Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Spotted | Hugh Jackman carrying a box out of Blick Art on Bond Street ... Uma Thurman leaving her West Village townhouse with son Levon ... Jennifer Aniston filming scenes for her new movie at a restaurant in Williamsburg ... Paul McCartney standing outside Arabelle on East 64th Street ... Model Carmen Kass sitting outside at Bar Pitti ... Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo leaving ABC studios ... LL Cool J driving a Bentley in Midtown ... Famke Janssen getting on a bike ... and Chace Crawford being chased by two female fans on the set of Gossip Girl.

Happy Birthday | Worst birthday ever: Embattled Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit turns 52 today, although we're going to assume that whatever big party Swati Pandi had been planning is not going ahead as scheduled. Others celebrating: 60 Minutes' Andy Rooney is turning 90. Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is 45. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd is 57. Models Karen Elson and Angela Lindvall are both turning 30. Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is 46. Cranky liberal Eric Alterman is 49. Venture capitalist (and babe magnet) Adam Dell is turning 39. Jason Bateman is 40. Dave Grohl is celebrating his 40th. LL Cool J is 41. Faye Dunaway is turning 68. And Ms. Kristin Cavallari is turning 22 today.

♦  You didn't expect to hear that Lydia Hearst actually wrote that column in Page Six magazine by herself, did you? In response to Hearst's accusation that Page Six fabricated her latest column—the one in which she bashed her family's publishing company—the mag now says that Hearst's writing process involved being interviewed by a reporter who then "put her thoughts into cohesive paragraphs." And they have the emails to prove Lydia's trash talk. [P6]
♦  Madonna is reportedly under pressure from the leaders of Kabbalah to reach a divorce settlement quickly, lest the mess cast a negative light on their freaky cult. Guy Ritchie, however, isn't making it any easier now that he's apparently rejected Madge's latest £20 million offer. [Daily Mail, ThisIsLondon]
♦  Michael Phelps got paid $100,000 to swim around at a pool party thrown by a TV network chief's wife. [P6]
♦  It's a match made in heaven: Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Jerry Ferrara, who plays Turtle on Entourage, are dating. [R&M]More

Spotted | Britney Spears getting out of an SUV at JFK ... Sarah Ferguson signing copies of her book at Borders ... Taylor Momsen on the Gossip Girl set ... Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise leaving their apartment with Suri ... LL Cool J reading to kids as part of a charity event in Rockefeller Plaza ... Candice Bergen walking by herself on the Upper West Side ... Calista Flockhart outside the Letterman show ... Leighton Meester posing for photos at a domestic violence awareness event in Union Square ... Elizabeth Hurley entering her hotel on the Upper East Side ... and Sean and Robin Wright Penn holding hands outside the premiere of What Just Happened. 

♦  It seems like sending out company-wide emails ripping your co-workers is not a good idea: Pat O'Brien has been fired from The Insider. [R&M, P6]
♦  Brandon Davis has been conning his friends out of cash, but whenever anyone tries to get the money back "he starts crying and gets them to feel bad for him." [P6]
♦  Poor Ivana Trump almost had to fly coach this week. But then someone in first class switched seats, so everything turned out okay. Phew. [P6]
♦  Heather Mills is suing her former publicist—the one who very publicly dumped her and called her a "witch"—for libel. [P6]
♦  Anne Hathaway's been crashing on her parents' couch ever since she got booted from Raffaello Follieri's duplex. [In Touch]More

• Matt Damon's wife Luciana gave birth to the couple's second child together yesterday, a girl named Gia Zavala Damon. [NYDN]
• 50 Cent is supposedly stonewalling investigators who want to question him about the Long Island fire that destroyed his ex-girlfriend and son's home. [NYP]
• Ricky Martin is the new father of twin boys, who were born to a surrogate sometime in the last few weeks. [People]
• Donald Trump might not be buying Ed McMahon's home after all: an anonymous buyer is offering to outbid him. [ExtraTV]
• Lisa Gastineau has started filming a new reality show for VH1. It's called Camp Cougar. TV just gets better and better, huh? [P6]

• Ravaged supermodel Kate Moss, probably realizing that soon even photoshopping and body doubles won't sustain her career, is going to be appearing on a TV show! In England, unforch. British Style Genius will be a BBC series that examines what makes "British fashion so influential." [Mirror]
  
• The fashion industry has cottoned on to the fact that there's no limit to the profit margin they can slap on sunglasses. $750 Ray-Ban Wayfarers, anyone? [NYT]
• Apparently Milla Jovovich (above) didn't get the memo about how to respond to an interview question about plastic surgery. Instead of the standard issue "needles scare me" or "I'm really happy with what God gave me" the Russian-born model/designer says she'd like a neck extension and knee shrinking. [Times UK]

1) At the Harold Pratt House, the New Yorkers For Children Fall Gala was previewed with a Tuesday night gathering of Campion Platt, Andre Leon Talley, Jeffrey Kalinsky, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Dayssi Olarte De Kanavos, Douglas Hannant, Kate Schelter, Katie Lee Joel, Derek Blasberg, Debbie Bancroft, Joy Bryant, Daniel Benedict and Andrew Saffir, Annelise Peterson, Jamee Gregory, Fern Mallis, Jennifer Creel, Fabiola Beracasa, Oscar De La Renta, Thakoon Panichgul, Tom Florio, Zac Posen, Zani Gugelmann, Lauren Santo Domingo, Phillip Lim, Heather Mnuchin, and Peter Som. [Guest of a Guest]

2) Many of the above then headed down to Chelsea, where the fashion crowd embraced their new style icon Michelle Obama at a cocktail party and dinner fundraiser organized by Vogue and Calvin Klein.

It looks like Eddie Lampert, the beleaguered billionaire chairman of Sears/Kmart, has a new secret weapon to revive the company's fortunes: LL Cool J. The struggling big-box chain signed up the rapper to design a children's line called LL Cool J for Sears, according to WWD, which will include items like $22 graphic T-shirts and $50 pairs of jeans. The upcoming ad campaign will feature J with his wife, Simone, and their four kids: Najee, Italia, Samaria and Nina. And to think some investors have been concerned that the company is lacking in big, brand names now that Kmart's deal with Martha Stewart will come to an end in 2010.