AIG announced this morning that it lost $61 billion during the fourth quarter of 2008, or $465,421 per minute. To put that into perspective, "every six seconds it loses enough to pay full tuition for a year at Harvard." [NYT]

• Kelsey Grammer is once again looking for a buyer for his 8,000-square-foot house in Bridgehampton. Grammer listed the seven-bedroom home last year for $15.9 million before taking it off the market when he didn't get an offer. It's now up for sale for $13.9 million. [Newsday, Sotheby's]
• Mike McNamara, the CEO of Flextronics International, and his wife Deborah, have dropped the price of their apartment at the Plaza. Previously listed for $12.5 million, the three-bedroom abode is now on the market for $10.9 million. [Cityfile, Stribling]
• Private equity exec Howard Romanow and his wife Jamie paid $3.1 million for a fifth-floor apartment at the Brompton on East 85th Street. [Cityfile]

Chris Martin, the husband of Gwyneth Paltrow and lead singer of Coldplay, turns 32 today. Author Tom Wolfe is 79. Lou Reed is turning 67. Restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow is turning 59. Jon Bon Jovi is 47. Daniel Craig is 41. Hockey player Henrik Lundqvist is 27. Writer John Irving turns 67. Mikhail Gorbachev is 78. Elizabeth Jagger, daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, turns 25. Film producer/exec Peter Guber is 67. Cosmetic dentist to the stars Marc Lowenberg is 63. And Reggie Bush, the football player and boyfriend of Kim Kardashian, turns 24 today.

• It seems Rihanna and Chris Brown have reunited: The two have been holed up at Diddy's Star Island mansion since late last week and are now "focusing on a reconciliation." Not surprisingly, fans have been a little bit dismayed by the news. [NYDN, People, Reuters]
• Why didn't Katie Holmes walk the red carpet at the Oscars? She's on an "intense detox diet" that has left her "lethargic," poor thing. [NYDN]
• Sumner Redstone is reportedly dating a former flight attendant who is six decades his junior. [R&M]

• The government is pumping another $30 billion into AIG, the insurance giant deemed "too big to fail." The company also reported a fourth-quarter loss of $61 billion, the largest quarterly loss in history. [NYT, BN, WSJ]
• Stocks moved lower on Monday morning following the AIG news. [BN]
• HSBC is cutting 6,100 jobs and raising $18 billion in capital. [Reuters, DB]
• Hedge funds are bracing for another wave of withdrawals. [WSJ]
• The third bailout of Citigroup last week? It may not be the last. [NYT]
• Investment banks pulled in $53 billion in fees in 2008, 39 percent less than the record $87 billion of a year earlier. JPMorgan took the biggest share. [BN]
• Consumer spending rose in January for the first time in seven months as shoppers took advantage of post-holiday discounts. [BN]

Got some info to share with us? Direct it here! Many thanks!

It appears the situation at the Metropolitan Opera is far more dire than anyone imagined: New York reports that the Met has been forced to borrow against the value of the gigantic Chagall paintings in its lobby, a move that a board member described as "a decision of last resort." [NYM]

• More on the clothes and behind-the-scenes drama at Milan Fashion Week. [IHT, Reuters, Telegraph]
• Pop magazine has a new editor: Dasha Zhukova (left), Russian fashion/art "It" girl and girlfriend of billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich. The new editorial board includes the likes of Julia Restoin Roitfeld and Daphne Guinness. [Guardian]
• Oscar dress knockoffs are headed your way, naturally. [NYP]
• Pamela Anderson, who stars in Vivienne Westwood's new ad campaign, will walk the catwalk for her in Paris next week. [Vogue UK]
• McQueen for Target doesn't appear to be selling all that well. [Racked]
• The woman believed to be the highest-grossing saleswoman in Saks' history is now on trial and is facing up to 25 years in prison. [NYT]
• Anna Wintour smiled in Milan today. Really. [FWD]

The answering machine at the Water Mill home of billionaire Steve Schwarzman and his wife Christine.

