• A roundup of restaurants that just opened, or will open soon. [Eater, NYM]
• Sirio Maccioni's Le Cirque celebrated its 35th birthday last night. [NYT]
• Citrine in Chelsea was shut down by the city over the weekend. [Eater]
• Ex-Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl answered a few questions about the mag's demise (and avoided a few others) in yesterday's Times Magazine. But she was a no-show at a party held in Gourmet's honor last night. [NYT, NYDN]
• Have you heard that mac 'n' cheese has staged a comeback? It has! [WSJ]
• Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager at the center of the biggest insider trading scandal in decades, was an investor in restaurants in his spare time, and supposedly put money into Opia and Rosa Mexicano. [BN]

If you'd marked down October 19 as the day when socialite/publicist Ali Wise would finally appear in court to face charges she allegedly hacked into another socialite's voicemail earlier this year, please note that the prosecutors asked for a little more time to prepare their case today and the judge adjourned it to January 14, 2010. See you then!

• The New York Times says it will cut 100 newsroom jobs, or roughly 8% of its editorial workforce, via buyouts and/or layoffs. [NYT, NYO]
• The Condé Nast cuts continue today at Wired, Glamour and Lucky. [Gawker]
• The bad news for NBC: It's facing blowback from its affiliates over Jay Leno's 10pm show. The good news: MObama is booked on Leno this Fri. [LAT, AP]
• Meanwhile, Vivendi, NBC and Comcast are inching along in their respective negotiations to hand over control of the network to Comcast; and former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin has signed on to advise the cable giant. [NYT, WSJ]
• CBS News paid tribute to late 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt today. [AP]
• Ticket sales were up big this weekend. As expected, Where the Wild Things Are came in No. 1 at the box office with $32.5 million in sales. [LAT, THR]

Michael's, the Midtown eatery popular with moguls and media machers, now appears to be using Twitter to publicize who's lunching at the restaurant—much to the dismay of Mediabistro's FishbowlNY. [Twitter, MB]

Amy Sacco's Bungalow 8 is closed and the phone has been disconnected. But she remains insistent that she plans to reopen the onetime hotspot after she completes a round of renovations and gives the venue a new look. So is there any chance Bungalow 8 will reopen and Sacco will once again reign supreme as the "Queen of NYC nightlife"?

This week's issue of New York has come up with a list of the 12 most powerful people in town. (Well, the 11 most powerful behind Michael Bloomberg, that is.) They are (in no particular order): Al Sharpton, Howard Rubenstein, Sheldon Silver, Stephen Ross, Jamie Dimon, Herb Pardes, Anna Wintour, Andrew Cuomo, Mike Fishman, Chuck Schumer, and Rupert Murdoch. [NYM]

Did you hear about the $1 billion lawsuit filed against Greenhouse last week because the club allegedly denied entrance to a group of black partygoers? It turns out the crowd had turned up at the Soho club to attend a book party for Teri Woods, "a pioneer of the enormously successful urban or hip-hop fiction genre," and the author of the newly-released novel, Alibi.

ABC announced last month that Diane Sawyer would depart Good Morning America at the end of the year to replace Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC's World News. Now we hear that the morning show's co-anchor, Chris Cuomo, is leaving the program as well. According to a well-placed source, Cuomo plans to move over to 20/20, taking over for John Stossel who left ABC in September to join Fox News and Fox Business.

Ivanka Trump will walk down the aisle with Jared Kushner in six days. But while she may have settled on a location (her dad's golf course in New Jersey, naturally) and a dress (by Vera Wang, of course), she's still having some difficulty picking a wedding song. Feel free to shoot her a message on Twitter if you have any bright ideas. Don't bother, though, if all you can come up with is the JK Wedding Dance: We're going to take a leap and assume she and Jared have already ruled out that YouTube favorite. [Twitter]

Remember that $2 million lawsuit that was filed against NBC a couple of weeks ago for using several fonts in a recent ad campaign without securing permission? NBC never responded to our request for a comment when we first reported on the suit. Fortunately, "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers issued a response on Saturday Night Live this past weekend: "The joke is on them. We don't have 2 million dollars!" [NBC, previously]

Billionaire hedge funder Raj Rajaratnam was arrested on Friday morning on charges he participated in one of the biggest insider trading schemes in recent memory, one that netted him at least $25 million (but possibly millions more since the investigation continues.) Fortunately for Rajaratnam, the high-profile bust didn't end up depriving him of a weekend of freedom. By the end of the day, he'd been released on $100 million bail—the highest in history—and had to give up his passport and agree not to travel more than 110 miles from New York City. And today? He was back in the office for what must have been the awkwardest Monday morning meeting ever, telling employees that he's innocent and plans to fight the charges against him.

Rachel Weisz bundled up in the Village ... Roberto Cavalli walking on Madison Avenue with Serafina co-owner Fabio Granato ... Billy Joel and daughter Alexa walking uptown ... Rihanna filming a music video in Washington Heights and later heading into into a recording studio in Chelsea ... Miley Cyrus shooting scenes for Sex and the City 2 with Kim Cattrall in front of the Ziegfeld ... Paris Hilton posing for photographers after an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show ... Jon Gosselin and Hailey Glassman taking a carriage ride through Central Park ... Uma Thurman shopping at in SoHo ... and Sharon Osbourne and Cyndi Lauper shooting scenes for Celebrity Apprentice.

