• Get ready for the Spider-Man ride at Disney World: Walt Disney has agreed to pay $4 billion in cash and stock to acquire Marvel Entertainment. [NYT, WSJ]
• Because she was clearly the very best person for the job, Jenna Bush has signed on with the Today show. The daughter of the former president will be contributing stories "about once a month on issues like education." [THR]
• The Final Destination was No. 1 at the box office this weekend with a $28.3 million take; Inglourious Basterds came in No. 2 with $20 million. [THR]
• Newsstand magazine sales continue to fall. Single-copy sales fell 12 percent during the first half of the 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. [AP]
• NBC's new slogan for its fall marketing campaign? "More colorful." [Variety]

If you're an unemployed fashion/beauty editor and you can't find a job, you officially have one more reason to be depressed about your career prospects today: OK! says Kim Kardashian has joined its staff as a "contributing beauty editor." [OK!]

Just in time for the end of the summer season, an enterprising Horace Mann student has released a "Hampton Star Map," which features directions to 67 "celebrity homes and hotspots." The fold-out map will run you $7.95. You'll just have to hope his sense of direction is better than his spelling skills. [Hampton Star Map via Curbed Hamptons]

Did you know that Ray Kelly, New York's police commissioner, has a weakness for expensive ties such as those made by Charvet? The Times covered this groundbreaking news today:

No, some inventive real estate developer didn't acquire rights to the name "Melrose Place" to use for his new apartment building. (Although, come to think of it, that may not be such a bad idea.) The ads taped to lampposts—which feature tear-off strips stamped with the address MelrosePlaceApts.com—are just part of a guerrilla marketing campaign by producers of the TV show. But it is refreshing to see a "broker" touting the "hottest property on the market" holding a glass of champagne, isn't it? It's like 2006 all over again. [Public Ad Campaign]

The September Issue debuted in New York over the weekend. So how did it do? Very well, actually: The film grossed a total of $240,078 on six screens, making it the fifth-best documentary debut ever. And you can't say Anna Wintour didn't do her part to support the film: At least ten of those dollars came out of her own pocket.

In 2003, the city signed a five-year, $166 million deal to make Snapple the "official beverage" of New York City. It didn't take long before the pact was branded a failure, and it never managed to bring in cash that the city had hoped for. The agreement comes to an end this year. And now the city appears to be getting one last parting shot. The city's Health Department announced a new ad campaign today, which is supposed to "scare New Yorkers away from soda, sports drinks, bottled teas and other drinks with sugar in them," and features "streams of sugary drinks turning into glistening yellow globs of human fat, mottled with blood vessels and served on ice." The drink used in the ad? It bears a striking resemblance to a bottle of Snapple, doesn't it? Given the mayor's pattern of "extreme peevishness" in recent months, we're going to assume this isn't a coincidence.

Kevin Bacon heading into Da Silvano to meet a friend for lunch ... Blake Lively and Penn Badgley walking down Fifth Avenue ... Hugh Grant jogging in SoHo ... Mischa Barton taking a smoking break outside ... David Letterman getting ready to play tennis with Andy Roddick outside the Late Show ... Maroon 5's Adam Levine walking downtown with his girlfriend ... Christina Milian hugging her fiancé, and later shopping at American Apparel ... Jane Krakowski walking with boyfriend Robert Godley in the Village ... actress Archie Panjabi filming scenes for The Good Wife ... ... and Rihanna taking her brothers to see The Lion King on Broadway.

Sign up for Beyond The Rack—North America's premier online shopping club for coveted designer clothing and accessories—and you'll be eligible to win one of two $50 shopping credits. Plus if you sign up for your free membership using the code PSCITYFILE, you'll earn a $10 shopping credit which will be automatically deposited into your account just for joining. Sign up today and don't miss out on the chance to save up to 70% off retail. Just a few of the brands that will be on sale over the next week include Burberry scarves and handbags, Sam Edelman shoes, FCUK watches and Balenciaga bags. Click here to sign up.

It isn't easy being a single woman in New York City. Half the guys you meet are obnoxious and pretentious; the other half are unemployed and think it's perfectly reasonable to take you to Starbucks and Papaya King on a first date. Well, here's a useful reminder that as annoying as the NYC dating scene is, you should be thankful that you don't live in the suburbs. Since it's unlikely you'll be driving your car to meet your date at a restaurant, it's also unlikely that your date will end up stealing your car halfway through dinner. [NYDN]

It's certainly nice to see Cindy Adams finally embrace her Hispanic heritage, isn't it? Let's hope she shares a few more of these previously unreported tidbits when she opens up her Park Avenue apartment for "four nights only" at the end of September and gets attendees to pay $250 a ticket to hear her tell stories in her living room. [New Yorker]

