SCANDAL: George Washington doppelganger Graydon Carter is reportedly wooing his West Village neighborhood critics by giving them reservations at his Waverly Inn and putting their pictures in his Vanity Fair. Yes, and?

Sean Penn could woo Lindsay Lohan with an Oscar invite and Graydon Carter can woo a Waverly Inn neighbor with a spot in Vanity Fair and museums can. Seduction is everywhere.

• Did Lindsay Lohan split up with Samantha Ronson? Is she now in "complete denial" about it? And what's going on with her and Sean Penn? All good questions! [P6]
• Graydon Carter's plan to win over neighborhood critics of the Waverly has been revealed: He gives them tables at the restaurant and puts their pictures in Vanity Fair and, sure enough, his foes magically turn into friends. [P6]
• On the View yesterday, Tom Cruise described the death of Jett Travolta as "horrific," but said that Scientology had absolutely nothing to do with it. You've been warned, people. [People]
• Remember Lisa Bonet? Well, she just had a baby girl who she named Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa. Yes, she stole the name you were planning to use. [NYDN]

Just in time to solve America's education crisis, the exclusive private Greenwich Village High School backed by Graydon Carter and John Leguizamo is preparing to open its doors. It's worse than you think.

If your child is in eighth grade, you have lots of money, and you've been having trouble snagging a reservation at the Waverly Inn, you now have another potential path to those $55 bowls of truffled macaroni and cheese. Greenwich Village High School—the private school backed by Vanity Fair editor (and Waverly co-owner) Graydon Carter, actor John Leguizamo, and New School president Bob Kerrey, among others—is taking applications for its first freshman class through January 15. [NYO]

Everyone is speculating wildly: The Post asks if Tom Cruise gave his wives cold sores; Hollywood reporters accuse their boss of naughty flights and Madonna thinks a new baby can maybe fix everything.

This past summer we asked if famed photographer Annie Leibovitz was a deadbeat. Now we have an answer. She owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, two lawsuits claim.

A day of new beginnings: Gwyneth Paltrow SOMEHOW restored her breasts to teenage perkiness, Paula Abdul is maybe leaving American Idol and Tommy Hilfiger uncanceled his wedding.

• Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo may have cancelled their first wedding at the last minute back in August, but it looks like the second time is the charm: The couple is reportedly getting hitched later today in a "top-secret, ultra-private" ceremony at his house in Greenwich. [NYP]
• Kanye West is supposedly thinking of moving to London next year to pursue his fashion career. [Mirror]
• Graydon Carter says he personally handles seating arrangements at the Waverly Inn. Oh, and his "three buzz words" for 2009 are "sophisticated, innovative and entitlement." [P6]
• Tragic news: Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony just spent their first weekend apart since the birth of their twins. [Us]

• Kate Moss and her boyfriend may be welcoming a child into their continuous boxing match/family.

Here's Vanity Fair editor and Waverly Inn/Monkey Bar owner Graydon Carter at Robin Hood Foundation breakfast at the Plaza Hotel this past Tuesday. At a panel yesterday, he said he wasn't worried about the sad state of the magazine industry: "All three of these magazines are, you know, a few years on either side, 100 years old and we've been through many ups and downs." We pointed out that while VF was founded in 1914, it had a "brief 48-year-long Great Depression-induced hiatus." [Photo via Melissa C. Morris] [Thanks for this caption, commenter TedSez!]

New York City was lucky enough today to play host to a fancy panel discussion featuring the world's three fanciest magazine editors: Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter, Vogue's Anna Wintour, and The New Yorker's David Remnick. And Joe Nocera of the Times uncouthly "lashed out at the editors and asked how each of the them could be so sanguine about the future." Pish posh! Graydon Carter is convinced his invincible publication will weather this economic storm as it always has:

Even though every magazine is dying and Christmas has officially been canceled, one brave publication is soldiering on with an expensive (non-Holiday) festivity anyway. It's Vanity Fair's legendary Oscar party (one year they had colored cigarettes in bowls! It's like the Governor's Ball, only cool!), which was sadly canceled last year because of the Communist writers' strike. Everyone assumed it would be nixed again this year, in light of everyone being broke, but bossman in charge Graydon Carter says it's on, baby:

Vanity Fair editor and Spy founder Graydon Carter reviewed a biography of Paris Review editor George Plimpton in the New York Times Book Review this Sunday. ("I could have been a contender [to be a Great Male Author]," Plimpton once said, "If I hadn't done the Paris Review...) Carter revealed both his admiration for "George," as well as the fact that that when casting agents are scouting around for a "patrician type to play an editor ," Plimpton also had him beat—the secretly Canadian Carter was only the third choice for such a character:

Daniel and Isabella were the most popular baby names in New York City in 2007, according to an insanely exhaustive, 81-page report issued today by the city's Department of Health. (So that's what they do when they're not checking restaurants for mice and roaches.) More interesting is the second most-popular name for boys: It's Jayden, which one baby name "expert" attributes to—you guessed it—the "Britney effect." She also adds that the "entire '-aiden' phenomenon has been a huge naming force" over the past year, and she's been seeing an increasing number of parents name their kids Hayden, Caiden, Raiden, and Zaydon. "I'm even hearing Graydon," she says. Consider yourself warned, Mr. Carter! [City Room]

It was something of a coup when Vanity Fair, in May, did what its Condé Nast sibling Portfolio couldn't and poached Fortune's winsome star writer Bethany McLean. If Portfolio's uncertain editor Joanne Lipman was annoyed then, she must be really steaming now that rival Graydon Carter snagged his latest catch from her own magazine. Vanity Fair's editor just inked an exclusive deal, the Observer reports, with Michael Lewis, who had contracts at both Lipman's glossy and with the Times magazine. Carter lured Lewis even though the Liar's Poker author recently saw his pay upped at Portfolio and despite a grudge the financial writer harbored against Vanity Fair for 10 years over an an unflattering 1997 profile. How did Carter do it?

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter sounds positively exasperated that Toby Young is still stuck—gum-like—to his shoe. A decade after the British hack's disastrous six-month stint at the Conde Nast magazine, Young's account of epic failure to take New York by storm comes to screens later this week. "I can only compare it with a brief one-night stand that results in octuplets," says Carter, who is played by Jeff Bridges in the movie version of How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. But the Vanity Fair poo-bah ought to show more respect for noble failure. After all, Carter's own reputation was made by Spy, a magazine that won plaudits but lost money in all but one year of its existence. Disclosure: despite a history of mutual abuse, Gawker is co-hosting a party for Toby Young on Wednesday.

"Carter notes in his Vanity Fair editor's letter that... [Monkey Bar investors] 'include four people who are a part of this year's New Establishment: Ronald Perelman, Jerry Weintraub, Jean Pigozzi and Bryan Lourd.'" [Post]

Vanity Fair editor (and Waverly Inn co-owner) Graydon Carter is coming clean about the investors in Monkey Bar, which is scheduled to open next summer. In addition to hotelier Jeff Klein and restaurateur Jeremy King, there's also billionaire Ron Perelman, mega-producer Jerry Weintraub, art collector/photographer Jean Pigozzi, CAA partner Bryan Lourd, and former Paramount president John Goldwyn. We'll also point out that Goldwyn is Jeff Klein's boyfriend. [Page Six]

What's more important than anything in these uncertain times? Making sure that your kids are given the ruling class advantages of a private school education, even if it means starting up a school yourself! Aimee Bell, who works at Vanity Fair, and Sara Goodman, the great-granddaughter of Bergdorf, are West Village neighbors who, unsatisfied with the choice of high schools available to their daughters, decided—why not?—to start their own with a little help from their friends.