Chloë Sevigny to Scowl All Over Fashion WeekFINANCE
• Investment-banking revenue could fall 47 percent for banks like Bear and Deutsche. Or, you know, 70 percent. [WSJ, WSJ, NYT]
• More analysts are comparing today’s situation to the big collapses of 1987 and 1998. But with better fashion and worse music. [DealBreaker]
• Happy birthday Warren Buffett! The Oracle of Omaha is 77. [DealBreaker]
company town
Investment Banking: More Stressful Than IraqMEDIA
• The New Yorker thinks men are funnier than woman — running more than eight times as many men as women authors in “Shouts & Murmurs.” But what about cartoonists? [Radar]
• The Gawker-Observer conveyor belt switches directions yet again: associate editor Doree Shafrir set to go legit and start covering “ideas” for the curiously pink paper. [Gawker]
• Mark Deuze, the author of a new book on the media industry, claims that workers in media are the “most likely to accept exploitative labor practices.” Duh! [I Want Media via Mixed Media/Portfolio]
company town
Jeb’s JobFINANCE
• Lehman landed former Florida governor Jeb Bush as an adviser. Makes you wonder which bank will get the honor of hiring W. when the “first MBA president” finally steps down. [Deal Journal/WSJ]
• Does Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis’s move to save Countrywide, the largest mortgage lender in the United States, make him a modern-day J.P. Morgan? [MarketWatch]
• John Dyment, the global head of Deutsche Bank’s hedge-fund unit, jumped ship for Shumway Capital Partners, a hedge fund based in Greenwich. [TheStreet.com]
company town
Today, Andy Rooney and Charlie Gibson Equally UnfunnyMEDIA
• Don Imus, his big settlement with CBS finally behind him, is now looking to make a comeback on ABC radio. [NYP]
• Andy Rooney apologizes for crossing the line from crotchety to racist – sort of. [NYT]
• Charlie Gibson wants you to remember that he, unlike Katie Couric and Brian Williams, is humorless. [NYT]
company town
Question of the Day: What to Do When Rupert Calls?MEDIA
• Rupert Murdoch personally called several reporters at The Wall Street Journal, including Tara Parker-Pope, Kate Kelly, and Henny Sender, to try and persuade them to stay with the paper. Some staffers are jealous, others asking whether the media baron is already overinvolved. [LAT]
• Despite its huge ad counts, the Times Magazine is cutting first and business-class flights for reporters. From now on they’ll have to get masthead-level approval to avoid us plebes back in coach. [Gawker]
• Former Jane staffers hope subscribers trash the Glamour issues they’re being sent as substitutes for the shuttered mag. How Jane of them. [NYP]
company town
Anna Wintour Puts Friends Before Fashion. Really.FINANCE
• Here come the job cuts: Lehman Brothers will shutter its subprime unit, leaving 1,200 employees out of work. [NYT]
• A new study suggests raising taxes on private equity wouldn’t make any difference because Steve Schwarzman and friends would just find new ways to wriggle out of them. After all, taxes are for the little people, right? [Bloomberg]
• Alan Greenspan supposedly told his new bosses at Deutsche that he would have lowered rates by now, though he denies it. [WSJ]
company town
Warren Buffett Tries to Save Us All, Except Kate Moss, Who is DoomedFINANCE
• The credit crunch may take down high-flying real-estate baron Harry Macklowe, who bought $7 billion worth of midtown office space with a mere $50 million of his own money. Here’s a tip — when journalists start calling you “high-flying,” you know you’re in for a fall. [NYT]
• The man behind the biggest fund in New York may be state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the sole trustee for the $154 billion state pension plan. Most states use a multi-trustee board, and some are complaining that DiNapoli has too much power. [NYT]
• Warren Buffett, looking to cash in on the credit crunch, may buy failing Countrywide. Meanwhile, you still can’t buy an apartment. [DealBook/NYT]
company town
Arianna Huffington and Cory Booker — We Really Did Not See That ComingMEDIA
• Blogosopheric scoop of the month: Looks like Arianna Huffington and Cory Booker may be dating. [NYDN]
• Elizabeth Spiers’s crazy idea for Portfolio: Fire Joanne Lipman and put Tina Brown in charge. Wow. Elizabeth Spiers writes for The New Republic? [TNR]
• Keith Olbermann’s news show to run before NBC’s Sunday Night Football. You can go home, after all! [TV Newser, NYT]
company town
Suri Cruise Experiments With Child Stardom, Wall Streeters Do Same With HonestyFINANCE
• A new poll shows more than half of Wall Street traders would commit a felony for a $10 million profit. Now our trust in these guys is really shaken. [NYP]
