FINANCE
• 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]
MEDIA
• Newsday only discovered three of its Pulitzer medals had gone missing when they were sold at an auction in Long Beach. Reporters consoled themselves by noting the medals are only a symbol, but why go to all that trouble when you too can own a Pulitzer for a mere $4,000? [Newsday]
• No surprise, Don Imus is in talks with ABC Radio and may be back on the air as early as January. But what kind of offensive-comments clause will they work into the new contract? [Variety]
• Just how bad of a financial bust was TimesSelect? Something tells us the $20 million the Gray Lady took home wasn’t worth the 1.3 billion page views she lost. [Odd Numbers/Portfolio]
LAW
• Cadwalader’s bedbugs are back! [Above the Law]
• Big Law vs. Investment Banking, round MXII. So what if bankers win all the glamour? At least lawyers have job security, right? [Bankers Ball]
• Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge of New York’s highest court, finally got his law license back fourteen years after he fell from grace for stalking an ex-lover. [Law Blog/WSJ]
FASHION
• Giles Deacon is in talks to take over Schiaparelli. The Brit designer can do no wrong. Better watch your back, McQueen. [WWD]
• Condé Nast’s fashionable social networking site, Flip.com, is so not hot right now. [WWD]
• Charlotte Gainsbourg is editing the December issue of French Vogue. Next up: Jerry Lewis. [Fashion Week Daily]
