• More on Peter Chernin's departure from News Corp. and the likely possibility that Rupert Murdoch will hand over the reigns to his son, James. [WSJ, NYT]
• Rupert Murdoch has issued an apology for the Post's chimp cartoon. [NYP]
• Kathy Griffin scored a $2 mil. advance from Ballantine for a memoir. [NYO]
• The FT is cutting costs by giving employees three-day weekends. [E&P]
• The recession is wreaking havoc on pilot season in Hollywood. [Variety]
• Your amusing and totally frightening stat of the day: The average television viewer watches 151 hours of TV each month, a new record. [B&C]
• Oscar picks for 2010, just in case you wanna get a head start. [NYO]

Citigroup is on the brink of disaster and may have to turn over as much as 40 percent of the bank to the government in an effort to stay solvent. So what's Chuck Prince, who served as Citi's chairman and CEO until late 2007, been up to recently? Not so much. Chuck has been spending most of his time in recent months on the golf course. Unfortunately, this has required him to make the commute from Manhattan—he sold his Connecticut mansion last fall for $5.2 million. Fortunately, his generous exit package from Citi includes an office, assistant, and full-time car and driver, so he can still recline in the backseat and read all about Citi's implosion in the Journal as he heads out to the club. All that time golfing has yet to do much for his handicap, however. But since he's relatively young and it's unlikely he'll ever land another job on Wall Street, he should have plenty of time to practice. Prince's score history is after the jump.

Can you pick out the socialite based on the perfect (or not-so-perfect) smile she flashes for photographers thousands of times a year? Answers below!

"Pawnshop" is such a loaded word: It almost immediately conjures up an image of a seedy, fluorescent-lit room with a clerk standing behind bulletproof glass and display cabinets full of tacky gold jewelry. Fortunately, if you happen to be rich, possess a reasonably large collection of art, and you're desperate for cash, you can call up Art Capital Group, which doesn't look anything like a pawnshop since it's located in the former Sotheby's building on Madison Avenue, and "looks at first glance like an art gallery," reports the Times. But bring Art Capital your collection and they'll do the same thing every other pawnshop does: They'll extend you a loan using your art works as collateral, and if you fail to pay back what you owe, you'll have to say goodbye to them forever.

Caroline Kennedy has a reason to smile today. A new poll shows that David Paterson's job approval ratings have fallen to an all-time low since he took office last year. The governor is viewed favorably by just 40 percent of voters—down from 64 percent in November—and it also gives Andrew Cuomo a commanding lead in a possible primary contest. [NYP]

• Anthony Coniglio, a managing director in JPMorgan's financial institutions group, and his wife Tara have paid $6.2 million for a seventh-floor apartment at 170 East End Avenue. Other buyers in the building include Adam Bronfman, Johan Santana, Dominique Levy, and Michael Fascitelli. [Cityfile]
• Investment banker E. Stephen Benson has lowered the price of his penthouse at 885 Park Avenue for the fourth time since first listing it for $13 million in February 2008. The two-bedroom apartment, which was reduced to $9.5 million last month, is now listed for $8.25 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• New York Jets team doctor Kenneth Montgomery and his wife Leslie have put their six-bedroom home in Roslyn Harbor on the market for between $3 million and $3.5 million. [Newsday, PDE]

Paula Zahn turns 53 today. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is turning 54. Terry Semel, the man who ran Warner Bros., served as CEO of Yahoo!, and helped bring Courtenay Semel into this world, is 66. Nike co-founder Phil Knight is 71. Sen. Joe Lieberman is turning 67. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice chairman Joseph Rice is turning 77. Actor Billy Zane is 43. Dominic Chianese, better known as "Uncle Junior," is 78. Chad Hugo of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D is 35. Actor Barry Bostwick turns 64. Edward James Olmos is turning 62. And actor Abe Vigoda is celebrating his 88th birthday today.

• As part of the rescue plan currently under discussion in Washington, the government would end up with 40 percent of Citigroup, which isn't quite the same as nationalizing it, but is pretty darn close. [NYT]
• JPMorgan Chase cut its dividend to a nickel yesterday. [AP]
• John Thain spent six hours answering Andrew Cuomo's questions last week. But he'll make a return visit this week now that a judge has ruled Thain has to provide more detail on Merrill's controversial bonus payouts. [Reuters]
• AIG needs more government money. Feel free to laugh or cry about this. [DB]
• UBS may end up going to court as it tries to fight an order to disclose the names of its American clients suspected of offshore tax evasion. [NYT]
• Allen Stanford had ties to Joe Biden's brother and son, apparently. [WSJ]
• A bankrupt Lehman Brothers is spinning off its venture capital arm. [WSJ]
• Home prices in 20 U.S. cities declined an average of 18.5% in December. [BN]
• Federal chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession should end this year and 2010 "will be a year of recovery," if the banking system's stabilized. Reassuring words, provided you still believe anything Bernanke has to say. [WSJ]

The recession hasn't killed the art market, after all. Buyers defied the downturn as Yves Saint Laurent's art collection hit the auction block last night. Record prices for works by Matisse, Brancusi, Mondrian and Duchamp were set, and Christie's raked in $264 million on the first night alone. So who were these buyers spending big bucks? Here's a clue: "Among the last-minute VIP visitors to the exhibition hall, just four hours before the sale, was Russian billionaire art collector Roman Abramovich, accompanied by dealer Larry Gagosian. Christie's owner French billionaire Francois Pinault, was present at the sale." [NYT, BN]

