Fannie and Freddie Get Some Good NewsThe mortgage giants have seen their largest profits in ten years. Plus, who buys a friend a $3 million apartment, and who wants a truck depot in Soho?
In the End, Shouldn’t Palazzo Chupi’s Units Go to People Who Really Appreciate Them?Schnabel raises the price on his pink palace, a New York ‘Times’ journalist is jailed in ZImbabwe, and a Starbucks worker fights for her rights. And regrets? Citigroup has a few in today’s roundup of news from the fields of real estate, media, law, and finance.
Buyout Exodus at ‘Newsweek’A dating blogger seeks a book deal, trading desks think recession, and Jean Nouvel wins the Pritzker in our daily roundup of media, finance, law, and real-estate news.
company town
Will ‘Kristen’ Get a High Rate From the Media, Too?MEDIA
• How did the New York Times get the Spitzer scoop anyway? [NYO]
• “CNN Admits: We Shouldn’t Have Used Alleged Stripper Biter As Spitzer Commentator.” [AP via HuffPo]
• Bids for an interviews with “Kristen,” the prostitute who slept with “Client 9,” are reportedly up to $100,000. [Guest of a Guest]
company town
‘Us Weekly’: Keeping ‘OK!’ HonestMEDIA
• NBC golden boy Ben Silverman sells his production company, Reveille, to
Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Elizabeth. [LAT]
• CNN producer Chez Pazienza is forced to pack his bags after blogging for the Huffington Post. [TVNewser/Mediabistro]
• Us Weekly reports that OK! magazine “sensationalized” Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane’s battle with cancer in a cover story. (Actually, he only had some malignant cells on his lip frozen off in a doctor’s office.) “This isn’t the first time OK! has been wrong,” they note. But is Us really crusading against yellow journalism? Or are they just annoyed they didn’t get the scoop? [Us Weekly]
intel
HuffPo’s New Comedy Site: Actually Comedic?Now, we love the Huffington Post and its fearless leader Arianna. But we’re not so sure what we think about her newest venture, the “comedy” site 236.com. (It’s called 23/6 instead of 24/7, get it? Funny already!) We perused the front page and culled some of the moments from the site’s first day that made us wonder whether it is, technically, humorous
• An article on Michael Mukasey includes a joke about waterboarding the pope. (Okay, that’s a little funny.)
• In their new feature “Dickipedia” (yes, that’s a Wikipedia knockoff for people who are Dicks), they profile Pervez Musharraf: “In the weeks since the agreement, Musharraf and Bhutto have publicly feuded and traded accusations — a relationship not unlike Britney and K-Fed, only with the added possibility [of] a nuclear holocaust.”
company town
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
Oracle of Omaha Screws With Everyone’s HeadFINANCE
• Buffett to the rescue: The Oracle of Omaha may take a 20 percent stake in crisis-ridden Bear Stearns. If the deal goes through, Bear CEO Jim Cayne will have another new bridge partner to brag about. [NYT]
• Goldman Sachs named Edward Forst as co-head of investment management, a troubled group with a mere $796 billion in assets. Forst takes the place of Eric Schwartz, who’s retiring after 23 years with the bank. [NYP]
• “The tears of Chuck Norris would supply enough liquidity to solve the credit crisis. Too bad he never cries.” [Bloomberg]
in other news
Spitzer’s Master Class: Steamrolling With Soul
The Spitz used a speaking engagement last night at the Chautauqua Institution — a nonprofit, religious-tinged retreat in Western New York — to declaim on a topic that made Brunogate watchers prick up their ears: “The Need for Both Passion and Humility in Politics.” The text of the speech then landed on the Huffington Post (where we especially dug the “I’m a fan of this blogger” tab next to Spitzer’s name), where we encountered it. What did the erstwhile Steamroller have to say? Those expecting some sort of mea culpa get one, and those expecting lots of fancy equivocation got that, too — but first everyone sat through a monumental history lesson.
intel
Fun With Fundrace: Park Slope for Obama, ‘Burg for Hillary, Batali for John Edwards, and More
We told you yesterday about Fundrace 2008, the fun new feature on the Huffington Post that lets you track people’s political contributions by name or by neighborhood. What we didn’t expect was that the thing would prove terribly addictive. Here’s a sampling of what we found after a full day of playing with it:
• Completely random celeb-name search reveals Mario Batali’s $1,000 contribution to John Edwards (as well as the chef’s home address), Tommy Hilfiger’s $2,300 donation to Barack Obama, and the supposedly apolitical Sandy Weill’s $4,600 gift to Hillary Clinton.
in other news
HuffPost Launches Fundrace, Reveals Campaign SecretsAnd the campaign-financing race just got much more fun. The Huffington Post launched its Fundrace 2008 database today, on which you can look up which presidential candidates are milking your friends and neighbors for money, and exactly how much of it. It also includes the very popular neighborhood feature, where you can see whether that dude who sells dime bags in your entryway is actually a junkie for Joe Biden. After some quick scans, we’re delighted with this year’s results so far. For example, in the opportunely named “Chelsea-Clinton” 10001 Zip Code, John Edwards is a surprise favorite. (Explain that, Jodi Kantor.) And among fancy Upper East Siders with 10021 addresses, Hillary is exactly twice as popular as Rudy — and that’s where he lives. Maybe his neighbors don’t like the cigar smoke?
Fundrace 2008 [HuffPo]
