Reality TV stars artfully bare their souls on camera and in the tabloids, and even better, they do it all without a script. But a TV show is only the first step to building a brand, and now countless pseudo-celebs are milking their 15 minutes and peddling products that you couldn't possibly live without. (Or so they say!) We compiled the most promising items from the brightest minds in faux-showbiz. With these ladies' designs in your style arsenal, your look will never be the same.

When Mayor Bloomberg first brought up the idea of banning smoking at parks and public beaches a couple of weeks ago, he said the issue would require further study, especially since it would be a tricky law to enforce, at least in the absence of an extra 5,000 or so cops assigned to smoke patrol. Well, Bloomberg seems to have concluded His study and figured out how to make it work. Because he now says he's going to move ahead with the plan. Enjoy that last cigarette in Central Park while you still can, smokers. [NYDN, previously]

Us Weekly is reporting (and has confirmed) that Padma Lakshmi is with child. It's a particularly welcome development for Lakshmi, who suffers from endometriosis and has had difficulty conceiving over the years. Although when her publicist asks that the media respect the Top Chef host's privacy, it probably doesn't have all that much to do with her medical condition, which she's never been shy about discussing:

Yesterday afternoon, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis announced that he plans to "retire" at the end of the year. And despite the fact he's facing ongoing probes by Congress, the SEC, and the attorneys general in New York and Connecticut over BofA's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, he's spent months dealing with withering criticism by Wall Street analysts and shareholders, and he's leaving the bank without a successor in place, Lewis is still maintaining that he—and he alone, without any pressure on him whatsoever!—arrived at the decision to retire. Per the farewell letter he sent out yesterday:

Another one of NYC's great restaurants has gone down. After more than 30 years in business, Chanterelle owners Karen and David Waltuck report that they no longer have plans to reopen the Tribeca landmark following a round of recent renovations. [Diner's Journal/NYT, Photo: Flickr]

On July 24, 2009, Cityfile published an article entitled "Jim Dolan To Kill Christmas In July?" which contained speculation on the fate of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Radio City Rockettes. Click here for an important update on this article.

Kate Hudson heading to lunch at Serafina ... Julianne Moore walking to a post office in the West Village ... Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell shooting scenes for The Other Guys ... Taylor Momsen walking downtown ... Lady Gaga going into a hotel ... Sarah Jessica Parker leaving her townhouse in the Village ... Madonna arriving for an appearance on the Late Show with Dave Letterman ... Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan filming scenes for Wall Street 2 ... Kelly Rutherford standing on the set of Gossip Girl in Chinatown ... and Sienna Miller heading home after a performance of After Miss Julie on Broadway.

Forbes' annual list of the richest Americans, the Forbes 400, was released today. The bad news? It was a pretty rough year for the super-rich, not surprisingly, with the collective net worth of Forbes 400 members falling $300 billion over the past 12 months. The good news, at least for those poor people who have had to deal with the indignity of only being worth in the high nine figures: You don't need to be a billionaire to make the cut this year. A mere $950 million will suffice. [Forbes, NYDN]

• Investor Amit Ben-Haim has finally unloaded his four-bedroom penthouse at 15 CPW, albeit for significantly less than the $80 million he was looking for last year. The London-based exec just sold the condo for $37 million to two unidentified corporations listed in city property records as Novgorod and Novgorod Two. [NYO]
• Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has reportedly closed on the purchase of a penthouse at the Superior Ink building on West 12th Street. (The 6,321-square-foot pad had been most recently listed for $25 million.) Meanwhile, Alexander is still trying to unload his East Hampton estate, which is currently on the market for $20.5 million. [NYP, PDE]
• Alec Baldwin appears to have taken his apartment at the El Dorado off the market just a month after listing it. The three-bedroom co-op, along with a smaller one-bedroom unit a few floors below, had been up for sale for a combined $8.9 million. [NYM]
• Daniele Bodini, a real estate mogul and the Republic of San Marino's permanent representative to the United Nations, has paid $10.9 million for a 3,500-square-foot apartment at 88 Central Park West. Update: On October 5, 2009, five days after publishing an item stating that Daniele Bodini had purchased an apartment at 88 Central Park West, the New York Post updated the story on its web site, deleting any reference to Bodini and stating instead that Italian financier Paolo Pellegrini had purchased the apartment. You can read the original, archived version here. The Post did not correct the story or in any way call attention to the fact that it had substantially changed it. On March 13, 2013—four years after this item was originally published on CityFile, and three years after Gawker Media purchased CityFile—an attorney representing Bodini alerted Gawker Media to the fact that the Post had changed the story and asked us to remove the mention of Bodini. As far as we can tell from a review of real estate records, neither Bodini nor Pellegrini purchased the apartment in question; it was purchased by Sarah Henrietta Hoblyn Jones in November 2009. [NYP]

Jimmy Carter turns 85 today. Recently arrested actor Randy Quaid is turning 59. Julie Andrews is 74. Swimsuit model Cindy Margolis is turning 44. Retired baseball player Mark McGwire is 46. Actor/comedian Christopher Titus turns 45. CBS News veteran Richard Schlesinger is 55. Former Happy Days star Tom Bosley is turning 82. And Dr. Robert Rey, the star of Dr. 90210 and the craziest plastic surgeon on cable television, celebrates his 48th birthday today.

