Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Hedge fund mogul Dan Loeb paid $45 million for one of the city's poshest apartments last year, a 10,000-square-foot penthouse at 15 Central Park West. His move-in, however, didn't go so smoothly, it seems. It's unclear what took place precisely, but the moving company that Loeb and his wife Margaret hired to help them settle in, Auer's Moving & Rigging, filed a lawsuit against the couple in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this year claiming breach of contract. (Panorama on the Park LLC, which is also listed as a defendant, is the company Loeb set up to acquire the property.) The high-end moving company is demanding that Loeb cough up the $98,689.07 which it says it's owed. Last week, though, an attorney for the Loebs responded to the suit by filing a motion to dismiss. So what went wrong? Was the prickly hedge fund manager's grand piano damaged by a faulty crane? Did a burly mover accidentally step on Biggie, the couple's miniature pinscher? The legal papers don't indicate why Loeb decided to withhold payment—let's hope that Biggie wasn't harmed—but you can review the documents for yourself below. More

Simon van Kempen and wife Alex McCord of the Real Housewives of New York City spent much of Fashion Week attending parties for the free champagne and gift bags. One of his employees, however, clearly wasn't in the mood to party. Last week a maintenance worker at the crummy hotel that van Kempen manages, the Hotel Chandler, slapped the property with a lawsuit for refusing to pay workers for overtime, a violation of New York's labor laws. Does this mean Simon's chances of winning the award for "Hotel Manager of the Year" are now totally dashed? While you ponder that very real possibility, you can look at the full lawsuit after the jump.More

Dick Fuld Surrenders the Ridge | Big news for golf aficionados who also happen to be closely following the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. As Reuters reported last week, ex-Lehman CEO Dick Fuld gave up his membership at the Blind Brook Country Club in Purchase following his fall from grace last year. Our trusted source for all mogul-related golf news now tells us that Blind Brook isn't the only club that no longer has the pleasure of Fuld's company. He's also abandoned his membership at the Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale. Clearly, the situation has gone from bad to much, much worse.

Anna Wintour lives in a lovely townhouse in the Village. But it doesn't come anywhere close to the new home that one her underlings, Vogue contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo, is moving into with her husband Andrés Santo Domingo. And while the blonde Voguette and the Latin American heir didn't end up snagging the big discount that had been reported in the press, the house they're moving into is quite a sight. More

Just when you thought another person couldn't get in on all the Gossip Girl action, designer Anna Sui unveiled a line for Target inspired by none other than Gossip Girl. On Wednesday evening, Target previewed the collection at a Soho townhouse-turned-pop-up shop for a group of Anna's friends, GG cast members like Blake Lively, Taylor Momsen, Michelle Trachtenberg, Penn Badgley and Jessica Szohr, members of the press, and assorted boldfaced names. Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall caught up with Real Housewives of New York City star Kelly Killoren Bensimon to chat about Gossip Girl and other important stuff like preparing for Fashion Week and achieving the perfect tan.More

If you watched Bravo's NYC Prep this summer, you undoubtedly remember Camille Hughes, the prim, SAT-obsessed Nightingale student dead set on joining Harvard's class of 2014. It looks like there's been a change of plan: Hughes will not be returning to Nightingale-Bamford for the new school year. So was she kicked out of the posh Upper East Side institution, or did she decide on her own to finish out her high school career elsewhere? More

On Tuesday evening, the Sundance Channel hosted a screening and cocktail party at the private club Norwood for Loic Prigent's new documentary series, The Day Before. Hosting the event were Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez and Nathalie Rykiel of Sonia Rykiel, who are featured in Full Frontal Fashion-branded series. On hand for the occasion: Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester, Vogue's Lauren Santo Domingo, fashion darling Julia Restoin Roitfeld, and stylist/Bravo star Rachel Zoe, who was accompanied by her husband (Rodger) and right-hand man (Brad Goreski). Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall caught up with Lorenzo Martone, advertising exec and fiancé of Marc Jacobs, and his date for the evening, model Julie Henderson, to talk Fashion Week strategy.More

A woman who claims her life was ruined after she stopped off at Bliss for a Brazilian wax is going to have her day in court. Somer Graham filed a lawsuit against the chain after a waxing session in 2006 left with "serious injuries to her genitalia," which, she says, has since left her with unending pain, made it impossible to go to work, and ruined her sex life. This week, an attempt by Bliss' lawyers to settle the case and avoid a trial was denied by a judge. Presumably that's good news for Graham, who is seeking a large settlement from Bliss for her misery. But it also means she's going to have to spend a couple of weeks sitting in a courtroom as opposing medical experts debate whether this is simply a case of a little "vulvar irritation" or a more serious incidence of "labia trauma." Awkward, no? The ruling is below. More

Hassan Nemazee, the banker and Democratic mega-fundraiser who was charged yesterday with forging financial documents to get Citibank to give him a $74 million loan, got to leave prison today. And just like Marc Dreier and Bernie Madoff before him, he'll be under house arrest from now on, confined to a $20 million, 14th floor co-op at 770 Park Avenue. The terms of Nemazee's release are pretty strict: The $25 million bail package requires him to pledge his Park Avenue apartment and house in Katonah as collateral; he'll be monitored round the click via electronic bracelet; and the judge also banned him from using computers, the Internet, or getting a new cell phone. (What's he going to do all day? God only knows.) Prosecutors argued for the tough terms because they said Nemazee is a flight risk, and by the looks of it, the judge was inclined to agree. But that's where you come in! The apartment next door to Nemazee's is up for sale. Maybe you want to move in and keep an eye on him? We can't say so for sure, but prosecutors might be willing to cut you a break the next time jury duty rolls around if you step up and perform the valuable service. A couple of pics and a floor plan of Apt. 14B are below. More

Liskula Cohen won her case last week to force Google to reveal the identity of the person who had set up a blog to call the ex-model a "skank" and "ho." And although Cohen initially responded to the news by filing a $3 million defamation lawsuit against the blogger involved, Rosemary Port, she later decided against pursuing the case, saying she was all "about forgiveness" and just wished Port "happiness." (For her part, Port now says she plans to sue Google for $15 million for outing her.) So you may be assuming Cohen can now focus her attention on non-legal matters, right? Not so much. Cohen has another lawsuit pending in State Supreme Court. And, coincidentally, a judge issued a ruling in that case last week, as well.More

Andrés Piedrahita may have canceled his summer cruise down the Dalmatian coast aboard his $22 million yacht, but other members of the family are still getting outside for some fun in the sun. A source tells us—and we've since confirmed—that Walter Noel, the founder of the Fairfield Greenwich Group, Piedrahita's father-in-law, and the man who "lost" $7 billion of his investors' money to Bernie Madoff's epic scam, is golfing once again. After taking a year-long hiatus, Noel returned to the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton last week for the first time since August 2008. And he's been back two times since then. It's hard to blame him. Once he's indicted this fall, he probably won't have much time to practice his swing, now will he? You'll find Noel's score history—which indicates his golf game hasn't suffered much since he hit the links last summer—below. More

Giuseppe Cipriani hasn't been seen on U.S. soil since last December, either because he suspects he may end up in handcuffs if he returns, or because he's been "exploring new business ventures" in far-off locales for the past nine months or so. But just because he isn't physically present—and has left his family's crumbling hospitality empire in the (undoubtedly) capable hands of his teenage sons—doesn't mean you're not allowed to give his (undoubtedly) overworked attorney another headache to deal with. Cipriani, his father Arrigo, and their collection of NYC-based companies, were slapped with (another) class action lawsuit this week by a former employee who claims he was stiffed on wages and never compensated for his overtime work. The suit, which is probably now sitting atop a giant tower of legal paperwork on Cipriani's lawyer's desk, is below. More

New York's epic article about Annie Leibovitz in this week's issue is well worth a read, particularly since it sheds a little light on how it is one of the world's highest-paid photographers now finds herself on the brink of financial ruin. (If the only person you'll allow to repair your air-conditioner has to travel to NYC from Vermont to do the work, that's probably not a good sign.) Leibovitz's financial fate will likely be sealed in September when the $24 million loan she secured from Art Capital Group last year is due. Interestingly, though, Leibovitz appears to be hinting that the terms of the loan— which required her to put up the rights to her photos and real estate holdings as collateral—only became apparent to her after the Times reported on Art Capital Group back in February. Friends of the photographer suggest that Leibovitz had no idea she was giving up so much when she took out the loan; they also seem to be shifting some of the blame to Ken Starr, the financial adviser who took the photographer on as a client in 2007 and who was also responsible for introducing Leibovitz to Art Capital Group. Pinning the blame on Starr, who boasts an insanely long list of celebrity clients, may be a hard argument to make.More

Anderson Cooper worked out earlier this afternoon at the flashy new David Barton Gym on Astor Place. Things headed downhill, however, when he walked out of the gym with a guy who appeared to be his trainer. You can view Andy's rainy day ordeal, in four acts, by clicking on the photo above.  

Rupert Murdoch is currently using his 183-foot sailboat. Or at least he was a few weeks ago when the Rosehearty was spotted in Auke Bay, Alaska and the "rumor on the dock" was that mogul's special on-board guest was none other Mel Gibson. But if you're planning ahead, you may want to take note that you can now rent Murdoch's "aluminum masterpiece" by the week. It's not cheap—it will run you €220,000, or $310,000, a week. Then again, no one ever said a "stunning interior by famous French designer Christian Liagre" came cheap, and you can bring nine friends with you, so maybe you can split up the costs? While you try and make the numbers work, you can take the grand tour of Murdoch's floating palace after the jump.More