It isn't the most auspicious day to celebrate a birthday, but what can you do? Today CNBC "money honey" Maria Bartiromo turns 41, which, in case you're wondering, means she's a full decade older than her primary competition, Erin Burnett. Others marking birthdays on this downer-of-a-day: Moby is 43. Marie-Josée Kravis, the third wife of billionaire financier Henry Kravis, is 59. Rapper Ludacris turns 31. Brokerage founder Muriel Siebert is 76. Hedge funder David Tepper turns 51. Politico William Cunningham is turning 58. And crooner Harry Connick Jr. is 41.

• Lindsay Lohan is turning down a $700,000 offer to pose nude for Playboy, even though she took her top off for New York for free earlier this year. Maybe Hugh should call Dina Lohan? [P6]

Bastion of credibility Maria Bartiromo—perennial leaker of information and the most famous adultress in the history of private jet aviation—weighs in today on the presidential election, telling Page Six that if Obama's elected, "He's going to take the capital gains tax at 15 percent right now all the way up to 25 to 28 percent." Just think of how much Obama will cost Maria and hubby Jon Steinberg when they finally divorce and they have to sell the East 62nd Street townhouse they bought for $6.5 million last year! [NY Post]

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo: "Sell anything, like a home or stocks, and make a profit... 30 percent of the profit will go to the government instead of 15." [Post]

Word on "The Street" is that CNBC Reporter Michelle Caruso-Cabrera may be dating Gary Parr, deputy chairman of Lazard and a guy who is involved in finance stories Caruso-Cabrera could be covering [Radar]. It's reminiscent of CNBC Money Honey Maria Bartiromo's purported canoodling with Citigroup exec Todd Thompson. This raises an important issue: why do all the rich business guys go for the CNBC women? Haven't they heard of a little place called FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, which put in a lot of effort to hire its own stable of attractive female on-air personalities to lure male viewers? Can they get some love over there? We've decided to help them out; after the jump, five of Fox's foxy professional women, and a real item of interest about each one. Act now, Wall Street jerks!

Bartiromo is CNBC's "Money Honey" and the host of Closing Bell.

Startup investor Peter Thiel warns CNBC's Maria Bartiromo that the current economic situation is dire. Inflation, economic bubble, deflation, blah, blah, blah. But unsurprisingly, the former PayPal CEO turned venture capitalist sees one bright spot: Facebook, the social network where, uncoincidentally, he's a board member. According to Thiel, "it's the one part [of the economy] where there is no bubble at all." Sure, Peter, as if we really needed the disclaimer you add: "Of course, I'm biased." Not even the well-trained Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo could keep a straight face at that.

Fox Business Network "could end up looking a lot like CNBC, at least during the trading day." Roger Ailes "tried to entice superstar Jim Cramer... Ailes will probably approach the network's other brand name, Maria Bartiromo, whom he first put on air in 1993, when her contract expires in two years... And he may be interested in hiring Liz Claman, the former CNBC anchor, after her noncompete agreement ends in mid-October." Also: Rupert Murdoch might be considering a cash settlement to end the exclusive arrangement between CNBC and the Wall Street Journal. UPDATE: Well, that may not be true about Jim Cramer. Apparently no one wants him, no matter what he puts out there! [BW]

From the mailbag: "I didn't authorize the story on Maria....you should not have run it." Yeah, and we didn't authorize you to be a stalker, either.

We started getting the emails in April, as far as we can tell. At first, they seemed to simply be curious about a woman who had been in the news. "Since she was all over the papers in January 2007 with her boyfriend Todd Thomson.....I haven't read or seen a thing. Your gawker stalker would be doing me a favor if he sees Maria with anyone other than Jonathan.......that would be news. Remember CNBC SAYS MARIA HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG." Okay, a little incoherent, but not glaringly! We filed the point away in our minds. The emails kept coming.

Glaring Omissions reproduces tips received from readers in the last week that weren't covered on Gawker, either by accident (it happens!) or by design (it happens more often).

In the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, Karen Richardson has a wonderful story about World's Second Richest Person Warren Buffet — he's a bit like John the Baptist to Bill Gate's Jesus — and how he's cutely put out an A.P.B. for a man (yes, MAN; let's not kid ourselves) to replace him as Berkshire Hathaway's Chief Investment Officer. You can imagine the meta-narrative all this fits into:

• Everything you need to know about Conrad Black, whose fraud trial starts this week. [Maclean's]
  

• MTV names reality TV queen to head programming. Expect lots more pimping and punking! [MediaPost]
  

• The FCC, which has done such a great job regulating obscenity, now wants to take a crack at violence as well. [Reuters]
  

• The real deal behind the noise levels at East Village bar Heathers. [NYO/The Real Estate]
  

• Sulzberger to Morgan Stanley: "I'd like my money back, thanks." [Fortune]
  

• Hey, ladies, Sheryl Crow reads the Wall Street Journal. Shouldn't you? [NYT]
  

• Scooter Libby would call Judy Miller at all hours just to tell her that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. [WaPo]
  

• What do all these kids have in common? They're being exploited by a Murdoch-owned paper to boost sales in the wake of that whole racist "Big Brother" episode. [Guardian]