FINANCE
• Bear Stearns seems to have great confidence in new president Alan Schwartz, even though Schwartz, an "old-line relationship banker," has no experience in the firm's embattled bond business. [NYT]
• Bear Stearns' decision to liquidate their failed hedge funds in the Cayman Islands may help protect them from irate and litigious investors. [Bloomberg]
• Banks working on the ABN Amro deal stand to make about $1.3 billion. Good news for Citi, Credit Suisse, and others. [Deal Journal/WSJ]

MEDIA
• If Murdoch uses the Journal to go after the Times, will Sulzberger be able to save the family paper? [Forbes]
• Scott Thomas Beauchamp, the Army private station in Iraq, says most of his harrowing Baghdad columns for The New Republic were fabricated. [NYO]
• The NFL is standing by its policy requiring photographers to wear vests with ad logos this season. [E&P]

FASHION
• Rihanna is about to sign with IMG models. [Fashionista]
• Following Louis Vuitton's lead, Prada has bowed out of America's Cup. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Paris Hilton is going to design shoes. [Downtown Darling]

LAW
• Beatie & Osborn partner likens suit against Milberg Weiss to a "religious crusade." [Legal Pad/Fortune]
• Mayor Bloomberg was skipped over on his first day of jury duty, though apparently he had to endure some rather uncomfortable seating. [NYT]
• One unlucky summer associate has been charged with figuring out the odds that the firm's building, still closed from the midtown steam-pipe explosion, would be a victim of such a disaster. [Above the Law]