Advertisers Still Wary of Don ImusPlus, the latest on what’s going on at Citibank, JPMorgan, and on the Upper East Side, in our daily industry roundup.
company town
The Donald Will Go OnDonald Trump is strong and solid, like a freight ship battered by stormy seas. Meanwhile, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide and Don Imus are riding around on rickety catamarans. All that and more metaphors in our daily roundup of real-estate, law, media and finance news.
Did Don Imus Make Another Racial Gaffe?Don Imus seems to chalk Adam “Pacman” Jones’s criminal record up to his race in an audio clip from this morning’s broadcast. Is he in trouble again? Listen and let us know what you think.
company town
Imus Sucker Punches BrokawMEDIA
• Don Imus on Tom Brokaw: “He is not the most courageous person I’ve ever met in my life. He’s not the guy I’d want to be in a foxhole with.” You see, Brokaw didn’t defend Imus when he was down-and-out because of the whole “nappy-headed-hos” incident. Resentment, now that takes courage! [NYP]
• Shocker: CNBC is actually scared shitless of Fox Business News. They’re now asking guests to choose sides, threatening to drop them if they dare to appear on Murdoch’s new down-home network. [Silicon Alley Insider]
• Veteran literary agent Lynn Nesbit wants a new publishing madman: “Even [former Simon & Schuster CEO] Dick Synder is a lot more colorful than [newly departed Simon & Schuster CEO] Jack Romanos, who is now gone. I mean, they had passion, they cared about literature. Even Dick, who’s not an intellectual. He cared. He was a madman … . Who is a madman now in publishing? … It was just different then.” Hi, Lynn, allow us to introduce you to our favorite publishing madwoman, Judith Regan. [Media Mob/NYO]
gossipmonger
Martha Stewart: Donald Trump Is Not a Good ThingThe other day on Martha Stewart’s show, Joan Rivers told the host she had received several Trump Steaks for Christmas. “I thought, ‘I can’t eat Donald Trump,’” she said. “They said, ‘No, he owns the company. They didn’t slaughter him.’ ” “Too bad!” Stewart responded. Don Imus called out Tom Brokaw for not sticking up for him during the “nappy-headed hos” fiasco. Apple Martin was very nice to the staff at the West Village boutique Ink Pad, but daddy Chris Martin wasn’t.
gossipmonger
Imus Is Ready to Fight BackWhen he goes back on air, Don Imus will likely not be so nice to those who took him to task for his “nappy-headed hos” comment. Socialista owner Armin Amiri quarantined paparazzi who were trying to snap photos of Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin and got the police to force them to give up their memory cards. (Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem are dating, by the way.) Val Kilmer got claustrophobic at a party at the Thompson Hotel and left his girlfriend there. Mayor Bloomberg said of his cameo in Sex and the City, “I play the city.” Into the Wild’s Emile Hirsch celebrated his Gotham Award for Best Film by lying low at Marquee.
company town
Howard Stern Thinks Imus Will Make You HurlMEDIA
• Carson Daly is going scab! Good thing he doesn’t have any viewers, and unlike Ellen isn’t actually a member of the Writers Guild. [NYT]
• Howard Stern gets all collegiate about Don Imus’s return: “At this point, I don’t think he’s very relevant. People will tune out within a week. I defy you to listen. See how long you can keep listening. Time it. You’ll throw up. You’ll get sick. You’ll die.” [AP via Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• Knicks reporters — even bigger whiners than regular reporters. Daily News vet Frank Isola: “It used to be fun here. Now, there are some nights when you’re trying to talk your boss out of sending you here and maybe lie and tell him you’re sick or something.” [NYO]
gossipmonger
Heath Ledger Has a Supermodel in His SightsHeath Ledger has been stalking Gemma Ward around town and also tried hitting on (taken) Heather Graham. The server who brought Chelsea Clinton the wrong appetizer at Irving Mill may or may not have been fired. Calvin Klein is vandalizing his Houston Street billboard for the opening of the New Museum on the Bowery. NBC honcho Jeff Zucker doesn’t want the strike to end because retail advertisers have already bought up ad space, and now production costs are zero. Kimora Lee Simmons was overheard saying that the reason she invited Russell Simmons’s new girlfriend, Porschla Coleman, to meet the “major players” at Simmons’s birthday last month is because she “wants this stupid bitch to get a clue.” Seagram heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. just bought an $18.75 million condo in the Carhart mansion on East 95th Street.