• The Times outlines which funds are suffering the most — not that you should panic or anything. [NYT]
• Round two in the housing meltdown: Get foreclosed on a $100,000 mortgage, and you owe the IRS $33,000 for the “forgiven” debt. Fortunately, the Manhattan market is still red-hot. So no, you still can’t buy an apartment. [NYT, NYT]
company town
Wait, Somebody Had to Sell His Helicopter? Now This Is Getting Really Bad.MEDIA
• Paranoid Fox News host John Gibson believes “the war on Gibson is real,” thus solidifying our own belief – in awesomeness. [Radar]
• Rumors of a purge at Alpha Media, formerly Dennis Publishing, were greatly exaggerated. Stuff’s staff is tiny, only 16 of 34 were let go, and the survivors were rewarded with summer Friday’s for the first time ever. [NYP]
• Meet Publish2, a social-networking site for journalists. Or maybe they should call it Facebook2. [Folio]
company town
When All Fails, What Else? A Country SongFINANCE
• The nation’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, almost out of credit. Oh. No. [NYP]
• Recent hedge-fund woes look far from contained — they’ve even inspired a country song. [DealBook/NYT]
• Chuck Schumer’s bright new plan for taxing private equity: raise taxes on all partnerships, not just big firms like Blackstone. How Democratic. [Reuters via DealBook/NYT]
company town
Imus Not Hiding As Much Cash Under His Hat As It AppearsMEDIA
• Don Imus may not have gotten that full $20 million; no one knows where he’s going to work next; and he may have to pay an unspecified amount to settle a defamation suit brought by a Rutgers player. Oh my! [NYT, AP via NYT]
• One staffer at Portfolio compared editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman to the captain in Mutiny on the Bounty who gets thrown over board, confirming the total geekdom of staffers at Portfolio. [NYP]
• Dow Jones union suggests members fight the power by using anti-Murdoch wallpaper on their computers, and Jack Shafer thinks the term “genocidal tyrant” fits Murdoch nicely. [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro, Slate]
company town
CBS’ Bill Plante Remembers Something, and Topshop Employs SlavesMEDIA
CBS News’ Bill Plante shouts after Rove and Bush: “If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?” Snap! [NYO]
• Graduates of journalism programs see a stalled job market. Thank golly we didn’t go to one. [Cox Center]
• Google and YouTube plan to call Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to testify for the defense in the $1 billion suit that Viacom, the owners of Comedy Central, filed against the Internet companies. [CNet via Mediabistro]
company town
Alan Greenspan Gets a Job, Richard Branson Goes BananasFINANCE:
• After touring the lecture circuit for the last year, Alan Greenspan finally got a real job advising Deutsche Bank’s securities division. [Bloomberg]
• Which heads will roll when all the dust from subprime settles? Some say John Mack, the CEO of Morgan Stanley, others Chuck Prince of Citigroup, but the biggest danger may be for Goldman Sachs’ “It” boy Lloyd Blankfein, who bet more than anyone else. [NYT]
• Time for another party? Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone group tripled its quarterly profits, sending stock back up. [CNN and NYT]
company town
Goldman, Merrill Open Books, Loosen CollarsFINANCE
• The SEC is investigating whether banks and brokerages are hiding subprime lending losses. Goldman and Merrill are the first to be scrutinized. [WSJ]
• This is how bad the market is right now: Even music bloggers are worried about it. [DealBreaker]
• KPS Capital Partners is ditching its MetLife Building penthouse for a two-story space on 66th and Lex that leaves room for expansion. [Deal Journal/WSJ]
company town
Bear Stearns Execs Cashed Out Before Stock DroppedFINANCE
• James Cayne and three other top Bear Stearns execs cashed out $57 million in stock before the bank took a nose dive, pawning off $16 million in losses on regular investors. [TheStreet.com via DealBreaker]
• With Ellyn McColgan’s departure, Fidelity president Rodger Lawson has gone from new guy in town to likely successor. [Boston Globe via DealBook/NYT]
• Blackstone raised $21.7 billion for its latest private-equity fund. Apparently drumming up the last $6 billion was pretty tough. Cue the violins! [Deal Journal/WSJ]
company town
First You Save the Company, Then You Play GolfFINANCE
• Bear Stearns CEO Jim Cayne rewarded himself for firing the firm’s second-in-command by playing his first round of golf in almost three weeks. [NYP]
• Fidelity CEO Edward Johnson’s uncertain succession plan claimed another victim as Ellyn McColgan, a longtime exec and onetime heir apparent, got fed up and stepped down. [NYT]
