Sarah Jessica Parker and son James surveying Christmas trees in the West Village ... John Mayer leaving Sony's offices on Madison and 55th ... Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Suri getting out of an SUV outside their apartment ... Kate Winslet walking into the "Times Talks" event on West 41st Street ... Michelle Williams and Spike Jonze holding hands outside the Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street ... Britney Spears heading into her birthday party at Tenjune, and Alessandra Ambrosio leaving the party a few hours later... and Peaches Geldof wrapping her face in a scarf to avoid having a photographer take her pic.

Poor Harvey Weinstein just can't catch a break for The Reader! So far, his pushy campaign to ready the film for awards glory has resulted in the loss of both Scott Rudin and a million-dollar bet, and now his efforts have resulted in further ignominy: Kate Winslet's very naked performance was denied a spot on Mr. Skin's Top Celebrity Nude Scenes of 2008. Could this be an Oscar precursor? Let's hope not, considering who came in first:

The Oscar-blog circus officially opened its third, classiest ring today at the NY Times, where David Carr returned for a fourth go-around as The Carpetbagger. Not to be outdone, resident Envelope clown Tom O' Neil honked out a new batch of hype, followed by another cluster of animals trotting around the tent with prognostication tricks of their own. It's a loud, occasionally aromatic free-for-all, but we'll show you where best to watch after the jump.

At last night's opening night party for the New York City Ballet's David H. Koch Theater, guest of honor David Koch and wife Julia mingled with Candace Bushnell, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Keys, Al Roker, Debbie Bancroft, Lisa Falcone, Mary Alice Stephenson, Alexandra Lebenthal, Zani Gugelmann, Annie Churchill, Peter Martins, Veronica Webb, Mark Indelicato, Blythe Danner, Valentino, Rachel Roy, Derek Lam, Peter Som, and Vanessa Williams, who all ate, drank, and danced to inaugurate the new Lincoln Center venue. [Wireimage, PMc, Style.com]

What kind of a strange world are we living in when fashion designers are using real fur, but pretending it's fake, in order to entice shoppers? According to a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society, various stores including Saks, Bloomingdales, and Neiman Marcus have for years been selling coats labeled as faux-fur that in fact were made from fluffy dead animals. Hey, Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow can't tell the difference between fake and real, so why should anyone else? [WSJ/Runway]

♦ If you have the nerve to approach Anna Wintour at a public event and ask her an uncomfortable question, don't be the least bit surprised if tells you to get lost. [The Cut]
♦ Madonna's latest fashion faux-pas? A green Louis Vuitton dress by Marc Jacobs, which "looks as if someone poured a wheelbarrow of lawn clippings all over her," bitches fashion critic Hilary Alexander. "Just another horrific hiccup in the wardrobe of a woman of wealth, but no taste." [Telegraph]
♦ Karolina Kurkova is the world's sexiest woman, according to E!, belly button or no belly button. [Reuters]
♦ Yes, it's 30 degrees outside, so why not distract yourself by watching footage of Brazil's Clara Rio Summer event, including Natalia Vodianova and Byrdie Bell showing off on the dance floor? [Vogue UK]

