Today is the 72nd birthday of living legend/national treasure/Diva Star Grand Supreme Aretha Franklin. She celebrated this weekend at a star-studded party at New York's Ritz Carlton alongside the trusted companion that is her purse.

The misery of Liza Minnelli stretches into yet another agonizing day. Paparazzi caught up with the living legend in West Hollywood (where else?) on Monday night, and a cameraman asked her what she thought about Ellen DeGeneres' Oscars joke at Liza's expense. ("Hello to the best Liza Minnelli impersonator I've ever seen," DeGeneres said from the stage to Minnelli in the audience during the opening monologue. "Good job, sir." The internet being the internet wondered if this was transphobic.)

Relaunching your niche magazine in this miserable market and dismal culture? Get legendary designer George Lois on board! He cannibalized his old Esquire work for Radar, and now he's lending his talents to pretend Harvard Alum mag 02138 (can't believe we got the name of the mag right on the first try, sigh). If it wasn't late Friday afternoon we'd mock up a funny photoshop here. But now YOU CAN'T MAKE US. Anyway Lois is still awesome and cantankerous so it will probably be good, unlike the rest of that miserable magazine. The relaunch cover story? "The Harvard 100, the magazines annual ranking of the top 100 living alumni. " [NYP]

Noted author and former Hewlett-Packard board member Tom Perkins gave his first public talk yesterday since the HP board scandal blew up last September. Perkins complained about the growing prevalence of "compliance boards" that spend all their time obsessing about regulatory compliance, versus "guidance boards" that get involved in the company's business. Perkins places himself firmly in the latter camp, of course, and further notes that "the best of compliance boards would be entirely unable to prevent another Enron." Of course, the best of Perkins-style guidance boards would in turn be completely poleaxed by another HP pretexting scandal.