That was quick! Marisa Noel Brown, the youngest daughter of disgraced hedge fund manager Walter Noel, and her husband Matt Brown, have found a buyer for their townhouse at 12 East 78th Street. The 20-foot-wide manse, which was officially listed for $12 million in May, went into contract late last week. No word yet on what the buyer agreed to pay for it, although it's probably substantially less than what the couple was hoping to get given how desperate they were to unload the property quickly. (It's almost certain they took a big loss on the sale: The couple purchased the home for $13.5 million in January 2008.) No word yet on who the buyer is either, although whoever it is will probably need to spend quite a bit of cash making the home inhabitable. Demolition work had just been completed on the six-story brownstone when the Noel family became embroiled in the Bernie Madoff scandal and the couple elected to put it up for sale. Update: A source "close to Ms. Noel Brown" tells the Observer that the price was $9.75 million. [Cityfile, Stribling]

Uh oh. Guest of a Guest blogger Rachelle Hruska just Twittered that she spent the end of her July 4th celebration filing a police report in the Hamptons this morning. So: what happened? The mysterious Twitter and answer, here!

The music industry isn't in the best shape at the moment. How are record labels, performance rights organizations and artists hoping to make up for plunging revenues and non-existent profits? They're taking aim at New York bars and clubs, that's how. Earlier this week, BMI and collection of labels and artists filed suit against Pianos on the Lower East Side for having the nerve to play hits like the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" and Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me" without having the permission to do so. You didn't think the day would come when Bret Michaels would be facing off against a bar on Ludlow Street? That day has arrived!

Michael Jackson's death sent shockwaves across the globe yesterday. And as you've undoubtedly realized by now, the story will dominate news coverage for a long time to come. (The good news: At least no one is talking about Jon & Kate.) So who will ultimately benefit from Jackson's death and the ensuing media circus? Who won't? A very lengthy roundup of some of the winners (his record label, cable news channels) and losers (Jackson's plastic surgeon, his "personal physicians") after the jump.

Playboy hotelier Vikram Chatwal is the owner of several properties around town, including Midtown's Stay and Dream hotels. He says another property will be added to his portfolio in September when The Chatwal opens its doors on East 44th Street, which is also supposed to house the Lamb's Club, a restaurant by chef Geoffrey Zakarian with a bar by nightlife impresarios David Rabin and Will Regen. Whether Chatwal's plans stand any chance of panning out, though, is anyone's guess.

What will Anderson Cooper be doing tonight? Unvogue Magazine says he'll be attending a party at the Sapphire Go-Go Lounge for their men's issue. It's been informally dubbed "Anderson Cooper's Big Fat Coming Out Party." [UPDATED: AC's denial below]:

You won't be checking out the Blue Collar Comedy Tour this summer. Can we interest you in the White-Collar Criminal Tour instead? Click on the image above for the locations of a handful of white-collar crooks currently behind bars. Then all you have to do is use Google's driving directions to plot out your fun, summer road trip! (You'll have to check with each prison about visitation privileges, of course.) As you can see, it's an incomplete list. Email us at tips@cityfile.com and let us know who we're missing and we'll add them right away. [White-Collar Criminal Tour]

The New York Times Co. has been tangling with Boston newspaper unions ever since it threatened to shut down the Boston Globe if the unions didn't agree to wage and benefit concessions. Now its union troubles are hitting closer to home. Last fall, Times Co. decided to shut down City and Suburban Delivery Systems, a Times subsidiary that was responsible for distributing the Times as well as other papers like the Wall Street Journal and New York Post. Closing C&S eliminated 550 full-time jobs, many of whom were union employees; the paper said it planned to rely on independent distribution companies instead, since they're "generally nonunion and pay drivers less." The decision has since stirred up quite a bit of controversy, not surprisingly, both with employees who took a buyout offer the Times and those who didn't. And now it's ended up in court. If you've ever wanted to pore over a ream of newspaper union agreements, you'll get your chance by clicking through and reading the complete lawsuit below.

Looks like the party may be ending soon at Southampton's Pink Elephant. David Sarner's nightlife company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, listing more than $2 million in debts, including $776,000 in back taxes. The crisis in clubland continues, clearly. You can peruse the bankruptcy papers—and long list of creditors—for yourself after the jump.

The upcoming issue of Playboy has a profile of Billy Mays, in which the bearded, Bentley-driving cleaning product salesman reveals his ruthless desire to crush the dreams of children:

Glenn Beck cries all the time because he's incapable of regulating his emotions. Also, it's a good image. Here's some deeply creepy and oddly transfixing behind-the-scenes video of Beck mugging and crying for the camera at his GQ photo shoot.

