Bank of America announced today it plans to sell three of its corporate jets, as well as a Merrill Lynch helicopter that it inherited when it acquired the brokerage firm. BofA will still have six planes left even after the sale. And still no word on when the bank plans to sell off the carpets in John Thain's old office. [AP]
New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik tells NYMag.com today that he's "addicted" to Kombucha, a Himalayan drink that "tastes like homemade ginger ale, looks like swamp water, and seems half-alive." It's the "elixir of life" and "warder-off-of-all-ills," Gopnik says. One thing it clearly isn't: a truth serum. Although he tells the mag he's 50, the New York State Board of Elections has him down as 52. Bottoms up! [NYM]
The craziness at the Plaza continues. In September, Russian financier Andrei Vavilov sued the Plaza to get back the $10.7 million deposit he plunked down on two penthouse apartments. Developer El-Ad countersued, and last week the two sides reached a compromise: As part of the deal, Vavilov paid $11 million for the smaller of the two penthouses that he'd originally planned to buy, in lieu of getting his deposit back. But that doesn't mean you'll be seeing Vavilov around the Plaza in the future. He's already re-listed the 2,906-square-foot spread with Brenda Powers and Elizabeth Lee Sample of Brown Harris Stevens for $12.5 million. [NYO, BHS]
Page Six reported today that billionaire financier (and New York owner) Bruce Wasserstein celebrated his fourth marriage a couple of weeks ago when he tied the knot with a "much younger Asian woman." So who is the "mystery bride"? We hear from a reliable source she's Angela Chao, the younger sister of Elaine Chao, who served as Labor Secretary in the Bush administration. Chao is 35, which makes her a bit young for Bruce. (He's 26 years her senior.) But she's clearly very smart—she graduated Harvard in three years and attended Harvard Business School—and probably very financially savvy, too: Chao worked in Smith Barney's investment banking division before joining her father's Foremost Group, which has interests in shipping, international trade and finance. The only downside we can think of: Unlike Bruce, she's a registered Republican.
Bernie Madoff is complicating everything! Steve Simkin, a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss is now suing his ex-wife Laura, demanding that she return the $2.7 million he gave her as part of a divorce settlement in 2006. Why? Because Simkin's money was invested with Madoff, of course, and the settlement was based on the assumption the couple had $5.4 million in their Madoff account. The couple says it took two years to negotiate their divorce the first time around. So you can expect to read a follow-up to this case in the paper in 2011 or so. [NYDN]
Macy's announced plans earlier this week to lay off 7,000 workers as well as cut back on employees' retirement benefits. Last month, the struggling retail chain said it would shutter 11 of its 850 stores in the U.S. But the cutbacks don't appear to be impinging on company chief Terry Lundgren's jet-set lifestyle. Although Lundgren took a $2.5 million pay cut last year, the board helped make up for it by granting him a larger chunk of stock. (He earned a total of $14.4 million in compensation.) And despite Lundgren's claim to the press this week that "this is a time when nothing should be considered a sacred cow," his perks continue to cost the company a small fortune.
As rumored, the Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Times Square is closing. But it's not because dozens of women have sued the place for discrimination, assault, and harassment! The flesh factory is just shutting its doors on Saturday because it plans to make some much needed repairs and plans to re-open in May. "One has nothing to do with the other," says manager Jamie Galler. And if you believe that, you're probably also thinking that Rod Blagojevich will win the White House in 2012 and name Bernie Madoff his Treasury secretary. [Gothamist]
Erin Callan, the rising Wall Street star who became the chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers only to be ousted a few months before the firm filed for bankruptcy, is leaving the new job she started just five months ago. Callan is taking a "personal leave" from her job as head of Credit Suisse's hedge fund division; Dealbreaker is now suggesting she could have had a nervous breakdown this morning. [Bloomberg]
Not that we would ever imply that you won't be taught everything you need to know about the mysteries of dating by the He's Just Not That Into You movie (even though it made the Observer's Sara Vilkomerson "not want to be a member of the entire human race"), but a new study has shown that a woman should indeed play hard to get unless she wants to end up a lonely spinster, cursing the day she decided not to buy a copy of The Rules.
• More magazine closures may be on the way at Condé Nast. [NYO]
• Time Warner posted a fourth-quarter loss of $16 billion. [AP]
• Bill Keller says there are "deadly serious" discussions taking place at the New York Times about charging for access to the paper's website. [E&P]
• Obama campaign manager David Plouffe has signed a seven-figure deal with Viking to write a book about last year's presidential election. [AP]
• Thanks to Ron Burkle, Wal-Mart customers can no longer pick up copies of magazines like People, Sports Illustrated and Time. [NYP]
• Jonathan Wald is leaving CNBC. [CNBC]
• Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation are close to a merger. [WSJ]
It looks like the battle for control of the Rainbow Room is finally over. The Cipriani family has settled its lawsuit with Tishman Speyer and has agreed to give up control of the famed restaurant and clear out of the Rockefeller Center space by August 1st. There's no official word on what the 65th floor venue will become just yet, although Tishman execs are reportedly deciding between keeping it a restaurant or turning it into office space. [NYP]
Leave it to fashion-obsessed Japanese youth to find a way of responding to the recession that involves looking like an entrant in a kiddie beauty contest. "Hime-kei" girls, apparently inspired by Sofia Coppola's (widely-derided) film about Marie Antoinette (it's also been suggested that the local idolization of Tinsree has played its part), dress like very warped versions of 18th century princesses with frilly dresses, fur, ringlets and flowers, a style they happily spend thousands of dollar a month maintaining. It's a phenomenon, says academic Takatoshi Imada, that's "rooted in a rejection of the goals of advancement through hard work in an ailing market economy." And isn't that something we can all relate to right now?
