FASHION
• The Gucci family is up in arms over Ridley Scott’s biopic. They fear he’ll focus on the family scandals. You know, instead of making a movie about all the boring stuff. [British Vogue]
• Helmut Lang is opening a pop-up shop in the meatpacking district. Just what we need, another fabulous place to spend our money while we are drunk. [Fashion Informer]
• Kaiser Karl rocked the U.K. with a Chanel fashion show. [WWD]
FINANCE
• You know something’s wrong when Wall Street is happy about new government regulations. The priorities for Bush’s subprime bailout were set by banks, and guess who the bailout won’t help — the poor. But if you want to buy a foreclosed house for $1, now is the time. Just one problem: You have to live in Michigan. [NYT, Atlantic, Floyd Norris/NYT]
• Vikram Pandit is still the lead candidate for Chuck Prince’s old job at Citigroup, but Pandit’s old hedge fund, which Citi paid more than $800 million to secure, has been doing less than stellar. [FN]
• The salacious scene at the after-party for the annual UJA Wall Street Dinner: “As a DJ played music, attendees grabbed their $2,500 worth of chips each and flocked to the gambling attractions. On hand were 10 tables of Texas Hold ‘Em, as well as those for blackjack, roulette and even a dreidel game.” Spin, dreidel, spin, dammit! [DealBook/NYT]
MEDIA
• Rupert Murdoch started lining up his troops for war: Veteran News Corp. duo Leslie Hinton and Robert Thomson will take over at the Journal, and Rupe’s son James assumed his place (at the right hand of God) overseeing all European and Asian operations. The siege of the Times is about to begin. [WSJ, WSJ, Guardian]
• The writers’ strike is costing late-night hosts big time — anywhere from $150,000 to $250,000 a week. [NYT]
• Baba Wawa claims she’s tired of celebrity interviews! What’s next, Larry King going investigative? [Reuters]
LAW
• Burt Neuborne, the NYU law professor who led the Holocaust suit against Swiss banks, then turned around and demanded he get paid, finally won his suit and will receive $3.1 million in fees from the $1.25 billion settlement. [New York Law Journal]
• Cleary Gottlieb signed a twenty-year lease for an additional 100,000 square feet at One Liberty Plaza. [NYP]
• Justice Scalia: “While the Simpson trial may have been a racially polarizing … it is also a case in which a man killed his wife with a knife.” [Law Blog/WSJ]
