Big news for golf aficionados who also happen to be closely following the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. As Reuters reported last week, ex-Lehman CEO Dick Fuld gave up his membership at the Blind Brook Country Club in Purchase following his fall from grace last year. Our trusted source for all mogul-related golf news now tells us that Blind Brook isn't the only club that no longer has the pleasure of Fuld's company. He's also abandoned his membership at the Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale. Clearly, the situation has gone from bad to much, much worse.

• So how did Jay Leno's new show do? He hit it out of the park ratings-wise, roping in an estimated 18 million viewers. The reviews were all pretty lousy, though, so don't be surprised if it's all downhill from here. [AdAge, LAT, THR]
• The sale of BusinessWeek: Bruce Wasserstein has dropped out as a potential acquirer of the struggling mag. And it's cutting 20% of its staff. [BW, NYT]
• ABC News has apologized to the White House for Nightline anchor Terry Moran's tweet about Obama calling Kanye West a "jackass." [LAT]
• Speaking of the White House, Barack Obama will be David Letterman's guest on Monday night; it's the first time a sitting president has done the show. [NYT]
• Oprah's season premiere scored big thanks to Whitney Houston. [Wrap]
• The House of Harvey has sustained another blow: Harvey Weinstein's 70 percent stake in the home-video distributor Genius Products, once worth as much as $400 million, is now pretty much worthless. [NYP]
• Speaking of the film mogul, The Weinstein Co. picked up the rights to A Single Man, designer Tom Ford's debut film, at the Toronto Film Festival. [THR]

You've probably heard that these are grim times for Condé Nast. Editors and publishers may be asked to cut spending by 25 percent, further layoffs are expected in the coming weeks, and several other magazines may shuttered entirely. If you're anything like us, you've probably been sitting at home asking, "What can I do to help?" Obviously, you could subscribe to one of Condé's magazines. But let's be honest: A $10-a-year subscription to Glamour isn't going to exactly turn the ship around. One much better way to deliver a few bucks to Condé's bottom line: Consider purchasing one of the fine, overpriced items on sale in the Condé Nast store! Last week, The New Yorker started selling wristwatches featuring the magazine's mascot, Eustace Tilley. But there's plenty more to choose from. A few suggestions below.

Another way you can tell the recession has ended (in addition to hearing it from the chairman of the Federal Reserve, of course): When you start seeing articles with headlines like "How to Buy Your Own Private Jet." Too soon for this sort of thing? Maybe, but prices are down 25 to 50 percent, according to Barron's, "so planes are (relatively) cheap!" Emphasis on "relatively." Naturally. [BusinessInsider, photo]

After 19 weeks and 74 witnesses for prosecution, it looks like the Brooke Astor trial may be near its end. The defense began its closing arguments yesterday, and they continue today. The approach that Frederick P. Hafetz, Anthony Marshall's lawyer, is taking as he wraps up his case: Exploit the idea that jurors were needlessly forced to endure the painfully long trial. Instructing jurors to ignore the "diversionary evidence" and "keep their eye on the ball," Hafetz offered up a very simple approach for jurors to take: "You could say, 'Case closed, what were we doing here for all these weeks?'" [NYT, NYP]

Kelly Ripa getting a hot dog with son Joaquin ... Karolina Kurkova walking in Tribeca with fiance Archie Drury ... Agyness Deyn riding her bike to Bar Pitti ... Bar Refaeli walking near Bryant Park ... Kate Gosselin arriving at her hotel ... Shia LaBeouf riding a motorcycle while filming scenes for Wall Street 2 on Park Avenue ... Kim Kardashian walking with Jonathan Cheban in Midtown ... Jude Law talking on his cell phone outside, and later hanging out with friends in the West Village ... Megan Fox getting out of an SUV in front of Rockefeller Plaza ... Kim Cattrall walking on the Sex and the City 2 set ... Hugh Jackman unloading an SUV ... Rosie Perez waving to the crowd at the US Open ... Mary-Kate Olsen walking in Tribeca ... and Leighton Meester walking in the meatpacking district with her stylist Logan Horne.

There's lot of financial news to be cheerful about today. According to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the worst recession since the Great Depression is "probably over" at this point, which is certainly nice to hear even if Bernanke did say that it would be some time before the economy really turned around and new jobs were created. But that's not all!

• Corrugated cardboard magnate Dennis Mehiel has chopped $5.4 million off the price of his Carhart Mansion duplex (left). The 10,350-square-foot spread, which had been listed for $34.9 million, can now be yours for a much more modest $29.5 million. [NYO, BHS]
• Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at Sigma Capital, a hedge fund affiliated with Steve Cohen's SAC Capital, has picked up a new apartment. Steinberg and his wife Elizabeth paid $8 million for a penthouse at 885 Park Avenue. [Cityfile]
• Clara Markowicz, co-founder of Original Media LLC and a co-producer of The Rachel Zoe Project, has paid $3.55 million for a three-bedroom, ninth-floor apartment at 21 Astor Place, the building where real estate scion Jared Kushner recently picked up an apartment, too. [Cityfile]

Prince Harry turns 25 today. He shares his birthday with reality "star" Heidi Pratt, who is turning 23. (Make of that coincidence what you will.) Filmmaker Oliver Stone is turning 63. Music honcho Charlie Walk turns 43. Brit model Sophie Dahl is 32. Former NFL quarterback Dan Marino is turning 48. Opera singer Jessye Norman is 64. Actor Tommy Lee Jones is turning 63. And America's No. 1 mom, hands down—Dina Lohan—celebrates her 47th birthday today.

