Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Former supermodel Stephanie Seymour and newsprint mogul Peter Brant are in the middle of a very messy divorce at the moment. Neither side has spoken out about their imploded marriage, since Seymour and Brant signed an agreement barring them from discussing the feud publicly. But presumably Brant and Seymour's lawyers didn't address the subject of sexy photos, which explains why the December issue of Vanity Fair features a collection of half-nude photos of the 41-year-old ex-model by Mario Testino. (Brant will get a spread of his own in the January issue, we imagine.) More

It's been more than two years since restaurateur (and drama magnet) Nello Balan filed suit against Amy Sacco's Bungalow 8, accusing the club's bouncers of beating him up during a visit to the former hot spot back in May 2006. Nello came forward in the spring of 2007 to say that a bouncer had punched him in the eye and hit him over the head with a metal object (he also said his 21-year daughter was pushed), and the altercation left him with 10 stitches and a fracture to his eye-socket. More

You don't usually see the names Sheila Bair and Anna Wintour mentioned in the same sentence. Bair, of course, is the supremely powerful chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Wintour is the supremely powerful editor-in-chief of Vogue. But now the two have collided. And, oh, yes. It is on.More

Author Michael Gross suggested over the weekend that the Costume Institute Gala, hosted by Anna Wintour, represents the Vogue editor's attempt to compete with Graydon Carter's equally star-studded Vanity Fair Oscar bash every February. "Graydon and Anna are competing for the social crown. It's the social-status factor that defines those magazines," explained Gross. So did Graydon deign to stop off at last night's celeb-fest at the Met? More

More Bad News for Bensimon | Poor Kelly Killoren Bensimon. Not only is she facing charges in connection with the beating of her boyfriend, still classified as a man by the NYPD, and desperately looking to sell her house in the Hamptons, she's now being accused of ripping off the jewelry designs of her former friend, Celeste Greenberg. At the rate she's going, she should be stealing handbags from clubs by about the third week of June or so. Mark your calendar. [GoaG]

When we revealed that an agency retained by JPMorgan Chase to collect outstanding debts had resorted to harrassing debtors' kids by posting nasty messages on MySpace, we didn't realize who Jamie Dimon was messing with. Meet Gina Ricobene. She's the daughter of Jim Ricobene, the man suing the bank because Gina found a message on her MySpace page threatening to put her dad behind bars if he didn't come up with the cash to pay off the loan on his Mercedes. More

It's probably safe to assume that Amy Odell, the editor of New York magazine's fashion blog, The Cut, won't be on the guest list for Lauren Santo Domingo's Christmas party this year. Late yesterday, Odell posted a scathing critique of the socialite, Vogue contributing editor, and wife of Colombian heir Andres Santo Domingo. Why? It seems Santo Domingo couldn't get her hands on a pair of black $1,800 Hussein Chalayan boots that have been all the rage recently. So she did what any other dedicated fashionista would do: She took a pair of similar boots in brown and customized them to look just like the Chalayan ones. Vogue posted Santo Domingo's tale of "fashion dedication" online; Odell responded by suggesting Santo Domingo wasn't "important enough" to get her hands on the genuine article, and said her effort to recreate them was something that "no one with a real job would ever have the time, money, or energy to even think about doing." Totally true! The problem is that not long after, New York removed any trace of the story from its website. Did Vogue put pressure on New York to remove the offending piece? Did Anna bitch Adam out? Hard to say! An email to Odell asking for an explanation went unanswered. But we saved a cached version for you, which you can read here.

Anderson Cooper's War of Words | It looks like Anderson Cooper messed with the wrong guy when he described Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel as "kind of pathetic" on CNN on Tuesday night. The congressman, who became the butt of Anderson's on-air joke after staking out an aisle seat more than 12 hours in advance of President Obama's address to Congress, now says Cooper is the one who is "really pathetic" for not sharing Engel's "enthusiasm for participating in such a historic and wonderful celebration of American democracy," and he says he's sorry that Cooper is "so jaded." Your turn, Andy! [NYDN]