• Were the threats against Goldman Sachs “Hundreds will die. We are inside. You cannot stop us.” just a prank by three teenage kids? [Newsday]
company town
At Bear Stearns, Watch Out for the New GuyFINANCE
• Bear Stearns seems to have great confidence in new president Alan Schwartz, even though Schwartz, an “old-line relationship banker,” has no experience in the firm’s embattled bond business. [NYT]
• Bear Stearns’ decision to liquidate their failed hedge funds in the Cayman Islands may help protect them from irate and litigious investors. [Bloomberg]
• Banks working on the ABN Amro deal stand to make about $1.3 billion. Good news for Citi, Credit Suisse, and others. [Deal Journal/WSJ]
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
It’s Expensive Being Rupert MurdochMEDIA
• Did Dow Jones cost Rupert Murdoch an extra $1 billion just because he’s Rupert Murdoch? [Slate]
• Rik Hertzberg to blog for The New Yorker. From YearlyKos. And without fact-checking. [
company town
You Were Right About the Personal-Injury LawyersLAW
• David Sheeger, a Manhattan personal-injury lawyer, pleaded guilty to using a “runner” to ferry him potential cases from inside hospitals. [New York Law Journal]
• A missing Connecticut lawyer admits to embezzlement in a letter to his attorney son. [Connecticut Law Tribune]
• Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau is 88 and unrelenting. [Law Blog/WSJ]
company town
The Costly Return of JT LeRoyMEDIA
• A court ordered Laura Albert, a.k.a. JT LeRoy, to pay a film production company $350,000 for legal fees connected to her fraud case. [NYT]
• The ABC News intern who posed nude for Playboy: Lace Rose Allenius. She works on the weekend edition of Good Morning America. [Mediabistro]
• Manhattan Media, the owner of several weekly newspapers, bought New York Press and plans to merge it with Our Town Downtown, which covers lower Manhattan. [NYT]
company town
Bad Days at ABC, NBCMEDIA
• Eric Wishnie, an NBC News producer who was fired in 2006 for substance-abuse problems, fell to his death from his West Village rooftop. [NYDN]
• Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts announced that she has breast cancer. [ABC News]
• Condé Nast is expanding in India and expected to launch editions of Glamour, GQ, Condé Nast Traveler, Vanity Fair, and Wired. Vogue will launch in September. [FT]
company town
Is Murdoch Starting to Sweat?MEDIA
• With the deadline set for 5 p.m. tonight, the Bancrofts’ vote on the Dow Jones deal remains too close to call. [WSJ]
• Jimmy Fallon is apparently the lead contender to take Conan O’Brien’s place once Conan jumps to Leno’s time slot. Yikes. [Broadcasting & Cable]
• Is Jane Pratt’s new project a Gwen Stefani magazine? [Fashionista]
• Late-night talk legend Tom Snyder is dead at 71. [AP via NYT]
company town
Former Milberg Weiss Lawyer Was El Mirage’s LandlordLAW
• Paul Young, a former partner at Milberg Weiss, owned the building that housed the El Mirage bathhouse and did nothing to curtail its activities. [Legal Pad/Fortune]
• General counsels are on the up-and-up: Rosemary Berkery and Kenneth Frazier, the GCs at Merrill and Merck, both just got promotions to top leadership positions at their respective firms. [Law Blog/WSJ]
• Some lawyers are salivating at their chance to put “hard-hitting” ads back on the air. [New York Law Journal]
company town
End Is Nigh for Whole Foods ChiefFINANCE
• Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has been asked to resign following the discovery of anonymous postings he authored on investment message boards. [NYP]
• Leon Black, the secretive founder of Apollo Management, will be worth more than $3 billion when he sells part of the firm. [NYP]
• Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal promoted one of his top aids, Rosemary Berkery, to the position of vice-chairman and general counsel, making her a likely successor. [MarketBeat/WSJ]
company town
Facebook Hires YouTube’s MoneymanFINANCE
• YouTube’s former finance chief joins Facebook as CFO. Sales drums bang louder. [WSJ]
• Mark Lenowitz, a stock picker for Chelsey Capital and Q Capital Investment, admitted to insider trading. [Reuters via DealBook/NYT]
• James O’Shaughnessy, a Bear Stearns exec once called “the father of strategy indexing,” will leave the bank to start his own firm. [MarketBeat/WSJ]
company town
Steve Jobs Has Nothing on ArmaniFASHION
• Over the iPhone? Get the Armani phone this October. [Fashionista]
• Need something to wear with that wrap dress? DVF is launching a shoe collection this fall. [British Vogue]
