1. company town
    Weinstein Goes from Film to FashionFASHION • As rumored, film producer Harvey Weinstein bought Halston. [Reuters via CNNMoney] • Ralph Lauren will be honored with the CFDA’s first-ever “American Fashion Legend Award.” [British Vogue] • Sarah Jessica Parker to launch her own line, Bitten. [The Daily]
  2. company town
    Giant Bonuses for Former Clerks Make Judges Feel Even WorseLAW • Associate pay raises are pretty good, but $200,000 signing bonuses for former Supreme Court clerks are even better. [Slate] • Ben Rosenberg starts work today as chief trial counsel for the New York State attorney general’s office. His first task is to win back some of Dick Grasso’s money from the NYSE. [Law Blog/WSJ] • Lawyers who play Second Life are bringing their real legal expertise to this artificial world. [ABA Journal via Legal Blog Watch]
  3. intel
    A (Conservative) People’s History of New York City“A website founded by US religious activists aims to counter what they claim is ‘liberal bias’ on Wikipedia, the open encyclopedia which has become one of the most popular sites on the web. The founders of Conservapedia.com say their site offers a ‘much-needed alternative’ to Wikipedia, which they say is ‘increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American.’” —The Guardian, London, March 2 New York City (also Gotham, Sodom, Gomorrah, The Big Apple, Satan’s Condom) is the headquarters of the elitist East Coast liberal empire [1] and the world’s largest sustained experiment in secular humanism.
  4. company town
    NYSE President-To-Be Better Watch His BackFINANCE • In the ongoing war between man and machine at the NYSE, incoming Exchange president says he doesn’t want “five guys named Vinnie” completing his trades. [NYP] • Operation Spamalot: SEC suspends trading on 35 stocks promoted in recent spam campaigns. [NYT] • Ivan Boesky slated to appear in the can’t-believe-it’s-not-out-already sequel to Forrest Gump. [/Film via DealBreaker]
  5. company town
    Heatherette Honcho Throws Weirdly Normal Birthday PartyFASHION • Heatherette designer Traver Rains turned 30! And, apparently, his “Wild West” surprise party started on time and everyone invited actually got inside. [Fashionista] • Calvin Klein has high hopes that CK in2u will replicate the success of CK One. [NYT] • Giorgio Armani will design uniforms for Russell Crowe’s Australian rugby team. [British Vogue]
  7. company town
    Hovering Parents Overtake Corporate RecruitingFINANCE • Big firms concede to overinvolved parents and now include them in the recruiting process of recent grads. [Career Journal/WSJ] • Happy belated 70th birthday, Ivan Boesky! [DealBreaker] • The management maxims offered in business books might just be bull, not foxes and hedgehogs. [Forbes]
  8. company town
    Tyra’s Audience Yearns for ‘Oprah’ TicketsFASHION • Tyra makes audience wear swimsuits and flaunt their weight. No car giveaways here. [Fashionista] • Jeweler Raymond Weil’s breach-of-contract suit against Charlize Theron (he says she wore Dior) moves to federal court. [British Vogue] • Ralph Lauren and Johann Rupert join up for a new luxury watch and jewelry line. [WWD]
  9. company town
    ‘Voice’ Voiceless, AgainMEDIA • David Blum out at the Village Voice. He was the fourth editor there since December 2005. [Gawker] • Flummoxing DVR users everywhere, ABC green-lights a sitcom based on the Geico cavemen commercials. [WSJ] • Pulitzer judging starts today at Columbia University; judges from Willamette Week, the Indianapolis Star, and others read actual printed copies of newspaper articles. [E&P]
  10. company town
    Warren Buffett Wants a New Warren BuffettFINANCE • Buffett 2.0: Oracle of Omaha seeks young understudy to take over Berkshire. [Fortune] • Thirteen charged with insider training, including Morgan Stanley, UBS, Bear Stearns, and Bank of America employees. [NYT] • Goldman, Merrill, and Morgan Stanley traders rate own firms barely above junk-bond status. [Bloomberg]
  11. company town
    It’ll Always Be Brian Williams’s ShowMEDIA • NBC to fire Nightly News exec producer John Reiss. But is it for ratings, or does Reiss not get along with anchor Brian Williams? [NYT and LAT] • Tunku Varadarajan moves from an editorial-page writer to an assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, only the third time in 50 years someone has jumped that divide. [NYO] • Bellevue Hospital starts its own imprint; wannabe Ken Keseys hope for literary success. [NYT]
  12. company town
