FINANCE
• Blackstone founders Stephen Schwarzman and Pete Peterson shot up 30 places to No. 4 in Vanity Fair’s annual ranking of “The New Establishment.” Henry Kravis, who made the list for the first time, will have to console himself with No. 51. [VF, DealBook/NYT]
• Maybe CEOs aren’t all automatons after all: Scholars found that the death of a child or wife typically results in a 15 to 20 percent hit on profits — though the death of a mother-in-law often means good news for business. Let’s just hope they’re not confusing cause and effect, here. [WSJ]
• Beat this, Spence girls: The daughter of Qwest CEO Edward Mueller gets free use of the corporate jet to help ferry her from Denver to California for high school. [DealBook/NYT]
MEDIA
• The Times’ space-age new cafeteria now features a more industrial-age addition: mouse traps — and old-school ones at that. [Gawker]
• Six years after Time Warner bought Business 2.0 for $68 million, the company is shuttering the mag. Staffers will be transferred to Fortune to help out with tech coverage. Duh, we’re on 10.0 by now. [NYT]
• After failing to come to terms with Apple last week, NBC has decided to sell its TV shows through the new Amazon digital download store. Maybe now your parents will start watching 30 Rock. [NYT]
LAW
• A German lawyer at Greenberg Traurig sent an e-mail to the entire firm complaining that the firm’s fund-raising for GI phone cards constitutes support for the war. The firm’s president reprimanded him for creating “negative energy.” [Above the Law]
• As many as 400 New York bar-exam essays may have been lost in the July laptopgate fiasco. [New York Law Journal]
• Miss Manners lays down the law on when it’s polite to use your BlackBerry in public. Seriously, thank God. [Fortune]
FASHION
• Valentino got a new chief quickly — former Gucci womenswear head Alessandra Facchinetti. [WWD]
• Heatherette threw a hissy fit over the date of their show this season — but let’s be honest, we wouldn’t love them as much if they didn’t. [NYDN]
• Rodnik designers Richard Ascott and Philip Colbert have a rock band, and they’re playing this weekend! [Fashionista]
