Michelle Obama was the main attraction at Time magazine's sixth annual 100 "most influential" ceremony at Lincoln Center last night. She was joined by a predictably massive group of A-listers, including Oprah, Harvey Weinstein, Mort Zuckerman, Steve Schwarzman, Jeff Bewkes, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Carine Roitfeld, Gayle King, Stella McCartney, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler, Jay Leno, Lorne Michaels, Jimmy Fallon and Nancy Juvonen, Charlie Rose, David Lauren and Lauren Bush, Ann Coulter, Suze Orman, Arianna Huffington, Kate Betts, Andy Serwer, Paul Krugman, Vivi Nevo and Ziyi Zhang, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews ...

Victoria Beckham is turning 35 today. Jennifer Garner is turning 37. Actress Monet Mazur is 33. Liz Phair turns 42. The rapper Redman is turning 39. Architect Costas Kondylis is 69. Writer Cynthia Ozick is 81. Former football star Boomer Esiason is turning 47. Author Nick Hornby is 52. And television exec Henry Schleiff turns 61 today. Weekend birthdays after the jump.

Entertainment Weekly lost a quarter of its staff to layoffs last year, but Time Inc. will continue publishing the magazine, even though it maybe considered axing its print edition. Risky.

Time's international editor Michael Elliott is an up-and-comer, second only to U.S. editor Rich Stengel at the magazine. But leading an iron-fisted gutting of global editions made him bitter enemies.

Huey has been the editor-in-chief of Time Inc. since 2006.

Nary a kind word for Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore in Keith Kelly's 1,200-word Sunday New York Post profile. Well, she has overseen the elimination of 1,000 jobs at the magazine in the last year, so you'd expect bits like this: "I think she's a one-trick pony," one 'former executive' told the Post. Moore aims to make Time Inc. a leader of the digital age—so, her groundbreaking vision for the future? "Page views plus minutes spent will be the new gold standard." Eureka! Time Inc. editor-in-chief John Huey's take? "I wouldn't be the best judge of morale today, [Ed. You don't say!] but I sense that we're on the comeback trail." Here's a better judge of morale: "Remember, the layoffs may not be over," warns Keith.

It's not just "Best of" week at New York. There's also a remarkably detailed report on Time magazine from Joe Hagan. If it's news to you that Time is in trouble you might want to read the whole thing; if not, we've distilled it to make note of the internecine power struggles and personal agendas that occasionally make a story like this worth reading. After the jump, your pre-chewed profile.

But who's he diddling? Oh, right, the employees.

Word out of Time Inc. land is that Eric Pooley has been replaced as managing editor of Fortune by Editor at Large and CNN contributor Andy Serwer, reported by Valleywag and Romenesko and shocking anyone with a stake in the matter, apparently — an inside source dismisses his work as "stock chit-chat stuff, pretty shallow."

Mediaweek reports that today's the day over at Time: "[M]anaging editor Jim Kelly dropped a big hint to staffers that they should be around for a 'pour' later today, according to Time insiders." Speculation over Kelly's replacement continues (Kurt Andersen finally gets his name mentioned by someone who isn't related to him!), but "the in-house favorite appears to be Priscilla Painton, who is a co-executive editor." Painton would be the first female managing editor of a newsweekly, which makes a lot of sense: You don't hand the important positions to the broads until they're not worth having any more. Seriously, apart from speculating about Time, does anyone spend any time actually, you know, reading it?

• Reporting the war in Iraq isn't exactly the cushy assignment you'd expect it to be. [NYM]
• Jon Friedman, Gawker reader, thinks it'll be tough for Time to toss Jim Kelly overboard. [Marketwatch]
• Mark Cuban prefers newspapers to the Internet. Particularly the ones that report on his billion dollar penis. [Blog Maverick]
• Simon Dumenco cracks wise about Suri Cruise, Rosie O'Donnell, and Shakira's hips (SPOILER: they don't lie). He doesn't care WHO he pisses off! You can catch more of Simon's cutting edge humor later this week at the HaHa Hut in Totowa, N.J. [AdAge]
• New Republic editor says the magazine devoted an entire issue to the subject of Darfur because a) the situation calls for crusading journalism, b) TNR should be more assertive in its coverage, and c) there's only so many pages you can fill with slavish encomia to Joe Lieberman.[NPR]

We're disappointed in ourselves for missing this the first time around, but it's worth noting the second-to-last graf of Time Inc. EIC John Huey's VERY ENTHUSIASTIC email of earlier today:

It's gotta be awkward when the editor you've been trying to ease out is the menschy star of the National Magazine Awards. So what do you do, Time Inc. EIC John Huey, to square that circle? Enthusiasm! Over-the-top, shouting enthusiasm:

• Michael Kinsley thinks newspapers should give up on objectivity. We, of course, despise that idea of subjective coverage. We really despise it. [Slate]
• The latest Times/TimesSelect op-ed/website combo: Columns from Judith Warner. [NYTCo.]
• Sales are finally picking up at OK! America, and so Sarah Ivens gets a new contract. [NYP (second item)]
• Is CBS using Public Eye to take potshots at NBC? One can hope. [LAT]
• John Huey has good taste in lip balm. [WWD]

