Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• The team behind Coffee Shop in Union Square is taking over the iconic Empire Diner in Chelsea. A name change and revamped menu will follow. [CN]
• Team Momofuku is now serving lunch at their new Midtown location. [ML]
• A chat with Danny Abrams, who just opened his new Mermaid outpost. [VV]
• Michael Psilakis is planning a pop-up food cart in the meatpacking district. The food will be free and it's all part of a promo campaign by Ketel One. [TONY]
• Troubling news for those who love rating raw oysters year-round. [NYT]
• Gwyneth Paltrow's famous friends list their most memorable means. [GOOP]
• A roundup of food-related events taking place this weekend. [SE]

The last few weeks haven't been easy for personal trainer to the stars Tracy Anderson: She recently lost Madonna as a client, and she's been taking an increasing amount of heat from both former clients and the press. Today Jacob Bernstein of The Daily Beast takes a look at Anderson's sketchy past and her numerous financial, legal, and personal run-ins, a number of which have been reported in the past, but aren't any less shocking a second time around. Don't think, though, that any of the criticism is changing the mind of Anderson's other super-famous client, Gwyneth Paltrow. Gwynnie is sticking by her girl: More

Happy Birthday | Barbara Walters turns 80 years old today. Let's hope the View girls all remembered to get her a present. Others celebrating today: Will Smith is 41. Designer Thakoon Panichgul is turning 35. Catherine Zeta-Jones is 40. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is 66. Heather Locklear is turning 48. Actress Aida Turturro is 47. Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is turning 58. Tate Donovan is 46. Cheryl Tiegs is 62. And Bridget Marquardt of the Girls Next Door is turning 36. A handful of weekend birthdays below.More

• Are Kate Hudson and Alex Rodriguez engaged? The actress was spotted wearing a big diamond on her ring finger this week, which means "either A-Rod is making it official, or Ms. Hudson made some very careless jewelry choices." [NYDN]
• It's the battle of the Bravo reality TV stars on Twitter: Bethenny Frankel says Rachel Zoe is "self-important." Zoe claims Frankel is "insane" and "desperate for attention." Of course, you may find it hard to take sides here, since both of them seem to be making perfectly valid points about one another. [NYDN, Jezebel]
• Poor Gwyneth Paltrow suffered a little wardrobe malfunction while going through security at the Barcelona airport yesterday. [Sun]More

• Lindsay Lohan's troubles continue: Last week, the cell phone she left behind at a bodega in NYC prompted her to call the cops; now the police in LA are investigating a break-in at her Hollywood Hills home, which her family now says may have been an inside job. [People, TMZ, NYP]
• David Blaine's magic skills have turned a bit rusty. Although he was told not to go swimming in the ocean on account of Hurricane Bill, he jumped in the water at Necox Beach in Watermill anyway. And instead of magically transporting himself to safety, a couple of lifeguards had to go and rescue him and a few of his friends. [NYP] 
• Ryan Jenkins, the reality show contestant wanted for murdering (and dismembering) his ex-wife, Playboy model Jasmine Fiore, was found dead of an apparent suicide yesterday. [AP, TMZ]

• The September Issue debuted at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday night and the fashion set turned out en masse, not surprisingly. Just a few bits from the big event: Anna Wintour couldn't stop talking up Fashion's Night Out; Thakoon gushed that Anna is now "bigger than Madonna"; the film's unlikely star, Grace Coddington, emphasized that she really never wanted to take part in it; everyone ignored Tom Florio; Diddy claimed Anna as his fashion "godmother"; and Marc Jacobs, who insisted on putting on a French accent when speaking to reporters, argued that contrary to what most people think, Anna's really very "maternal and caring."
• Speaking of Jacobs, rumor has it his wedding to Lorenzo Martone will go down this weekend in Provincetown. And his big Fashion Week after-party, which was canceled last year, will return this fall.

• Kate Moss took notice of those photos of her in St. Tropez last month looking a little worse for the wear. She's supposedly changing up her lifestyle in an effort to "look 10 years younger," and she'll be eating healthier food, drinking less alcohol, and smoking fewer cigarettes from now on. [DM]
• Vogue editrix Anna Wintour was "advised" to leave her trademark sunglasses at home when she turns up as a guest on Dave Letterman's show next week. It was advice she didn't much appreciate, however. [P6]
• Gayle King demoted? Oprah says Jay-Z is her "new best friend." [People]
• Mariah Carey's new album hasn't been beset with problems. The decision to push back the release date, so it's one day too late to qualify for the Grammys? That's because she's fighting back against the system, don't you see? [NYDN] More

Spotted | Gwyneth Paltrow getting into her SUV in the Hamptons ... Calvin Klein walking in the West Village ... Elle Macpherson walking in Tribeca ... Antonio Sabato Jr. leaving his hotel ... Michelle Trachtenberg standing outside her trailer on the set of Gossip Girl, and later posing for photographers with an umbrella ... Jon Hamm leaving ABC Studios ... Eric Bana walking out of the Trump International Hotel with wife Rebecca Gleeson ... Justin Long on the set of Going the Distance ... Rihanna partying at Greenhouse in SoHo... and Ashton Kutcher standing on the set of A Beautiful Life downtown.

