LAW
• Eliot Spitzer has been careful about the lawyers he’s selected to protect him against potential charges related to his activities with random twentysomething hookers, hiring a set of heavy hitters from white-collar crime specialists Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He’s right to be choosy: “Hiring a lawyer is not unlike selecting a river guide,” the Times says today. “One wants a professional who not only steers clear of the rapids but does so in a reassuring manner. It also helps if he knows what to do should the boat hit the rocks.” Yeah. That’s just how we would have put it. [NYT]
• A New York court rules that the daughter of a Jell-O heiress is not entitled to a taste of the multi-million-dollar fortune. [New York Law Journal]
• Is Hillary Clinton’s legal background hindering her campaign? [Law.com]
MEDIA
• Mark Cuban gives the New York Times some sage branding advice: “I would be doing everything I could to send the message that ‘The NY Times does not have blogs, we have Real Time Reports from the most qualified reporters in the world. Like blogs we post continuously , 24x7x365 to keep you up to speed, unlike blogs, we have the highest level of journalistic standards that we adhere to…’” Dude, why can’t you be the activist shareholder? [Blog Maverick]
• Tim and Nina Zagat are asking little too much for Zagat. [The Deal]
• People magazine embraces Web 2.0 and … hires an advertising director. [WWD]
FINANCE
• The SEC charges three of its own with insider trading. [WSJ]
• Is this a result of Spitz-mania? Venture capitalists invest in “a Web site that publishes professional photos of women, many in various states of undress, and allows its members to vote for their favorites.” [VentureWire via DealBreaker/NYT]
• When they were young: Jim Cramer and Eliot Spitzer. [DealBreaker]
