Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Many people have criticized The Huffington Post for not paying its writers. But Ken Lerer, who co-founded the site with Arianna Huffington and remains the company's chairman, sure has one heck of a generous streak. Last week, we noticed that Joey Bartolomeo, a senior writer at People and frequent TV talking head, had purchased an apartment on the Upper East Side. What was strange was that Bartolomeo didn't buy the $1.025 million co-op on her own. Lerer's name appeared on the property documents as well. And it turns out that Joey isn't the first member of the Bartolomeo family to have benefited from Lerer's largesse. Bartolomeo's older sister, Stephanie Bartolomeo, picked up a $1.25 million co-op on the Upper West Side back in March. And once again, Lerer co-signed for the apartment. More

• Arthur Sulzberger Jr. says he has no plans to take the New York Times Co. private, despite "brutal conditions" that threaten his paper's survival. [NYT]
• Meanwhile, Moody's has downgraded the NYT Co.'s credit rating. [E&P]
• A few theories on why Peter Kaplan departed Jared Kushner's Observer, and what's in store for Kaplan—and the paper—in the future. [WWD]
• Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta is the new CEO of MySpace. [WSJ]
• Is GE looking to sell NBC Universal to Time Warner? It's possible! [TDB]
• Ambushing the ambusher: Staking out the home of Jesse Watters, the Fox News producer who stalks liberals for Bill O'Reilly. [Gawker] More

Happy Birthday | Eva Mendes turns 35 today. One of New York's richest men, oil billionaire David Koch, is 69. Supermodel-turned-TV host Niki Taylor is turning 34. Actor Kevin Connolly is 35. Former AOL exec and Huffington Post co-founder Kenny Lerer is 57. Sheila Birnbaum, Skadden's "Queen of Toxic Torts," is 69. Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante turns 39. Publicity-seeking pastor Joel Osteen turns 46. And the more talkative member of Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette, is celebrating his 54th birthday.

More Cash for HuffPo? | So much for doom-mongering and talk of post-election crashes: The Huffington Post, founded by Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer, has supposedly landed $15 million in financing from Oak Investment Partners. Or maybe not! [PaidContent]

• Jeff Zucker and Harvey Weinstein faced off in a legal hearing over the rights to Project Runway. [AdWeek]
• George Lois will redesign 02138, the mag for Harvard grads and the people who wish they'd gone there. For the record, Lois dropped out of college. [NYO]
• The new (racy!) ad campaign for Gossip Girl. [Jossip] 
• Ken Lerer and Arianna Huffington's HuffPo doesn't pay its bloggers. [Portfolio]