Eliot Spitzer bought a building in DC! It's a 13-story office tower whose tenants include a PR firm. It's also a short, lovely walk from the historic Mayflower Hotel! Look, we mapped it out.

Eliot Spitzer has made his first major real estate deal since taking over the property firm founded by his father, reports the Wall Street Journal. The ex-governor is paying $180 million to acquire a 13-story office building in Washington, DC. The strange part? It's one block from the Mayflower Hotel, where Spitzer spent some memorable time with a young lady by the name of Ashley Dupre.

New Yorkers were happier with Eliot Spitzer as governor—even after he became tangled up with Ashley Dupre—compared to David Paterson, according to the results of a new poll. Just 26 percent of the 1,045 voters surveyed by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion said Paterson was doing either a "good" or "excellent" job, the lowest job approval figures Marist has seen in the 27 years it's been surveying voters. (Spitzer had a 30 percent approval in the days after his prostitution scandal broke.) At least Paterson seems to be aware of his enormous unpopularity: "If it wasn't for A-Rod and Bernie Madoff, they'd just about run me out of this state right now." [NYT]

Eliot Spitzer came out of hiding the other night to make an appearance at an event organized by The Atlantic, money manager Boykin Curry and his wife, interior designer Celerie Kemble. Billed as a "Not State of the Union viewing party" (and held at a townhouse owned by Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik), the former governor took to the mic after President Obama finished his remarks before Congress and explained to the crowd who he thought deserved blame for the current economic crisis:

• Is Madonna's relationship with Jesus Luz purely platonic? The two are "quite close and cuddly, but not exactly romantic," and Jesus was spotted at a Kabbalah service "playing around more with Rocco than paying attention to Madonna," which can't be a good sign. [E!]
• Did marrying Tom Cruise ruin Katie Holmes' chances of ever having a movie career? Is Tom's sister secretly handling his PR even though she pretends to just be his assistant? So many questions! [Fox 411, P6]
• Amy Winehouse's estranged husband Blake Fielder-Civil was released from jail yesterday. [The Sun]
• Martha Stewart's old friend Sam Waksal is now out of a halfway house and "ready to get back to work trying to find a cure for cancer." [NYDN]

Cecil Suwal, the woman who helped coordinate "dates" between Eliot Spitzer and Ashley Dupre as an employee of the Emperors Club VIP escort service, has been sentenced to six months in prison. [NYP]

Kristin Davis, whose Wicked Models escort agency counted former governor Eliot Spitzer as a client, thinks Britney Spears could earn $1,000 an hour in the world's oldest profession.

Amid 2008's many sex scandals, it was a miracle there was any time left to monitor an epochal presidential election. There were many genuine, dirty affairs — and some duds inevitably got overhyped.

The foible-filled comeback of Eliot Spitzer continues! It turns out the luv guv—who does know about Wall Street—lost money to hedge fund scammer Bernie Madoff, like everyone else. And it's Slate's fault!:

If you missed Ashley Dupre's performance in that "Girls Gone World" video a few months back, all you have to do is go to the Post's website and take the Ashley Dupre "pop video quiz"to view some extended clips. You'll just have to put up with two little photos of Spitzer's face covering up Dupre's breasts. Classy! [NYP]

The Spitzers' Hopeful Holiday Card [NYDN]

You didn't think Eliot Spitzer's year could get much worse, did you? Well, it just did. The former governor has admitted that his family also had money invested with Bernie Madoff. [NPR]

United by ignominy, former Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget has forgiven Eliot Spitzer, the prosecutor who cost him his job. And he's getting softer on him by the day.

What do the instant comebacks of Martha Stewart, Henry Blodget, and Eliot Spitzer tell us? There's no longer anything to be ashamed of in failure. And that's cheery news for anyone who's been laid off.

Slate columnist and randy ex-governor Eliot Spitzer showed up at a Slate party last night at—get ready for this, guys—Happy Ending, a former rub-'n-tug spot. Oh, you! Then he gave this soulful quote:

Eliot Spitzer attended the Slate.com holiday party last night. (The former governor is writing a column for the online mag these days, as you may recall.) And just where did Slate hold the event? At Happy Ending, the bar on Broome Street that used to be a massage parlor/brothel. [FT]

Eliot Spitzer has a new job! John Koblin reports that starting tomorrow, the scandalized ex-guv is going to be writing a column for Slate called "The Best Policy." It will be about "the financial crisis and fixing financial markets and the economy generally," and will almost certainly be very informative (Spitzer was once a populist hero, remember!) and very boring. Because really, do you think Spitzer's going to run down his hooker stories (which is what everyone actually wants to hear) in Slate? He's saving that for the book. They should have gone after Ashley Dupre as a columnist instead. "THE SEX POLICY." It's a win-win. [NYO]

Eliot Spitzer has a new job! The former governor will be writing a column for Slate.com beginning tomorrow. [NYO]

Last year sad old party boy Jay McInerney went to Art Basel Miami Beach, the American version of the fabulous Swiss art fair, and dutifully chronicled the schmoozy, hideous glitz of its high-end billionaire clientele, its so-un-self-aware-it's-almost-hip pretension, its insanely high sales figures. What a horror show it was! A horror show that stands to be repeated this year (December 4th - 7th) except for one tiny problem: ain't but nobody buyin' art in these penurious and precarious times. So what will the champagne and caviar-dribbled festivities look like compared to last year? We'll take some of our favorite McInerney anecdotes from last year and reimagine them for this ruined age after the jump.

Tanya Hollander, the "hooker booker" who set up appointments for clients of Eliot Spitzer's favorite escort agency, Emperors Club VIP, was sentenced to a year of probation today. [NYDN]