Michael Phelps Is Gold for NBCPlus, lawyers make criminals sing (to ‘Don Giovanni’), another spectacular apartment you can’t afford hits the market, and more, in our daily industry roundup.
company town
The Upper East Side Completes Renée ZellwegerThe actress smoothly buys into a hard-to-crack co-op, while JPMorgan and the New York ‘Times’ struggle, in our daily digest of real-estate, finance, media and law news.
Katie Couric Must Really Hate GoldfishMEDIA
• Katie Couric’s YouTube channel provides real service journalism: While chitchatting with Joe Biden, the CBS anchor recommends viewers tune into her favorite viral video — the one where a little girl watches her goldfish get flushed down the toilet. [HuffPo]
• The New York Times op-ed columnists can’t endorse political candidates. This “isn’t a problem” for Maureen Dowd because she doesn’t “do a partisan column.” [NYO]
• Vegas, take note: Big Apple broadsheets are front-runners in the race for the Pulitzers. [E&P]
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The ‘Times’ Touches Upon Checkbook Journalism — With Two Fingers, Of CourseMEDIA
• “OK!, the celebrity magazine, could not possibly have purchased all the attention it enjoyed in late December after it got the scoop that Jamie Lynn Spears, the younger and until then less sensational sister of the troubled pop queen Britney Spears, was three months pregnant. Or could it?” [NYT]
• Josh Stein isn’t actually leaving Gawker; Emily Gould will write for Jezebel; Choire Sicha will continue contributing columns; and recently departed Wonkette editor Ken Layne returned after just a few months off the job. Can anyone escape the tentacles of Nick Denton? [HuffPo]
• The Writers Guild plans to picket Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, and Conan O’Brien as the three late-night hosts return to the air. Letterman gets off easy since he struck a deal with the writers and may get a big boost since big stars (like Robin Williams, natch) won’t have to cross the pickets to go on his show. [NYO, NYT]
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Did ‘The New Yorker’ Rip One of Its Cartoons Off ‘The Far Side’?MEDIA
• OMG, plagiarism in The New Yorker’s cartoon issue? [Gelf]
• Washington Post chief Don Graham has 300 Facebook friends. Poke away! [Washingtonian]
• Fox 9’s license is up for renewal, and a bunch of incensed New Jerseyans are fighting the station for failing to live up to its Jersey-side obligations. After all, the channel is based out of Secaucus but bills itself as “My9 New York.” [NYT]
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Al Gore: Cashing In on His Big YearFINANCE
• Al Gore, venture capitalist? The Nobel laureate and Apple board member is taking a hands-on role at Kleiner Perkins, the leading Silicon Valley venture firm. His goal: Save the world. And annoy GE’s Jeff Immelt as much as possible. [Fortune]
• Harvard picked Robert S. Kaplan, a former Goldman Sachs vice-chairman, as the new steward for the $35 billion endowment. Something tells us his kids won’t have any trouble getting in. [Reuters via NYT]
• A few management consultants with nothing better to do gave the Times its newest buzzword: CEO version 3.0. With the departures of Stan O’Neal, Chuck Prince, and Richard Parsons, it’s now time for leaders “who can assemble a team that functions as smoothly as a jazz sextet.” Because, as James Cayne showed, the old CEOs were way too bebop. [NYT]
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The Bancroft Family High Jinks: Ongoing!MEDIA
• The Bancrofts are so dysfunctional that they missed the deadline for choosing their representative to the new Dow Jones board. Murdoch then vetoed two family nominations before agreeing to Natalie Bancroft, a 27-year-old opera singer and journalism neophyte. Family member Crawford Hill concluded: “This entire, sad and pathetic final episode is a fiasco. No wonder we lost Dow Jones!!” [WSJ]
• With the Times hiring former sex writer Susan Dominus as the newest “Metro” columnist, will the section be heading toward the look of “Sunday Styles”? [NYO]
• Nora Ephron: Blogging makes us better writers. Hey Nora, can you call our boss? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
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Did Aaron Charney Only Get 100K From Sullivan?LAW
