MEDIA
• Kent Brownridge picked a new fight with his old boss Jann Wenner, poaching ten-year Rolling Stone vet Joe Levy for the top spot at Blender. Brownridge already stole Men’s Journal editor James Kaminsky to take over Maxim. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• The OK! issue with the Jamie Lynn–pregnancy exclusive sold only 900,000 copies on the newsstand, well short of the roughly 1.5 million the mag had predicted. [WWD]
• Steve Cohn on the Condé shake-up following so fast on Steve Florio’s death: “It sort of reminds me of The Godfather. They go to the funeral and then they blow everything up.” [NYP]
FINANCE
• Another top Goldman trader joined Lloyd Blankfein at 15 Central Park West: Ashok Varadhan, head of the firm’s global foreign exchange, paid $16.3 million for an apartment in the limestone-clad, and money-lined, building. [DealBook/NYT]
• Will Joseph Lewis regret his big wager on Bear Stearns? James Cayne persuaded the London financier to make a $1.2 billion investment back in September, a stake that’s lost $360 million in the last few months. [Business Week]
• New York State Insurance Regulator Eric Dinallo found a new friend in Warren Buffett. After Dinallo got fed up with the tanking bond insurance industry — necessary to keep both Albany and City Hall afloat — Dinallo called one of Buffett’s top men and happily cut red tape to get Berkshire in the game. [NYT]
LAW
• Schulte Roth, Simpson Thacher, and Cravath topped the list of legal cafeterias with the most health violations. Watch out especially next time you stop by Simpson — the firm got hit for “evidence of flying insects or live flying insects present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.” [Keeping Up With Jonas via Above the Law]
• Upstate judge Robert Julian resigned after seven years on the bench due to poor pay. With just $137,600 a year, well short of a New York associate’s starting salary, Julian wrote, “I am unwilling to further deplete my savings and reduce my lifestyle to continue in office.” [NY Law Journal]
• The ultimate clerkship might be on the Supreme Court, but the most luxurious are in the South Seas, which boast legal systems surprisingly similar to the U.S.[American Lawyer]
FASHION
• Going to shows can land you an ad contract. Just ask Kate Bosworth. [WWD]
• Posh scores the uncoveted number one spot on the worst dressed list. [British Vogue]
• Diesel’s heading to midtown. Isn’t their demographic more downtown? [Racked]