Now that President Obama has announced a $500,000 compensation cap for senior Wall Street execs who work for banks that receive assistance from the federal government, Goldman Sachs has decided it would like give its bailout billions back. "It would send a very good signal if the firm could repay the money," said David Viniar, Goldman's chief financial officer. Guess this means Jon Winkelried can take his Nantucket estate off the market! [Bloomberg via Dealbreaker]
• Society fixtures Dan and Cynthia Lufkin have sliced $3.5 million off the price of their apartment at 455 Central Park West, after first putting it on the market 10 months ago. The five-bedroom spread, which is located inside what was once a 19th-century chapel and features 28-foot-high vaulted ceilings and arched windows overlooking the park, is now listed at $14 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• The 13th floor apartment located directly below Rupert Murdoch's penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue has reportedly found a buyer. The 13-room, two-bedroom, four-fireplace co-op, which belongs to the estate of Araxia Buckhantz, is expected to sell for $30 million. [NYO]
• Sandie Tillotson, the co-founder of Nu Skin Enterprises, has "quietly" listed her five-bedroom penthouse at the Time Warner Center for $80 million. Tillotson originally purchased the place for $29 million in 2005. [NYO]
Jean Doumanian, the film producer who may be best known for feuding with former business partner Woody Allen several years ago, has a new project in the works. Her production company has acquired the stage and film rights to Mitchell Zuckoff's 2005 book, Ponzi's Scheme, which details the life and times of Charles Ponzi, the charlatan who made off with millions in the 1920s. Naturally, Doumanian thinks the timing is just right for a tale of greed and financial fraud: "The whole ambiance of Boston in the '20s before the Depression has great parallels with what we're seeing today with Madoff and our terrible recession-depression." Presumably she'll have plenty of personal material to draw on, too. When Woody Allen filed suit against her several years ago, he alleged that she and her husband had been providing him with false financial records and had used shady accounting tactics to cheat him out of millions.
Actor, comedian, and former Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry turns 38 today. Singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw is 32. Retired Giants linebacker (and possible Dancing with the Stars contestant) Lawrence Taylor is 50. Former Vice President Dan Quayle is turning 62. New York Assemblyman Denny Farrell is turning 77. Natalie Imbruglia is 34. Alice Cooper is 61. The rapper Cam'ron is turning 33. And Oscar De La Hoya is 36.
• More details about President Obama's plans to limit Wall Street pay are emerging. So is plenty of criticism. "I don't think the president should paint everyone with the same brush," says JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon. [BN, WSJ, BN]
• Wells Fargo has scrapped plans to host a employee conference in Las Vegas after the bank was pummeled with criticism. [WSJ]
• A dozen top bankers from Merrill-BofA have defected to Deutsche Bank. [TD]
• Lazard's fourth-quarter profits dropped by 50 percent. [DB]
• Daniel Och is doubling down on his hedge fund, Och-Ziff. [WSJ]
• Both Citigroup and the Mets say they're standing by their stadium plan. [NYP]
• Bloomberg LP is laying off staff. [Clusterstock]
• The House will hear testimony about Bernie Madoff today from Harry Markopolos, the investigator who tried to blow the whistle on him. [NYT]
• Bruce Wasserstein tied the knot with a "much younger Asian woman" two weekends ago, although details about the billionaire's new bride remain scarce. [P6]
• Alex Rodriguez is jealous and embarrassed that Madonna has been spending so much time with 22-year-old model Jesus Luz, since it makes him look like he got "dumped for a younger stud." [NYDN]
• The City's Jay Lyon—who was named Brent Tuhton until he changed it—has scored a record contract with Universal. [P6]
• Could Mark Badgley and James Mischka really be breaking up? Who is going to design our Oscar gown? [NYDN]
Don't expect to see a smile on Vikram Pandit's face in the hallways of Citigroup today. President Obama will announce later this morning that he's imposing a cap of $500,000 on the compensation of top executives at companies that receive a large amount of bailout money. The new rules will also require greater transparency on the use of corporate jets, splashy parties, office renovations and conferences. [Reuters, NYT]
• Retail on Madison Avenue is a mess, in case you haven't noticed. More than two dozen spaces are currently on the market. [NYT]
• The plan to move Fashion Week to Lincoln Center beginning in 2010 is a done deal. [WWD]
• Jason Wu has postponed plans to launch a fur collection this fall. The Humane Society is very pleased, unsurprisingly. [WWD, WSJ]
• Liz Claiborne is cutting 725 jobs. [MW]
• Giorgio Armani has stirred up scandal with his comments about Italy's fashion scene, and his suggestion that Paris is where it's at. [Reuters]
• Scandal! Scarlett Johansson is now a brunette. [SW]