• Will Aaron Charney ever have to work again? More than likely — he may not have gotten more than $100,000 in his sexual-harassment settlement with Sullivan & Cromwell. [PrawfsBlawg via Above the Law]
• Should law schools be more like business schools? One law prof thinks so, and he looks a little like Justin Timberlake, so he must be right. [Law Blog/WSJ]
• Do Cravath’s two rounds of bonuses signal Big Law strength and more money for associates, or is the firm just hedging so they aren’t locked in to paying the same amount next year? [NYT]
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Will Dick Parsons Pull a Bloomberg?MEDIA
• Rumor has it that Richard Parson’s will announce his departure at Time Warner as early as this week. Jeff Bewkes, longtime No. 2, is set to take over as CEO. Does this mean a Parsons run for mayor? [Times of London]
• Radar cooked up a clever quiz: Fox News anchor or porn star? You decide. Wait, no, Murdoch decides. [Radar]
• Jim Cramer matched Rupert Murdoch’s legendary subtlety: “We have a competitor now in Fox and it is really important to destroy and mutilate them.” [Broadcasting & Cable]
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Tony Blair Sells Out Rupert MurdochMEDIA
• Tony Blair sold his memoir for $9 million to Knopf, something of a surprise since Blair has long been tight with Murdoch, known for offering advances so big they resemble campaign donations through HarperCollins. [Media Mob/NYO]
• A democratic member of the FCC requested an investigation of Murdoch’s Dow Jones deal, arguing the merger consolidates too many powerful outlets in one less than trustworthy hand. [B&C]
• Bloggingheads, everyone’s favorite lo-fi insider-y political fight club, reached a content-sharing agreement with the Times. [HuffPo]
company town
Falling Glass a Metaphor for Bank of America’s Finances?FINANCE
• The debris falling off the new Bank of America tower at 42nd Street may have been metaphoric. The firm just reported steep losses, and their wannabe investment-banking unit, set to anchor the new tower, performed the worst. [MarketBeat/WSJ, Deal Journal/WSJ]
• Congrats, James Cayne — nobody wants anything to do with Bear Stearns. Contrary to reports, both Warren Buffett and China’s Citic Bank denied any interest in the bank. [DealBook/NYT]
• Today’s the real anniversary of the 1987 stock-market crash, but at least one veteran thinks parallels to the present are overblown. “The market is just like generals — everyone prepares for the last war.” [MarketBeat/WSJ]
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Fox Business Network: Still Painting the OfficesMEDIA
• Looks like the Fox Business Network has a shitload of work to do on their studio before launching next Monday. They’ve got the requisite bright-red circle hung above the anchor desk, but otherwise the floor’s not even finished. NBC News, on the other hand, finally cut the ribbon on their new 30 Rock studio, which president Steve Capus compared to “the dance floor of the Stockholm Hilton.” Was that supposed to be a compliment? [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro, TVNewser]
• Jan Wenner failed to lure Ed Felsenthal away from the Journal (and Portfolio) and had to settle for Brad Wieners as new editor at Men’s Journal. Wieners has been acting editor since August, when James Kaminsky decamped for Maxim. [NYP]
• Poynter Institute: As a journalist, it’s your “duty” to read the print newspaper. Unclear how that affects bloggers. [Poynter]
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Topshop Signs a Lease in NYC?FASHION
• Breaking rumor alert: After months of hinting, Topshop has possibly, maybe signed a New York lease. Anglophiles and Kate Moss–ophiles, rejoice! [Fashionista]
• First he’s out as the designer of Dior Homme. Now, Hedi Slimane’s been replaced by none other than BFF Karl Lagerfeld as the photographer of the ad campaigns. Oh, cruel fashion world! [WWD]
• Giorgio Armani’s raking in the dough. The designer sold back a 5 percent stake in his company to Giorgio Armani SpA for about $110 million. [British Vogue]
company town
All Is Not Well in Redstone LandMEDIA
• Sumner Redstone, the octogenarian CEO of CBS and Viacom, is trying to play all lovey-dovey with his spurned daughter Shari, but the succession to the $50 billion empire is nowhere near resolved. [LAT]
