Publicist Steven Rubenstein had a good idea. People had been saying for weeks that New York mag's Vanessa Grigoriadis was assigned to write a profile of New York Observer owner Jared Kushner, one of his favorite clients. Everyone figured that she'd tear that place apart and rip Jared up bad like he was just another Paris Hilton. So Rubenstein wasn't going to let her anywhere near young Jared. But still, the redesign of the Observer into a tabloid was a great occasion for some good press! And so, a month ago, he co-opted the usual closing-night staff drinks and made it into a party, and invited a reporter and a photographer from the New York Times. A night out with!

In Styles this week, the New York Times profiles Jared Kushner, the young owner of the New York Observer. In Styles! Why? Did Mr. Kushner start a trend? Or did he make a fashion? We may have to revisit this piece a few times! But for now: So, Kushner and the paper's editor, Peter Kaplan, recount a bonding trip to a Yankees playoff game back in the summer. Kushner reveals that two weeks earlier, he'd gone to a game and sat next to "the owner of another New York news media property," and was "astounded at his disdain for his staff." So hard to believe! People, tell us who disdains you. (P.S. Disclosures abound; for one, Weekend Gawker has interned at the Observer. Also, do enjoy the research credit at the end of the story: Happy Blitt strikes again!)

New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner has bought something new! It's a website called Politics NJ. Right now it looks like 5 websites threw up on each other. Wow, the redesign just went up! Historically, PoliticsNJ has tons of local oomph—of course, their most fascinating and long-running story has always been the Krazy Kushner family itself. Awkward! Well, good timing, as the market's wide open since the Times has given up entirely on covering Jersey. Kushner's plans include installing Governor Christine Todd Whitman and former U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli as bloggers. It's just like the Huffington Post, but everyone's blogging at the bar of Tony Soprano's strip club!

We just trudged to the newsstand at the corner of Spring and Lafayette secure in the knowledge that it's the newsstand that has everything. But not, alas, Jared Kushner's new New York Observer! For the first time in the history of ever, the NYO sold out at a newsstand. We did get to have, swear to God, the following exchange with the cashier:

• The New York Post's and NY Observer publisher Jared Kushner's PR man Steven Rubenstein spoonfeeds NYP media columnist Keith Kelly super-fun-happy-times-yay-team item on New York Observer redesign and accompanying editor 'n' publisher lovefest. [NYP]
  

Lawyer turned reporter Melissa Lafsky went big over on The HuffPo today, with a story about the pink weekly New York Observer. Big news! Tomorrow marks the re-launch of the paper as a tabloid—plus a new web site!

• "Time Inc. has selected Stockholm's Bonnier Group as the winner of the auction for the right to buy 18 of Time Inc.'s magazines. There was no immediate word on the price that Bonnier will pay, but the terms are in place and a deal should close within a month." That's what AdAge said, but then they pulled it. So who knows? [AdAge]
  

As 2006 huffs toward its inexorable end, we decided to take a moment to recognize those personalities that made our job that much more tolerable this year. These are the people who gave us endless fodder for our douchebag mill, who were attracted to the spotlight like moths to a flame, whose stated disdain for our coverage of them was contradicted by their almost pathetic attempts to court it. The adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity has never felt more apt.

New York Observer owner Jared Kushner got the hometown puff piece treatment from the Newark Star-Ledger over the weekend. We can't figure out whether the writer of the piece is a total idiot, or whether Jared's just so charmant that he's able to make everyone be nicey-nicey:

Not content to let the purchase of the city's preeminent salmon-colored rag define his legacy, boy wonder Jared Kushner has made a more, well, expensive purchase—a $1.8 billion office building in Midtown. But we couldn't help but notice the implication in the Times report on the sale that young Jared (with the help of his dad, white-collar criminal Charles Kushner, recently released from his cushy halfway house), might've gotten hosed by the building's former owners, Tishman Speyer (who recently bought Stuyvesant Town):

If you're lucky enough to be on the Kushner Companies' Christmas card list, you'll have received this lovely holiday missive, along with - wonders of synergy! -a one year subscription to the New York Observer, "purchased on your behalf by your friends at the Kushner Companies." (Wow, we hope they got a deal on that.) While the best part of this gift is that they may not even have to fulfill the whole year's order, we are comforted to know that at least all of Pa Kushner's pals in the joint will be able to enjoy the continuing adventures of George & Hilly during those long prison nights.