• Despite several tabloid reports yesterday that Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel had broken up, they were photographed holding hands on Monday in Santa Barbara. So what's going on? "Things have been rocky the last few months, but they're working it out," one source tells the Post. ("They've been spending more time apart... and they've been reevaluating their relationship," another tells People.) Oh, and what about those Rihanna rumors? JT and Ri Ri are apparently just working on a track together. [People, P6, NYDN]
• Another dubious rumors making the rounds: that Kate Hudson and Alex Rodriguez are expecting a baby. Hudson's rep is denying it. [NYDN]
• Madonna told David Letterman that she'd "rather get run over by a train" than remarry again. Poor Jesus doesn't have a prayer, it seems. [HP]
• Lauren Conrad has snagged a movie deal for L.A. Candy, her debut novel about a totally unfamiliar topic, "a 19-year-old who moves to Hollywood, quickly finds fame as a reality series star and then has to deal with the ramifications of living a fishbowl life." [Variety]

• The week in reviews: The Times's temp critic Pete Wells hands out a single star to the Standard Grill (and some controversy follows); NY's Adam Platt has mixed things to say about "pre-recession throwback" SHO Shaun Hergatt; Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton takes a knife to the new Aureole; and TONY's Jay Cheshes bestows four out of five stars on Ryan Skeen and Allen & Delancey.
• The Jane is striking back at its very angry (very noise-averse) neighbors. [P6]
• Coming in 2010 (maybe): Chumley's, the Village landmark that closed a couple of years ago, is hoping to make a return. And Todd English is looking to open a hotel restaurant named Oliver Todd on Great Jones Street. [Eater, GS]
• How did Danny Meyer come up with Shake Shack? Allow him to explain. [BT]
• Wine prices are at all-time lows, in case you haven't heard. [Reuters]
• How are some chain restaurants luring in customers during these tough economic times? By offering up discounts on drinks, naturally. [WSJ]
• Did you know Sunday is International Pickle Day? Now you do! [Decider, BB]

Donald Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet since the news broke last week that he accidentally rented the mansion he owns in Bedford to Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy. (Sometimes bad press is just bad press, even for a craven attention addict like Donald Trump.) But America's biggest loudmouth is now speaking up about what went down and he's doing pretty much what you'd expect him to do in a case like this: He's trying to make it seem like it was all for the best.

• Who hasn't looked at buying BusinessWeek by now? Daily News and US News owner Mort Zuckerman appears to be the latest mogul to join the party. [BW]
• The wave of job cuts at Condé Nast could begin in a few weeks or in a few months, depending on who you ask. But either way, it's going to be ugly. [NYO]
• Fox News continues to trounce the competition: Both CNN and MSNBC experienced big declines in ratings during the third quarter. The situation appears to be especially bleak at CNBC, however. [B&C, HuffPo, ZH]
• Simon & Schuster is shaking things up at a couple of its imprints. [Crain's]
• The New York Times is planning to introduce a Chicago-centric edition of the paper. That's in addition to the San Fran edition launching this fall. [NYT]
• Related: Is the New York Times going to start charging readers to access its website? That's still unclear, but the answer should be coming soon. [NYO]
• "Print is undead," reports the undead print newspaper the Village Voice. [VV]

Stan O'Neal, Dick Fuld and Jimmy Cayne will have a new golfing buddy in a few months: Ken Lewis, the embattled CEO of Bank of America, just announced that he plans to "retire" at the end of 2009. [NYT]

Remember Bill Sonner, the former New York Stock Exchange trader who lost his job last year and has since found work driving a Mister Softee truck on Long Island? He's not the only one who has made that sort of a career transition, it turns out. CNBC reports that one of the guys behind the Schnitzel & Things food cart—which nabbed the "Rookie of the Year" award at this past weekend's illustrious Vendy awards—is a finance industry refugee as well. Before he took to the streets with breaded cutlets of chicken in hand, Oleg Voss worked at a boutique M&A firm in Vienna. Are these two examples enough to make the path from finance to food trucks an official trend? While you ponder that question, you can view a clip from CNBC's segment earlier today below.

Designer Tory Burch received approval last month to tear down her $22.5 million home in Southampton so she could replace it with something more to her liking. But is she also involved in the purchase of the $45 million estate owned by the late Howard Gittis? RealLI seems to think so, although it admits the "details are sketchy," and the Post reported yesterday that the buyer was "unidentified, recession-proof financier." Then again, Burch's fashion business seems to be enduring the recession just fine and it's always possible she decided to start up a hedge fund on the side, so maybe they're all right. [RealLI via Curbed]

It's just what you've been waiting for: a chance to see the cast of the Real Housewives of New York engage in a spirited debate with the cast of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. The topic: Which state is cooler, New York or New Jersey? (You didn't expect them to be debating Iranian nuclear proliferation, did you?) More on this once-in-a-lifetime, $28-per-person, blockbuster event below.

If you find yourself facing a life sentence at Manhattan Supreme Court and you decide you'd rather take your chances and make a run for it, you'll need to execute your big escape is a well-tailored suit. It worked out pretty well for Ronald Tackman this morning. The career criminal facing five counts of robbery in Manhattan (he's also accused of another robbery in Queens) pulled the move this morning and managed to get mistaken for a lawyer in the process:

Olivia Palermo holding hands with boyfriend Johannes Huebl in the West Village ... Liev Schreiber carrying son Sasha on his shoulders downtown ... Andrew McCarthy on the 86th Street crosstown bus ... Hilary Duff shooting scenes for Gossip Girl with Penn Badgley and Jessica Szhor in Chelsea ... Matthew Broderick walking son James to school in the Village ... Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard eating lunch outside at Cafe Gitane on Mott Street ... Matt Damon walking to the set of The Adjustment Bureau ... Wyclef Jean standing outside Vento Trattoria on Hudson Street ... Vanessa Williams and Michael Urie shooting scenes for Ugly Betty ... and Naomi Watts leaving the Schoenfeld Theatre.