• Thom Browne has put together a 25-piece womenswear collection available this fall at Barneys, Bergdorf, Jeffrey, and Colette. [WWD]
company town
Does That Polo Pocket Look Like Levi’s?FASHION
• Levi Strauss & Co. is suing Polo Ralph Lauren for supposedly copying the brand’s trademark pocket stitching. [WWD via British Vogue]
• Sass & Bide has canceled their New York Fashion Week show after one of the designers required further chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Women ages 40 to 55 get their own Izod line. [NYP]
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]
company town
Mariane Pearl Sues Al QaedaMEDIA
• Mariane Pearl filed a lawsuit in federal court against Al Qaeda and a major Pakistan bank to uncover more information about her husband’s murder. [NYS]
• The NFL passed a rule ordering press photographers to wear red vests with Canon and Reebok logos on them. [NPPA News via Mediabistro]
• If Portfolio’s second issue flops, editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman may be out of a job. [NYP]
company town
Dow Jones, Mediabistro Play ‘Let’s Make a Deal’MEDIA
• The Dow Jones board approved Murdoch’s bid, but two of the four Bancrofts on the board refused to take part. The family is expected to meet Monday to begin deliberations. [NYT]
• Jupitermedia bought Mediabistro.com for $23 million, causing critics to smell a tech bubble. [NYT]
• The new issue of Portfolio will be out soon, and rumor has it that editor Joanne Lipman is ignoring Condé protocol by poaching other books’ staff. [WWD]
company town
Who Will Catch the ‘Redbook’ Traitor?MEDIA
• Will the $10,000 that Jezebel paid for an unretouched Redbook cover be enough to feed the sure-to-be-fired leaker? [WWD]
• Houghton Mifflin will acquire Harcourt from rival Reed Elsevier for $4 billion. [NYT]
• Rolling Stone publisher Tim Castelli has left the magazine to be New York sales director for Google. [Ad Age]
company town
CEO Accused of Golf ManipulationFINANCE
• Hollywood Country Club is looking into allegations of score altering in a July 4 golf tournament by Bear Stearns CEO Jim Cayne. [CNBC]
• The SEC began an investigation into Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s anonymous online postings. [DealBook/NYT]
• Morgan Stanley’s John Mack is hosting a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton today. He supported George W. Bush in 2004. [Financial Times]
company town
Couric Will Stay at CBSMEDIA
• CBS News president Sean McManus denied that Katie Couric will leave CBS Evening News before the end of her five-year contract. [AP via Fox News]
• CNBC and the Financial Times plan to join forces and share content in case Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones bid goes through. [WSJ]
• TV Guide is moving into The New Yorker’s old offices on West 43rd Street. [NYP]
company town
Did You Hear the One About the iPhone Nano?FINANCE
• A JP Morgan analyst got canned for writing a report about a fictional Apple product, the iPhone Nano. [Apple 2.0 via DealBreaker]
• Using the screen name Rahodeb, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey posted on Yahoo Finance bulletin boards to bash competitor Wild Oats. [Deal Journal/WSJ]
• The SEC tries to reclaim authority over hedge funds by writing rules allowing the agency to sue for misleading investors. [Bloomberg]
company town
Paris Cheered by Blackstone BidFINANCE
• Did Steve Schwarzman’s bid for Hilton Hotels help bring Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan back together again? [Gossip Girls via DealBreaker]
• She might not be so hot at spotting WMD, but former CIA big shot Jami Miscik is good enough to be the “global head of sovereign risk” at Lehman. [Fortune]
• Threatening letters against Goldman Sachs continue to turn up at newspapers; Feds now investigating disgruntled former employees. [NYP]
company town
No Vindication for Jane PrattMEDIA
• Jane Pratt doesn’t feel vindicated that Jane was killed but does feel bad for its employees. [Radar]
• Kevin Reilly, the former chief programmer for NBC, was picked up by Fox after losing his job to Ben Silverman. [NYT]
• The Nation asks its readers to chip in for “The Great Postal Crisis of 2007.” [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
company town
‘Jane,’ So OverMEDIA
• Jane mag is dead. [Radar]
• The Dow Jones board will meet with Ron Burkle today, but an alternative deal to Murdoch’s appears unlikely. [NYT]
• MTV Networks negotiated its upfront ad sales partly based on commercial ratings. [WSJ]
company town
Goldman Shrugs Off ThreatFINANCE
• “Goldman Sachs. Hundreds will die. We are inside. You cannot stop us,” say nine letters mailed from Queens to newspapers across the country. The letters were signed “A.Q.U.S.A.,” but law enforcement isn’t too concerned. [CNN/Money]
