Rupert’s Fingers Already Closing Around the Heart of the ‘Journal’MEDIA
• Rupert Murdoch won’t officially take over the Journal until tomorrow, but he’s already dipped his tentacles deep into the paper. Rumor has it the Journal will dismiss two or three dozen people, to be replaced with Rupe’s cronies, and then go on a hiring spree. Oh, and apparently Murdoch briefly considered dropping “Wall Street” from the title. Tells you something about where the paper’s headed. [NYT]
• Sadly, Jane Pratt won’t actually be starring in a reality-TV show titled American Ugly, as we reported yesterday. C’mon Jane, don’t you love us? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• New York Post “Metro” editor Dan Colarusso, whom Col Allan praised as “a quintessential New Yorker,” walked out of the newsroom and quit yesterday. No word on why, but seems pretty quintessential to us. [Runnin’ Scared/VV]
gossipmonger
Diddy, Still Fighting After All These Years
Diddy and a hip-hop marketing man fought over a model at Soho club Upstairs. The publisher of Forbes and the editor of Sports Illustrated really like white truffles. Butter owners Richie Akiva and Scott Sartiano were hit with a $120 million lawsuit by the developer of their new Chelsea club. Terrence Howard will make his Broadway debut in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. were congratulated at dinner at Primola because Gellar changed her last name to Prinze. At Da Tomasso, Celine Dion ordered fourteen dishes of ravioli with tomatoes and peppers.
company town
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]
in other news
Fake Steve Jobs Is Greedy, Outed, and at Work on a Fake Novel
If you’re enough of a techie that the idea of a parody blog written from Steve Jobs’s point of view strikes you as rife with comic possibilities, well, you probably already know Fake Steve Jobs. And if you do, you’ve probably just read (while browsing the Times on your iPhone, no doubt) that the paper exposed the anonymous author of that blog — i.e. Fake Steve himself — as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes. (“Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina,” wrote Lyons to Times reporter Brad Stone in today’s you-got-me post — written in his own voice, not Steve’s.)
company town
Jeffrey Goldberg Wants a PonyMEDIA
• Atlantic owner David Bradley sent ponies to Jeffrey Goldberg’s kids to help lure him away from The New Yorker. Seriously. [WP]
• Just before the Dow Jones deal went through, the Bancrofts voted to double this quarter’s dividend for themselves [NYP]
• Murdoch and Ailes’s next move? All-out war? (Wait, they’re not at war with everyone else already?) [Newsweek]
company town
So Who Will Run Viacom?MEDIA
• Sumner Redstone is feuding with his daughter, leaving the future of Viacom in doubt. [WSJ]
• Forbes is putting its historic Greenwich Village building on the block. [NYP]
• Countdown With Keith Olbermann referred to a Louisiana senator’s wife as a ho. Imus again? [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
gossipmonger
Enquiring Minds Want CashThe wife and son of deceased National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr. are suing each other for the remainder of his $418 million fortune. Barbaro was the focus groups’ choice for August’s Vanity Fair cover, but Graydon Carter nixed him for Shia LaBeouf. CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo will soon have her own show titled Money Honey. The Giulianis like golf, bargains, The Tudors. Chris Noth tried to poach talent for his club from Hawaiian Tropic Zone but failed. Tinsley Mortimer and Lydia Hearst are attending a dinner thrown by Pete Wentz in the Hamptons. Jon Anderson of Yes canceled a benefit show for a bunch of kids because his spiritual adviser told him to.
company town
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]
