This was bound to happen sooner or later. It seems Nigerian scam artists are now sending out emails in Ruth Madoff's name, claiming that there's $93 million sitting in a secret bank account somewhere, and she desperately needs help getting the money out. Please reply most urgently and treat with absolute confidentiality and sincerity! [Clusterstock]
The Terrace Diner in Bayside, Queens earned high marks from the Queens Gazette last year for its "open, airy atmosphere" and "wide, comfortable booths and tables." It's safe to say, though, that Dr. Arnold Sheff won't be going back there any time soon. The retired physician says he was regular at the restaurant until one morning last October, when he complained about the service to another customer, which prompted the waiter serving him to retaliate by publicly announcing to everyone in the diner what you see highlighted above. Naturally, Sheff has since suffered severe embarrassment, mental anguish, and extreme emotional distress as a result, and is now suing everyone involved. Provided you're not eating and browsing the Web at the same time, you can read the full complaint after the jump.
National Skin Cancer Awareness Month doesn't begin for another couple of weeks. But feel free to get a head start and remind yourself that excessive exposure to the sun isn't just dangerous, it can make you look completely ridiculous, too—even if you're Kim Kardashian and you're plenty ridiculous as it is. "This tan line is not ok!!!" Kim says on Twitter. This is true! But we're glad she shared the pic, and we've all learned a valuable lesson, and for that, Kim, the dermatologists of America salute you. [Twitpic]
• The first quarter wasn't such a hot one for NBC Universal: Earnings dropped 45 percent as the ad market continued its downward spiral. [WSJ, TVWeek]
• The world's largest newsprint maker has gone bankrupt. [NYT]
• Rolling Stone is closing up shop in San Francisco. [Portfolio]
• Ads sales figures at The New York Times Co. are looking pretty ugly. [E&P]
• Some good news, at least for impoverished porn addicts: Time Warner no longer plans to charge customers based on bandwidth usage. [Wired]
Admit it. When you read in the paper yesterday that General Growth Properties had filed for bankruptcy protection and then you noticed that the giant mall operator controlled the South Street Seaport, part of you was secretly thrilled by the news. Maybe they'll finally use all that space for something useful instead of as an overpriced tourist trap for people visiting from wherever it is the lame people pictured above are from! But then you visited the Times website today and you almost cried when you saw this:
Poor Kelly Killoren Bensimon. Not only is she facing charges in connection with the beating of her boyfriend, still classified as a man by the NYPD, and desperately looking to sell her house in the Hamptons, she's now being accused of ripping off the jewelry designs of her former friend, Celeste Greenberg. At the rate she's going, she should be stealing handbags from clubs by about the third week of June or so. Mark your calendar. [GoaG]
It's the biggest curse of womankind—eclipsing PMS, childbirth, bikini waxing, mandatory starvation, sharing a gender with Gwyneth Paltrow, and earning 75 cents to a man's dollar—and yet modern technology still hasn't figured out a way to eradicate cellulite. It is, however, doing its best, and the latest gizmo that promises to de-ripple butts and thighs is the Smoothshapes laser, which is being promoted by dermatologist Neil Sadick and which Oprah magazine's Valerie Monroe road-tests for our edification.
When we revealed that an agency retained by JPMorgan Chase to collect outstanding debts had resorted to harrassing debtors' kids by posting nasty messages on MySpace, we didn't realize who Jamie Dimon was messing with. Meet Gina Ricobene. She's the daughter of Jim Ricobene, the man suing the bank because Gina found a message on her MySpace page threatening to put her dad behind bars if he didn't come up with the cash to pay off the loan on his Mercedes.
Now would be an excellent time to invite your parents to come and visit New York! According to a new survey, nightly hotel rates in the city have dropped nearly 30 percent over the past year: The average room now costs $284 a night, down from $404 at the beginning of 2008. On the other hand, if you happen to despise your parents and want to punish them for ruining your childhood, you'd be better off proposing that they take a trip to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tokyo or Milan. Those were the only four big cities that saw hotel rates increase over the past year. [HotelChatter]
Bar Refaeli eating lunch at Bar Pitti ... Lauren Conrad shopping with a friend at Topshop ... Josh Hartnett walking in Tribeca ... Seal leaving the Equinox in Soho ... Jerry Seinfeld arriving at Yankee Stadium right before Jay-Z turned up ... Geraldo Rivera walking in Midtown ... Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber jogging downtown ... Ben Affleck talking on his cell phone outside Rockefeller Center ... Agyness Deyn shooting a commercial with Gabriel Aubrey and later getting into an SUV... Ciara leaving her hotel ... and Joy and Regis Philbin walking home on the Upper West Side.
It reads like the plotline for a particularly lurid Law & Order episode: A 43-year-old Bronx woman dies suddenly; her death seems tragic but unsuspicious, until the medical examiner discovers a silicone embolism in her lungs and her family reveals that she'd been given body-plumping silicone injections by an unlicensed cosmetologist, who would have been charged with homicide had she not fled to the Dominican Republic.
