It was a big weekend for Gerard Butler. His movie Law Abiding Citizen opened at number two and he hosted Saturday Night Live. Too bad both of them sucked. And now he's on notice.
• Dina Lohan, America's No. 1 mom and the face of a new line of shoes, is defending Lindsay against her dad's accusation that the actress is addicted to drugs and desperately needs an intervention. ("I have no idea what he is talking about," Dina says.) She also stood up for LiLo's fashion design skills, even after her debut as Emanuel Ungaro's "artistic adviser" was savaged by the press earlier this week: "The critics can say whatever they want, but Lindsay is a genius," she said. [P6, NYDN, Radar]
• Mischa Barton reportedly "had a drink in hand all night" on the LES on Wednesday, where she was seen buying shots for Young Veins' frontman Ryan Ross. Where's Michael Lohan when you need him? [NYDN]
• Meanwhile, model Agyness Deyn is reportedly laying off the booze in solidarity with her boyfriend, Albert Hammond Jr., who is in rehab. [P6]
Kelly Bensimon has odor issues. Marge Simpson will have a 3-page Playboy spread. Isaiah Washington's still having a hard time finding work. And Nicolas Cage has a lot of money the government wants. Enjoy your Friday morning gossip roundup!
• A month after he received two offers on his Olympic Tower pad, Nic Cage has gone into contract to sell the 3,550-square-feet apartment. The 48th-floor condo, which Cage bought in 2004-5 for $5.5 million, had been most recently listed for $9.75 million. [WSJ, BHS]
• Well, that was fast. Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has put his penthouse at the Superior Ink building back on the market less than one week after buying it for $25 million. The 6,321-square-foot apartment is now listed with broker Dolly Lenz for a whopping $39.5 million. [Curbed, PDE]
• Artist Bruce Robbins has dropped the price of his three-bedroom loft at 43 Clarkson Street for the second time since first listing it for $4.895 million back in 2008. The 2,800-square-foot apartment, which is located in the same building where fellow artist Julian Schnabel once lived, is listed with Elliman's Darren Sukenik for $3.249 million. [Cityfile, PDE]
• Nicolas Cage may have found a buyer for his 48th-floor apartment at the Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue. Cage has reportedly received two offers on the 3,550-square-feet pad, which was most recently listed for $9.75 million. [NYP, BHS]
• Investment banker Tom Whalen and his wife Dana English have closed on the sale of their 8,000-square-foot townhouse at 34 West 10th Street. The 19th-century manse, which was rumored to be selling to an unidentified Texas banker for $15 million earlier this summer, sold for $15.4 million to an entity called Go Yard LLC. [Cityfile]
• Arvind and Shilpa Sanger have paid $11.98 million for a penthouse at 170 East End Avenue. Arvind, who founded Geosphere Capital in 2007, previously worked for Steve Cohen's Connecticut-based SAC Capital. [Cityfile]
• Cameron Douglas, the son of Michael Douglas, was arrested at the Gansevoort Hotel last week. The crime? He had about $18,000 worth of meth with him, which he was planning to sell. [NYP]
• Mischa Barton's return to the party scene this past weekend wasn't entirely drama-free. She got upset and talked "frantically" as she recounted an episode with a stalker. Then she had a drink spilled on her when she went to a party at the Cooper Square Hotel. [P6]
• So much for Bethenny Frankel's plans to star in her own reality show. She says she'll be back for the third season of Real Housewives of NYC. [People]
Drew Barrymore crossing the street in Midtown ... Kelly Ripa checking her cell phone in SoHo ... Anne Hathaway eating lunch in the Village ... Heidi Klum leaving her hotel with an apple in hand ... Chris Kattan walking in the meatpacking district ... Amber Rose talking to friends outside her apartment downtown ... Emilie de Ravin and Robert Pattinson filming scenes for Remember Me in Brooklyn Heights ... Keyshawn Johnson walking with a friend downtown ... Kelly Osbourne leaving MTV studios ... Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick shooting a scene for Gossip Girl on the Upper East Side ... Nic Cage leaving his hotel in Midtown ... and Jennifer Aniston shopping at Only Hearts on Mott Street.
• Paris Hilton is getting married! Well, sort of. America's original celebutard told reporters that boyfriend Doug Reinhardt is "going to be my husband," and now friends say they're planning a summer wedding in the Bahamas. These two are going to be together forever, just you wait and see. [E!]
• The Lindsay Lohan-Sam Ronson trainwreck rolls on: Ronson seems to have changed her mind and decided she no longer wants a restraining order; LiLo says she's "devastated" by the breakup and that everyone has turned on her. Now Lohan's friends say they're worried she's suicidal. [People, Us, TMZ]
• You didn't expect Michael Lohan to pass up a PR opportunity, did you? He says he's cleared his schedule and put aside his "numerous commitments" to help Lindsay through this crisis. [OK!]