• A month after it was reported that Bernie Madoff's Montauk home had gone into contract, an unidentified buyer has closed on the purchase of the oceanfront manse. The five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home, which had been listed for $8.75 million, ended up selling for $9.41 million. [ABC, NYDN]
• Writer/director John Ridley has finally unloaded his condo at 15 Central Park West. The 2,237-square-foot pad, which Ridley bought for $6.65 million in July 2008 and listed for $13 million just a few days later, has sold for $8 million to a company listed in property records as Moral Hole LLC. [Cityfile]
• Oil exec Tom Edelman has placed his 11-room apartment at 770 Park Avenue back on the market, albeit for quite a bit less than when he last put it up for sale a year and a half ago. The eighth-floor co-op, which Edelman listed for $16.75 million after picking up a bigger apartment at 775 Park, is now being offered for $11 million with Brown Harris Stevens' John Burger. [NYT, BHS]
• Late fashion designer Abbijane Schifrin's former townhouse at 141 East 19th Street has gone on the market. The five-story manse, which is currently divided into two units, is listed for $8.75 million. [NYT, Sotheby's]

Were you, like us, a little perplexed last week when Mayor Bloomberg indicated that he planned to campaign this weekend with Rudy Giuliani by his side? One thing we didn't take into account (but which explains everything): If you'd like to engage in a little vintage NYC fear-mongering and race-baiting in the last few weeks of a campaign, there's really no better person out there to guide you. [NYT, previously]

Jon Favreau turns 43 today. John Lithgow is turning 64. Retired boxer Evander Holyfield is 47. Former Saturday Night Live star Chris Kattan is turning 39. RNC chairman Michael Steele is 51. Model/actress Joy Bryant is turning 33. Trey Parker, the co-creator of South Park, is 40. Bestselling author John le Carré turns 78. Former first daughter Amy Carter is turning 42. TV psychic John Edward is 40. And the most famous carpenter in America, Extreme Home Makeover host Ty Pennington, turns 44 today.

• One of Madonna's neighbors has filed a lawsuit against their building's co-op board for not doing anything about the "pounding noise and vibration" emanating from Madge's triplex, which the neighbor says has been doubling as a "dance rehearsal studio." The good news is Madonna is moving in the near future, so the angry tenant should soon be able to go back to complaining about her other neighbor who just plays the radio too loud. [NYDN, AP]
• Lindsay Lohan avoided jail time but had her probation extended by a year last week when a judge ruled that she hadn't completed an alcohol treatment program. Then she went out to a party in the Meatpacking district this weekend and actually stayed sober. What a delightful surprise! [P6]
• Bethenny Frankel is engaged to her boyfriend of 11 months, Jason Hoppy. "She is very much a handful," Hoppy said, "She needs a man that can handle her, and that I can." More power to you, sir. [People]

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• Will Café des Artistes be reborn one of these days? A number of investors have expressed an interest in reviving the famed venue, apparently. [Crain's]
• As for Tavern on the Green, which is supposed to change hands on Dec. 31, a judge has given the LeRoy family more time to vacate the premises, which will prevent it from having to lay off 400 employees over Christmas. [NYT]
• The Todd English case goes on: The chef's bride-to-be Erica Wang is maintaining her innocence and gave a statement to police today. [NYP]
• A $1 billion lawsuit has been filed against Greenhouse for allegedly denying a group of people entry because of their race. Yes, $1 billion. [NYP]
• Mayor Bloomberg has weighed in on his fave bagel for some reason. [NYDN]
• Maialino, Danny Meyer's restaurant at the Gramercy Park Hotel, is on track to opens next month. But he's not sure when the next Shake Shack opens. [GS]
• Any interest in some "Viagra soup"? Yea, didn't think so. [NYDN]

What would Carrie Bradshaw smell like if you could bottle her? Sarah Jessica Parker is launching a Carrie-inspired perfume, it turns out, so now we have the answer! Italian mandarin, white osmanthus, wild red strawberries, gardenia, honeysuckle, mimosa, red rose damascenia, sandalwood, vanilla absolute, rum, and creamy musks. All that's missing, clearly, is a time machine so you could go back to a point in history when you might have been interested in smelling like Carrie Bradshaw. [WWD]

• Rupert Murdoch and John Malone are "interested" in a deal with NBC Universal, but have yet to pick up the phone and do anything about it. [THR]
• Condé Nast cut sales staff at W and Vanity Fair today and proved that no one is safe by dismissing the wife of a Newhouse family member. Some good news: magazines are reporting that automotive advertising is way up, so maybe the auto industry will end up saving print media! Crazier things have happened.
• The Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger is running into trouble in DC. [WSJ]
• The Fox News-White House brouhaha continues, not surprisingly. [THR]
• Fox Reality, which is going off the air next year, will be replaced by a new channel called Nat Geo Wild. Think less Cesar Millan, more Jeff Corwin. [NYT]
• Were you dismayed that yesterday's little balloon incident generated so much cable news coverage? Wait till you see what's in store next week! [CJR]