Mob princess Victoria Gotti ran into a bit of financial trouble a few months ago and almost lost control of her gaudy mansion on Long Island, as you may recall. We're guessing it was the stack of bills piling up on her white marble coffee table that led her to sign a deal earlier this year to pen a book about her, uh, rather interesting life, especially since she'd backed out of a deal to write a similar "tell-all memoir" a couple of years earlier in order "protect" her family's "reputation." But the financial crisis changed all that and Gotti's book, This Family of Mine, arrived in bookstores this week.

Were you aware that Bob Dylan is releasing a Christmas album next month? The story gets even stranger today. It seems Dylan has now inked a deal with the America's most troubled financial institution to help market it:

• Andrei Vavilov has officially exited the Plaza. The Russian financier, who sued the Plaza last year to get out of buying a $53.5 million penthouse spread—and ended up paying $11 million for a smaller apartment as part of a legal settlement—has taken a loss on the sale. Vavilov sold the apartment to an heir to the Goya Foods fortune for $8.4 million. [NYO]
• Investor Paul Cejas has dropped the price of his apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue, five months after he listed it for $18.5 million. The fifth-floor co-op is now on the market for $16.5 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Leona Helmsley's former Greenwich mansion has gotten another price chop. The 40-acre estate known as Dunnellen Hall is now $60 million, which is a whole lot less than its original listing price of $125 million. [Luxist, DO&A]
• Brandon Fradd, founder of the hedge fund Apollo Medical Partners, has sold his apartment at 68 Jane Street. The three-bedroom that Fradd listed for $4.45 million back in February sold for $3.7 million. [Cityfile]

Queens' very own Fran Drescher turns 52 today. Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard is turning 34. Jenna Elfman is 38. Monica Bellucci is turning 45. Phish's Trey Anastasio turns 45. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel-winning author and Holocaust survivor, is 81. PR veteran Bobby Zarem is turning 73. Money manager Marty Whitman turns 85. Hedge fund manager Israel Englander is 61. Actor Eric Stoltz is 48. Lacey Chabert (Party of Five, Mean Girls) is 27. And former professional tennis player, Martina Hingis, turns 29 today.

Only about three people turned up to vote yesterday, but New Yorkers did pick Democratic nominees for public advocate and comptroller (both of whom are virtually guaranteed to win the general election come November): Bill de Blasio won the race for public advocate; and John Liu is the nominee for comptroller. [NYT]

• Things are heating up between Justin Timberlake and Rihanna. "Hot grinding sessions," "steamy private after-parties," "impromptu lap dances," and non-stop texting sessions have all been on the agenda in recent days, at least if you're buying what the Star's "sources" are selling. [Star]
• Madonna will do anything for the young Brazilian man in her life, Jesus Luz. And if that means taking him to the downtown gay bar Easternbloc so he can "get some DJ experience in her old hood," well, then so be it. [P6]
• Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman's play, A Steady Rain, has set a record for the "highest weekly sales of a non-musical play." We're guessing their good looks, not just their acting talent, may have something to do with that. [Reuters]

• The war against the Jane Hotel marches on. Not only does Jane Street Neighbors United, the "coalition" now facing off against the Village hotspot, have a lawyer, blog and Twitter feed, it's retained a publicist, too. [NYT]
• Openings: Nolita's Travertine debuts tonight with former Top Chef contestant Manuel Trevino behind the stove. And RobataNY opened yesterday in the EV.
• Tyra Banks explored the wide world of food trucks on her show today. And Frank Bruni's appearance on Martha Stewart's show last week is now online.
• The bar formerly known as Baraza has reopened as Summit Bar. [GS]
• The Bagatelle team is turning Merkato 55 into an Italian restaurant. [GoaG]
• Desperate times: Starbucks unveiled a line of instant coffee today. [WSJ]

If your name was accidentally added to a no-fly list at one point or another (and you had to spends months working through red tape to have it removed), or you're one of the six people alive who takes TSA security precautions seriously, you may not find this video very amusing. But it seems Conan O'Brien had the nerve to mock the lovely city of Newark on his show last week and now Mayor Cory Booker has retaliated by adding Conan to Newark Airport's no-fly list. Let's hope Conan doesn't try to board a flight there regardless, get into a pushing match with security personnel, and fall down and bump his head or anything. [YouTube]

• It's all over for Dan Rather and his long-running legal campaign against CBS. A state appeals court dismissed the ex-anchor's lawsuit today. [Reuters, NYP]
• At least four parties are still in the bidding for BusinessWeek. But Bloomberg LP remains the most likely acquirer of the struggling magazine. [BW, Reuters]
• An "unbelievably conscientious" Sarah Palin has finishing her memoir in less than four months. You can not buy the book beginning on November 17. [WP]
• Michelle Obama will appear as guest on Sesame Street's season debut. [NYT]
• TLC announced today it's dropping Jon Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus 8. This news calls out for name change, obvs, so it'll be Kate Plus 8 from now on. [THR]

Not everyone is convinced that the recession is over. Judging by his big announcement today, Steve Ross seems to think the worst is behind us. The real estate giant that Ross runs, The Related Companies, now says it plans to resume construction of a giant 1.2-million square foot complex on West 42nd Street that was put on hold when the economy took a tumble last year. Coming soon (or in a few years, at least): a 59-story tower with hotel rooms and rental apartments, massive shopping complex, and collection of Frank Gehry-designed theaters. [Crain's]