• Madonna isn't taking her legal defeat in Malawi very well: Not only did she send her kids to stay with Guy Ritchie so she could "drown her sorrows" with Stella McCartney, she wore an "uncharacteristically mumsy outfit," too, which can't possibly be a good sign. [Sun, DM]
Christy Turlington and husband Ed Burns riding the 1 train with their two kids ... Beyonce and Jay-Z going to lunch ... Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart walking with son Liam in the West Village ... Zac Efron arriving at JFK ... Ringo Starr leaving his hotel ... Jennifer Aniston on the set of The Baster ... Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony going to see the Lion King on Broadway ... Holly Madison getting in a car outside her hotel ... Nic Cage filming scenes for his new movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice ... and Sheryl Crow playng with her son Wyatt outside Pastis.
• Say it isn't so! Although she's introducing her own spray-tan line, Sevin Nyne, Lindsay Lohan has been spotted using the services of a mobile spray-tan company called Fake Bake "on the sly." [NYDN]
• Related: LiLo would like to reiterate that she and Sam Ronson have not broken up. For now. [E!]
• The indignity! Jay-Z had to wait 20 minutes for a table at Babbo. [P6]
• Chelsea Clinton's rep says the former first daughter is not getting married after all. Too bad! [Us]
• Paris Hilton's little brother Barron says he's "giving up the party life" to pursue a career as an "international singer-songwriter." A family just chock full of talent, clearly. [P6]
Uma Thurman arriving at her West Village townhouse ... Jennifer Aniston heading back to her hotel after leaving the set of her new movie in Chelsea ... Jessica Alba and Cash Warren pushing their baby Honor in a stroller ... Denise Richards getting out of an SUV with a cupcake in hand ... Jennifer Connelly heading into her Tribeca apartment building with her son ... Nicolas Cage showing up on the set of his new movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, in Brooklyn, and later filming scenes on a subway platform ... and Miranda Kerr walking downtown with a friend.
• You can rest easier now: Now that he's no longer planning to run for Senate, Chris Matthews has signed a new four-year contract with MSNBC. [NYT]
• Howard Dean has signed on to be a CNBC contributor. [HP]
• Major media companies are now looking for a bailout. From Google. [AdAge]
• Jay Leno's chat with Obama was his fourth most-watched show ever. [LAT]
• Some perks may be curtailed at Condé Nast. Like the one that allowed Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman to fly to Davos first-class, possibly. [NYP]
• Advance Publications is instituting mandatory 10-day furloughs and a pension freeze at nearly all of its daily papers, says Steve Newhouse. [E&P]
• Time publisher Don Fries is headed out the door. [NYP]
• NBC is very good at spinning the Times, in case you haven't noticed. [CJR]
• Knowing starring Nic Cage was No. 1 at the box office this weekend. [NYDN]
If Katie Couric seems a little less cheerful around CBS headquarters this morning, that's probably because America's sweetheart is turning 52 today. Others celebrating: Magazine mogul Jann Wenner is 63. Nicolas Cage is turning 45. CSI: Miami's David Caruso is 53. Kenny Loggins is 61. And Dustin Diamond, better known as Screech from Saved by the Bell, will turn 32 today.
The holidays apparently sucked for romance, because many people are breaking up, including no-longer-engaged Jennifer Love Hewitt, fresh-minted divorcee Patricia Arquette and maybe perpetually platonic A-Rod.
♦ Nicolas Cage put his 48th-floor condo at the Olympic Tower on the market for $9.75 million last week, then "temporarily" took it off the market a few days later. (The 3,550-square-foot, three-bedroom space is comprised of two apartments that Cage bought for $5.5 million in 2004 and 2005.) But he's also reportedly trying to sell his other homes in California and Rhode Island. [WSJ]
♦ Real estate heiress Caroline Cumming's massive townhouse at 11 Spring Street went on the market with Corcoran's Robby Browne two months ago for $39.8 million. She's since changed brokers and lowered the price. The property is now listed with the Core Group for $36.5 million. [NYO, CORE]
♦ Margo Alexander, the former head of UBS Global Asset Management and now chair of the Acumen Fund, has paid $4.05 million for a two-bedroom, 10th-floor apartment at 15 Madison Square North. [Cityfile]
Hollywood's steady death march to the Idea-Killing Fields continues with news today that Jaden Smith—smarmy hatchling of the dangerously in black love super-couple Will and Jada Pinkett Smith—will star in a re-imagining of sacred 1980s cinematic text, The Karate Kid. Set to shoot next year in Beijing and other locations, the film won't be a straight-ahead remake, but will rather "borrow elements of the original plot, wherein a bullied youth learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor." With no word on who will play the pivotal role of handyman mentor Mr. Miyagi, we thought we'd offer some casting suggestions to go along with the logical "Ralph Macchio : Jaden Smith" equation:1. Nicolas Cage We can think of no other actor more capable of tapping into both Miyagi's quiet dignity and flying-insect-assassinating ferocity than Cage—to say nothing of his intimate familiarity with Far East mysticism, having served for years as a pachinko pitchman on Japanese TV:
We swear we didn't mean to throw a bucket of gas on the smoldering crash site where Werner Herzog collided a while back with Abel Ferrara, leaving the legendary auteurs fighting for their lives over Herzog's plans to remake Ferraras's 1992 masterpiece Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage. But thanks in part to our revealing audience with Herzog last summer, the fire is back to uncontained levels today as Ferrara picks off his Bavarian contemporary one vicious shot at a time in Filmmaker Magazine:
