Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler isn't just one of Michael Bloomberg's most loyal aides. Or the youngest member of the mayor's inner circle. Or even one the city's most eligible bachelors, an award the Post bestowed on him a few years ago. He's also battling the city's growing crime wave single-handedly! City Room has all the details on what went down in Midtown on Tuesday night:
Can we interest you in 55,000 square feet of prime retail space in the middle of Union Square? The Virgin Megastore is closing its doors in late May/early June and The Related Cos. hasn't lined up a new tenant yet. (Nordstrom was supposed to move in, but it later backed out.) But the space can now be yours for $15 million a year, down from the $25 million Related was seeking just a few months ago. Don't mind the bankrupt electronics store next door. It will be gone in no time! [NYP]
Here's an indication of just how bleak the real estate market is these days: In order to "facilitate real estate transactions," an East Village graphic designer is now selling t-shirts stamped with "I have an apartment for rent" and "I need an apartment to rent" on them. No word on how many people have purchased the shirts—they're $25-27—or whether they've actually worked for anyone yet. But it's nice to see the designer didn't go to the trouble of creating a "I need a really expensive apartment to buy" t-shirt. That would have been a complete waste of good cotton! [The Real Deal]
A bit of good news, at last. The markets snapped a five-day losing streak today with the Dow jumping 150 points, or 2.2 percent, and the S&P 500 gaining 2.4 percent. Don't get too excited, though. Investors are already bracing for the monthly employment report, which the Department of Labor will release on Friday and should be predictably gruesome. But in the meantime, enjoy! [NYT, CNN]
The most unfortunate ad campaign of the week thus far? This one for Covergirl mascara, which appears in the new issue of People and features the words "Light up your eyes" next to a photo of Rihanna who, as you may have heard, was punched in the eye by boyfriend (husband?) Chris Brown recently. [Guanabee via Gawker]
You'd think Merrill Lynch executives would have learned their lesson by now. Just two weeks after getting chastised in the press for sending employees down to the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando for a "training event"—and despite all the negative PR the firm has sustained in recent weeks, including revelations about corporate pay just today—a big group of Merrill employees are now resting comfortably by the pool. Again. A tipster informed us that Merrill was conducting yet another warm-weather event at the fancy Orlando hotel today. We called the hotel, asked for the front desk, and then requested to be connected to the conference room where the Merrill Lynch conference was taking place. "Global Wealth Management," said the kindly woman who answered the phone before confirming to us that a Merrill event was, in fact, taking place at the hotel. (Alas, she wouldn't say how many Merrill employees were on hand for the conference, or if any taxpayer-funded golf events were on the agenda today.) But we're guessing Andrew Cuomo will be terribly disappointed to hear he wasn't invited.
Is there some sort of secret PR campaign by the advertising industry underway? Yesterday we heard that commercials make TV better, and now a study suggests we will basically mimic whatever it is that we see onscreen. Movies and ads that depict people drinking alcohol, according to new research, directly increase viewers' own propensity to toss back a few. It might be too grim to contemplate exactly what other behaviors are being mindlessly copied, although when an entire generation reaches adulthood unable to utter a sentence unpreceded by "like," we'll know to hold Adam DiVello accountable.
• The Wall Street Journal's new glossy mag, WSJ, will remain a quarterly and will not be going monthly as planned due to "market conditions." [WWD]
• Amazon is launching a program to let you read books by iPhone. [WSJ]
• Fox is ahead in the ratings with 18 to 49-year-olds thanks to the success of Idol, but CBS is gaining ground and is now No. 1 among total viewers. [LAT]
• As expected, Julius Genachowski has been nominated as FCC head. [AP]
• Cablevision will soon start targeting TV ads based on "income, ethnicity, gender or whether the homeowner has children or pets." [NYT]
• WNBC's new digital channel, New York Nonstop, launched Monday. [NYDN]
• David Carr's Carpetbagger blog will not be a year-round thing. [NYT]
• Good news, unemployed TV journalists: Dan Rather is hiring. [NYO]
Not every company is looking to take advantage of people who have been hit hard by the economic downturn. Archstone-Smith, the real estate conglomerate that controls 13 apartment buildings around town, says it will now allow tenants to walk away from their leases if they lose their jobs. JetBlue says it will refund fares to "some customers" who were laid off after buying tickets. And even Hyundai claims it will buy back vehicles from customers who lose their jobs. It's not clear how you're supposed to prove you've been laid off, but your unemployment check stubs and perhaps a few damp tissues soaked with your own tears should do the trick. [Bloomberg]
Guess you'll have to leave NYC to be happy. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, "suburbanites are significantly more satisfied with their communities than people who live in cities, small towns or rural areas." Also: The freezing cold weather isn't helping matters. The survey found the most "satisfied" people living in "southern and western U.S. communities." See you in Scottsdale! [Reuters]
It's been more than a decade since Chris Rock first made tabloid headlines when it was reported that he'd had a fling with Monika Zsibrita, a Hungarian model whom he met over Sunday brunch at the Four Seasons in LA. Unfortunately for Rock, the brief liaison has dogged him ever since. Zsibrita later accused him of raping her and suggested he was the father of her child; Rock, in turn, hired Anthony Pellicano to investigate Zsibrita and was forced to testify about his relationship with the disgraced private eye at his wiretapping trial last year. It doesn't appear Rock will be able to put the matter behind him anytime soon. Although no charges were ever filed against Rock—and paternity tests concluded he wasn't the father of her child—Zsibrita slapped Rock with a civil suit last August, claiming that Rock forced himself on her, had dispatched Pellicano to intimidate her, and then had damaged her reputation when he talked about the case on Howard Stern's radio show. (She also disputes the results of the paternity test.) The court documents were sealed when the suit was originally filed last year, but a judge lifted the seal late last week. We've obtained the court papers, and you can have a look at the raunchy allegations for yourself after the jump.
