• The Lohan family drama goes on. Another recorded phone call has been released and this one features Dina Lohan telling Lindsay's father Michael that their daughter once punched her and kicked her out of the car. Naturally, LiLo quickly responded on Twitter and called her father a whole bunch of names. And now Papa Lohan has countered by promising to release even more tapes in the days to come. So, no, this saga is not even close to over. [P6, People]
• Alec Baldwin says he has "a great ass." Please make a note of it. [Us]
• Paul Johnson-Calderon, the bow tie-wearing social gay set to appear on Tinsley Mortimer's upcoming reality show, is in trouble again. He was caught on tape snatching purses on the LES earlier this year; now he's been caught on camera vandalizing a friend's Union Square apartment building. Calderon's defense? "It's not like rock stars don't vandalize hotel rooms and such all the time." Yes, but you're not a rock star, buddy. [P6]

• A preview of what you'll find when Maialino opens next week. [GS]
• In other Danny Meyer news, Shake Shack is expanding to Miami. [GS]
• For his part, Daniel Boulud is taking his Bar Boulud to London. [Bloomberg]
• A roundup of recent restaurant/bar openings around town. [Eater]
• Del Posto is closing its cafe and is introducing a new prix fixe menu. [NYT]
• Paul Sevigny may be still be hoping to reopen the Beatrice Inn. [Gawker]
• 100 things restaurant staffers should never do, part 2. [NYT, previously]

• Is Oprah preparing to leave her syndicated show behind and take her act to OWN, her long-delayed cable network? That's the rumor anyway. [DH]
• The new editor of the Observer is Kyle Pope, formerly of Portfolio. [NYO]
• Cable meets kindergarten: Fox News will stop being mean to MSNBC only if MSNBC first stops being mean to Fox News, reports Rupert Murdoch. [NYT]
• Fortune and Time are expected to be hardest hit by layoffs at Time Inc. [NYP]
• Scripps has beat out News Corp. for control of the Travel Channel. [BN]
• Susan Plagemann has been named the new publisher of Vogue. Meanwhile, Tom Florio will now oversee Vogue, Bon Appétit and Traveler. [WWD]
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek (or BBW for short) has its new team in place. [NYT]

Nello Balan is the owner of Nello, the exceedingly mediocre Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. He's also one of the city's most shameless—and most notorious—publicity hounds. Balan's latest attempt at drumming up attention, however, now appears to be exploding in his face. Last week, a receipt "surfaced" indicating that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had spent $52,000 on lunch. (The bill was for $47,000, but TMZ, which first reported the story, said the billionaire had tacked on a $5,000 tip.) But a spokesman for Abramovich tells us the bill wasn't his and the mogul may pursue legal action against Balan for suggesting otherwise.

The growing insider trading scandal involving hedge funds has made its way to the offices of SAC Capital, the firm founded by one of the industry's most powerful figures, Zamboni-loving billionaire Steve Cohen. One of the 14 new defendants charged today, Richard Choo Beng Lee, seems to have started his crime spree when he was employed by SAC. [BI, Reuters]

Time Warner started cutting costs across its Time Inc. publishing division this week and is hoping to save as much as $100 million by paring back expenses and slashing several hundred jobs. One way the company could have made up the difference without sacrificing any of its employees? By selling off the three Gulfstream jets it owns!

Just a few hours after Joe Girardi steered the Yankees to a World Series victory last night, he helped rescue a woman who'd smashed her car on the Hutchinson River Parkway. [NYDN]

There's a little good news today if you happen to be jobless. The House voted to give an additional 20 weeks of unemployment benefits to people who are out of work, and the bill is now headed to the White House for President Obama's signature. [NYT]

Why is it we don't have weather forecasters like this here in New York? Here's hoping some smart station manager at Channel 2, 4, 5, or 7 takes note of Mark Thompson's unique talents and gives him an opportunity to transport his act from LA to NYC. [YouTube via BB]

Isaac Mizrahi will making his debut on QVC next month where he'll be selling everything from t-shirts to berets to... tartan-decorated cheesecakes? Oh, yes, a version of the cake from Junior's in Brooklyn and featuring a "Mizrahi-mandated chocolate cookie crust," will be on sale, too. [WWD]

Billy Joel heading into a cigar club with "an unidentified pretty brunette" ... Madonna visiting a doctor's office uptown and later leaving the Standard Hotel with Jesus Luz in tow ... Samuel L. Jackson crossing the street in Midtown ... Adrien Brody chilling in the West Village ... Kelly Ripa picking up daughter Lola from school ... Taylor Momsen shooting scenes for Gossip Girl ... Carlos Leon kissing his girlfriend outside Café Gitane on Mott Street ... Frank Sinatra Jr. hanging out in Midtown ... Jerry Seinfeld and wife Jessica walking on Central Park West this morning ... Catherine Zeta-Jones walking to a rehearsal for her new Broadway show, A Little Night Music ... and Katie Holmes playing with Suri at a playground on Long Island.