It sounds like Saturday evening was an eventful one in Greenwich. Apparently a group of residents called the police after they spotted what they thought was a UFO in the sky:

Remember last week when the mayor asked New Yorkers to paint their rooftops white to save on energy, but didn't bother to glance at his own roof before dishing out the advice to everyone else? He's at it again. A few weeks after Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Health announced plans to wage war on sugary beverages comes word that the agency's main lobby features—yes, you guessed it—a big vending machine stocked with soft drinks. Now someone just needs to snap a photo of the mayor sneaking a cigarette behind City Hall and our week will be complete. [NYP]

Hedge fund mogul Dan Loeb paid $45 million for one of the city's poshest apartments last year, a 10,000-square-foot penthouse at 15 Central Park West. His move-in, however, didn't go so smoothly, it seems. It's unclear what took place precisely, but the moving company that Loeb and his wife Margaret hired to help them settle in, Auer's Moving & Rigging, filed a lawsuit against the couple in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this year claiming breach of contract. (Panorama on the Park LLC, which is also listed as a defendant, is the company Loeb set up to acquire the property.) The high-end moving company is demanding that Loeb cough up the $98,689.07 which it says it's owed. Last week, though, an attorney for the Loebs responded to the suit by filing a motion to dismiss. So what went wrong? Was the prickly hedge fund manager's grand piano damaged by a faulty crane? Did a burly mover accidentally step on Biggie, the couple's miniature pinscher? The legal papers don't indicate why Loeb decided to withhold payment—let's hope that Biggie wasn't harmed—but you can review the documents for yourself below.

Scarlett Johansson walking to the gym with Ryan Reynolds in Midtown ... Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber sitting on a stoop in SoHo ... Kate Hudson driving a car ... Sienna Miller walking her dog on Prince Street ... Jon Gosselin shopping in SoHo ... Hugh Jackman getting in an SUV with his wife and kids (and later picking pumpkins in Connecticut) ... Shia LaBeouf hanging out on the set of Wall Street 2 ... Matt Damon walking to the set of The Adjustment Bureau near Rockefeller Center ... Mary Louise Parker hugging new boyfriend Charlie Mars on the sidewalk ... and Whitney Port walking by herself in the East Village.

So did Bernie Madoff attempt to atone for his sins on Yom Kippur yesterday? That's hard to say, although prison officials say they did give him the chance to take the day off from his usual work detail: "Prison officials would not say if Madoff, serving a 150-year sentence, took advantage of the day off on the holiest day of the year in the Jewish faith or whether he participated in an evening prayer session with other Jewish inmates on what is a day of atonement and repentance." [ABC News]

Today is the Democratic primary runoff for comptroller and public advocate. As expected, the turnout has been incredibly light. (So light, in fact, that some poll workers have been nodding off on the job, reports the Times.) If you'd like to do your civic duty today—or just startle a napping poll worker—you have until 9PM to do so and you can find your local polling station here. [NYT]

DJ AM's overdose last month wasn't a suicide, according to the New York City Medical Examiner's office; it was accidental. The toxicology report indicates seven drugs were in his system at the time of his death, including cocaine, Levamisole (a drug often used to cut cocaine), oxycodone (otherwise known as OxyContin), hydrocodone, Ativan, Klonapin and Xanax. [AP, People]

• Kelly Klein, Calvin Klein's second ex-wife and a photographer, horse enthusiast, and social fixture, has paid $2.091 million for a two-bedroom co-op at 2 West 67th Street, the building that she's resided in for years. [Cityfile]
• The Southampton mansion once owned by Howard Gittis, the right-hand man to Ron Perelman who passed away in late 2007, has reportedly gone into contract for "about $45 million." The 14-acre estate, which Gittis picked up for $9 million in 1993, is being bought by an unidentified financier. [NYP, Corcoran]
• Bjork and Matthew Barney have closed on the purchase of a condo at 160 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights. The couple paid $4 million for the four-bedroom pad. Meanwhile, their former place at 180 West Houston Street is still on the market for $1.7 million. [Brownstoner via NYO, BCRE]
• Attorney Bruce Kaye and his wife Deborah have sold their two-bedroom condo at 15 CPW. The 32nd-floor apartment, which the Kayes bought for $7.8 million in July 2008 and put back on the market for $11.9 million in April, sold for $11.7 million to an unidentified buyer. [Cityfile]

Former Today and Early Show host Bryant Gumbel turns 61 today. John Sexton, the president of New York University, is 67. Faded comic Andrew Dice Clay is turning 52. Jerry Lee Lewis is 74. Florida Senator Bill Nelson is turning 67. And Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is celebrating his 73rd birthday today.

• Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy got married in a quiet ceremony in France a few weeks ago. Sneaky! [Life & Style]
• Emmy Rossum's husband, music exec Justin Siegel, has filed for divorce. (Their 2008 secret marriage was only discovered when the couple was reported to have split up in August.) Naturally, Siegel is asking Rossum to pay for the divorce and he's seeking spousal support, too. [TMZ, Us]
• Yet another book is coming out alleging that Bill Clinton did inappropriate things. In her new book Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House, Stacy Parker Aab claims Clinton groped her in a hotel room in 2000 and his pal Vernon Jordan tried to kiss her twice. Good thing the poor girl got this all off her cheat a mere nine years after the fact. [NYDN]