Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Whoopi Goldberg is headed to Jersey. Two months after she put her Soho loft on the market for $3.99 million (which still happens to be up for sale, incidentally) comes word that the comedienne and View co-host has picked up a 9,486-square foot Colonial on 2.4 acres in West Orange, NJ. Originally listed for $2.999 million, Goldberg closed on the house for $2.8 million. [Real Estalker]
• Paolo Pellegrini, the Italian-born hedge funder who worked for John Paulson until recently and who generated a 80% return this year by betting the economy was going to tank, has a new pad. He's paying "close to" $10 million to buy an apartment at 88 Central Park West from writer Ray Errol Fox and his wife Jean Thomas, a backup singer for Ella Fitzgerald in the '60s. [NYP]
• Walter Cronkite's former apartment at the UN Plaza will soon be up for sale. Joanna Simon, the broker who landed the listing, says the two-bedroom co-op will hit the market "within the month" for $2.995 million. [NYO]More

Happy Birthday | Your favorite former prostitute from New Jersey will be breaking out the bubbly this evening. Ms. Ashley Alexandra Dupre is 24 today. Kirsten Dunst's celebrating, too. She's 27. Columbia University president Lee Bollinger is turning 63. Socialite Allison Sarofim is 41. Former Knicks coach Isiah Thomas is turning 48. Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer is 59. Socialite Cynthia Lufkin turns 47. Cloris Leachman is 83. Rapper Lloyd Banks is 27. Willie Nelson is turning 76. And David Miscavige, the head of Scientology and the only man who can give Tom Cruise orders, turns 49 today.

The Museum of the City of New York's Director’s Council held its annual Winter Ball last night. Among the 600 attendees at the Versace-sponsored event were Steve and Christine Schwarzman, Patricia Duff, Allison and Peter Rockefeller, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss (left), Andrew Rosen, Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross, Rachel and Ara Hovnanian, Nicole Miller and Kim Taipale, Woody Johnson and Suzanne Ircha, Meredith Melling Burke, Dennis Basso, Valesca Guerrand Hermès, Amanda Cutter Brooks, Helen Lee Schifter, Celerie Kemble, Cristina Cuomo, Sylvester and Gillian Miniter, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Marjorie Gubelmann, Cynthia Lufkin and Dan Lufkin, Debbie Bancroft, Heather Mnuchin, Jennifer Creel, Zani Gugelmann, John Demsey, Jonathan and Somers White Farkas, Mark Gilbertson, Alexandra Lebenthal and Jay Diamond, Byrdie Bell, Allison Brokaw, Peter and Jamee Gregory, Geoffrey Bradfield, Antony Todd, Serena Boardman, Tatiana and Campion Platt, Maggie Betts, Johannes Huebl and Olivia Palermo, Bronson Van Wyck, Douglas Hannant, Karen Duffy, Jack Bryan, Brian Reyes, Yigal Azrouel, and Amy Fine Collins. [PMc, NYSD, MS, WWD, GoaG] More

• Society fixtures Dan and Cynthia Lufkin have sliced $3.5 million off the price of their apartment at 455 Central Park West, after first putting it on the market 10 months ago. The five-bedroom spread, which is located inside what was once a 19th-century chapel and features 28-foot-high vaulted ceilings and arched windows overlooking the park, is now listed at $14 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• The 13th floor apartment located directly below Rupert Murdoch's penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue has reportedly found a buyer. The 13-room, two-bedroom, four-fireplace co-op, which belongs to the estate of Araxia Buckhantz, is expected to sell for $30 million. [NYO]
• Sandie Tillotson, the co-founder of Nu Skin Enterprises, has "quietly" listed her five-bedroom penthouse at the Time Warner Center for $80 million. Tillotson originally purchased the place for $29 million in 2005. [NYO]

The Villency Emerging Fashion Program hosted a dinner at Bobo on Wednesday night to honor Elise Overland and threeASFOUR designers Adi, Ange and Gabi. Eric Villency and wife Kimberly Guilfoyle welcomed a collection of fashion and social fixtures, including Zani Gugelmann (left), Byrdie Bell, Daniel Benedict and Andrew Saffir, Ann Dexter-Jones, Richard Johnson, Hope Atherton, Kate Schelter, Maggie Betts, Horacio Silva, Jessica Joffe, Glenn O'Brien, Ferebee Bishop, Gigi Stone, Tom Sachs, Serena Merriman, Poppy de Villeneuve, and Stephanie LaCava. [PMc, FWD, VF, GoaG]More

UNICEF's 5th annual Snowflake Gala took place on Wednesday night at Cipriani 42nd Street. Bryant Gumbel entertained the crowd of 500 and Lucy Liu was honored with the Danny Kaye Humanitarian award. Attendees included Michael Bloomberg, Jenna and Barbara Bush, Maggie Betts, Roland Betts, Lauren Bush and David Lauren (left), Marcus Samuelsson, Charlie Trotter, Charlotte Moss, Pamela Fiori, Gillian Miniter, Douglas Hannant and Frederick Anderson, Elyse Newhouse, Donny Deutsch, Alexandra Lebenthal, Jessica Joffe, Tea Leoni, Matt Lauer, Meredith Melling Burke, Cynthia Lufkin, and CNN's Sanjay Gupta. [PMc, Wireimage, Style.com, The Daily] More

♦  The opening of Elizabeth Peyton's New Museum exhibition on Tuesday was full of her friends and fans like Marc Jacobs (with boyfriend Lorenzo Martone, left), Glenn O'Brien, Amy Astley, Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour, Hope Atherton, Cecily Brown, Rachel Feinstein and John Currin, Alex Katz, Kiki Smith, Gavin Brown, Barbara Gladstone, Debbie Harry, and Thelma Golden. [The Daily, PMc]

♦  Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer teamed up with Vogue on Tuesday night to host the launch of Lacoste Pink at Lacoste on Fifth Avenue and shoppers got a first look at the company's pink-themed collection with 10% of the profits going to Evelyn Lauder's Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Co-hosts Rose Byrne, Marisa Brown, Gigi Mortimer, and Cynthia Lufkin were joined by Gillian Miniter, Nicole Miller, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Philip Bloch, Anisha Lakhani, Zani Gugelmann, Emma Snowdon Jones, Melissa Berkelhammer, and Alexandra Lebenthal. [The Daily, Park Ave Peerage, Wireimage]More

♦  It was the Metropolitan Opera's 125th opening night on Monday and so naturally a long list of recognizable faces trooped out for the occasion. In floor-length gowns and tuxes to walk the red carpet and watch Renée Fleming: Barbara Walters, Howard Stringer, Michael Bloomberg, Helen Mirren, Christie Brinkley, Faye Dunaway, Molly Sims, Taylor Momsen, Martha Stewart, Hilary and Bryant Gumbel, Henry Kravis, Mercedes Bass, Ann Ziff, Georgina Chapman (left), Helena Christensen, Jane Fonda, John Lithgow, Juliana Margulies, Joy and Regis Philbin, John Turturro, Parker Posey, Peggy Siegal, Ellen and Chuck Scarborough, Deborah Norville, Julie Macklowe, and Tory Burch. [Park Ave Peerage, NYSun, Wireimage, PMc]More

Angelina Jolie might think her new twins are pretty special now that she's earned a cool $14 million for the photo rights. But there are plenty of New York socialite moms who think their kids are pretty important, too. Will any of these kids turn into the Tinsley Mortimer or Peter Davis of 2025? Take you best guess at who these little youngsters are related to, then click through for the answers.More