Could stress and anxiety over the state of the economy explain why so many celebrity chefs are getting a bit belligerent as of late? Anthony Bourdain went out of his way to launch a verbal assault on Alice Waters recently. And the war between Mario Batali and Gordon Ramsay has been heating up in recent days, too. Apparently, Batali made some critical comments about the Hell's Kitchen star more than a year ago, a move that prompted Ramsay to start calling Batali "fanta pants" in honor of the orange shorts he's long been fond of. More

There's been no shortage of Anna Wintour rumors the past couple of months. Back in November, the word circulated that the Vogue editrix was thinking about retiring; two weeks later, there was gossip that Condé Nast chief Si Newhouse was planning to replace her with French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. More recently, there have been outlandish suggestions that Barack Obama is considering Anna as a possible ambassador to France or England. What gives? Who's been spreading the rumors? It turns out that the juicy bits about Anna are all connected: They're related to tense behind-the-scenes negotiations between Wintour and Newhouse over her new contract and were disseminated to the media by both sides as part of a devious whisper campaign.More

Tension Rising at CNBC | If you were thinking that the stress of the economic meltdown isn't talking a toll on financial news reporters, well, it is. This morning CNBC's Charlie Gasparino got into a little on-air tiff with colleague Dennis Kneale. Skip ahead 35 seconds or so to see Gasparino tell Kneale he isn't a real reporter and Kneale respond by telling Gasparino he's damaging the CNBC brand. Gasparino, of course, is doing no such thing. That's what Jim Cramer is there to do!

Yesterday, we mentioned in passing that Regis Philbin's son and daughter-in-law had told the National Enquirer that they were destitute, barely had enough food to eat, and had been turned down when they approached Rege for financial help. Could there be another side to the story, one that differs from the account in the nation's most trustworthy and reliable news publication? We have no idea, really, but Daniel Philbin, Regis' son, did contact us out of the blue yesterday to share a few additional thoughts on his famous father. His reply after the jump.More

So nice to see CNBC and Fox Business setting aside their differences and making a special effort to get along this holiday season! Fox Business sent out an amusing Christmas card yesterday depicting CNBC's (ridiculous, unreliable) Jim Cramer as the Grinch and mocking him for recommending Bear Stearns and Wachovia just before both companies tanked. (Click here for a larger pic of the card.) Naturally, CNBC was quick to fire back, telling the Post today that "if Fox Business News sends a card to every viewer, advertiser and individual who has ever seen or even heard of FBN it would be the smallest holiday card print run in history." You wouldn't expect that quote to go unanswered, would you? Replies a Fox insider: "Perhaps the humorless, out of touch folks at CNBC should pull their heads out of Englewood Cliffs and embrace the reality of a viable competitor." Looks like it's your turn, CNBC! In the meantime, we'll take some comfort in knowing that while the financial markets are thoroughly depressing these days, the feuds between financial news networks are as entertaining as ever!

Remember Tricia Walsh-Smith, the former wife of theater mogul Philip Smith, and the woman who became an internet sensation when she took to YouTube to recount her messy divorce and her former husband's fondness for Viagra and porn movies? Tricia came to mind when we read the news last night that Philip Smith was named the new chairman of the Shubert Organization, "perhaps the single most powerful position in the theatrical world." The promotion suggests the tabloid frenzy earlier this year didn't put much of a dent in Smith's professional rep, something he was clearly concerned about when the couple appeared in court this summer. (The judge said Tricia's YouTube videos represented "a calculated and callous campaign to embarrass and humiliate her husband.") But we thought we'd check in with Tricia and gather her thoughts on her ex-husband's big promotion. Here's what she had to say via email a few moments ago.More

There's something surreal/delightful about a swishy dressmaking contest provoking such a momentous battle between a couple of bald, middle-aged, Jewish heterosexuals. Yes, Harvey Weinstein and NBC's Jeff Zucker are still squabbling about Project Runway, and, to the chagrin of the show's many devoted fans, seem no closer to kissing and making up. For those of us who haven't managed to quite grasp the intricacies of this particular catfight, today's Times breaks it down: Weinstein, whose company produces the series, tried to move it from NBC-owned Bravo to Lifetime, because he hates Bravo's president Lauren Zalaznick. But Zucker said, hold on, NBC has the right of first refusal to keep the show on one of its channels, and filed suit.  More