gossipmonger
Calvin Klein and Donna Karan’s Bentley Accident: Hilarious!Donna Karan rear-ended Calvin Klein’s Bentley while in her own Bentley. And get this, she was actually driving herself! Don Imus will have a co-host for the first time in his career when he returns to the air on December 3. Bryant Park charges the crew of Sex and the City $100,000 for each day they film there. (Also, the film’s ending is supposedly not yet written.) NBC Universal Jeffrey Zucker bought Kitty Carlisle Hart’s East 64th Street co-op for $12.3 million, “Page Six” reports, making us happy to see that they’re catching up on two-month-old Daily Intel posts. More Secret Service guards have been hanging out on Barbara Bush’s West Village block, perhaps because Janeane Garofalo gabbed on Bill Maher’s show that she’s Bush’s neighbor. Downtown promoter Ivy Supersonic spent a night in jail after being accused of stealing $7,000 by the owner of the Plumm. ‘Mocialite Kristian Laliberte hosted a party with BlackBook magazine for Carlos Campos at Upstairs in Soho.
company town
Bloomberg’s Baby Problems: They Just Keep Popping OutFINANCE
• Another woman joined the federal discrimination lawsuit against Bloomberg LP. After her first child in 2005, her pay fell and her colleagues turned into sharks. One supervisor even asked, “What is this, your third baby?” [NYT]
• More of the same on the Street: Bank of America wrote down $3 billion, Bear Stearns $1.2 billion, and British bank HSBC took the cake with $3.4 billion, largely due to U.S. mortgage weaknesses. Meanwhile, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein laughed in everyone’s face, predicting no more write-downs (not that they lost much in the first place) at the Teflon bank. [NYP, NYT, NYT, DealBreaker]
• Is the credit crunch just like Enron all over again? So says Bethany McLean, the reporter who first broke Ken Lay’s fraud wide open. [Fortune]
company town
Kate Middleton Quits Fashion — Soon to Be Engaged?FASHION
• Princely girlfriend Kate Middleton quit her job at fashion chain Jigsaw, sparking rumors of an imminent engagement! [British Vogue]
• Daria Werbowy is doing a line of makeup for Lancôme that benefits a Brazilian children’s charity. Hot and philanthropic? Sigh. [Fashionista]
• Surprise, surprise: This holiday shopping season is gonna suck for retailers. [NYT]
company town
Stephen Colbert Doesn’t Make the BallotMEDIA
• Hollywood and television writers have decided to strike and will announce a walk-out deadline by noon today. Late night will be most immediately effected — guess we’ll find out just how funny Jon Stewart and David Letterman really are. [NYT]
• The South Carolina Democratic executive committee rejected self-proclaimed “favorite son” Stephen Colbert’s attempt to get on the ballot. Colbert now has to accumulate 10,000 signatures to make the ballot as an independent or pay the Republicans $35,000. Tough decision. [HuffPo]
• Don Imus signed a deal with Citadel to return to radio, broadcasting on WABC in New York and syndicated nationally on ABC Radio. The I-Man had to settle for $5 million a year, half of what he made with CBS. [WSJ]
in other news
WABC Thinks Imus Was Punished Too SeverelyThat crazy Matt Drudge is saying that Don Imus will return to radio soon. “We’ll have him on a standard 40-second delay,” said a studio source at WABC, where Drudge claims Imus will begun jockeying once again. “Don is rested, humbled, and ready for war!” Wow, whose idea was that? We’re betting Citadel Broadcasting CEO Farid Suleman was the brains behind it. “I think if Don was available, we would be very happy to see what we could do,” Suleman told New York’s Robert Kolker way back in August. “What he did was wrong. But the consequences of what he did seemed out of proportion.” Well! This is sure to offend some people. What will he say next? We’re sure pretty much everyone will be listening with glee, just waiting for his next gaffe. Which is, you know, exactly what Suleman wants.
