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• Things just keep getting worse at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Now the two companies may need to raise a whopping $100 billion to cover potential losses on their mortgage portfolio. Is a bailout inevitable? [NYP]
• News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch “took home” $27.5 million in total compensation for the 2008 fiscal year — 14 percent lower than last year. That’s almost enough to buy that new house, Rupe. Keep saving and you’ll get there! [
• Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld nearly struck a deal to raise almost $5 billion from South Korean wealth funds. [NYP]
MEDIA
• Kent Brownridge steps down as CEO of Maxim and Blender. [MIN Online]
• The New York Daily News is looking for 25 volunteers in the newsroom to take buyouts. Anyone? Anyone? [NYP]
• ESPN is eyeing the rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic games. Well, duh, who isn’t, after the successful run NBC has had this summer? [NYT]
• Interview magazine is set to unveil a redesign next week. Unlike the newly redesigned Rolling Stone, which is smaller in size, Interview will be hitting newsstands in a larger format. [Folio]
REAL ESTATE
• Hip-hop mogul Damon Dash allegedly hasn’t made a payment on his nearly $80,000-per-month mortgage since January. [NYP]
• “We’ve been suffering ever since they moved in [six years ago],” said one Soho resident. No, he’s not referring to a nightclub. He’s talking about the Apple store. The final straw was last Tuesday’s Jonas Brothers concert, which was held at the shop. It attracted screaming tweens “like it was Shea Stadium and the Beatles.” [amNY]
• The Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 property owners and managers in the city, is challenging a law that seeks to prevent tenant harassment. Under the provision, landlords, much to their dismay, can be taken to court for threatening tenants and interrupting essential services like heat and hot water. [NYT]
LAW
• Big Law catfight! The feud between Taylor Wessing’s French office and Nixon Peabody has taken a nasty turn. As of last week, a dozen Taylor Wessing lawyers gave notice, hoping they will be brought on to launch Nixon’s Paris office. [Law.com]
• Layoffs continue to plague the legal industry as staffers at the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson get pink-slipped. [WSJ]
• “First Amendment guerrilla” Jack Landau, a lawyer who passionately fought for the legal rights of newspapers, died last week. He was 74. [NYT]