    Traders Feared Terrorist AttacksFINANCE • The Dow’s fall yesterday convinced some traders that terrorists had attacked the city once again. “Our first thought was that they blew up Grand Central, or the Empire State building, or the GW,” one said. [DealBreaker] • Adding insult to sell-off, Merrill Lynch slugged five big banks with a lowered rating, downgrading Goldman, Lehman, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse to neutral from buy. [Bloomberg] • Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein says that the market for buyouts will cool. “There will be declines. We can’t continue like this forever.” Speak for yourself, rich guy. [DealBook/NYT]
  13. company town
    Steven Soderbergh’s Life Not Interrupted By Jury DutyLAW • Director Steven Soderbergh gets out of jury duty in an Upper East Side sex-crimes trial. [NYT] • Roger Meltzer leaves Cahill Gordon & Reindell and takes his $20 million book of business to DLA Piper, where he will be the head of corporate finance. [The American Lawyer] • With his Anna Nicole Smith antics, Judge Larry Seidlin makes the best case against cameras in the courtroom. [Crime & Federalism via Inside Opinions]
  14. company town
    Goldman Bonuses Depress AllFINANCE • Goldman lieutenants score $52.5 million bonuses, take home more than most Wall Street CEOs. [NYT] • Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman calls making a $36 billion real-estate deal “an out-of-body experience.” [Knowledge@Wharton via DealBreaker] • Are public companies going private just so the CEO can make more money? [DealBook/NYT]
  15. company town
    Lauren Bush Saves the World One Handbag at a TimeFASHION • Presidential niece Lauren Bush is developing a socially conscious clothing line, no doubt inspired by her family’s long-time commitment to environmental causes. [Fashion Week Daily] • A PETA soldier storms the Prada runway in Milan, gets tackled by security. [Elle.com] • The 18-year-old sister of model Luisel Ramos, whose death six months ago triggered the skinny-model ban in Milan, has also passed away from complications related to an eating disorder. [Downtown Darling]
  16. company town
    The Guy With the Biggest Birthday Party WinsFINANCE • Birthday parties aside, Stephen A. Schwarzman tops Fortune’s private-equity power list. [Fortune via CNNMoney] • Jeff Dorman, a senior managing director of prime brokerage services at Bear Sterns, resigned late last week. Poor guy didn’t even last a year. [DealBook/NYT] • Is Jim Healy, head of fixed income at Credit Suisse, about to resign because of friction with new heads Brady Dugan and Michael Ryan? [DealBreaker]
  17. company town
    Anyone Want to Buy a Lad Mag?MEDIA • Felix Dennis puts Maxim, Stuff, and Blender officially on the auction block. [NYP] • Did David Lynch plan this advertising campaign? Annie Leibovitz shoots Scarlett Johansson, David Beckham, Beyoncé, and Lyle Lovett for ads promoting Disney theme-parks. [Radar Online] • Steve Rattner thinks newspapers should be nonprofits, but Jack Shafer says that’s a horrible idea. [WSJ and Slate]
  18. company town
    Mayor’s Girlfriend Leaves Public for Private SectorFINANCE • Diana Taylor — the mayor’s First Girlfriend — leaves post as state superintendent of banks for boutique investment firm Wolfensohn & Co. [NYP] • Harold Ford Jr. loses Senate race in Tennessee, wins position at Merrill Lynch. [CNNMoney] • Former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill wants hedge funds to open up their books. [Spiegel via DealBreaker]
  19. company town
    We Can’t Wait for the Wax Heatherette FASHION • Kate Moss is the latest fashion celeb to be immortalized in wax. Visitors to Madame Tussauds in London can have their photos taken next to her on a bed. How apropos. [Downtown Darling] • In an attempt to fatten up models, Krispy Kreme is sponsoring London Fashion Week parties. [On the Runway] • Gisele Bündchen will walk just one runway this season — Dolce & Gabbana in Milan. The Brazilian supermodel is the face of D&G’s new fragrance, aptly named the One. [Fashion Week Daily]
  20. company town
    Fashion T-Shirts Get PersonalFASHION • Henry Holland’s new line of naughty tees was finally revealed. Our favorite? WHAM BAM JESSICA STAM! [Fashionista] • GLAAD is honoring Tom Ford at its annual Media Awards. Must not have seen that creepy Vanity Fair cover. [Fashion Week Daily] • According to Yigal Azrouel and Viktor & Rolf, le geek c’est chic once again. [FlyPaper]
  21. company town
    Top Moneymaker Leaves LehmanFINANCE • Lehman lost its top-producing banker on Friday to a sudden resignation. Was Woody Young passed over for head of the finance group? [NYT] • Monday morning got you feeling uninspired? Ninja Stockbroker will return you to market-high glory. [Nova Cartoons via DealBreaker] • Fresh off its blowout purchase of Equity Office, the Blackstone Group scoops up Pinnacle Foods (Duncan Hines, Vlasic) for $2.16 Billion. [AP via CBS News]
  22. company town