Sam Mendes' adaptation of Richard Yates' perfect novel Revolutionary Road hits theaters this Christmas with every Oscar pedigree imaginable. The new trailer, set to Cat Power's "Sea of Love", shows off the full range of conceivable Leonardo DiCaprio acting faces from Confused Leo to Angry Leo, to Constipated Leo. Kate Winslet, the other half of the film's unhappy marriage, likewise spends the whole film angsty and pained. While we appreciate being able to imagine how unpleasant it would have been if the two had gotten together in Titanic, the movie more closely resembles a certain period drama that won an Emmy. Could awards voters really love the late '50s and early '60s that much, and will their love translate into box office? Trailer after the jump.Click to view After waiting so long to see Yates' masterpiece brought to the screen, the casting of Titanic duo DiCaprio and Winslet had a chance to look like a gimmick, and while Mendes is a talented director, previous trailers have hewed dangerously close to American Beauty with period costumes. This tremendous preview may put some of those questions to rest, but it raises a few more. The original Revolutionary Road wasn't a period piece — published in 1962, it was Yates' dramatic verdict on the entire decade of the 1950s, and the first and most important such appraisal to hit bookstores. Now that we've had time to reflect further on the decade, the themes of Road will still ring true on an artistic level. And frankly, it's going to be tough to make anything bad out of this book. Will being a serious film for adults be enough to carry it to success at the box office, though? One of the problems Mad Men faced in attracting an audience through its first two seasons, though, was the fact that some older folks aren't as eager to be reminded about their formative years as others: the show did it best ratings in young, wealthy demos. Although Revolutionary Road and its Yonkers-born author are more well-known now than ever, the book's built in audience couldn't match the standard Obama rally. Road will have to appeal on its own merits, and even if it gets the entire Mad Men audience, that won't mean much for the film's receipts. Basically, it better be just as good as this preview indicates it might be and grab an Oscar nod, or else.

Peaches Geldof carrying takeout in Brooklyn ... Ed Westwick walking around town in a velour track suit ... Kate Winslet talking on her cell phone in the West Village ... Kelly Rutherford buying a pretzel on the street with her baby Hermes ... Salma Hayek carrying her baby Valentina ... Taylor Momsen and Connor Paolo filming scenes for Gossip Girl in Midtown ... Katie Holmes heading to yoga class and later getting out of an SUV outside her East 13th Street apartment ... Russell Brand and Jack Black standing outside the Late Show with David Letterman ... and Whoopi Goldberg protesting Proposition 8 outside a Mormon church on Columbus Avenue.

Kate Bosworth checking in for a flight at JFK with boyfriend James Rousseau ... Natalie Portman eating soup on the set of her new movie ... Hugh Jackman leaving the studios of GMA ... Sarah Jessica Parker walking with son James in the West Village ... Frank Gifford leaving ABC studios ... Kate Winslet shopping at YSL ... Alicia Keys standing outside the Letterman show ... Katie Holmes leaving her East Village apartment ... Seth Green, Enrique Iglesias, and David Archuleta posing for pics outside MTV studios in Times Square ... and Fergie sitting in the backseat of a cab.

♦ Madonna's neighbors in her Central Park West building aren't happy that she has turned her seventh-floor apartment into a music studio. (It was originally supposed to be an office for Guy Ritchie.) Now she stays up all night blaring music and practicing for her shows. [NYDN]
♦ Alex Rodriguez is thinking of following Madonna on tour next month when she plans to make stops in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. [R&M]
♦ Is Jennifer Aniston secretly leaking pregnancy and marriage rumors about herself to the tabloids as a way to steal attention away from Brangelina? [MSNBC]
♦ Friends of Padma Lakshmi want everyone to know she is not a gold digger. She's a "hard-working, self-made woman" who just happens to only date extremely wealthy, older men. [P6]
♦ Peaches Geldof and Max Drummey's 97-day-old marriage may already be on the rocks. [The Sun]

Natalie Portman walking her dog in the West Village ... A bundled up Scarlett Johansson walking with friends ... Ashanti posing outside the Early Show ... Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts grabbing coffee ... Julianne Moore walking in the East Village ... Ed Westwick leaving a photo shoot for K-Swiss ... Whitney Port standing under an umbrella with a friend ... Jessica Alba on the set of her new film in Brooklyn ... Jessica Szohr trying on clothes at a French Connection store ... country singer Brad Paisley waving outside the Letterman show ... Kate Winslet talking on her phone in the meatpacking district ... and Katie Holmes and Suri walking under an oversized lady bug umbrella.