• Winners and losers at the Oscars, including the boring (Angelina), controversial (Tilda), and just plain bad (Beyoncé). [NYT, Telegraph, W, FWD]
• It wasn't the Oscars, but Michelle Obama sparkled last night in a sequined number for the National Governor's Association dinner. [NYM]
• A roundup of 15 top looks from New York Fashion Week. [Pipeline]
• There appear to be some fresh signs of trouble at Barneys. [Racked]
• More on what you can expect to see when Running in Heels debuts. [WSJ]
• Not surprisingly, the fashion job market isn't exactly thriving. [NYP]
• A roundup of what you've been missing at London Fashion Week. [Vogue UK]

The markets took another tumble today with the Dow dropping 250 points to close at its lowest point since May 7, 1997. You remember May 7, 1997, don't you? No? Rudy Giuliani was trying to push through a round of tax cuts, Garry Kasparov was facing off against Deep Blue, Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh was still in the news, Ellen DeGeneres' coming-out was generating controversy, Hanson was still worthy of 1,200 words in the Times, and architects were dreaming about "a cook's cosmopolis" called the Chelsea Market, which would supply the epicure with "everything from lobsters to dairy-fresh milk in a series of deli-size storefronts." Yea, it was a really long time ago. [CNN]

Furniture Car [99Sense @ Flickr]

• David Burke's Fishtail and the Oak Room come up short in this week's New York: Adam Platt calls the former "decent," while the latter goes away with no stars and is described as "overpriced," "outdated" and "oppressive." [NYM]
• There's a new chef at the meatpacking district's 5 Ninth. [TFB]
• Karen and David Waltuck's Chanterelle is offering an à la carte menu. [TONY]
• Balthazar's bathroom attendants are back, thank goodness. [GS]
• A report from Above Allen, the new lounge at the Thompson LES. [DBTH]
• Mark Birnbaum and Eugene Remm have tapped former Sheridan Square chef Franklin Becker to run the kitchen at Abe and Arthur's. [TFB]
• A tour of the White House kitchen, courtesy of Michelle Obama. [NYT]
• Tom Colicchio starred in a Coke commercial during last night's Oscars. [GS]

If you have lousy credit and you're in possession of an American Express credit card, the company might just pay you to go away. AmEx is now offering a $300 prepaid gift card to people to cancel their accounts and pay down their debt. Don't be offended if you get the offer in the mail. According to the company, it's just a "promotion" being offered to "select cardmembers," and it's only intended to help people "simplify" their finances. [Bloomberg]

Following months of rumors, Rupert Murdoch's No. 2 at News Corp., Peter Chernin, has confirmed he plans to leave the company. The LA Times reports that Murdoch has no plans to name a successor. Instead, Murdoch "is expected to pick up many of the duties handled by Chernin, including oversight of News Corp.'s Fox movie and television operations." [LAT, WSJ]

You won't be able to pick up Metropolitan Museum posters and placemats for much longer, at least in places like Costa Mesa and Houston. The Met has announced that it plans to close 15 of its satellite shops around the country. [NYT/ArtsBeat]

Ed Westwick and Jessica Szhor walking in the meatpacking district ... Peaches Geldof shopping in SoHo with a friend ... Joshua Jackson and Diane Kruger kissing in the West Village ... Katie Holmes showing up to the set of her new film in Chelsea ... Leighton Meester and Chace Crawford shooting scenes for Gossip Girl outside Noho Star on Lafayette Street ... and Dustin Hoffman standing on the sidewalk outside of Nello's on Madison Avenue.

A couple of weeks ago, there was talk that Bernie Madoff's penthouse on East 64th Street could sell for as much as $8 million when it hits the market. (It's not officially up for grabs yet, although several brokers have been asked to assess its value in anticipation of a sale.) It seems the $8 million figure, though, doesn't factor in the fact that prospective buyers would be purchasing it from the devil himself, even though the proceeds would go to victims of Madoff's alleged scheme.

• Despite the gloomy predictions last week, this year's Oscars did better than last year's telecast: Ratings were up 13% according to Nielsen. [THR]
• Condi Rice has signed a three-book deal with Crown worth $2.5 million. [AP]
• The parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday. [E&P]
• Some analysts are suggesting News Corp. shed its newspaper assets. [NYT]
• Conan's finale on Friday earned the show its best ratings in two years. [NYP]
• Ad guru Peter Arnell's rebranding work for Tropicana didn't work out as planned, and now the company says it will go back to its old packaging. [NYT]

Another week, another lawsuit against a restaurant on behalf of waiters who claim they were denied minimum wage and stiffed on tips. This week's target for the very prolific lawyer Maimon Kirschenbaum: Japonais and its owners Miae Lim, Lester Burgher, Richard Wahlstedt and Jeffrey Beers. If you're keeping count at home, you can now add Japonais to a list that includes Nobu, Jean Georges, Le Cirque, Bouley, BondSt, Balthazar, 1OAK, One Little W. 12, 40/40, B.B. King's, Heartland Brewery, Haru, BLT Steak, BLT Prime, BLT Fish, and Wolfgang's Steakhouse. The full suit is below.