• With more than a 1,000 job cuts at Time Inc. behind her, Ann Moore, the CEO who rose from the back room to the boardroom, thinks there’s still plenty of fat to cut — she asked some McKinsey consultants to keep sharpening their knives. [NYP]
• ABC News has done gangbusters over the last year, leading nightly news and finally catching up in the morning, so why did their Disney overlords decide to shuffle management at the top? [NYP]
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Goldman Defies Credit CrunchFINANCE
• Credit crunch, what credit crunch? Goldman’s record profits, which involved somehow shorting the mortgage market, have left a bonus pool of $17 billion, even larger than last year’s record. [WSJ, DealBreaker]
• The surge in the markets aside, the Fed rate-cut had one immediate bad effect: The Canadian dollar, a.k.a. the Loonie, pulled even with U.S. greenbacks for the first time since 1976. The euro also pushed past $1.40, another record. [NYP]
• It’s tough out there for a billionaire: While sixty-four New Yorkers made Forbes’s list of the 400 richest Americans, eighty-two Americans failed to make it with their paltry billion dollars. [AP]
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Murdoch Mulls the Liberation of WSJ.comMEDIA
• Murdoch is hinting heavily that he’ll take WSJ.com free, but Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino doesn’t think it’s such a great idea. [WSJ]
• Well, we’ll be — Portfolio pulling down pretty good ad pages. [NYP]
• Roger Ailes, former CNBC president now with Fox Business Network, making many CNBCers interested in switching teams. It may be many things, but it won’t be boring! [NYO]
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Greg Larkin Was the Al Gore of the Subprime MessFINANCE
• Alan Greenspan was giddy when old buds Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney took over the White House. But it turned out they were bad boys and not his friends at all. Check out this and more in Greenspan’s new bio. [
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Scarborough Takes Imus’s SlotMEDIA
• Joe Scarborough picks up Don Imus’s coveted MSNBC morning slot. [Radar]
• The Dow Jones editorial-independence agreement with News Corp. stipulates that disputes will be aired on the Journal’s editorial page. [WSJ]
• News Corp. bought two Bronx weeklies, expanding its weekly neighborhood newspaper holdings. But how well will Murdoch papers go over in Greenpoint and Williamsburg? [NYT]
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Charney’s Lawyers Toss Around Casual Nazi ReferencesLAW
• One of Aaron Charney’s lawyers accuses Sullivan & Cromwell of having “adopted Dr. Mengele’s techniques to torture the facts and law of this case.” [Above the Law]
• More than twenty lawyers filed an objection against the $125-apiece BAR/BRI settlement. [National Law Journal]
• Summer associates at Pillsbury Winthrop practiced researching things in books this week. Next week: writing briefs by hand. [Law Blog/WSJ]
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Happy Eccentric Executive Day!FINANCE
• Steve Schwarzman’s chef spends $3,000 each weekend on food; Schwarzman makes his employees wear non-squeaky shoes, and at five-foot-six, he attributes his success to “little man” complex. [WSJ]
• “Page Six” is on the trail of an investment banker who wears kimonos and eyeliner. [NYP]
• If you’re a CEO, you may well be a lousy father. [Fortune via CNNMoney]
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My CEO Can Beat Up Your CEOFINANCE
• Lehman CEO Dick Fuld, nicknamed the “Gorilla” on the Street, didn’t do so well when he picked a fight with another father at his son’s hockey game. [Trader Daily via DealBreaker]
• Paul Wolfowitz promotes his girlfriend at the World Bank, and his colleagues want him out. [CNNMoney]
• The world’s top earner in the financial sector: reclusive ex–Enron trader John Arnold, who netted almost $2 billion shorting natural gas. [The Guardian]
company town
Co-ed Naked Brooklyn Law StudentsLAW
• A third-year Brooklyn Law School student has been identified as a woman being spanked and holding gavels up to her breasts in the Playboy TV show Naked Happy Girls. [NYDN]
• Was Aaron Charney just afflicted by Sullivan & Cromwell’s general malaise? The firm ranked 60th on a satisfaction survey of midlevel associates in New York. [New York Law Journal via Above the Law]
