• Anthony Sbarro, heir to the pizza empire founded by his parents in the 1950s and a vice chairman at the company, has sold his 1,600-square-foot apartment at the Essex House on Central Park South for $3.25 million. [Cityfile]
• After ten months and three price cuts, financier and philanthropist Eli Broad has decided to take his full-floor apartment at the Sherry-Netherland off the market. The two-bedroom co-op, which Broad first put up for sale last August for $15 million, had most recently been listed for $10.95 million. [WSJ]
• Money manager Raymond Cubero and his wife, Kathleen Comerford, have put their Trump Tower duplex on the market with Paula Del Nunzio for $14.995 million. [NYO, BHS]

Based on the VIP preview yesterday and the early round of sales today, it looks like Art Basel is not, repeat not, going to tank thanks to the craphole global economy. The Art Newspaper reports that spirits are high, big-name buyers such as Steve Schwarzman, Wilbur Ross, and Eli Broad are all on hand and ready to buy, and the art is the best it's been all year. "I'm not saying the bull market is back," says Sandy Heller, the art adviser who caters to art-collecting tycoons like hedge funder Steve Cohen. "But I'm saying the art market needed a good fair and this is it." Heck, Brad Pitt dropped a mil on a Neo Rauch painting yesterday.

• Last week Bette Midler was handing out dating tips to Jennifer Aniston. This week she's rolling with 50 Cent. Not only have the two become "unlikely best friends," but Bette says 50 has "really made my life worth living," and has been by her side "through thick and thin." She'd even like to sing backup on one of his new songs, too. Also? She's totally lost it, clearly. [NYDN]
• Speaking of Aniston, she's supposedly taking a little break right now due to "exhaustion." [Sun]
• The woman accused of having an affair with Bruce Springsteen says her ex made the whole thing up so he'd get "big money" from the singer to stay quiet. [People]
• Hilary Rhoda is reportedly dating Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. [P6]
• Amy Winehouse was reportedly hospitalized for the third time in as many months on Tuesday, although she's since been released. [Mirror]

The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center hosted its second annual Spring Ball at the Plaza on Tuesday night. More than 350 people turned out for the NBC Universal-sponsored event, including NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker and his wife Caryn (left), Mort Zuckerman, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Julia and David Koch, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, Hilary Geary and Wilbur Ross, Jonathan and Somers White Farkas, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, Peter and Jamee Gregory, Ginny and Tiki Barber, Sherman and Chris Meloni, Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb, Peggy Siegal, Natalie Morales, Valesca Guerrand Hermes, Jennifer Creel, Renee Rockefeller, Alexandra Lebenthal and Jay Diamond, Danielle Ganek, Kimberly Kravis, Muffie Potter Aston, Hilary Gumbel, Dr. Harold Varmus, Dennis Basso, Heather Mnuchin, Anne Grauso, Sylvester and Gillian Miniter, Gigi Mortimer, Sara Ayres, Shafi Roepers, Leslie Jones, and LL Cool J. [PMc, Wireimage, NYSD]

Not even the presence of high-profile collectors like Steve Martin, Valentino, and billionaire Eli Broad (who dropped $8 million on works by Ed Ruscha, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, and Donald Judd) could save last night's Sotheby's contemporary art sale from being a big disappointment. Twenty paintings, including a Lichtenstein and a Damien Hirst, were left on the block, and the total tally was $125.1 million, far below the conservative presale estimate of $202.4 million. One genre that's apparently recession proof: John Currin and his trademark boobies. His "Nice 'n' Easy," an oil of two curvaceous naked women, went for a record $5.4 million. [NYT, Bloomberg]

♦ Hugh Jackman has reportedly gone into contract on a triplex apartment at 176 Perry Street for more than $25 million. The 11,032-square-foot spread, which was originally listed for $40 million and later dropped to $33 million in April, is owned by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. [NYO]
♦ Tech exec/art collector Roy Judelson and his wife Mary paid $10.5 mil. for a four-bedroom spread at 33 East 70th Street. Their new neighbors will include Joan Didion and Marina Rust Connor. [Cityfile]
♦ Now that he's settling in at 15 CPW, Dan Loeb has put his carriage house at 7 MacDougal Alley on the market for $7 million. The 4,000-square-foot home features a roof deck, media room, and wine cellar. [Curbed]

• Ben Brantley: bad gaydar. [WWD]
  

So it is written, so it shall be done: Tribune has accepted the Sam Zell bid. (Eight million things could happen that would continue to drag this fucking story out, so fingers crossed, we're not out of the woods yet.) A quick read-through of the press release yields the following nuggets: Zell, America's 52nd-richest skiing enthusiast, is dumping in $315 million for the investment. If Ron Burkle and Eli Broad can make a better offer before shareholders approve the merger, Tribune can pay Zell $25 million to go away. Tribune will sell the Chicago Cubs, although manager Lou Piniella will be retained and will become the new editor of the Los Angeles Times. (Okay, we made up the Piniella bit, but it's not a bad idea, actually.) Finally, "the financial advisor to the special committee was Morgan Stanley." Those folks know something about newspapers!

• There's a lot of backbiting and infighting at the Los Angeles Times, which is completely unusual behavior at a major newspaper. [NYT]
  

• Broad and Burkle talk to Tribune directors, who may not sell the company after all. Great, that's six months of our lives wasted. [LAT]
  

• The axe falls today at Time Inc. Send your memos and stories here and we'll share them with the world. [NYP]
  

• The Times takes a look at prospective Tribune buyers Eli Broad and Ron Burkle. The latter is "best known for his friendship with Stephen Bing, the film producer who fathered a child with both the actress Elizabeth Hurley and Kirk Kerkorian's former wife, Lisa." [NYT]
  

Official Friend of Bill, Enemy of Jared, Models & Bottles Aficionado, Supermarket Magnate and Radar Teaser Ron Burkle (pictured, straight-teethedly, at right) has submitted a bid to buy the Tribune Company, according to a story in the Tribune-owned Los Angeles Times. According to the LAT, Burkle's in cahoots with "billionaire philanthropist" Eli Broad, who's known for—besides his billions and his philanthropy—buying a $2.5 million Roy Lichtenstein painting at auction in 1994 with his American Express card. Maybe the Tribune Co. takes Amex, too.