♦ You weren't the only one who stayed up to watch election results. Brad Pitt and Oprah watched the festivities from Grant Park in Chicago. Harvey Weinstein had a party at Public House attended by James Franco, Josh Lucas and Jessica Alba. Robin Williams and Billy Crystal watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert live. And in LA, Courteney Cox and David Arquette hosted an Obama victory party attended by Jennifer Aniston, John Mayer and Sacha Baron Cohen, among others. [R&M, E!]
♦ Star is standing by its Jennifer Aniston pregnancy story. The mag claims she's undergoing fertility treatments so she can get pregnant by her 40th birthday in February. [Star]
♦ Are Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes planning to have another baby? [OK!]

If Kate Winslet thought she could beat her critics to the punch with a raft of winning, self-deprecating statements in the new issue of Vanity Fair ("Once a fat kid, always a fat kid"), then we have a London bridge we'd like to sell her — and a bloodthirsty British press she should probably be introduced to. Shortly after images from her Steven Meisel-shot, Catherine Deneueve-inspired photoshoot went live on Vanity Fair's website, the U.K. tabloids attacked them as a Photoshopped fantasia (said the Daily Mail's "airbrushing expert": "I would be very surprised if her bottom was like that naturally"). The furor caused Winslet to throw a Scott Rudin-worthy fit, says People:

Jessica Alba in Soho pushing baby Honor ... Kate Winslet hailing a cab in the meatpacking district ... Robin Williams arriving at his hotel on Central Park South ... Blake Lively and Penn Badgley getting in a car after eating brunch in the West Village ... Ryan Reynolds walking by himself ... Kim Raver taking a lunch break on the set of Lipstick Jungle ... Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, and daughter Violet shopping for toys, and later getting in an SUV outside Matt Damon's apartment on Lafayette Street ... Paris Hilton, Ricky Gervais, and Elvis Costello posing in front of Letterman ... Keira Knightley on the set of her new movie in the meatpacking district ... country singer Clint Black leaving his hotel ... and Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, and baby Alexander going for a walk.

The Reader may still require a month's worth of round-the-clock editing under armed guard, but the Kate Winslet drama has at last yielded a trailer to remind us that there is an Oscar-hopeful under all those layers of Harvey Weinstein-Scott Rudin ego-crisis. And like last week's not-embarrassing Valkyrie teaser, the preview assures us that its prestige creds are in place, thus setting the table for the next phase of its awards campaign, "Getting Winslet to Say Anything Positive About It At All." Though the Rudin loyalist spends most of her time in a new interview with Vanity Fair promoting her and Leonardo DiCaprio's Revolutionary Road, there is the modest admission that "you bet your fucking ass" she wants an Oscar this year:

Karl Lagerfeld looking over a street vendor's wares on Prince Street this weekend ... Chace Crawford hailing a cab in SoHo ... Jennifer Garner and daughter Violet leaving Matt Damon's apartment building on Lafayette Street ... Kelly Ripa leaving ABC studios in Midtown ... Jessica Alba holding hands with husband Cash Warren while carrying baby Honor ... Heidi Klum and Seal walking on the street on Friday... Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber taking a stroll in NoHo ... Matthew Broderick walking son James to school in the West Village ... Kate Winslet standing on the sidewalk ... America Ferrera sipping coffee on the set of Ugly Betty ... Agyness Deyn walking with some friends ... Julianne Moore taking her daughter trick or treating on Friday afternoon in the West Village ... Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise going to lunch at Balthazar ... and Ryan Reynolds crossing the finish line yesterday in Central Park.

Albert Hammond Jr. and Agyness Deyn walking their dog in the East Village ... Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber riding around on a Vespa in SoHo and later walking with their son to a bookstore ... Jon Stewart and his wife pushing their kids in strollers ... Julianne Moore getting a parking ticket in the West Village ... Taylor Momsen and Leighton Meester filming Gossip Girl on the Upper East Side ... Sarah Jessica Parker walking son James to school ... Emma Watson walking with an unidentified guy ... Kate Winslet running to keep up with her son ... Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone holding hands on a walk in the West Village ...