• Judicial paradox: New York Chief Justice Judith Kaye says she’s prepared to sue after Albany failed to deliver on judicial pay raises. [New York Law Journal]
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Kate Moss’s Topshop Collection Goes OnlineFASHION
• At last! Take a look at Kate Moss’s Topshop collection. [Racked]
• Gap ups the ante on high-low designer collaborations, teaming up with Doo.Ri, Thakoon, and Rodarte. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Set your DVR to Cinemax on April 30 to glimpse rare footage of Helmut Newton at work. [Radar via Fashionista]
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Sullivan & Cromwell’s Silent PartnerLAW
• Is Sullivan & Cromwell partner Stephen Kotran the quiet hero in the Charney case? [Above the Law]
• Department of Justice e-mails recall high-school girlfriends and Raging Bull. [Radar]
• Justice Anthony Kennedy recuses himself from a case involving Credit Suisse because his son is a managing director there. So why didn’t that come up last December when Kennedy was involved in the decision to grant review? [Legal Times]
company town
Jim Cramer, Manipulator?FINANCE
• Mad Money host Jim Cramer (and New York columnist) recalls his good old days of stock manipulation. [YouTube via NYP]
• Activist shareholder Evelyn Y. Davis demands that the board of Goldman Sachs stop distributing stock options immediately. [DealBook/NYT]
• Wannabe buyer attacks Smith & Wollensky CEO, claiming that accepting another, lower bid would personally benefit Alan Stillman. [Crain’s]
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Heatherette Honcho Throws Weirdly Normal Birthday PartyFASHION
• Heatherette designer Traver Rains turned 30! And, apparently, his “Wild West” surprise party started on time and everyone invited actually got inside. [Fashionista]
• Calvin Klein has high hopes that CK in2u will replicate the success of CK One. [NYT]
• Giorgio Armani will design uniforms for Russell Crowe’s Australian rugby team. [British Vogue]
company town
‘Voice’ Voiceless, AgainMEDIA
• David Blum out at the Village Voice. He was the fourth editor there since December 2005. [Gawker]
• Flummoxing DVR users everywhere, ABC green-lights a sitcom based on the Geico cavemen commercials. [WSJ]
• Pulitzer judging starts today at Columbia University; judges from Willamette Week, the Indianapolis Star, and others read actual printed copies of newspaper articles. [E&P]
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Warren Buffett Wants a New Warren BuffettFINANCE
• Buffett 2.0: Oracle of Omaha seeks young understudy to take over Berkshire. [Fortune]
• Thirteen charged with insider training, including Morgan Stanley, UBS, Bear Stearns, and Bank of America employees. [NYT]
• Goldman, Merrill, and Morgan Stanley traders rate own firms barely above junk-bond status. [Bloomberg]
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Barbarians at the Energy GridFINANCE
• A group led by Kohlberg Kravis is taking energy giant TXU private for $45 billion, besting the Blackstone record by $6 billion. But can Kravis beat Schwarzman’s party? [NYT]
• Gary Crittenden named Citigroup CFO. Job description: Fix CEO Charles Prince’s mistakes. [NYT]
• Goldman media banker Sebastian Grigg may defect to Credit Suisse. [DealBook/NYT]
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Mayor’s Girlfriend Leaves Public for Private SectorFINANCE
• Diana Taylor the mayor’s First Girlfriend leaves post as state superintendent of banks for boutique investment firm Wolfensohn & Co. [NYP]
• Harold Ford Jr. loses Senate race in Tennessee, wins position at Merrill Lynch. [CNNMoney]
• Former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill wants hedge funds to open up their books. [Spiegel via DealBreaker]
company town
Associates’ Pay Up, Partners’ Profits Down?LAW
• Aaron Charney had secret settlement talks with Sullivan & Cromwell as late as January 31. A sticking point: the destruction of Charney’s home hard-drive. [Above the Law]
• Former Thacher Proffitt & Wood associate pleads guilty to insider trading — firm happy to learn Amir Rosenthal wasn’t using client information. [NYLJ]
• Will partner profits stay flat because of associate pay raises? [NLJ via DealBook/NYT]