The Resurrection of Imus: Returns on Nation’s Top Talk Station [Drudge Report]
Related: The Resurrection of Don Imus [NYM]
company town
Bear Stearns, Really Into BridgeFINANCE
• Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne, ranked 611 in the world at contract bridge, fired Warren Spector, ranked in the top 225, for his role in the subprime crisis. Spector, a co-president at Bear, who took home $37 million, spent a whole two weeks at a bridge tournament in Nashville, while Cayne made do with a mere two days. Meanwhile, the firm announced 310 job cuts. [Bloomberg, DealBook/NYT]
• Merrill Lynch canned three top executives before even disclosing its own subprime losses, which could exceed $4 billion. Dow Kim, the former co-head of institutional securities, Osman Semerci, global head of fixed income, and deputy Dale Lattanzio were all shown the door. [WSJ]
• Zoe Cruz, co-president of Morgan Stanley, is the highest paid woman in America. At least there’s good news for somebody! [CNN, WSJ]
in other news
Bill O’Reilly: The Backlash to the Blacklash Bill O’Reilly’s comments on his radio show about that time he dined at Sylvia’s with Al Sharpton, as noted by Media Matters, caused such a furor earlier this week that last night CNN was prompted to ask:”Is Bill O’Reilly Comment on Race an Imus Moment?” Today, the rage faded a little, not because of O’Reilly’s impassioned defense of himself but because it was so obvious from the tape that he was genuinely surprised by the fact that black people are just as civilized as white people. “Imus’ ‘nappy-headed hos’ remark was clear-cut, shocking racism with a hefty dash of sexism to chase,” wrote Rachel Sklar of Eat the Press. “O’Reilly’s comments were ignorant as hell and betrayed so preconceived notions, that’s for sure, but if you read his comments in full, they read like ‘clueless white guy’ rather than ‘deliberate racist.’” But is it something more than cluelessness?
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Today, Andy Rooney and Charlie Gibson Equally UnfunnyMEDIA
• Don Imus, his big settlement with CBS finally behind him, is now looking to make a comeback on ABC radio. [NYP]
• Andy Rooney apologizes for crossing the line from crotchety to racist – sort of. [NYT]
• Charlie Gibson wants you to remember that he, unlike Katie Couric and Brian Williams, is humorless. [NYT]
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When All Fails, What Else? A Country SongFINANCE
• The nation’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, almost out of credit. Oh. No. [NYP]
• Recent hedge-fund woes look far from contained — they’ve even inspired a country song. [DealBook/NYT]
• Chuck Schumer’s bright new plan for taxing private equity: raise taxes on all partnerships, not just big firms like Blackstone. How Democratic. [Reuters via DealBook/NYT]
company town
Imus Not Hiding As Much Cash Under His Hat As It AppearsMEDIA
• Don Imus may not have gotten that full $20 million; no one knows where he’s going to work next; and he may have to pay an unspecified amount to settle a defamation suit brought by a Rutgers player. Oh my! [NYT, AP via NYT]
• One staffer at Portfolio compared editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman to the captain in Mutiny on the Bounty who gets thrown over board, confirming the total geekdom of staffers at Portfolio. [NYP]
• Dow Jones union suggests members fight the power by using anti-Murdoch wallpaper on their computers, and Jack Shafer thinks the term “genocidal tyrant” fits Murdoch nicely. [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro, Slate]
it just happened
Imus in the Money
Breaking news! From Matt Drudge! Don Imus has a deal! Woo-hoo! Reports the fedora’d one:
Radio host Don Imus has agreed to settle his contract with CBS for $20 million, and a non disparaging clause, legal sources claim. The move opens the possibility Imus will soon return to the airwaves — on WABC in New York! [Top radio executive strongly dismisses Imus will be offered WABC slot] Developing…
Hmm. That denouement sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it?
UPDATE, 3:06 p.m.: And the AP (via the Times) says it is so.
Imus: $20 Million Man [Drudge]
The Resurrection of Don Imus [NYM]
the morning line
And in Non-Explosion News…
• As if last night’s man-made horrors weren’t enough, here’s one from Mother Nature: A tornado touched down in Islip Terrace, uprooting trees and ripping up a law office, as two storms pummeled Long Island at the same time. [WNBC]
• Some Wall Street Journal employees answer phones by drawling “News Corporation” in an Australian accent. [NYT]
• Congress is refusing to pass a “routine resolution” honoring the New York Archdiocese because it mentions scandal-tainted Cardinal Edward Egan by name. Honorable, we guess. Remind us why Congress is honoring archdioceses in the first place? [NYP]
• Al Sharpton, who led the drive to get Don Imus fired, will have no problem with his nemesis’ return to the airwaves: “He has a right to make a living.” So does the Rev, who clearly needs new material. [amNY]
• And mazel tov to Mark Malkoff, who visited every Starbucks in Manhattan — there are 171 — in 24 hours. Bad news: Dude’s an “aspiring filmmaker” and, naturally, filmed the journey. [NYDN]
gossipmonger
Lindsay, NudeA Website claims it has nude photos of Lindsay Lohan taken by boyfriend Calum Best. Don Imus may be returning to radio in September. Former Mafioso club promoter Chris Paciello is out of jail and now hanging out with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Equinox is planning to open a $5 million gym in East Hampton, complete with spa and valet parking. Luciano Pavarotti is fighting pancreatic cancer. Jessica Alba and Cash Warren are apartment-hunting in New York. Leonardo DiCaprio, Lucas Hass, and Q-Tip cruised lower Manhattan on bikes. Brandon Davis has been cut off by his parents and is asking friends for loans. Dane Cook wants you to know he is straight and alive, contrary to Internet rumors.