If the plot isn't exactly thickening today around Scott Rudin's exit from The Reader, it's at least sustaining a low, convoluted simmer. Still nobody knows for sure the specific reasons for Rudin's move beyond the obvious, routine desire to gut Harvey Weinstein with a letter opener, but looking forward, a few new clues suggest the Oscar-season bloodbath has a while before it's drained.One awards-season wag points out the notable absence of The Reader from the Weinstein Company Web site, which may not be as insidious as it sounds; a cached version of the site dated Oct. 6 — three days before Rudin's escape — didn't feature the film either (God forbid any marketing resources be expropriated from the Zack and Miri campaign, which isn't faring so well itself). Meanwhile, another report sketches a fraught relationship between Reader director Stephen Daldry and Weinstein's designated Reader go-between Donna Gigliotti: "[T]he entire team 'despise her,' 'won't deal with her' and 'regard her as a [Weinstein] stooge.'" And so soon after Rudin threw in the towel! Are you shocked? OK, us neither. Again, we may never know, but Rudin's motivation is likely twofold: First, cut his losses and save face with Daldry, Kate Winslet (essentially out of the picture now herself) and the survivors of the late co-producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack. Second, as we noted in our cluttered Rudin/Weinstein scorecard a few weeks back, the principals at Rudin's go-to Oscar-campaign firm once were Harvey's field marshals at Miramax. We're not the only ones skeptical that they would go back into the fire — particularly on this project, with the only despot in town who spends a million dollars to buy bad press. Life — and the turnaround time here — is way, way too short.

We don't always know what to believe anymore when it comes to The Reader, but after a turbulent period of fighting, making up, gossip-page ensnarement and a charity payout, no one watching the tormented relationship between Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein could have realistically expected it to survive another two months leading up the release of their troubled Kate Winslet drama. And right on cue, that eerie silence of the last week is ended this afternoon when Rudin reportedly stripped his name from the Oscar hopeful, citing irreconcilable differences — among other things.Patrick Goldstein has the news at his blog, though details are foggy and fairly speculative; pretty much everyone knows by now how fiercely Rudin and Weinstein loathe each other, with both Weinstein and his pocketbook suffering last week as Rudin's authentic hate mail made the tabloid rounds. But contumely is the coin of the realm with these guys. As sure as their awkward public detente of 11 days ago was bullshit, couldn't they just as easily keep their mouths shut for two months as director Stephen Daldry went about his post-production business for a Dec. 12 opening? Ha. Like The Reader isn't just any movie — it's the final co-production of the late Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, and the film for which Harvey wants star Kate Winslet to compete against herself for an Oscar next year — these aren't just any tyrants. Someone to had to win, and win now. Goldstein notes that Rudin's talent relationships (Winslet, Daldry and screenwriter David Hare in particular) couldn't withstand the now-regular strafing, adding that Daldry isn't necessarily equipped to complete the film without Rudin guarding his back from a Harvey incursion. But finish it he will, under contract, assuming Dec. 12 still stands. If so, it's a worst-case scenario for everyone involved: Daldry will rush it, Winslet won't promote it, Rudin won't discuss it and Weinstein will drop the equivalent of a late-term abortion on a skeptical critical corps that can't wait to watch him burn through the last of his nine lives. It's not the film's fault, but hey. it's always the children who pay.

Uma Thurman outside her West Village apartment ... Ethan Hawke walking in Chelsea with his wife, baby, and dog ... Sarah Jessica Parker walking son James to school ... Ed Westwick in the makeup chair on the Gossip Girl set ... Peter Dinklage taking his dog for a walk ... Kate Winslet leaving her apartment ... Katie Holmes and Suri walking in the East Village ... Michelle Williams posing with Richie Rich on the red carpet ... Gary Sinise and Scott Wolf on the set of CSI ... Michelle Obama leaving the Time Warner building after an appearance on Larry King Live ... Sarah Chalke and Dennis Quaid outside the Letterman show ... and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen arriving at the airport last night.