• Wireless-entertainment provider Kargo Global sues Cargo magazine for copyright infringement. Also, one imagines, for poor newsstand. [Mediaweek]
• Freelancers often go without health insurance. Who knew? [MetroNY]
• Are Americans getting growing tired of celeb news? God we hope not. [Economist]
• Time Inc. EIC John Huey — who ousted Jim Seymore to install Rick Tetzeli as Entertainment Weekly's editor a few years ago, is now jumping back in to shuffle Tetzeli's top editorial ranks after a crappy 2005. [NYP (second item)]

• Dow Jones reorg combines print and online editions of WSJ. [AP via Yahoo]
• New Meredith editorial director Mike Lafavore fires Fitness EIC Emily Listfield and then gives himself the job, at least for now. How very Wennerian. [NYP]
• Carl Icahn's Time Warner breakup plan had a 37-page chapter on why Time Inc. doesn't fit with the rest of the company. How does John Huey react to that? "I didn't find it a very compelling chapter." Of course not. [NYO]
• Jack Shafer prefers his newscasters brunette. [Slate]
• Maxim redesign to remove "a layer of goofiness"; Graydon promises his next car will be a hybrid. [WWD]
• Breaking: Newspapers sometimes create sections as vehicles to attract advertising. [NYO]
• LAT NYC bureau chief to take on book-publishing beat, too. Because there's just not enough going on in the city itself to keep a reporter busy. [LA Observed]
• Eleven mags missed their rate base in the last half of 2005 — and that doesn't even court the half-dozen AMI titles set to miss in the next go-round. [BW]

• John Huey is finally initiated as the successor to Norm Pearlstine's editorship at Time Inc. The ceremony involved branding, hazing, and some tasty swag.
• Daily News EIC Michael Cooke barely lasts 10 months before scampering back to the Windy City. At least he'll be taking a nice, new pair of shoes home with him.
• The Upper East Side's finest brats open their own under-18 Chelsea nightclub, where they won't be drinking or blowing rails.
• Fabulist Jayson Blair returns to the Times building, but naturally lies about the incident.
• Actor Chris Klein attends the Condé Nast holiday luncheon!
• We haven't sold out to the New York Times Company, but can you imagine if we did?
• Body-armor magnate David H. Brooks breaks all records for nauseating indulgence by throwing his daughter, Elizabeth, a $10 million bat mitzvah at the Rainbow Room, complete with A-list entertainment and princess costumes.
• Woody Allen graces Lincoln Center, prompting us to recall when his films were consistently good.

Last night saw the secret Time Warner ceremony during which John Huey was finally, formally coronated to succeed Norm Pearlstine as Time Inc.'s editor-in-chief, only the sixth in the company's history. (Indeed, Keith Kelly has suggested in the Post that actual ceremonial headgear is involved, a Vatican-like bishop's miter that represents the "church" side of media organizations' alleged and increasingly quaint "church-state" divide.)

• Teen People kills story on Nazi bubblegum popsters after learning that a staffer promised not to use the words "Nazi," "supremacist," or "hate" in discussing the hateful white supremacists, and after Holocaust survivors picket Time Warner HQ. Keith Kelly calls incident a test for new Time Inc. EIC John Huey, but we gotta wonder about what this means for new Teen People m.e. Lori Majewski. [NYP]
• Per the latest Plamegate wrinkle, Mr. Wonkette notes that Bob Woodward isn't "the preeminent investigative reporter of his generation;" he's just a highly placed transcriptionist. [NYO]
• From just after the invasion until last week's withdrawal excitement, U.S. media did a shitty job of covering the Iraq war, [NYO]
• Ruth Reichl will be making miso-rubbed turkey with gravy, persimmon cranberry sauce, and rustic porcini onion stuffing for Thanksgiving. [WWD]
• Did Anna Wintour bring down the Variety spinoff V Life? She certainly thinks so. [Radar]
• Two Bloomberg L.P. employees charge the mayor's media company with disability discrimination. [NYP]
• 2005 was a crummy year, says Jon Friedman. [MW]

• Emap considers sale of FHM to Hearst. More interesting — unless Keith Kelly is kidding, which is doesn't seem like he is — there will be a secret ceremony Nov. 28 at which outgoing Time Inc. EIC Norm Pearlstine will pass a Vatican-like miter to successor John Huey. Time Warner brass and Time Inc. top editors will be in attendance, alongside, we assume, a goodly contingent of Freemasons. [NYP]
• Bob Woodward's no ordinary reporter, says Jon Friedman [MW]
• But he's also no Judy, says Jack Shafer. [Slate]
• Wall Street agrees that newspapers are dying. Which could very well become self-fulfilling. [IHT]
• Amusingly baronial former newspaper publisher Conrad Black indicted on eight counts of fraud. [CS-T]
• Ziff Davis shutters Sync. [Jossip]
• Heretofore-believed-to-be-mild-mannered Jim Romenesko is, in fact, the scourge of college journalists everywhere. [Slate]