gossipmonger
This Movie Is Innnsaaane!Danny DeVito is trying to make a movie about Crazy Eddie. One of Lindsay Lohan’s MySpace friends sold online correspondence between Lohan and Samantha Ronson to Star magazine. Philip Roth complained about showing up in “Page Six.” Jane staffers stole a lot of stuff from the fashion closet after learning the mag was folding. Former Jets QB Boomer Esiason may replace Don Imus as WFAN’s early-morning D.J. Gore Vidal is annoyed that Los Angeles Department of Water and Power tore out his solar-power system. Congressman Charlie Rangel is offering $1,000 to anyone who can prove he went on a “date.” Today show contributor Amy Jacobson was fired from her Chicago post after being caught on tape in a bikini at the house of a woman whose disappearance she was covering. Gisele and Tom Brady PDA’d at Palma on Cornelia Street. 50 Cent canoodled with Ciara.
company town
The Return of Imus?MEDIA
• CBS Radio employees are hinting that Don Imus may be back in the fall. [NYP]
• Former Intermix head Brad Greenspan, who once owned MySpace, has made his own bid for Dow Jones. [NYT]
• Universal Music has canceled its contract with iTunes and will now sell music through Apple at will. [NYT]
company town
Will Imus Return?MEDIA
• Is Imus’s planned $200 million lawsuit a ploy to get back on the air? [NYP]
• The final bids for Dennis Publishing are due next week, and it’s shaping up as a showdown between Kent Brownridge and Ron Burkle. [AdAge]
• Jeff Bridges will play Graydon Carter in the film version of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. [WWD]
gossipmonger
Jacko PornoMichael Jackson is trying to reclaim a trove of Jacko memorabilia set to be auctioned off this month, some of which is pornographic in nature. Lindsay Lohan and “boyfriend” Calum Best got into a shouting match at the Soho Grand. Jerry Hall called Mick Jagger cheap. Billionaire David Koch boasted that he had graduated college when his wife was only six weeks old. The Office star Jenna Fischer slipped and fractured four bones in her back at Buddakan, but she’s okay now. Charles Barkley thinks Don Imus should just have been suspended, not fired. Top Chef contestant Sam Talbot backed out of his deal to open a gastropub on the Lower East Side.
company town
Isabella Blow OverdosedFASHION
• The speculation ends: Isabella Blow died of a drug overdose. [BBC]
• Despite news that Jil Sander’s sales were up, rumors are swirling that the line may be sold. [Fashion Inc./Portfolio]
• Diane von Furstenberg’s new neighbors have welcomed her flagship with open arms. [Downtown Darling]
gossipmonger
Albrecht Out at HBOHBO chairman Chris Albrecht was forced to resign last night after allegedly beating up his girlfriend Sunday, likely because this wasn’t his first domestic assault. Harvey Weinstein had to explain to girlfriend Georgina Chapman that Elie Wiesel was notable for being “in a concentration camp” at the Time 100 fête. And Jessica Simpson dressed conservatively at the event to not draw attention from boyfriend and honoree John Mayer. Cameron Diaz went to a sex show at the Box the night before appearing on the Today show. Josh Hartnett and Helena Christensen sang karaoke together. Lorne Michaels sang karaoke at oil heir William Hess’s bar mitzvah. Nancy Grace is trying to get on The View now that she’s out at Court TV. NBC News’ David Gregory may be Don Imus’s replacement.
company town
Hedge-Fund Managers Can’t Get Over AerosmithFINANCE
• At this year’s 2007 Robin Hood benefit, philanthropic hedge funders paid $400,000 to sing a song with Aerosmith, and $1.3 million for dinner with Mario Batali. [NYT]
• Hafiz Naseem, a junior investment banker at Credit Suisse, was charged with insider trading after he tipped off associates in Pakistan about deals, including the TXU buyout, before they were made public. [NYT]
• Google is the No.1 preferred employer for MBA students, with more traditional companies McKinsey and Goldman taking the next two slots. [Fortune via CNNMoney]
company town
Bancroft Family Divided Over Dow Jones BidMEDIA
• A Bancroft spokesman said family members who hold slightly more than 50 percent of voting shares will oppose News Corp.’s bid for Dow Jones. [NYT]
• Don Imus hired a top-notch First Amendment attorney to see that he gets the $40 million left on his contract. [Fortune/CNNMoney]
• Former Newsweek Interactive head Mark Whitaker will oversee TV programming and Web content at NBC News. [WWD]
intel
Howard Stern: It Was Time for Imus to GoHoward Stern knows a thing or two about getting flak for saying politically incorrect things on air, but Don Imus shouldn’t expect any sympathy from his fellow shock jock. “I never was a big fan of Imus,” the King of All Media told us at the Tribeca premiere of Adam Carolla’s The Hammer last week. “I don’t appreciate his broadcasting, and I didn’t appreciate him back when I worked with him. It’s time for him to take that cowboy hat and the spurs and the chaps, and maybe go to an S&M bondage house or something with that uniform.” The two have a long history together, both coming to national prominence on WNBC-AM in the seventies and eighties, where Imus aired in the mornings, Stern in the afternoons, and they became rivals. “It was time for him to go,” Stern said last week. —Bennett Marcus
in the magazine
When Imus Stopped Giving Interviews (the First Time)Leafing through some seventies issues of the magazine earlier today, searching for David Halberstam’s contributions to New York, we happened across the most curious thing. It was the October 30, 1972, issue, and Halberstam’s piece was on the ascent of Spiro Agnew. (No, we couldn’t make it all the way through.) But on page 62 we found this: “Why I Won’t Talk to Journalists Any More.” It was a media column by Don Imus. “I want to say right up front that I am a star,” he begins.
I am in fact a very big star. The hottest thing to hit radio in 50 years. I have been in New York less than a year, and when you are not in New York City the national press ignores you. I was a big star last year in Cleveland, but the New York press was not bright enough to realize what I was going to mean to them. Now everybody in the country wants to write about me.
intel
Don Imus and Other Great Moments in Bigoted Slurs
And so the “nappy-headed hos” remark has cost Don Imus his job. The final denouement, which came with CBS Radio’s canning the I-Man last night, a day after MSNBC dropped the simulcast of his show, has seemed inevitable for most of the week, as protests had intensified, advertisers had balked, and the great and august Ana Marie Cox had announced she would never again deign to appear on such a juvenile broadcast. (Cox first gained fame as the editor of Wonkette, where she was known for her anal-sex jokes.) But it has not always been thus; many, many public figures have uttered bigoted slurs and lived to tell the tale. After the jump, a look back at some Great Moments in Bigoted Slurs.
the morning line
Imus Scandal Claims Another Casualty
• New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is in critical condition, and on a breathing tube, after a serious car crash sustained on his way to moderate Don Imus’s meeting with Rutgers basketball players. Early reports say an out-of-control driver caused Corzine’s car to swerve and hit a guardrail. Richard Codey is acting governor for the moment. [NYT]
• It took a mere day for the other shoe to drop: CBS has fired Don Imus after about 30 years (and countless slurs) on the air. And now the talk-radio world is a safe and happy place again, of course. [NYP]
• Turns out New York City is not just a ravenous consumer of bootleg DVDs but also a major factory of them, so videotaping films off the screen, which used to get you fined a measly $250, is now a misdemeanor with jail time attached. [IHT]
• More scary housing stats: There have been 554 foreclosure auctions in New York City between January and March, up 56.5 percent from last year’s fourth quarter, as folks begin defaulting on loans. [Prime Newswire]
• And Governor Schwarzenegger — he of the Hummer fleet — is in New York teaching us about the environment. Okay, fine, California did pass a groundbreaking emission-reduction law and refuses to buy coal-derived electricity. Still: annoying. [NY Metro]
intel
The Year of Nappy-Headed Thinking
Okay, so maybe it’s just because we walked past an anti-Imus protest in Rockefeller Center last night on the way to see Didion’s play on Broadway, and maybe it’s entirely in our own heads, but is anyone else getting a bit of a separated-at-birth thing here? (Yes, we know: We’re terrible people.)