    Associates’ Pay Up, Partners’ Profits Down?LAW • Aaron Charney had secret settlement talks with Sullivan & Cromwell as late as January 31. A sticking point: the destruction of Charney’s home hard-drive. [Above the Law] • Former Thacher Proffitt & Wood associate pleads guilty to insider trading — firm happy to learn Amir Rosenthal wasn’t using client information. [NYLJ] • Will partner profits stay flat because of associate pay raises? [NLJ via DealBook/NYT]
  23. company town
    Sulzberger Tires of Wondering Whether Print Is DeadMEDIA • Pinch Sulzberger: “Will we print the NYT in five years? I don’t care.” [Haaretz via E&P] • GE CEO Jeff Immelt calls a Post story about a sale or spinoff of NBC Universal, “more or less made-up stupid drivel.” [Fortune] • Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen “too big” to share VF’s Hollywood cover. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Chris Rock, and Jack Black apparently not so big. [Deadline Hollywood/LA Weekly]
  24. company town
    Blood Money: Blodget vs. CramerFINANCIAL • Stock picker Henry Blodget threw a party for his new advice book, The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual, then challenged rival stock picker Jim Cramer to an on-air debate. [DealBreaker] • Vornado finally cried uncle in its battle with the Blackstone Group to buy the nation’s largest office landlord. [DealBook/NYT] • Heads are rolling at hedge fund D.B. Zwirn & Co., which was busted in October for misallocating expenses. [NYP]
  25. company town
    Paper Trail Disturbed at Sullivan & CromwellLAW • Did Aaron Charney “misplace” documents belonging to a partner’s file at Sullivan & Cromwell? The firm’s countersuit suggests so. [Above the Law] • Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft is rising up the ranks of most profitable firms, thanks to some cut-throat tactics and, apparently, a wicked bowling night. [New York Law Journal] • Save a life, become a hero, and suffer the (tax) consequences. A law professor explains why the Subway Superman might get walloped by the IRS this tax season. [Mauled Again via Legal Blog Watch]
  26. company town
    How Clean Is Your Company Cafeteria?MEDIA • The cafeteria at Bloomberg LP got a bad score from the city Health Department. Hearst and Condé Nast were much more sanitary. [Radar Online] • Serendipity exists for online newspapers as well as print, thank you very much. [WSJ] • Despite what former GE boss Jack Welch had to say about him recently, Jeff Zucker is getting a promotion at NBC. [LAT]
  27. company town
    Arthur Sulzberger Punishes Morgan StanleyFINANCE • The Ochs-Sulzberger family wants their money out of Morgan Stanley, after a London-based Morgan managing director tried to incite a shareholder revolt at the Times. [Fortune via CNNMoney] • Hedge-fund heavies like T. Boone Pickens, Paul Tudor Jones II, and Carl Icahn have all donated to Rudy Giuliani’s exploratory committee. They maxed out their donation: a whopping $2,100. [DealBook/NYT] • Equity Office’s board rejects Vornado’s cash-and-stock takeover bid and instead goes for Blackstone’s cash offer of $54 a share. Shareholders will likely vote next week. [CNNMoney]
  28. in other news
    Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, New York HistorianHere’s a nice change of pace: A legendary sports figure has come out of retirement to write a book about the past, and this time we’re pleased about it. No, it’s not O.J.’s scribblings; instead, legendarily goggled Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has published a work of history. On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance hit the shelves yesterday, according to an NPR report. It’s full of fascinating details about upper-Manhattan athletics in the age of the Cotton Club — like that the Cotton Club’s main competitor, the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom, hosted its own basketball team, the Harlem Rens. At the Renaissance, the dance floor doubled as a basketball court, and a Rens game reportedly featured the first interracial jump ball in basketball history. But Abdul-Jabbar has harsh words for another rival, Harlem Globetrotters, whose clowning around he associates with the Cotton Club’s tradition of catering to a white audience. You can only imagine what he must have to say about the Washington Generals. The Harlem Renaissance, On and Off the Court [NPR]
  29. company town
    Proenza Schouler Shoots Too Early at TargetFASHION • Proenza Schouler’s Target line was available online for four hours yesterday (three days before its official debut), causing mass Internet shopper hysteria. [Fashionista] • Snejana Onopka, one of the poster girls for the current Save the Models movement, is rumored to be skipping New York Fashion Week. [FlyPaper] • Jordan Scott, former designer at Betsey Johnson and child of the East Village, will launch his first collection during Fashion Week. [British Vogue]