Keith Olbermann already lives at the Trump Palace on East 69th Street: He paid $4.2 million for a 2,100-square foot, three-bedroom apartment on the building's 40th floor in 2007. But that's clearly not enough space for the MSNBC host: Two weeks ago, Olbermann paid $810,000 for a 7th floor apartment in the same building. Guest quarters for out-of-town visitors? An abode for his cleaning lady?

What would you do if your dad handed you a check for $5 million and told you to give it away to the charities of your choosing? (You'd probably buy a massive apartment and inform your dad that by investing in the New York's real estate market during these difficult economic times, you were actually performing an act of charity, wouldn't you?)

Friday morning special: Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein and his wife Laura have finally put their old apartment at 941 Park Avenue on the market. The couple paid $27 million for an apartment at 15 Central Park West in 2007, and settled into their new digs last year. But the couple's old apartment on Park just hit the market today. The five-bedroom duplex, which is listed with Sotheby's Royce Pinkwater for $15 million, comes with grand foyer, 30-foot living room with wood burning fireplace, paneled library, formal dining room, master bedroom suite with office and two baths, two maid's rooms, and bath and laundry area. Unfortunately, pictures of the co-op aren't online yet. But you can have a look at the floorplan below. [Cityfile]

A tipster tells us—and we have since confirmed—that Insitu, the Gramercy salon founded by stylist Paula Casano and known for its Japanese hair-straightening expertise, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's not just the salon's curly-haired clients who will suffer if it's forced to close it doors: Insitu is one of the few salons in Manhattan that works with the Locks of Love project year-round, offering free haircuts to women willing to donate their tresses to economically disadvantaged cancer patients. The grim evidence is below.

Citigroup could be focusing its attention on salvaging what remains of the broken bank, or restoring what remains of its reputation. Or it could just keep filing lawsuits against people over silly little things and charge it back to taxpayers. Not content, apparently, with flexing its muscle in the mobile billboard market and illustrious pawn shop industry, Citigroup's team of $900-an hour attorneys is now focusing its firepower on a website called Womenco.com, which bills itself as a networking site for "career-minded women," and is owned by Monster.com. Citi, you see, operates a female-centric money management business called Women & Co. and the bank is now concerned that the public will confuse its "women" with their "women." So Citi slapped the company with a lawsuit on Monday, arguing that WomenCo.com violated its trademark and is threatening its status as "one of the largest and most renowned banking and financial institutions in the United States and throughout the world." (Citigroup's words, not ours, obviously.) The full suit is below, if you'd like to have a look. You might as well. You paid for it.

Even as Wall Street rallied last month, Peter Thiel's hedge fund lost close to $25 million, according to leaked documents obtained by Valleywag. Maybe this is why the PayPal founder has been grumpily calling people "frauds."

Plenty of reality programs promise to show us how the rich and powerful live their lives. Very few actually end up doing that, of course. The women featured on the Real Housewives of NYC weren't part of the city's social elite before they humiliated themselves on national television—nor were they all housewives either—so they had little to lose in the end. That will change, though, when Bravo's NYC Prep, or the "real-life Gossip Girl," as Bravo has been billing it, debuts on June 23. One of the obnoxious, over-privileged teens featured on the show—the one who comes off in the worst possible light, in fact—hails from one of the city's richest and most respected families. Meet Peter Carey ("PC") Peterson, the grandson of Pete Peterson.

Robert Jaffe was one of Bernie Madoff's most prominent fundraisers. Shuttling between Boston and Palm Beach, the well-coiffed, car-collecting financier with a weakness for $5,000 suits was responsible for raising countless millions over the years, funds he funneled into Madoff's $65 billion scheme. Jaffe is currently facing multiple lawsuits, and investigations by multiple state and federal agencies are still pending. He's also been almost entirely rejected by the people he once called his friends and clients: Back in December, for example, he nearly took a beating when he turned up at a party and came face to face with Nine West founder Jerome Fisher, who lost $150 million to Madoff's scheme. But while Jaffe faded from sight soon after and retreated to his $17 million mansion—and even had to sacrifice his weekly manicures because he was reportedly "too embarrassed to show his face"—he's back!

The big-box Japanese fusion restaurant Japonais currently has three locations around the country—Chicago, Las Vegas, and on East 18th Street in New York. One restaurant that is not part of the chain: the Japonais allegedly located in Westbury, Long Island. But if Roy Tuccillo, the owner of the new Long Island outpost gets his way, the three mega-restaurants around the U.S. will have to come up with a new name in the near future.