the morning line
God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut
• Kurt Vonnegut died in Manhattan last night. He was 84 and battling a brain injury after a bad fall, and we won’t insult you, or him, with a half-sentence recap of his career. [NYT]
• City Comptroller William Thompson is asking the U.S. Attorney General to investigate allegations of Wal-Mart’s “chilling and truly outrageous” surveillance of shareholders. Now we’re definitely not getting a Wal-Mart. [Reuters]
• As expected, MSNBC has killed its simulcast of Don Imus’s radio show. The canning, framed in the “we’re doing what’s right” terms, was an easy call after a whopping nineteen advertisers pulled out. [NYDN]
• NYU’s wunderkind con artist Hakan Yalincak has been sentenced to 42 months in prison, with a possible deportation to Turkey to look forward to when he’s done. Yalincak scammed investors out of $8.8 million through a phony hedge fund. [NYP]
• And worried that environmental protests tend to come out “shrill,” a group is planning to flood Battery Park this Saturday with a so-called Sea of People — including a fake Blue Men Group and a church congregation dressed as Noah’s Ark. Sounds, well, not shrill. [
company town
Advertisers Flee Imus FiascoMEDIA
• Advertisers ditch Imus faster than you can say “Rutgers basketball” Proctor & Gamble is out, along with Staples and Bigelow Tea. Considering Imus’s show generates 25 percent of revenue for WFAN, this isn’t looking good. We’ll see what happens when the Rutgers basketball team meets up with him. [WSJ] and [NYT]
• SNL producer Lorne Michaels is frustrated with NBC’s vigilante legal department for removing network material from YouTube. [NYO]
• Newish Times editorial-page editor Andrew Rosenthal is embracing the Web in ways his predecessors have not. Anyone want a TimesSelect column? [NYO]
Imus in the Seventies“There are those who would claim that Imus occasionally lapses into good taste,” Mike McGrady writes in New York. “If true, this may well be a result of several lengthy discussions he has had with the station manager and the program director, his ‘Mr. Vicious’ and ‘Mr. Numb.’ The upshot of those discussions is that he will never, never, not ever do any more jokes about Chappaquiddick or, for that matter, anyone else involved in a personal tragedy.” McGrady’s profile is from the April 3, 1972, issue. The I-Man was 31 years old, freshly arrived at New York’s WNBC, and he was a new and jarring force in radio. He was also, it seems, very much the same guy he is now. Which New York radio personalities did Imus admire?, McGrady asked. “David Steinberg —he’s very funny for a Jewish person.” We’ve dug the profile from the archives; you can read it as a PDF.
Radio Therapy: Shock Treatment in the Morning [NYM, PDF]
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]
the morning line
Bye, I• MSNBC and CBS are taking Don Imus off the air for two weeks, prompting the Post headline “Don Ho” (you have to think about that one for a minute). Seems calling Al Sharpton “you people” didn’t help things. [NYP]
•It has begun: Downtown’s Community Board 1 is absolutely outraged by JPMorgan Chase’s plans to build a skyscraper cantilevering over a nearby park. Joining the pile-on are the unions miffed by Chase’s demand for fat relocation incentives. [MetroNY]
• Ex–New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey is suing his estranged wife Dina Matos, ostensibly not to stop her from promoting a tell-all but to make her stop dragging their 5-year-old daughter to the readings. He also accuses Matos of, yup, homophobia. [NYP]
• East Hamptonites are divided in the wake of an over-the-top immigration raid. Armed agents in bulletproof vests pushed through the doors, SWAT style, in search for the homeowner’s estranged husband. [NYT]
• And will a Brooklyn Law student be booted after appearing in a Playboy TV video nude and playing with judge’s gavels? Probably not, but come bar-exam time, the Committee on Character and Fitness will have some research to do. [NYDN]
company town
Bravo Makes Tim Gunn WorkFASHION
• Tim Gunn will carry on for another season of Project Runway. Bravo executives can now breathe. [Downtown Darling]
• Vogue’s May issue spotlights the ten new top models, including Jessica Stam, Chanel Iman, Coco Rocha, and Agyness Deyn. [Fashionologie]
• Henry Holland knockoffs continue to flood the market. The culprit this time: Urban Outfitters. [Fashionista]