The Beatrice Inn has been shut down. Why, exactly? It could be due to overcrowding or because it didn't have an adequate number of exits. Or it could have something to do with the $23,000 that owners Paul Sevigny and Matt Abramcyk owe the city for construction violations. Or maybe it's just because it's a den of sin. In any event, Sevigny reports that he's planning a "Free the Beatrice" party at an undisclosed location on Thursday or Friday night. [NYO, BlackBook]

• The New York Times Co. says it will shut down the Boston Globe within a month unless the paper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions. [BN]
• Fox News gossip columnist Roger Friedman got axed after he reviewed a pirated version of Fox's new X-Men movie, Wolverine. [DHD, NYT]
• Vanity Fair is scrapping its annual "green issue." [Independent]
• Michelle Obama may be beloved by the media world, but she isn't a sure thing when it comes to selling magazines on newsstands, apparently. [AdAge]
• Playboy's former fashion director is suing the mag for discrimination. [NYP]
• Hearst's Country Living is launching a line of products. [MW]
• Michael Crichton died last November, but two more novels by the best-selling author will be published over the next year and a half. [NYT]
• Eliot Spitzer was on the Today show this morn, in case you missed it. [Jossip]
• Fast & Furious was No. 1 at the box office this past weekend. [THR]

The image of Russia's rich elite has come so far: They're no longer regarded by the rest of the world as hopelessly ostentatious and flashy, thanks in large part to Dasha Zhukova's stylish ambassadorship and Russian Vogue editor Aliona Doletskaya's announcement that "full-on extravagance, the red lipstick, the diamonds, the furs—all that is passé." Even the new magazine Snob, whose title implies an ironic self-awareness, has helped rehabilitate the spendy, blinged-out stereotype. How sad, then, that Russian Marie Claire's editor Olga Zaretskaya has wrecked everything with one thoughtless comment!

It's shaping up to be a particularly bad day for Ezra Merkin. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sued the money manager this morning for steering more than $2 billion to Bernie Madoff. Now real estate mogul/Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman is suing for fraud, too, over the $25 million he handed to Merkin as part of his charitable trust as well as another $15 million he says he invested personally. [Bloomberg]

Rudy Giuliani's consulting business isn't the moneymaker it once was. The ex-mayor's firm, Giuliani Partners, has lost a number of clients and top execs in recent months, and now has about half the number of employees it had at its peak a couple of years ago. Some suggest the decline can be attributed to the recession, or perhaps all the time he spends out of the office making public appearances and tending to his law firm, Bracewell and Giuliani. (Or maybe his golf obsession has returned?) But leave it to Giuliani boosters to find a way to spin it into a positive: "Some said not having a raft of new clients could be helpful should he run for statewide office—since his business dealings become fodder for opposition research during the presidential run." [NYP]

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.

To be an iconoclastic photographer, a person needs sensitivity, creativity and ideally a taste for the wild side of life. But not, apparently, a shred of financial acumen: Like Annie Leibovitz, who recently pawned the rights to her work past and future in order to pay her numerous mortgages, Nan Goldin is suffering from some cash problems, as in she's spent it all. "I don't know how I did that," she tells a reporter. "I made a lot of money but I spent it on all this stuff."

Andrew Cuomo just filed a civil lawsuit against Ezra Merkin for fraud and deception, alleging that Merkin "betrayed hundreds of investors who entrusted him with their savings by recklessly feeding their funds into the largest Ponzi scheme in history." [WSJ, NYT]

• Want to rent Rick and Kathy Hilton's house in Water Mill for the summer? The 10,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home, which the Hiltons purchased for $2.385 million in 1999, is currently listed for $400,000 for season. [Newsday]
• Flavio Briatore, the Italian mogul and Heidi Klum's baby daddy, has put his apartment at the Plaza up for rent for $65,000 a month. It's not the only property he has on the market: He's been trying to unload a penthouse at One Beacon Court for $25 million since September. [NYT, Domus]
• George Hirsch, the founding publisher of New York who paid $2.7 million for an apartment at 111 Central Park North in 2007, has sold his former home at 246 East 32nd Street for $2.88 million. [Cityfile]
• The 10,000-square-foot mansion at 54 East 64th Street, which was once home to the offices of the Observer, has undergone a $9 million price cut. It's now listed for $27 million. [NYO, Sotheby's]

Zach Braff turns 34 today. Hilary Rhoda is turning 22. Paul Rudd is 40. Tim Hasselbeck, the former NFL quarterback and husband of Elisabeth, is turning 31. Marilu Henner is 57. Filmmaker Barry Levinson is turning 67. HBO exec Sheila Nevins is 70. Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson turns 81. Makeup artist Tim Quinn is turning 49. Soft-core cable access queen Robin Byrd is turning 52. And Candace Cameron, who you may remember as DJ Tanner from Full House, is 33.

• Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen's wedding party in Costa Rica on Saturday was rather eventful: Two paparazzi photographers claim that members of the couple's security team opened fire on them as they tried to score shots of the festivities. [NYDN, NYP]
• A former nanny who worked for Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower is suing the couple for failing to pay more than $40,000 in unpaid wages. [P6]
• More drama for Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson: At the launch of Charlotte Ronson's I Heart Ronson line for JCPenney this weekend, Lohan had to be "restrained from coming in by five security guards." [OK!]
• The people of Malawi can breathe a sigh of relief: Madonna left the country on Sunday and returned to London. [People]

• Wall Street retreated this morning after a four-week rally amid concern about the banking sector and after IBM's attempt to buy Sun unraveled. [WSJ, CNN]
• The latest Washington official facing questions about potential conflicts of interest: Larry Summers, who collected $5.2 million in 2008 working one day a week for D.E. Shaw before joining the administration. [NYT]
• Tim Geithner says that the Obama administration is prepared to oust top financial executives if their firms require more public aid. [FT, DB]

• Retailers in Soho who were expecting to see a boost in sales thanks to the opening of Topshop were greatly disappointed this week. [Crains, photo via Flickr]
• Some fashion insiders are a bit miffed that Michelle Obama has shown "zero interest in the big guns of American fashion" in favor of the "new and niche." [WWD]
• Daisy Lowe is getting her own show on MTV. [Pipeline]
• Victoria's Secret has signed up Christian Siriano to do makeup. [Fashionista]
• Nina Ricci's new designer will probably be Peter Copping. [FWD]
• A day in the life of Thakoon Panichgul. In Hong Kong. [Style.com]
• The beauty brand Stila may have gone bankrupt. [Fashionista]

• Christian Delouvrier, formerly of Lespinasse and Alain Ducasse, is back from Florida and is now behind the stove at David Bouley's Secession. [NYT]
• Jeffrey Chodorow's Kobe Club in East Hampton won't be back this summer. Mediocre, overpriced food will be: It's becoming a branch of Philippe. [NYT]
• As you've probably noticed, bar menus are big these days. [WSJ]
• A Craigslist ad for waiters, busboys, and bartenders attracted—yes, you guessed it—lots of former bankers and commercial real estate brokers. [NYT]
• Patois has moved from Brooklyn and has settled on Mulberry St. [LNYC]
• Celeb dining tips by Rosie O'Donnell, Jill Hennessy and Tim Robbins. [BB]

Walter and Monica Noel are looking for someone to rent the family home in Southampton for July and August! Daily Intel reports the 7,000-square-foot home with ten bedrooms, nine-and-a-half baths, six fireplaces, and a heated pool, will run you $350,000 for July and $375,000 for August. There's no telling if FBI agents will stop by one day to dig up the front yard in search of buried treasure, at least you know your summer won't be lacking any drama. [NYM]

It was just over a month ago that Cityfile first reported that Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff was having an extra-marital affair with a young woman named Victoria Floethe. Wolff wasn't in a very good mood that day, and insisted there was absolutely no truth to the tale, adding that we'd be hearing from his lawyer for spreading such filth. We never did hear from that lawyer, and Wolff subsequently confirmed our scoop to Page Six.

Last Friday, the CEOs of 15 of the biggest banks headed to Washington to meet with the president and discuss the financial crisis and the rising anger and frustration on the part of the public. The attendees went to great lengths to describe the meeting as friendly and productive. But it was hard to imagine how warm and fuzzy it could have been given it was also painfully clear that much of the frustration had been exacerbated by the banks themselves by, say, taking billions from Washington and then spending it things like new office suites. Well, it turns out it wasn't such a fun encounter after all, according to one person who attended the session and described what went down to Politico.

Madonna's lawyer says she plans to appeal a judge's ruling that she cannot adopt a second child from Malawi. [AP]

You've heard about the fried chicken restaurants that have been renaming themselves in honor of Barack Obama, haven't you? At least three spots have adopted the president's name in recent months, and while it isn't illegal to do so per the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, some people are a little miffed about it. Like City Councilman Charles Barron. He's giving one restaurant until Monday to change its awning or else he'll organize a protest. The game of chicken begins, it seems. [AMNY, TSG]

• Bill Keller says that New York Times readers have offered to donate money to keep the paper alive, which is both very sad and very sweet. [Politico, NYP]
• Hearst has asked all of its newspapers to reduce costs by 20 percent. [BN]
• The launch of Oprah's cable network has been pushed back to 2010. [NYP]
• Eliot Spitzer will hit the Today show on Monday, presumably to talk about the financial crisis, not about his personal life. [NYO]
• Tensions are reportedly running high at MSNBC after the network decided to give Ed Schultz a show and bump Norah O'Donnell and David Shuster. [P6]
• Breaking! The media appears to be rather fond of Michelle Obama. [WaPo]
• Last night's series finale of ER generated big ratings for NBC. [NYT]
• Is Google about to acquire Twitter? Not so much, says Kara Swisher. [ATD]