It's a good thing financier Steve Rattner only (allegedly) invested in movies to (allegedly) bribe state officials, and not because he thought he had a talent for picking quality films. The trailer for Chooch, the movie that Rattner (allegedly) paid $88,000 to obtain the distribution rights for, couldn't be more painful to watch. Of course, Rattner's decision to (allegedly) buy the DVD rights to the movie did help his Quadrangle Group allegedly rope in a $100 million investment from the New York state pension fund, not that means very much now that the (alleged) scheme has been exposed and the payments are under investigation. But it's a good thing they don't prosecute people for crimes against culture or Rattner would really be in trouble right now.
• Terry Richardson is adding to his real estate portfolio. The hipster photographer has paid $3.335 million for the 2,800-square-foot, three-story former fire station located at 185 Lafayette Street. [Cityfile]
• Josh and Whitney Kroenke, the grandkids of Wal-Mart co-founder Bud Walton, have put their penthouse at 201 West 17th Street on the market. The two-bedroom pad, which the siblings purchased for $2.7 million in 2005, is listed at $2.995 million. [Cityfile, Core]
• Not everyone is feeling the squeeze in the Hamptons. Joanne Corzine, the ex-wife of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, has reportedly found someone willing to meet her $900,000 asking price to rent out her oceanfront manse in Sagaponack for the summer season. [Newsday]
Victoria Beckham is turning 35 today. Jennifer Garner is turning 37. Actress Monet Mazur is 33. Liz Phair turns 42. The rapper Redman is turning 39. Architect Costas Kondylis is 69. Writer Cynthia Ozick is 81. Former football star Boomer Esiason is turning 47. Author Nick Hornby is 52. And television exec Henry Schleiff turns 61 today. Weekend birthdays after the jump.
• It looks like Bethenny Frankel will be staying single a little while longer. A day after she and A-Rod were spotted on a "date" at a steakhouse in Florida, the Yankee was seen "canoodling" with a "trashy blond girl" at the Delano. Oh, well. [NYDN]
• It's official: Heidi Klum is with child. [Us]
• Good news for Jesus Luz: Not only is he back together with Madonna, he's booked Dolce & Gabbana's next campaign, too. [WWD]
• Estée Lauder CEO William Lauder says he's not paying his baby mama Taylor Stein the $500k a year she was promised because she violated their confidentiality agreement. Her lawyer says it was actually William's wife Karen who leaked word of the baby to the press. [NYP]
• Citigroup posted its first profit in 18 months today, which made Wall Street very happy and sent Citi shares up to a whopping $4. [WSJ, DB]
• GE's first-quarter profit fell less than expected, dropping 35% compared to a year earlier, results that gave shares a boost in early trading. [BN, WSJ]
• AIG chief Ed Liddy still owns a big stake in Goldman Sachs, info that will be most pleasing to Goldman conspiracy theorists out there. [NYT, NYT]
• Is the banking business showing signs of recovery? [NYT]
• Carl Icahn and Kirk Kerkorian are locked in battle over MGM Mirage. [WSJ]
• General Growth Properties's bankruptcy will make hedge funder Bill Ackman a very rich man. And he already happens to be a very rich man. [NYT]
• The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco now says it was a mistake to allow Lehman Brothers to collapse. Now you tell us? [BN]
• Rachel Roy has a new line—and it's one even her soon-to-be ex-husband should be able to afford: Roy is introducing a lower-priced collection for Macy's that she's named Rachel-Rachel Roy. [Shophound]
• Besties Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss and Charlotte Ronson are teaming up on a line called Shoshanna Made With Love Charlotte Ronson. [WWD]
• What does Karl Lagerfeld look like the morning? He'll fill you in: "I look like a madman, like something out of a horror movie!" [Fashionologie]
• "Bread-line chic" is all the rage these days. [NYT]
It looks like someone's evening was just ruined: Steve Rattner, the high-profile financier who was responsible for managing Michael Bloomberg's fortune until recently, and who now heads up the Obama administration's auto task force, is reportedly one of the executives who has been tied to the alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, according to "a person familiar with the matter" who spoke with the the Wall Street Journal.
• Rumor has it that Gilt is doomed: "Employees are looking for new positions, services are being canceled, and the end is in sight." [TFB]
• Yesterday, Charles took a pounding from Times critic Frank Bruni. Today, the restaurant responded by covering up the windows with Bruni's review. [GS]
• Tom Colicchio appeared on Charlie Rose's show last night. [CharlieRose.com]
• The 50 best new restaurants, according to Travel + Leisure. [T+L]
• A roundup of eating options at the new Yankee Stadium. [GS]
• The IKEA in Brooklyn is turning Wednesdays into "$7.99 rib night." [Eater]
• Another thing to steer clear of: packaged sandwiches from Walgreen's. [ML]
• How did we not know that today was National Eggs Benedict Day? [GS]