company town
Sulzberger Tires of Wondering Whether Print Is DeadMEDIA
• Pinch Sulzberger: “Will we print the NYT in five years? I don’t care.” [Haaretz via E&P]
• GE CEO Jeff Immelt calls a Post story about a sale or spinoff of NBC Universal, “more or less made-up stupid drivel.” [Fortune]
• Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen “too big” to share VF’s Hollywood cover. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Chris Rock, and Jack Black apparently not so big. [Deadline Hollywood/LA Weekly]
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Paper Trail Disturbed at Sullivan & CromwellLAW
• Did Aaron Charney “misplace” documents belonging to a partner’s file at Sullivan & Cromwell? The firm’s countersuit suggests so. [Above the Law]
• Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft is rising up the ranks of most profitable firms, thanks to some cut-throat tactics and, apparently, a wicked bowling night. [New York Law Journal]
• Save a life, become a hero, and suffer the (tax) consequences. A law professor explains why the Subway Superman might get walloped by the IRS this tax season. [Mauled Again via Legal Blog Watch]
company town
How Clean Is Your Company Cafeteria?MEDIA
• The cafeteria at Bloomberg LP got a bad score from the city Health Department. Hearst and Condé Nast were much more sanitary. [Radar Online]
• Serendipity exists for online newspapers as well as print, thank you very much. [WSJ]
• Despite what former GE boss Jack Welch had to say about him recently, Jeff Zucker is getting a promotion at NBC. [LAT]
company town
Sullivan & Cromwell Bleeds AssociatesLAW
• Sullivan & Cromwell lost about 30 percent of its associates in 2004 and 2005. It might take more than a raise to fix that. [WSJ]
• Don’t despair, associates! Where Simpson Thacher goes, Milbank Tweed, Sullivan & Cromwell, Paul Weiss, Cleary Gottlieb, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft are sure to follow. [Above the Law]
• Long Island lawyer Gary Berenholtz, who once exposed a corrupt Brooklyn judge, stole money from clients and his partner’s widow to fund fine dining and finer vacations. [NYP]
FINANCE
• The New York Stock Exchange will trade almost exclusively electronically by the end of today; investment firms will continue to lay off floor traders. [WSJ]
• The New York City employees’ pension fund is the lead plaintiff in a suit against Apple Computer Inc. for overcompensating executives with illegal stock options. [Reuters]
company town
Breaking: Banks, Bankers Make a Lot of MoneyToday’s big news in the city’s big businesses.
FINANCE
• J.P. Morgan had a very good fourth quarter, but is $4.53 billion enough to top Citigroup? Answer on Friday. [DealBreaker]
• Projected versus actual 2006 Wall Street bonuses. Either way, they were big. [BankersBall]
• Taking a cue from its bonus-giddy brokers, Bear Stearns looks to invest in some Manhattan real estate. [NYO via DealBook/NYT]
the morning line
We’ve Got a Lot of What It Takes to Get Along
• We’ve been good little New Yorkers, and we’re getting a $1 billion tax cut. Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled his talking points for tonight’s State of the City address, and an upbeat bunch they are: a booming economy, a $2 billion surplus, and his own 75 percent approval rating. [amNY]
• Barack Obama is officially in the running for ‘08, and the Post picks the unusually restrained “Barack Is On Track” while the News goes nearly incomprehensible with “Hil Better Not Look Barack.” [NYP, NYDN]
• A lawyer is suing Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the city’s most prominent law firms, for discriminating against him because he was gay and retaliating when he lodged an internal sexual-harassment complaint. What is this, 1993? [NYP]
• Naomi Campbell pleaded guilty to throwing a cell phone at her maid. The move resulted in a sentence of five days of community service, which Campbell will eventually get around to (after fashion shows in “California, Brazil, London, Paris and Milan.”) [NYT]
• And in another celebrity-justice vignette, Jerry Seinfeld was ordered to pay $100,000 to his real-estate broker, whom he stiffed after she refused to give him a house tour on Shabbat. Strange, this sounds like more of a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. [Newsday]