• It's not just high-end restaurants suffering due to the recession. Take a moment to think a good thought for Applebee's in Times Square. [NYT]
• NYMag's Adam Platt visits La Fonda del Sol, giving it one star for Josh DeChellis's "inherent talent" and another for its tapas. [NYM]
• Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar now has a reservations line. [NYT]
• The secret to Marquee's longevity, at least according to a Harvard Business School case study on the subject. [NYP]
• Jimmy Fallon took to Twitter after getting kicked out of Posto. [Slice via GS]
• Good World has closed its doors. [BoweryBoogie]
• A sushi spot in Midtown has a new roll: the Natalie Portman. [ML]
• Kate Moss may have a cookbook in the works. [Mirror]

What sort of fucker is Vanity Fair's George Washingtonesque editor Graydon Carter? An amazing one, according to a man who once stayed in a hotel room directly under his, listening:

Is there any mystique left to Bohemian Grove, the industrialists' clubhouse among the redwoods north of San Francisco? A 61-year-old Vanity Fair writer snuck in, joining a tradition almost as old as the Grove.

Wispily pompadoured Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's new midtown venture Monkey Bar is a bar/restaurant for rich people. There's even a giant mural commemorating some of between-wars New York's bestest richies. So who's in it?

• Monkey Bar doesn't open for another week—and good luck getting it once it does—but The Feed nabbed a copy of the menu at a friends-and-family dinner on Friday night. You know, just in case you're interested to see what Graydon Carter's friends will be eating for the next few months. [TONY]
• For its part, Eater has a sketch of where the important and not-quite-as-important will be seated once Monkey Bar opens. [Eater]
• A Shake Shack does not appear to be destined for Central Park, alas. [GS]
• Shake Shack is, however, open at Citi Field, and served up people who attended the Georgetown-St. John's game yesterday. [NYM, NYDN]
• A fire will keep David Rabin's Los Dados closed for at least a week. [Eater]
• In this week's issue of New York, Adam Platt gives Chelsea's Txikito and the Flatiron district's Bar Breton one star apiece. [NYM]
• Bob Lape is signing off after more than 20 years of food reviews. [Crain's]
• It was six years ago today that the smoking ban went into effect, FYI. [EVG]

These are difficult times for Condé Nast. AdAge reported yesterday the publishing giant is planning to slash the ad sales group managed by Richard Beckman; today, Keith Kelly of the Post reports some of the company's flagship titles have seen a 30 to 40 percent decline in revenues, and the company has "taken a dagger to its corporate pension plan" in order to reduce costs. Meanwhile, the Observer's John Koblin reports chairman Si Newhouse and CEO Chuck Townsend have asked editors to trim their discretionary budgets (which includes items like messengers, first-class airfare, and car services), and says a broader round of job cuts is inevitable. Of course, it's hard for any editor to trim his or her own staff—and it can be difficult for top execs to take a step back and see the absurd spending when they're so close to it.

• Following conflicting news reports, it now appears that Natasha Richardson was pronounced brain dead sometime yesterday following her skiing accident in Canada on Monday. She's now reported to be at Lenox Hill on the Upper East Side, where her family members have gathered to hold a vigil and say goodbye. [NYP, People, NYT]
• Rihanna and Chris Brown might be "taking a break," although neither one says it's a "formal breakup," whatever that means. [E!]
• Lindsay Lohan's driver crashed her SUV into a wall outside the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles at 3:30 am Tuesday morning. [E!]
• Graydon Carter has already started inviting friends to visit Monkey Bar, the restaurant he's opening on East 54th Street. [P6]
• Just what the world needs: Justin Timberlake recently returned from Mexico, where he's been working on launching his own brand of tequila. [P6]

Making the best of it: LeAnn Rimes' husband wasn't there to get her through cold Orange County nights, so she strayed; Nadya Suleman had to settle for just two of her eight babies.

Vanity Fair and USA Network celebrated the launch of "The Character Project" photo exhibit at Stephen Weiss Studio last night. Editor Graydon Carter, the mag's publisher Edward Menicheschi, and NBC Cable Entertainment president Bonnie Hammer were on hand to welcome Mena Suvari, Christian Siriano (left), Lucy Liu, Donna Karan and daughter Gabby De Felice, Katie Lee Joel, Rachel Roy, Rosie Perez, Jeff Goldblum, Peggy Siegal, Rose McGowan, Sylvia Plachy, Michael Musto, Gigi Stone, Lisa Anastos, Caryn and Jeff Zucker, Paz de la Huerta, Sky Nellor, Jeremy Kost, Josh Bernstein, Yigal Azrouël, Elise Overland, Bettina Prentice, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Kipton Cronkite, Liam McMullan, Izzy Gold, and Gossip Girl's Amanda Setton and Dreama Walker. [PMc, Wireimage, Getty, VF, NYO]

Sara Nelson recently got laid off as the editor of Publishers Weekly, so she's blogging about her "Reinvention." So far she's decided she does not want to be reinvented as Graydon Carter.

• Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer made their first awards show appearance together at last night's Oscars, sitting just 12 seats away from Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, although they managed to avoid a run-in by skipping the red carpet and showing up at different pre-show parties over the weekend. [People, NYDN]
• Uma Thurman, Darren Aronofsky, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, and Daniel Craig all skipped out of the show early to head over to the Vanity Fair bash, where Graydon Carter invited Chesley Sullenberger and his wife Lori as surprise guests. [LAT, P6]
• Penelope Cruz and Tom Cruise had an awkward encounter at CAA head Bryan Lourd's house party on Friday night, while Oprah and Gayle King held court at Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg's pre-Oscars bash, and everyone "partied like it was 1999" at Harvey Weinstein's gathering. [P6, P6, Fox 411]
• At the Spirit Awards on Saturday, Mickey Rourke "playfully mauled" Rachel Weisz and "made a grab" at Jessica Alba's chest. [People, NYDN]
• A full list of Oscar winners, in case you missed the action last night. [People]

Despite editor Graydon Carter's earlier claims of a smaller Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday night, the event permit filed with the CIty of West Hollywood, which CityFile dug up, says they're expecting a thousand people.

A few months ago, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter announced that he planned to dial down the magazine's legendarily lavish, celeb-studded Oscar party for 2009. "The party will be a much more intimate affair than in years past; we're going to scale back the guest list considerably," Carter proclaimed, adding that it would be "a cozier, more understated event," and would have "familiar decor," since the magazine would be "recycling" many of the "elements of years past." Carter was certainly communicating the right message given the gloomy economy. But we hear Graydon's claims of recessionary modesty have been greatly exaggerated.

Did you know that Elle editor-in-chef Robbie Myers had a tiny part in Caddyshack when she was 18? It's true. ("The director, Harold Ramis, picked me out of the crowd. I had a very small role, but it was a huge hit at college parties," she says.) Were you aware that Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter appeared in Alfie? Or that Richie Rich made a cameo in Zoolander? Fashion Week Daily went digging for some little-known (and occasionally embarrassing) performances by members of the fashion/media elite. You can see the full collection by clicking on the photo above. [FWD]

The mediacentric Greenwich Village private high school backed by Graydon Carter and John Leguizamo—well, but it's having some problems. Have heartless celebrities given up on educating downtown's most elite teenagers? Someone save the youth!

It looks like Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter won't be available to educate your children after all. Although Greenwich Village High School was due to make its debut this fall, Andrea Peyser reports today that the school—backed by Carter, VF deputy editor Aimee Bell and actor John Leguizamo, among others—may never open at all, and the building was shuttered recently. Guess you'll have to be like everyone else and compete with 12,427 other parents for a precious spot at Dalton and Fieldston. Our condolences. [NYP]

Danger Graydon Carter, your oh-so-exclusive Waverly Inn brand is slipping. The West Village paparazzi-magnet restaurant just seated a blogger. Who walked in off the street.

Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter was on the Early Show today sharing insider Hollywood tales. Graydon, why did Cleopatra have to schedule shots around Liz Taylor's menstrual cycle? "Ah...umbittyhumbittydahbahdoowelllllll..." I see. Click to watch.

The Post's Andrea Peyser stopped by the Greenwich Village High School this weekend, the new private school backed by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the mag's deputy editor, Aimee Bell, and actor John Leguizamo. Peyser is predictably outraged by the "selective, pretentious and pricey high school" and its proposed curriculum: "The plan is for kids to rub elbow pads with Carter-friendly Pulitzer Prize-winners. Students will learn about artifacts from a Museum of the City of New York curator, and Mandarin from random residents of Chinatown, all for an eye-popping $34,729 a year." Hold on for a moment. Random residents of Chinatown? That sounds awfully populist! Were Wendi Deng or Vera Wang unavailable? Next we'll hear that they're planning to hire regular gym teachers to teach PE classes instead of having Marc Jacobs lead students in daily workout sessions. A few months ago, The Daily put together a possible curriculum for the school and list of potential faculty members. Click here to see the larger version and consider the glam school that could have been.

Repellent-to-a-humorous-degree Post columnist Andrea Peyser is an example of someone who, ironically, arrived at populism by way of xenophobia and overall distaste for mankind. Today she properly directs her venom at Graydon Carter's stupid school.