• UBS CEO Peter Wuffli takes the fall for Dillon Read Capital Management by leaving the bank. Marcel Rohner is the new chief. [NYT]
• Lehman wants to hire as many summer analysts as possible in order to avoid those dreadful college-recruiting visits. [Bankers Ball via DealBreaker]
company town
A New Bid for BarneysFASHION
• Jones Apparel is entertaining an unsolicited $900 million bid for Barneys New York. The department store was promised to the government of Dubai last month for $825 million. [Reuters via NYT]
• Cathy Horyn’s next grand feature will be on LVMH’s Sidney Toledano. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Claudia Schiffer is Karl Lagerfeld’s muse in the new Dom Pérignon ads. [British Vogue]
company town
Scarborough Takes Imus’s SlotMEDIA
• Joe Scarborough picks up Don Imus’s coveted MSNBC morning slot. [Radar]
• The Dow Jones editorial-independence agreement with News Corp. stipulates that disputes will be aired on the Journal’s editorial page. [WSJ]
• News Corp. bought two Bronx weeklies, expanding its weekly neighborhood newspaper holdings. But how well will Murdoch papers go over in Greenpoint and Williamsburg? [NYT]
company town
The Return of Imus?MEDIA
• CBS Radio employees are hinting that Don Imus may be back in the fall. [NYP]
• Former Intermix head Brad Greenspan, who once owned MySpace, has made his own bid for Dow Jones. [NYT]
• Universal Music has canceled its contract with iTunes and will now sell music through Apple at will. [NYT]
company town
Capitalists Against Michael MooreFINANCE
• Maria Bartiromo tried to interview Michael Moore on the floor of the NYSE, but the exchange barred the director from entering. [NYDN]
• A scathing farewell e-mail from a young JP Morgan banker is probably a hoax. The supposed author says he didn’t write it and still has his job. [DealBreaker]
• Bear Stearns’ CEO James Cayne is suffering from poor self-esteem following the near collapse of two hedge funds. [NYT]
company town
Liz Claiborne, 78FASHION
• Sportswear pioneer Liz Claiborne died yesterday of abdominal cancer at age 78. [WWD]
• VH1 plans a new reality series called America the Ugly in which normal people get berated by the Wilhelmina executive from The Agency. [Flypaper]
• The new face of Versace is a 16-year-old boy. [French Vogue via Fashionista]
company town
Murdoch Waits on BancroftsMEDIA
• Rupert Murdoch reaches a deal with Dow Jones and gives the Bancrofts three weeks to take it or leave it. [Reuters]
• Jeffrey Goldberg, The New Yorker’s Washington correspondent, defected for a top role at The Atlantic. [WWD]
• Secret passageway from Sardi’s to the Times building no longer a secret, or useful. [NYO]
company town
Bedbugs Infest Cadwalader, Wickersham & TaftLAW
• Bedbugs infest Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft’s New York office, but the person who “brought the insects into the firm is no longer associated with the firm.” [Above the Law]
• Wannabe law students are looking to blogs and independent rankings for information about prospective schools. [WSJ]
• Two partners at Chadbourne & Parke are drafting a lawsuit to force the New York State Legislature to raise judicial pay. [New York Law Journal]
company town
Only Larry King Will Have ParisMEDIA
• Larry King will get the Paris Hilton interview. No money changed hands, but neither will any significant questions. [TMZ via Mediabistro.com]
• News Corp. and Dow Jones are close to terms for maintaining the Journal’s newsroom independence in the event of a takeover. [NYT]
• Jason Binn will merge Niche Media (Gotham) with Greenspun Media Group (Vegas). New company has sixteen titles and expected revenues of over $300 million. [NYT]
company town
Hedge Funds Open to Petty CommonersFINANCE
• Steve Schwarzman’s company may be public, but the Blackstone head retreated and declined to ring the opening bell at the NYSE this morning. [NYP]
• The Supreme Court made it harder for investors to sue companies and executives for suspected fraud. [NYT]
• The Wharton School hired a marketing guy as its next dean. Rich alums, hold on to your wallets. [DealBook/NYT]
company town
‘Wall Street II: Business Boogaloo’FINANCE
• Wall Street II screenwriter Stephen Schiff is doing field research among London bankers. [Alphaville/FT]
• Investment bankers are on drugs, mental-health experts reveal. News flash, that. [Reuters via DealBreaker]
• Lehman analyst Kelly Chin won the women’s race at the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge. The 799 other Lehman’s entrants were canned for underperforming. [JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge]