Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

"Douche" is having a moment, clearly. Last weekend, the New York Times devoted a front-page story to point out that the word has been used 76 times during primetime TV this fall (provoking a good deal of mockery online and off in the process). Now the infamous "douche" lawsuit from 2008 has popped back up in New York State Supreme Court. More

Last week, MTV announced its newest series, Jersey Shore, which it promises will feature the "hottest, tannest, craziest guidos" in the Jerz. (Think The Hills, but starring people who are tanner and have a whole lot more confidence.) What you can expect to see: all the fist pumping, pecs, and hair gel you can handle, naturally. So how close will it be to reality and how much of it will be the product of imaginative MTV producers? To separate fact from fiction, we reached out to the world's leading expert on guido-dom, Anthony Moussa, a 30-year-old Jersey native who founded the website NLSociety.com (formerly the infamous NJGuido.com), and asked him to explain to us what the lifestyle is really all about. Join us as he discusses man-jewelry, the origin of the fist pump, and how some guidos today are disgracing the culture that so many hold near and dear.More

One of the nastiest and longest-running feuds in fashion history has been revived. Since the mid-1980s, Ralph Lauren has been doing his damndest to prevent the U.S. Polo Association from marketing products bearing a horse-and-rider logo. It's a case that has taken the two sides to court on numerous occasions over the past 25 years, with Lauren suffering a stinging defeat in 2005 when a federal jury decided that the USPA had the right to produce a own clothing line since its logo featured two horsemen with mallets, as opposed to the solo player depicted in Lauren's version. Now the two sides are squaring off once again. More

Here's an important lesson to keep in mind: If the corrupt president of an impoverished African nation comes along and tells you he's going to pay you $27 million to buy a piece of land you own in Midtown, do not take him at his word. Stay skeptical, at least until you have the money in hand. Dictators, you see, tend to operate by their own set of rules; just they signed a silly piece of paper called a "contract" doesn't mean they can't change their minds later on. They can do what they want. That's one of the perks to being an autocrat!More

Nello Balan is the owner of Nello, the exceedingly mediocre Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. He's also one of the city's most shameless—and most notorious—publicity hounds. Balan's latest attempt at drumming up attention, however, now appears to be exploding in his face. Last week, a receipt "surfaced" indicating that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had spent $52,000 on lunch. (The bill was for $47,000, but TMZ, which first reported the story, said the billionaire had tacked on a $5,000 tip.) But a spokesman for Abramovich tells us the bill wasn't his and the mogul may pursue legal action against Balan for suggesting otherwise.More

It's been a busy month for Bethenny Frankel. First she got engaged to her boyfriend Jason Hoppy; then, a couple of weeks ago, she confirmed she's a little more than two months pregnant. With the Real Housewives of New York City currently filming its third season, we thought it would be worthwhile to get some parenting advice for the mom-to-be from one of her costars. So, naturally, we reached out to model-cum-designer Kelly Killoren Bensimon—a mom with two daughters of her own, Sea, 11, and Teddy, nine—to offer parenting tips for Bethenny. Kelly's advice, thoughts on women who breast-feed in public, and why she wears shorter skirts now than ever before is below. Join us, won't you? More

Does riding a mechanical bull sound like a fun time? If you do decide to engage in the activity and you head over to Johnny Utahs, one of the few places in the area that has the gizmo set up for its customers, keep in mind that if you get wasted and then fall off the bucking beast and injure yourself, you probably won't get very far if you file a lawsuit against the restaurant for negligence. More

Ever since McKinsey & Company finished up its three-month review at Condé Nast a few weeks ago, the publishing giant has been busy cutting costs, closing down four magazines and laying off staff at most of its remaining titles. But perhaps instead of hiring the pricey consulting firm, Condé should have traveled to the front lines to talk to one of the guys who sells magazines for a living? To gain some insight into the future of printed media and find out what sells (and what doesn't), we headed over to a newsstand on Third Avenue to chat with a kind gentleman named Naseer. You'll find his thoughts on the layoffs and career advice for unemployed journalists below. More

Michael Bloomberg built his estimated $16 billion fortune thanks to Bloomberg LP, the financial news provider he founded in 1981. Thirty years later, it is now one of the most lucrative media operations on the planet. Banks and large corporations pay $1,250 a month for each Bloomberg terminal that's installed in its office. There are no discounts available and the company never engages in price negotiations. And while Bloomberg faces competition from the likes of Reuters and Dow Jones, neither company has been able to successfully dislodge the grip that Bloomberg has on the financial media marketplace. No wonder. Getting Bloomberg to cancel your monthly subscription is about as easy as getting Columbia House to stop billing your credit card for those "free" DVDs it insists on sending you every month, even after you've called the 1-800 number a dozen times to complain. More

Wall Street CEOs make a fortune, as you're undoubtedly aware. Even the chief executives of banks that have been bailed-out by Washington or have gone bust usually end up doing nicely. But despite the riches and perks these men have accumulated and massive egos they've developed along the way, few of them would do all that well in a beauty contest. Because it's high time that Wall Street take advantage of the miracle of modern science—and because we care, dammit—we took the liberty of contacting Dr. Anthony Youn, a board-certified plastic surgeon who has made appearances on Dr. 90210 and the Rachael Ray Show, to ask him what procedures he'd suggest these titans of finance consider if they want to look their very best. Dr. Youn's answers and cost estimates—and our commentary—is below.More

Amy Sacco's Bungalow 8 is closed and the phone has been disconnected. But she remains insistent that she plans to reopen the onetime hotspot after she completes a round of renovations and gives the venue a new look. So is there any chance Bungalow 8 will reopen and Sacco will once again reign supreme as the "Queen of NYC nightlife"?More

ABC announced last month that Diane Sawyer would depart Good Morning America at the end of the year to replace Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC's World News. Now we hear that the morning show's co-anchor, Chris Cuomo, is leaving the program as well. According to a well-placed source, Cuomo plans to move over to 20/20, taking over for John Stossel who left ABC in September to join Fox News and Fox Business. More

Bungalow 8's demise has been rumored for a couple of years now—and years since it's been a serious hotspot—but the venue that helped revitalize the western edge of Chelsea (and turned it into a mob scene) is finally finished, a source tells us. Amy Sacco's lounge supposedly closed "for renovations" a couple of weeks ago. But after nearly nine years in business, we've been told that Sacco does not have any plans to reopen the club that served as celeb central in the early to mid-'00s. We contacted Sacco's publicist by phone and email for comment and have yet to hear back. But a call to Bungalow 8 confirms the obvious: The line has been disconnected.More

NBC's legal team has one more headache on its hands. On Tuesday afternoon, the company was served with a lawsuit by the Font Bureau, one of the country's leading typographic design firms and the company responsible for crafting typefaces for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and the New York Times Co. What would prompt a company that designs fonts to wage a legal assault on the media conglomerate? It seems NBC didn't secure the rights to use a handful of Font Bureau's trademarked typefaces. The same ones, we should add, that have been used as part of NBC's fall marketing campaign to tout shows like The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.More

Remember those reports last week that Marc Jacobs had decided to appear on a gay version of Real Housewives on Logo called Kept? The rumor got off the ground, it seems, when the Daily News noticed an item about the show on Gawker alongside a photo of Jacobs and boyfriend Lorenzo Martone. Despite the fact the piece didn't actually suggest Jacobs was involved in the show in any way, the mere presence of a photo of Jacobs on the same page as a story about a gay reality TV show led the Daily News to publish an item a couple of days later that the designer had "reportedly signed on to participate." Naturally, the story was soon picked up by dozens of gossip outlets as if it were a done deal. Too bad the News didn't bother to call anyone to check (or even reread the story on Gawker). Much to the dismay of many—gay and straight alike—we can confirm that Marc will not be on the show. More