• Albert Hammond Jr. has finally managed to close on the sale of his East Village apartment. The 1,200-square-foot pad located at 141 East 3rd Street, which first came on the market for $1.199 million in August 2008 and had been listed for $899,000 when Hammond went into contract back in June, sold for $976,500. [NYP]
• LendingTree founder Douglas Lebda has taken a hefty loss on the sale of his penthouse at the Legacy on East 84th Street. The 5,175-square-foot apartment, which Lebda bought for $8.6 million in 2007 and was listed for $7.5 million when it went into contract earlier this month, sold for $6.65 million to trader Garrett Bauer. [Cityfile]
• Private eye Bo Dietl is putting his Manhasset home on the market. The former cop picked up five-bedroom house with koi pond and three waterfalls for $2.3 million in 2004. It can now be yours for $3.295 million. [Newsday, PDE]

Richard Gere turns 60 today. Violinist Itzhak Perlman is turning 64. Society photographer Patrick McMullan is 54. Comedian Chris Tucker is turning 37. Giants head coach Tom Coughlin is 63. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the CEO of Sony BMG, is turning 61. Van Morrison is 64. Olympic gold medalist Edwin Moses is turning 54. Luca di Montezemolo, the chairman of Fiat and Ferrari, is 62. Queen Rania of Jordan turns 39. And '80s pop idol Debbie Gibson celebrates her 39th birthday today.

• DJ AM's overdose on Friday appears to have been accidental, according to law enforcement sources who spoke with TMZ. It seems the celeb DJ, who claimed he'd been sober for 11 years, only started using drugs again after he was prescribed anti-anxiety and pain meds following his plane crash last year. [TMZ, NYDN]
• Those rumors that Chelsea Clinton plans to marry boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky in Martha's Vineyard this summer are heating up again. A large tent and stage have been set up in the area, although no one's sure if it's for the Clinton wedding. [P6]
• Joan Rivers says Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy was thinking about renting her Fifth Avenue apartment for $200K a week, but recently changed his mind. The upshot? Rivers won't have to worry about the dictator "roasting cows in her living room." [P6]

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• Dean Poll, the man behind the Central Park Boathouse, has been awarded the contract to operate Tavern on the Green. The decision by the Parks Department, which takes effect in 2010, takes the restaurant out of the hands of the LeRoy family, who have overseen the landmark since 1976. [NYT, GS]
• Bia Garden, Michael Huynh's latest venture, opens its doors this eve. [Eater]
• Rumor has it the Griffin, the meatpacking nightspot located in the former PM space, may be shutting down after just three months in business. [GoaG]
• Il Bordello on 23rd Street and Tenth Avenue has closed its doors. [Eater]
• The new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees are now selling fresh fruit. [NYT]
• A Q&A with Nick Anderer, the Gramercy Tavern veteran who will be running the kitchen at Danny Meyer's Maialino when it opens in November. [MM]

The MTA won't be renaming Brooklyn's Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station after Michael Jackson. City Councilwoman Letitia James first proposed the idea a few weeks back, since the station is where Jackson filmed his "Bad" video in 1987. But the MTA has taken a pass—even though it recently sold off naming rights to another subway station to Barclays for $4 million.

• The average person consumed 32.2 hours of TV each week this summer. It's a new record. And it's all thanks to the quality programming that cable channels have been putting on the air the last few months, obviously. [NYP]
• The bad news for newspapers is getting worse: Ad sales dropped by 29% during the second quarter, which means newspapers have $2.8 billion less in their (already empty) pockets than they had at this time last year. [AP]
• Related: Please take the time this weekend to read the massive story about Hurricane Katrina in the New York Times Sunday magazine. It cost the paper and ProPublica a record-setting $400,000 to produce. [CJR]
• Because Nightline feels left out of the war between Conan and Letterman, the show is launching a campaign to remind you that it still exists. [AdAge]

A woman who claims her life was ruined after she stopped off at Bliss for a Brazilian wax is going to have her day in court. Somer Graham filed a lawsuit against the chain after a waxing session in 2006 left with "serious injuries to her genitalia," which, she says, has since left her with unending pain, made it impossible to go to work, and ruined her sex life. This week, an attempt by Bliss' lawyers to settle the case and avoid a trial was denied by a judge. Presumably that's good news for Graham, who is seeking a large settlement from Bliss for her misery. But it also means she's going to have to spend a couple of weeks sitting in a courtroom as opposing medical experts debate whether this is simply a case of a little "vulvar irritation" or a more serious incidence of "labia trauma." Awkward, no? The ruling is below.

Duane Reade has given a number of its stores a makeover in recent weeks, turning its legendarily "cramped, dim" locations" into the sort of "lighter, airier spaces" you might find in a California strip mall. It's part of an effort to compete with all the Walgreens and CVS outlets popping up around town, and to highlight the changes underway, the company launched its first-ever brand advertising campaign last month. But maybe some people just preferred the drug store the way it was? The sign posted to the window of the LES location underwent an edit this week. You can take a look at his/her handiwork here. [Spiers]