco opened its doors this morning. Located on 116th Street off the FDR—and encompassing 105,000-square-feet—it's a slice of the suburbs in the middle of the city. Oh, and the bargains to be had: three pounds of almonds for $9.69; a five-liter jug of olive oil for $19.99; 40-pound bags of dog food for $23.39! Although when you factor in the cost of renting a storage unit—you won't be able to keep all that crap in your tiny Manhattan apartment, will you?—you can continue to buy your groceries at your local deli for twice the price and you'll still come out even in the end. [NYP]

Have you noticed that more and more social scenesters, models, and offspring of the rich and famous have morphed into DJs? It's a trend, as W points out:

Another possible sign that New York's real estate market is on the rebound: Mega-broker Sharon Baum, who told the Times earlier this year that she was giving up the hunter green Rolls-Royce she used to ferry clients around town because it made her "deeply uncomfortable" amid the downturn, is reversing course. The Corcoran agent—and one-time girlfriend of Mike Bloomberg!—tells the Observer she's using the Rolls once again, although she did decide to get rid of her Vespa recently, for what's it worth. [NYO]

There's good news, bad news, more bad news and more good news for Goldman Sachs today. Let's review, shall we?

Iman crossing the street in SoHo ... Meg Ryan leaving Pastis after having lunch ... Jeremy Sisto pushing his daughter in a stroller in the West Village ... Sienna Miller getting in an SUV in Midtown ... Naomi Watts walking downtown with her son and her dog ... Katie Holmes shooting scenes for The Romantics in Southold, Long Island ... Levi Johnston walking around in a hoddie and holding a Men's Warehouse shopping bag ... Katharine McPhee checking in for a flight at LaGuardia ... Shakira leaving MTV studios in Times Square ... and Ashley Tisdale going to dinner at Ollie's on West 42nd Street.

A day after Gov. Paterson announced that New York would introduce new license plates—and charge every motorist $25 for the privilege of switching over to the "Empire Gold" plates—and he's already backing away from the plan. Following a storm of protest, Paterson now says he's prepared to abandon the fee. As long as someone can figure out how to make up for the $129 million gap in the state's budget. The governor says he doesn't know how to do it. Do you? Call 518-474-8390 and ask for Dave. [NYP]

The recession is over and America's economic recovery is well underway! How do we know this to be true? Because the NASDAQ "has brought its confetti machine out of the closet, where it had been collecting dust," that's how. And there's no better indicator than that, is there? [NYT/Bits]

As if Peter Brant didn't have enough to worry about now that he's in the middle of a messy divorce from Stephanie Seymour, a silk-screen painting by Andy Warhol which Brant put up for auction at Christie's on Tuesday night—and was estimated to be worth $6-8 million—found no takers. [NYT]