· NYT journalist Michael Finkel, who was fired last year for fabricating a story, found out while he was contemplating suicide that Christian Longo (who was wanted in Mexico for murdering his family) was using his name as an alias because he liked Finkel's writing. HarperCollins is paying $300,000 for Finkel's story, including exclusive interviews with Longo. [Page Six]
· George Hamilton is hosting a reality TV show pilot in which a low-income family from the Bronx is transplanted into a Palm Beach mansion. [Page Six]
· Stephen King's cure for writer's block: "I pull out from deep within my desk this jar which is said to have a pickled little slave boy's heart from before the Civil War, although I'll never know if that is really true or not," (he tells Webster Hall curator Baird Jones.) [Page Six]
· Liz Smith takes a swipe at Mr. Untouchable: "I can't wait for Nicole [Kidman]'s turn as a woman married to a short-ish control freak who won't allow her to wear high heels." [Ed. notego Liz!] [Liz Smith]
· Clive Davis says none of his rivals throw competing Grammy parties because he always includes them in the fun. Kid Rock on musicians pontificating about war in Iraq: "Why is everybody trying to stop the war? George Bush ain't been saying, 'You all, make shitty records.' Politicians and music don't mix. It's like whisky and wine. [Musicians] ought to stay out of it." [NY Daily News]

· Martin Scorsese wants to cast Nicole Kidman alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in his next film, "The Aviator"a biopic about Howard Hughes. [Page Six]
· "I'm prettier than Claudia [Schiffer]!" whines Kate Moss. [Page Six]
· Another book about the magazine world: Strawberry Saroyan's Girl Walks into a Bar: A Memoir discusses her encounters with David Lauren, Anna Wintour, James Truman and Tina Brown. [Page Six]
· Kevin Spacey on his year-long hiatus from film: "decided after I finished 'The Life of David Gale' I'd stop. I really feelI make a joke out of thisthat if I was sick of me, I could imagine how the rest of the country felt." [Cindy Adam]
· Quote from a letter to NY Mag: "Internet personals are just another dab of lipstick applied to the blind-date pig." [Liz Smith]
· Betsey Johnson's daughter Lulu has quit her mom's business after waiting to take over the reins, and not being handed them. [NY Daily News]

· Winona Ryder wants to keep the stuff she stole from Saks. [Page Six]
· Frank Rich is kicking NYT Arts & Leisure staff out of their office space. [Page Six]
· Former TW chief Jerry Levin spotted making out with his girlfriend in a Beverly Hills Saks after buying himself $12,000 worth of "young, hip" clothes. [Page Six]
· Insiders say Eliot Spitzer will be asked "Why don't you go after the crooked judges and politicians in Brooklyn the way you go after the analysts on Wall Street?" tonight at the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee meeting. The answer he won't give is "that the Brooklyn machine backed his candidacy." [Page Six]
· Nicole Kidman spotted making out with rapper Q-Tip at Nobu. [Page Six]
· Spielberg wants to do a movie on Abraham Lincoln. [Cindy Adams]
· Civil rights leader Roy Innis refers to Bloomberg as a "whupped freak" after the mayor snubs Innis's MLK day celebration in favor of Al Sharpton's; Mick Jagger's getting a diamond embedded into a tooth where an emerald used to be; and a confused Richard Gere thanks Harvey Weintraub instead of Harvey Weinstein. [NY Daily News]

· Nicole Kidman's new best friend is rapper Q-Tip. [Page Six]
· Lizzie Grubman spotted at Bloomingdale's loudly instructing underlings to find her clothes in "size zero." [Page Six]
· World Health Organization suggests that Bloomberg's cigarette tax may be indirectly financing the current Iraqi regime. [Page Six]
· "21"a favorite New Year's spot for "cafe society"will be closed this year. Lotus owner, David Rabin is opening up a new clubacross the street. [Page Six]
· Celebrities are buying battery-powered cars, George Clooney announces that he "can't feel [his] legs" after several hours of drinking at the W on Lexington, and Jennifer Aniston gets whacked upside the head by a sidewalk Santa. [NY Daily News]