• Even President Obama has acknowledged (unofficially) that Kanye West's microphone-snatching episode at the VMAs made Kanye a "jackass." Lucky for Jay Leno—and his ratings—Kanye apologized (again) on the comedian's primetime debut last night. "It was rude, period... I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt," West said. [NYDN, People, Us]
• Topper Mortimer is hooking up with Vogue editor Valerie Boster. (It's about time the dude moved on.) Meanwhile, his ex, Tinsley, is having issues with her new reality show. Producers are trying to drum up other socialites to make appearances since she's not "dynamic enough on her own." [P6]
• Jeremy Piven won't be hugging it out with the Public Theater any time soon. His lawyers have served the venue with a cease and desist over its play, "The Piven Monologues," which details his fishy bailout from "Speed the Plow." [P6]
• Patrick Swayze has died after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Stars have been paying tribute to the Dirty Dancing star via Twitter, and the old-fashioned way, in released statements. [NYDN, People, Us, Star]

Today is primary day in New York City! Were you aware of that? Probably not, since only one in six registered Democrats is expected to turn out at the polls today. But if you feel like doing your civic duty or you have strong feelings about who should be the next public advocate, comptroller, district attorney—or you're naive enough to think that someone can actually unseat Mike Bloomberg come November—the polls are open until 9PM. [NYT]

Below: A recap of what you've missed at Fashion Week the past couple of days.

• Openings: Gansevoort 69 opened today in the meatpacking space formerly occupied by Florent. And Motorino's first Manhattan outpost is now open in was once Una Pizza Napoletana. A few more openings today are here.
• Also open, but just for private parties for the time being: The Boom Boom Room, the new bar on the 18th-floor of Andre Balazs' Standard Hotel, which will open to the public on September 22. [DBTH, UrbanDaddy]
• Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia are parting ways at Mia Dona. [Eater]
• Times Square's era of sleeze may soon make a return. The Box, the club co-owned by Simon Hammerstein, takes over China Club for two weeks next month to create Club Purgatorio, a "multi-level world of macabre fantasy." [GS]
• Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had lunch today at Il Mulino. In case you're wondering, the duo dined on "fish, pasta and salad." [NYT]
• Last night wasn't a great one for John Mayer. It seems he was forced to flee GoldBar after a guy at the bar was stabbed in stomach. [Page Six]

Fashion Week heaps tons of attention on designers (who design the clothes), editors (who ostensibly review them), and the actresses and socialites who attend the shows (and serve as front row decoration). One group that gets precious little attention during the industry's biggest event of the year: the photographers who document it all and take the millions of photos that circulate around the world. They're often ill-tempered, unkempt, and pushy, sure. But you probably would be, too, if you had to crouch down all day next to 300 of your peers and snap picture after picture of a never-ending stream of stick-thin models. Another pic of these unsung heroes of Fashion Week below.

Ashley Dupre is ready for redemption! It's been a year and a half since she became the girl who took down luv gov Eliot Spitzer, and now she tells the Post she's looking forward to love, marriage, and becoming a baby mama. But let's face it: the girl hasn't always been so lucky with men. (In fairness to her, meeting an upstanding guy when you're in the escort business has got to be tough.) But since she's starting over with a clean slate these days, we thought she should start off with a fresh start romantically, too. Herewith, a list of potential suitors for the escort-turned-budding-singer.

• The bad news for Condé Nast now that McKinsey has finished up its summer-long review: Editors and publishers at the company may be asked to trim their budgets by as much as 25 percent. The good news, according to one Condé insider: "This doesn't mean Anna Wintour is going to start taking the bus," nor is the company going to get all cheap "like Hachette." [Crain's]
• Jay Leno's new show debuts tonight on NBC. Will it be a success? A massive failure? Only time will tell, but the stakes "couldn't be higher." [LAT]
• Oprah's ratings are down. And Barack Obama is to blame, apparently. [AP]
• Ratings are down for Project Runway, too. Barack is not to blame. [WWD]
• According to a poll of newspaper publishers, 51 percent think they can successfully get their readers to pay for content online. Optimistic! [PC]
• As if newspapers and magazines don't have enough to worry about these days, a new survey finds that the percentage of people who think journalists are increasingly "inaccurate and biased" is on the rise. [AP]

It's not just sipping on wine in Central Park that will earn you a ticket in the near future—at least if Mayor Bloomberg gets his way. He's now looking to ban smoking from public parks and beaches, too, according to an announcement today by the city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley. [NYT]

Anna Wintour lives in a lovely townhouse in the Village. But it doesn't come anywhere close to the new home that one her underlings, Vogue contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo, is moving into with her husband Andrés Santo Domingo. And while the blonde Voguette and the Latin American heir didn't end up snagging the big discount that had been reported in the press, the house they're moving into is quite a sight.

What should you do if you're downtown in the financial district and there's a massive crisis of some sort? Seek shelter at Goldman Sachs' new $2.4 billion, 43-story building on Vesey Street! It's the "the safest place you could possibly be" in the event of an attack, according to Michael Bloomberg. [NYP via Dealbreaker]