Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Spotted | Rihanna catching a flight at JFK ... Queen Rania of Jordan leaving Harry Cipriani on Fifth Avenue ... John Legend in SoHo eating lunch outside with girlfriend Chrissy Teigene ... Jessica Szohr hanging out on the Gossip Girl set downtown ... Jude Law signing autographs outside his Broadway show ... Kirsten Dunst walking around ... Tess Kartel filming scenes for The Other Guys in Midtown while Mark Wahlberg was shooting his own scenes nearby ... America Ferrera shooting scenes for Ugly Betty ... and Jennifer Aniston leaving Monkey Bar.

• John Legend has picked up a new apartment in the East Village. The Grammy-winning singer—who is still looking to unload his former pad on East 3rd Street—has reportedly gone into contract to buy a one-bedroom condo at 52 East 4th Street, where Moby owns an apartment, too. [WSJ]
• SNL's Kristen Wiig has paid $1.5 million for a director Alan Taylor's SoHo apartment. The loft at 476 Broadway had been listed for $1.75 million. [NYO]More

Lou Dobbs, CNN's resident immigrant-hating xenophobe, has provoked a good deal of controversy in recent days for indulging those wacko conspiracy theorists who seem to believe that Barack Obama was not actually born in the United States, but instead came into this word at a fanatical madrassa in Indonesia or wherever. But is President Obama the black man that Dobbs should be most concerned about these days? We think not. More

Spotted | Jessica Simpson walking out of Dos Caminos yesterday with her dog Daisy in a carrier ... Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos and their two sons, Joaquin and Michael,  walking in Soho ... John Legend outside the Late Show with David Letterman ... Robert Pattinson on the set of Remember Me ... Samuel L. Jackson walking around dressed in what appears to be a mailman's uniform ... Johnny Depp attending a Late Show taping before heading to dinner ... and Anne Hathaway walking her dog.

• Leona Helmsley's former estate in Greenwich is now available at a discount. Priced at $125 million when it first went on the market last year, the 40-acre manor-style property known as Dunnellen Hall is now just $75 million. [GT, DO&A]
• Investor Paul Cejas has put his two-bedroom, fifth-floor apartment at 834 Fifth—the building that's home to Rupert Murdoch, Woody Johnson, and socialite Carroll Petrie—on the market for $18.5 million. [NYO, BHS]
• John Legend has cut the price of his apartment at 72 East 3rd Street, which he purchased in 2005 and originally listed for $1.245 million last December. The two-bedroom condo is now priced at $1.195 million. [NYM, PDE]

• There were bound to be a few dramatic moments at the inaugural parties last night: Sheryl Crow had an awkward run in with her ex, Kid Rock, in the lobby of Donovan House. John Legend was forced to make a last-minute stop at Bloomingdale's because his girlfriend didn't have a gown. Susan Sarandon got a reporter kicked out an event for daring to ask a question. And Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony showed up so late to the Neighborhood Ball, they almost didn't get in. [P6, WP, Politico]
• One possible explanation for Lopez's late arrival: She was spotted at the Scientology Center in LA yesterday morning, trying to sneak out of the building without being noticed. [NYDN]
• Another headache for John Travolta and Kelly Preston: A politician in the Bahamas may have been part of a plot to extort money from the couple following the death of Jett Travolta. [OK!]More

Happy Birthday | Author/humorist David Sedaris turns 52 today. Jared Leto is 37. CNN's Candy Crowley is 60. AOL chief Randy Falco is 55. Senator Evan Bayh is 53. America's Most Wanted's John Walsh is 63. Chris Daughtry is 29. And record producer (and possible murderer) Phil Spector celebrates his 68th today. Weekend birthdays after the jump. More

Spotted | Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson getting on the subway at Spring Street ... Kate Beckinsale smoking on the sidewalk in SoHo ... Naomi Watts shopping at Whole Foods on Houston Street ... Naomi Campbell leaving her hotel ... John Legend walking around town ... Beyonce talking on her phone at JFK ... Penn Badgley and Blake Lively under an umbrella on the set of Gossip Girl ... Christina Aguilera getting into an SUV with son Max ... Joshua Jackson on the set of Fringe ... Aretha Franklin arriving at her Midtown hotel ... The Who's Roger Daltrey going for a walk ... Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet crossing the street ... Katie Holmes coming back at her East Village apartment after a matinee performance on Broadway ... and Sarah Jessica Parker taking son James to school.

♦  Following reports in July that Tory Burch was offering a 30 percent stake in her hugely successful womenswear and accessories label, she now says that the company is not for sale. Also, she says the  economy has had an impact on her designs: "I don't think women want to be over-the-top anymore. They want something that's chic and elegant, but not such a big statement." [WWD]
♦  If you've noticed slightly fewer giraffe-like teens with unplaceable accents on the streets of Manhattan, it's because in a sobering indicator of just how bad things are, Elite has slashed 60 models from its roster. [Fashionista]
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» Zac Posen showed the kind of pretty dresses that made him famous. What has also made him famous, of course, is his dazzling knack for networking, which was in full effect with a starry audience of Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Marisa Tomei, Leighton Meester, Venus and Serena Williams, Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley, Bernadette Peters, Diddy, Julian Schnabel, Bette Midler, Juliette Lewis, Kate Mara, Jada Pinkett Smith, Veronica Webb, Joy Bryant, Rachel Zoe, Ingrid Sischy, and Fern Mallis. [WSJ, Wireimage]

» Calvin Klein's 40th anniversary show was predictably A-listy with Eva Mendes, Lauren Hutton, Anna Wintour, Tyra Banks (whispering conspiratorially with Glenda Bailey), and Serena Williams in attendance. Equally newsworthy as Francisco Costa's minimalist, neutral-paletted, space-agey designs, though, was the fact that Rachel Zoe got totally abused by the paps, who told her to "eat a sandwich," and that she's "a terrible role model." Welcome to reality TV stardom, Rachel!  [The Cut, Guardian, WSJ]More