• Masa is cutting prices. The set menu at Masa Takayama's sushi temple went from $450 to $400, but it has nothing to do with the recession, okay? [BN]
• Despite the economy, several pricey new venues are opening anyway. [WSJ]
• Speaking of pricey: Daniel will host a truffle-laden dinner on March 8. It's $1,000 per person, although the proceeds go to Citymeals-on-Wheels. [GS]
• Is Restaurant Week going to last forever? Probably. [NYT/City Room]
• A roundup of the eateries that closed this past week. [Eater]

Given the impact she's had on the fashion industry—"Our shining hope for the future!" says Isaac Mizrahi—you won't be surprised to hear a Michelle Obama style guide is coming out in a few weeks. Glamour has a few pages from Michelle Style: Celebrating the First Lady of Fashion, which comes out on May 5 and features "designer sketches, interviews, and style tips" by the likes of Carolina Herrera, Sonia Rykiel, Jason Wu, Catherine Malandrino, Tommy Hilfiger, Behnaz Sarafpour, Isabel Toledo, and Tory Burch. "Michelle Obama is a true independent. She isn't locked into wearing couture or super expensive clothes," explains Nicole Miller. (She is, however, locked into wearing whatever happens to be carried by Ikram Goldman's store in Chicago, but that's another story.) A few sample pages are below.

"A new study finds that people in red states consume more pornography than their blue-state peers." [TDB]

It got a bit nasty at a pre-trial hearing yesterday for Anthony Marshall, the son of the late Brooke Astor, who stands accused of defrauding his socialite mother in her final years. Both an attorney for Marshall and the prosecutor "lobbed insults" and accused the other side of "playing to the press," a dust-up that concluded with assistant DA Joel Seidemann shouting "Don't touch me!" and "Get your hands off me" at Marshall's lawyer John Cuti. The two patched things up at the end of the session and shook hands, but if this is any indication of what the actual trial will be like when it begins in March 23, you may want to make sure you have some popcorn ready. [NYDN]

Sure, it's not quite as bold as stealing the statue next to his pool or wrapping his home in toilet paper, but lest you think residents of Palm Beach have forgotten about Bernie Madoff, well, they clearly haven't. [Page2Live]

Gwyneth Paltrow ducking into an SUV in the financial district ... Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany walking with their son and dog... Alec Baldwin and Steve Buscemi shooting scenes for 30 Rock in Long Island City ... Keri Russell shopping with her husband ... Matthew Broderick opening a car door for son James outside their Village townhouse ... Katie Holmes carrying a stack of fashion magazines ... Kevin Kline standing on the set of The Extra Man ... and Jeremy Piven leaving the Cort Theatre on West 48th Street after seeing Your Welcome America.

• Fox News remains in first place in the cable news ratings race. MSNBC is showing modest gains, while CNN is dropping like a lead balloon. [NYT, MM]
• Cablevision says it plans to charge readers to access to Newsday.com. [NYP]
• Hearst is launching an e-reader for magazines and newspapers. [Fortune]
• The Times is launching several local "citizen journalism" sites. [E&P]
• Sony CEO Howard Stringer has pushed aside two senior execs. [WSJ]
• Old Navy's newest ad campaign resembles a celeb tabloid. [Jossip]
• Peter Scarlet has resigned as the Tribeca Film Fest's artistic director. [THR]
• Take a tour of the White House with Katie Couric if you'd like. [YouTube]
• Denver's Rocky Mountain News says goodbye. [RMN]

"People need to be encouraged to start spending again," Michael Gross writes, especially the masters of the universe—such as John Thain, left—who made a mint during the boom years and then led us into this mess. So how do we go about doing that? Not by shunning them, or requiring them to take their fortunes and turn the cash over to the government. (It would probably be wasted on Citigroup anyway.) Maybe we could just force them to pump the cash into the local economy?

These may be depressing times, but occasionally a bit of news comes along to remind you that we can overcome any obstacle, no matter how daunting, provided we just believe. Today's shot in the arm: Tinsley Mortimer (the newly-improved version, of course) appeared at the Frick Collection’s Annual Young Fellows Ball last night with husband Topper in tow, a couple of months after it was reported that couple had split up because Tinz was sick of Topper's "promiscuous ways."

Lunch with Anderson Cooper went for $7,500 at Bailey House's annual fundraiser last night, which raises money for homeless people with HIV and AIDS. "Like stocks and real estate, Cooper's market value has declined by more than 60 percent—the Cooper date sold for $21,000 in 2007." [NYM/Daily Intel, previously]

Marla Maples, Anna Nicole Smith, Padma Lakshmi, Monica Lewinsky, Amy Fisher, Patricia Duff, Paula Fortunato, Cindy McCain, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, Ellen Barkin, Katie Lee Joel: You're in fine company, Victoria Floethe! Hearty congratulations to you and Michael. Click on the photo for a large screenshot.