• The case of the mercury-tainted sushi lives on: Chris Kattan ran into Jeremy Piven backstage during a taping of Alexa Chung's MTV show last week and made a crack about Piven's short stint on Broadway; a very offended Piven responded by calling Kattan's entire career into question. [NYDN]
• Madonna's Brazilian-born boy toy, Jesus Luz, is more than just a model: He's now a DJ, too. [P6]
• Bethenny Frankel is no fan of Gwyneth Paltrow: "I'd rather staple my eyelids shut than watch Gwyneth cook." We're going to assume the feeling is mutual. [NYDN]
• In what amounted to a two-way publicity stunt, Kathy Griffin and Levi Johnston (better known as Bristol Palin's baby daddy) turned up to the Teen Choice Awards last night holding hands. [Us]More

• The mother of Jude Law's baby has been revealed: She's some actress/model named Samantha Burke. [TMZ]
• Jon Gosselin is shopping around a new reality show since he has a couple hundred kids to support and could really use the cash. [P6]
• Joe Jackson is confirming that Michael had a "love child" who is now a Norwegian dancer named Omer Bhatti. Welcome to the family, young man. [NYDN]
• Kanye West is the "new King of Pop," he says: "First there was Elvis, then there was Michael. Now in the 21st century it's Kanye's time to rule." [NYDN]More

• The latest model to design clothes? That would be Jessica Stam, who is now collaborating with Rag & Bone. [SF, F'gie]
• Related: Hussein Chalayan isn't too impressed with models who think of themselves as fashion designers. [Cut]
• The day in Anna Wintour: Some people seem to think she's gone "power crazy" thanks to her price fixing proposal. Oh, and in case you were wondering, she isn't a big fan of reality TV. [P6, F'gie] More

• According to Epicurious, the best burger in NYC is at DuMont's. [Epicurious]
• Mike Satsky and Brian Gefter, owners of the now-shuttered Stereo, plan to open a new spot called Provocateur in the Gansevoort Hotel this fall. [P6]
• The long-delayed, brunch-only spot Permanent Brunch opens Monday. [GS]
• A roundup of recent restaurant closings around town. [Eater]
• A roundup of where various celebs supposedly dined this week. [GS]
• That video of Gwyneth Paltrow cooking roast chicken? Until recently, she claimed she was a vegan and hadn't eaten meat in 15 years. [NYDN]More

• Is Thomas Keller opening a new resto in NYC? Depends who you ask. [TFB]
• The animal rights group that staged a foie gras protest outside Momofuku Noodle Bar back in May will return to the scene once again on Sunday. [GS]
• Word has it Rande Gerber's Stone Rose is exiting Time Warner Center. [P6]
• Speaking of exits, Frank Bruni will step down as the Times' restaurant critic in just 21 days. Eater offers up a few guesses as to his replacement. [Eater]
• Café Boulud will be providing the food when the Surrey Hotel reopens. [VV]
• Village on West 9th has closed. So has Midtown's City Burger. [GS, ML]
• The vast majority of the chocolate that Jacques Torres sells is manufactured in Brussels, Belgium, not at his NYC factories. Just so you know. [Forbes]
• Want to watch Gwyneth Paltrow roast a kitchen? Go right ahead. [GoaG]

• New details have emerged about Mischa Barton's involuntary trip to the hospital last week: According to the Post and the Sun, Barton was "so high on coke following a marathon three-day bender" that friends thought she might kill herself, and contacted the police. [NYP, Sun]
• Yet another fashion publicist is in legal trouble, apparently. Tim Mark Garcia, the new head of public relations for Marc Jacobs, is out on bond on "plunder" charges and is now facing extradition back to the Philippines. [P6]
• Not surprisingly, billionaire financier Pete Peterson is said to be "mortified" over how his grandson, PC, has come off on the Bravo show NYC Prep. [P6]
• French president Nicolas Sarkozy was in NYC this weekend. And he showed off his "chiseled" body when he went jogging in Central Park. [NYDN] More

Gwyneth Paltrow is well aware that a sizeable percentage dislikes her immensely. So why is she making it worse? Who knows, but she is. In an interview with the AP—one which Gwynnie apparently conducted in "almost perfect Spanish"—she said Spain has become a "second home" to her, adding that Spain is full of history whereas the U.S. is shiny, tacky and new: "Here in the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over there it's from 500 B.C., it's incredible." Then she reflected on how much more relaxing things are in Spain. "They seem to enjoy life a little bit more. They aren't running around as much as in New York. They enjoy time with the family. They don't always have their Blackberries on." This is true, no doubt. Life really is more pleasant when you're vacationing in Spain and not forced to, like, go to work every day in the concrete jungle of NYC. And aren't you happy Gwynnie put down her class of Sangria for a few minutes today to give this interview and point that fact out to you? We certainly are. [AP]