  30. company town
    Star Takes the Stand, Forgets Her Past LAW • Back before Star Jones married a beard and was thwarted by Barbara Walters, she had to prosecute guys named T-Black and A. [NYP] • With New Jersey opening the door to “irreconcilable differences” in divorces, New York may now be the only state that forbids “no-fault” splits. [New Jersey Law Blog via New York Divorce Report] • New York State’s chief judge says underpaid jurists are at a new “level of frustration and anger and despair” over their meager paychecks. [NYLJ]
  31. company town
    Bloated Executive Birthday Parties are Back!FINANCE • Stephen A. Schwartzman’s 60th-birthday bacchanal will have 1,500 guests marching around the drill room of the Park Avenue armory on February 13. [NYT] • Management tips from Super Bowl coaches: Don’t scream at your employees. [WSJ] • At Citigroup, CEO Charles Prince can either improve the company’s performance, or break it up. [Crain’s]
  32. company town
    CNBC Backs Anchor Maria BartiromoMEDIA • The story of the jet-fueled relationship between ex-Citigroup exec Todd Thompson and CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo has turned from a snowball into an avalanche. [WSJ] • Newspapers eliminated about 1,500 positions in 2006, an improvement over 2005, when 2,500 scribes took a walk. [E&P] • Putting scratch-and-sniff ads in the Wall Street Journal actually makes us less inclined to read a newspaper. [AdAge]
  33. company town
    Uniqlo’s Success Brings More Japanese RetailFASHION • Following the ultrasuccessful debut of Uniqlo, Japanese store Muji to open two stores in NYC. [WWD] • Libertine settled its copyright-infringement suit against knockoff king Allen Schwartz. [Downtown Darling] • Tyra Banks gains weight, laments fashion’s unreasonable expectations. [People] FINANCE • Merrill’s top brass gave themselves a big ($172 million) pat on the back for a job well done in 2006. [WSJ ] • Venture capitalists invested $2 billion in 249 companies in the New York area last year, up 18 percent from 2005. It was the highest level of funding since 2001, when the Internet broke. [Crain’s] • If increasing the size of the biggest leverage buyout bid in history doesn’t make Stephen Schwarzman sweat, the Blackstone Group should be just fine. [DealBook]
  34. company town
    Sullivan & Cromwell Bleeds AssociatesLAW • Sullivan & Cromwell lost about 30 percent of its associates in 2004 and 2005. It might take more than a raise to fix that. [WSJ] • Don’t despair, associates! Where Simpson Thacher goes, Milbank Tweed, Sullivan & Cromwell, Paul Weiss, Cleary Gottlieb, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft are sure to follow. [Above the Law] • Long Island lawyer Gary Berenholtz, who once exposed a corrupt Brooklyn judge, stole money from clients and his partner’s widow to fund fine dining and finer vacations. [NYP] FINANCE • The New York Stock Exchange will trade almost exclusively electronically by the end of today; investment firms will continue to lay off floor traders. [WSJ] • The New York City employees’ pension fund is the lead plaintiff in a suit against Apple Computer Inc. for overcompensating executives with illegal stock options. [Reuters]
  35. company town
    Yeah, We Should Have Gone to Law SchoolLAW • Simpson Thacher & Barlett has raised first-year associate salaries from $145K to $160K. Expect the rest of the white-shoe firms to follow suit. [Above the Law] • Lawyers dissed in Oscar nominations. Whither Atticus Finch? [Law Blog] FASHION Is Valentino retiring? The rumor — straight from yesterday’s couture show — has the designer stepping down in July. [Fashion Week Daily] • The latest Chanel accessory: furniture. The company is commissioning a red chair inspired by a Swiss Army knife. [WWD]
  36. in other news
    An Analogy Is a Terrible Thing to WasteCBS’s do-gooding PublicEye media-issues blog yesterday examined how the press addresses race: CBS News National Correspondent Byron Pitts says he is “clear and comfortable with the notion that many people, when they see me, they will see my race first.” Still, the media’s treatment of race can get to him. “When Ed Bradley died, I was struck how in many of the national articles written about him, in the first sentence was the fact that he was an African-American man. I was stunned by that. When Peter Jennings died, nobody said one of the premiere white journalists, or one of the premiere Canadian journalists. They didn’t point out in the first sentence that he didn’t finish college. No one said that.” Because for Pitts, while noting someone’s race is problematic, equating being black with being uneducated is just fine. When the Topic Is Race, Media Turns Uneasy Lens on Itself [PublicEye]