In need of a new career, one that you don't have to be ashamed of, unlike your last job as a corporate attorney or investment banker? Why not become one of the highly trained operatives who pesters the bereaved to pay their dead loved ones' debts? Business is booming in this "newest frontier in debt collecting," because even though the recently-deceased's next of kin aren't legally obligated to pay outstanding Visa and cell phone bills, with a little prodding and tailor-made psychological manipulation, they often do.
• Fox News entertainment correspondent Jill Dobson and her husband Jim Ornstein, a William Morris agent who counts Kelly Ripa as a client, have paid $1.995 million for a two-bedroom condo at 243 West 60th Street. [Cityfile]
• El-Ad is re-listing one of the Plaza's penthouse apartments that became the subject of a lawsuit after the "30-something hedge fund manager" who planned to buy it backed out of the deal. It's expected to go back on the market for an amount that is "astoundingly low" compared to its original $31 million price. [NYO]
• Energy exec Charles Price III paid $3.375 million for the late novelist Elizabeth Hardwick's three-bedroom duplex at 15 West 67th Street. [NYO]
If you've been following the Bernie Madoff affair and you don't have much to do today, Vanity Fair's 13,000-word article on the disgraced money manager, which appears in the April issue, is now online. It's a bit long, yes, but it's full of all sorts of lurid details (and a few fun photos, too, like the one on the left.) Oh, and in case you've been in suspense, Bernie's fave meal at his fave restaurant, Primola, consisted of a "small salad, chicken scarpiello and Diet Coke or red wine." Good to know! [VF]
Whitney Port is turning 24 today. Don't worry if you weren't invited to her party: You'll probably see everything that happened on an upcoming episode of The City. Others celebrating: Actress Patricia Heaton is 51. Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, is 72. Governor Rick Perry of Texas is turning 59. Heatherette co-founder Traver Rains turns 32. Ad exec Bob Scarpelli is 52. Director Len Wiseman is 36. Times reporter Jim Dwyer turns 52. Actress Andrea Bowen from Desperate Houswives is turning 19. Chastity Bono is turning 40. Emilio Estefan is 56. And Brooklyn Beckham, the offspring of Victoria and David, is turning 10.
• If you've noticed Jennifer Aniston's hair looking even more perfect and shiny lately, it's not your imagination. She reportedly spent $50,000 to have her hairstylist accompany her around the world for the Marley & Me's premieres. [DM, P6]
• Britney Spears kicked off her first tour in five years with a concert in New Orleans last night. The early reviews have not been positive, in case you're wondering. [People, DM, MTV]
• Did Chris Brown and Rihanna secretly tie the knot at Diddy's Miami manse? That's what Star is claiming, since Rihanna is "looking for the husband-and-two-kids deal before she turns 25." [Star]
• Breaking! Oprah has adopted a new puppy! [Us]
• Jennifer Lopez borrowed $50,000 worth of jewelry to attend an event last week, but never gave it back. [P6]
• Merrill Lynch's top 10 earners in 2008—a list that Andrew Cuomo will be interested to take a look at—is out. Each made more than $10 million in cash and stock in 2008 as the bank racked up losses of $27.6 billion. [WSJ]
• The private sector lost nearly 700,000 jobs in February. [CNN]
• A UBS exec will address the Swiss bank scandal on Capitol Hill today. [NYT]
• Ben Bernanke yesterday: "If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can't think of one other than AIG." [BN]
• Bill Ackman's hedge fund dropped in February, Ken Griffin gained. [BN, NYP]
• More than 8.3 million mortgages are underwater, according to a report. [BN]
• Bernie Madoff has agreed to give up rights to his investment firm and company art collection. A hearing scheduled for today to look into conflicts of interest on the part of his lawyer, Ira Sorkin, has been postponed. [AP]
We're in the middle of a recession, have you heard? If you're like most people and you're looking for ways to keep your budget in check, here are 10 items that hit the market recently that you should probably scratch off your shopping list. At least until the economy turns around or you win the lottery or something.