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik has taken the deal offered to him by prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to eight counts against him, including tax fraud and making false statements to the federal government, and he now faces between 27 to 33 months in prison. [CNN]

Conde Nast overseer Si Newhouse desperately put his Alberto Giacometti sculpture, "L'Homme Qui Chavire"—for which he'd paid $20 million— up for auction at Sotheby's yesterday. He was expected to lose $10 million on the sale. He got lucky.

It looked like Condé Nast boss Si Newhouse was going to lose big when he put a prized sculpture up for auction at Sotheby's last night. But he ended up doing fine! Or close to it, least. Instead of losing as much as $10 or $12 million on the sale, he only came up $2.8 million short in the end:

Another 14 people have been implicated in the growing investigation into insider trading by hedge funds. A number of the people indicted today have ties to Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon Group who was arrested a couple of weeks ago; all of them, it's safe to say, just had their days ruined. [WSJ]

• Actress Dana Delany has picked herself up an apartment in the Village. The California-based Desperate Housewives star has paid $1.8 million for a penthouse at 30 Fifth Avenue. The two-bedroom apartment, which went on the market for $2.35 million back in April, features two terraces and a separate solarium that serves as a home office or studio. You can check out the listing here. [Cityfile]
• Seven months after he put his 44th-floor apartment at the Trump International on the market for $18.45 million, pharmaceutical exec Richard Ullman has finally found a buyer. He's reportedly selling the four-bedroom condo for "around $17 million" to an undisclosed buyer. [NYP]
• Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht has raised the price of his Greenwich mansion. The 5.8-acre estate, which Sternlicht listed for $8.25 million in June 2008, is now priced at $5.95 million. [Bloomberg via Real Deal]
• A secretive Asian hedge fund exec is reportedly the mystery buyer who has gone into contract to buy investor Ephraim Gildor's 7,758-square-foot apartment at the Park Laurel on West 63rd Street. [NYP, previously]

Model and MTV host Alexa Chung turns 26 today. Yankees star Johnny Damon has two reasons to celebrate today: The Yankees won the World Series last night, of course; and it's also Damon's 36th birthday today. Ryan Adams is turning 35 today. Bryan Adams is turning 50. (Confusing!) Tilda Swinton is 49. Economist Jeffrey Sachs is turning 55. Actress Tatum O'Neal is 46. Folk legend Art Garfunkel turns 68. Famke Janssen is 44. Actor Sam Rockwell is turning 41. Kevin Jonas of the Jonas Brothers is 22. And Kris Jenner, the woman to blame for creating all those Kardashian girls, turns 54 today.

• Madonna is reportedly "taking a more active role" in promoting boy toy Jesus Luz's career. She turned up to hear him spin at the Valentino party the other night, danced with "some hot fashion guys," mingled for a little, and then they left together. But that doesn't mean she's offered to do a song with him. "There are steps!" he said. "You can't just start out and collaborate with Madonna." He also says that he always plays her stuff because, you know, "It's great." [P6, NYDN]
• After Michael Lohan released a sob-filled phone call from Lindsay yesterday, she Twittered that her dad is "such a loser"; "those recordings are from years ago"; and "he needs the book for dummies on how to be a man." She also indicted she may ask her lawyer to file a restraining order against her dad and/or sue him. So, no hopes for a reconciliation just yet then? [TMZ, NYP, Us]
• Making matters worse, there is now another recording of LiLo chatting with her mother that's been released. [Radar Online]
• Mariah Carey said she'd been a victim of emotional and mental abuse on Larry King Live last night: "To really get out, it was difficult because there was a connection that was not only a marriage but a business thing, where the person was in control of my life." Tommy Mottola, anyone? [CNN, People]

The downside (and upside!) to a Yankees World Series victory.

• The week in reviews: Sam Sifton of the Times gives Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecôte one star; Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton says Blue Hill "needs work"; Jay Cheshes of TONY has mixed things to say about Ed's Chowder House; Steve Cuozzo visits Ed's, too, giving it 2 1/2 stars out of four; Gael Greene checks out Casa Lever; and GQ's Alan Richman picks his fave fried chicken in NYC.
• Cru, which faced eviction this summer, is back with a new chef/menu. [NYT]
• The Soho Italian spot Piccola Cucina has reopened. [Zagat]
• Bruni's top burger is at Shake Shack; Colicchio picks The Spotted Pig. [TONY]
• Michelle Obama will make a cameo on Iron Chef in January. [NYT]
• Want to lose weight? Try eating tomatoes. [NYDN]