We hear from a semi-reliable source that New York Observer owner and real estate empire scion Jared Kushner has broken up with his girlfriend Laura Englander, whose father's $5 billion hedge fund is under investigation by Guv-elect Eliot Spitzer. We also hear that one of cherubic Jared's ex-girlfriends is none other than Charles Stevenson's daughter. Josie seems the obvious choice, seeing as she graduated from Horace Mann in '01 and Harvard (like Jared!) in '05; she currently seems to work in fashion PR for Intermix—putting that degree to good use! But other daughter Stevenson's niece Alexa is also a possibility. And who is Charles Stevenson, you ask? Why, he's the gajillionaire investor husband of NYT shopaholic and Beauty Junkie Alex Kuczynski. See, full circle and all that.

A reader alerted us to this delightful video of yarmulked Observer owner Jared Kushner delivering a speech at the dedication of a new Chabad building at Harvard. (For the non-Jews in the room, Chabad tries to bring non-observant Jews back into the fold, mostly with free food.) In addition to Jared's charming haute-New Jersey accent, he also delivers this gem:

So there's not much of a Senatorial race here in New York, what with Hilary Clinton looking pretty close to be the first candidate to ever receive more the one hundred percent of the vote. Across the river, however, it's a different matter: Sen. Bob Menendez is locked in a tough battle with Tom Kean, Jr., a state senator and son of a popular former governor. What's making the race unusually tight is the sense that Menendez, is, well, sort of dirty in the way that pretty much all Jersey politicians are. Fuelling that perception is Chris Christie, a Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney who announced "an investigation—61 days before voters go to the polls—into a nonprofit agency connected to Mr. Menendez." Democrats are predictably apoplectic, charging Christie with political motives. But what sort of prosecutor is he? The Observer lists some of his recent targets:

New York Observer owner Jared Kushner may have enjoyed this schmooze with Marisa Tomei and Lili Taylor last month, but one skirt he's definitely not chasing is that of GOP state attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro. Kushner's presence on a "host committee" for a Pirro breakfast isn't really a level of intimacy he's, y'know, comfortable with right now:

"Next" you say? New York Observer owner Jared Kushner's record of federal campaign donations have been all straight-line Democratic — senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, even the defenestrated Joe Lieberman. So what's he doing on the hosting committee for a shakedown breakfast in honor of Jeanine Pirro, doomed Republican candidate for attorney general? She's 17 points down in the polls to Andrew Cuomo, and has the faithful support of basically no one, including her own party. Seems doubtful that Kushner would bother to plant pro-Pirro bias at the Observer, though the paper certainly doesn't mind sticking it to Cuomo. (In the Observer's defense, Cuomo is usually more than capable of sticking it to himself.) Perhaps Kushner admires Pirro's courageous stand against pedophiles. One can only help that Kushner is just doing Pirro or someone in her campaign a solid by throwing a little pity-cash her way.

Charles Kushner — convicted tax evader, prostitute dispatcher, and father of new Observer owner Jared Kushner — was released from his New Jersey halfway house last week. He wasn't exactly serving hard time, of course. However, it turns out that Kushner was originally sent to a prison camp at Alabama's Maxwell Air Force Base, but in addition to time off for good behavior, Kushner got his sentence further reduced by completing an alcohol abuse program. This raised a few eyebrows among those that knew him, since his drinking problem was news to them. The emancipated Kushner decamped to his Long Branch mansion for the Labor Day weekend, and was supposedly set to return to work at his real estate company, Kushner Cos., as of yesterday — though it's unclear what he'll be doing there, since he stepped down as chairman before going to jail. Something tells us he'll be taking back the big chair and knocking back a few stiff drinks by Friday. If you spot Charlie in the office, let us know.

So Charles Kushner, the disgraced real estate mogul and father of new Observer owner Jared Kushner, will be released from his halfway house this Saturday, where he's spent the past 100 days of his two-year prison sentence. Make no mistake, Kushner's still been serving hard time:

New Observer owner and veteran 25-year-old Jared Kushner is a Harvard graduate (and in our hearts, aren't we all?) but, according to his counselor at Frisch Yeshiva, the lad was more likely rolling joints by the train tracks than he was leading the Quizbowl team:

We asked about the pending prison release of Charles Kushner, father of New York Observer owner Jared Kushner. A reader pointed us to the charming Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator, which tracked down Kushner p re with ease. Charles has a projected release date of Saturday, August 26. The reader explains: