Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Hedge funder Steve Stuart, who left Fortress Investment Group in 2007 to found his own firm, has finally found a buyer for his 35th floor apartment at the Park Laurel on West 63rd Street. The four-bedroom condo, which Stuart bought for $5.4 million in 2004 and put on the market for $10.8 million in October 2008, sold this week to an unidentified buyer for $7.4 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Prolific real estate investor Michael Hirtenstein is the mystery buyer who has agreed to purchase financier Armon Bar-Tur's townhouse at 92 Charles Street. Hirtenstein picked up the four-bedroom home, which was most recently listed for $14.95 million, for "about $13.5 million." [NYP]
• Longtime Dakota residents Connie Chung and Maury Povich are preparing to leave New York. The couple has gone into contract to buy a 12,500-square-foot home in Washington, DC for $8.98 million, although Chung says they're not planning on moving into the new home until 2010 or 2011. [WSJ]More

• Gisele Bundchen red-brick townhouse in the West Village is up for sale. The supermodel paid $5.8 million for 42 Barrow Street in 2005. (She bought the home under the name Casa Vida LLC; "Vida" also happens to be the name of her dog.)  Now it's been listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman's Raphael De Niro for $13.95 million. [NYO]
• Eve Weinstein, the ex-wife of producer Harvey Weinstein, has gone into contract to sell her sixth-floor apartment at 1133 Fifth. The four-bedroom spread, which first hit the market in December 2008 for $13.5 million, had been listed most recently for $11.9 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]More

Robert Jaffe was one of Bernie Madoff's most prominent fundraisers. Shuttling between Boston and Palm Beach, the well-coiffed, car-collecting financier with a weakness for $5,000 suits was responsible for raising countless millions over the years, funds he funneled into Madoff's $65 billion scheme. Jaffe is currently facing multiple lawsuits, and investigations by multiple state and federal agencies are still pending. He's also been almost entirely rejected by the people he once called his friends and clients: Back in December, for example, he nearly took a beating when he turned up at a party and came face to face with Nine West founder Jerome Fisher, who lost $150 million to Madoff's scheme. But while Jaffe faded from sight soon after and retreated to his $17 million mansion—and even had to sacrifice his weekly manicures because he was reportedly "too embarrassed to show his face"—he's back! More

Palm Beach Bust | Another sign that Palm Beach is truly reeling in the wake of the Bernie Madoff mess: Rooms at the most luxe hotels in town—including Bernie's personal fave, The Breakers—are now just $19. [HotelChatter, NYT]

It was reported several weeks ago that Peter Madoff—brother of the newly imprisoned Bernie and his long-time business partner—had transferred ownership of his $4.6 million Palm Beach home to his wife right around the same time the Madoffs learned that their firm was under investigation. We have the documents below to prove it, if you're interested in seeing what may very well be entered into evidence at some point in the future. More

In news that will come as a surprise to precisely no one, it appears the Palm Beach Country Club has taken the final step and officially expelled Bernie Madoff from the club. A tipster tells us that late last week, Bernie's golf handicap at the PBCC, which had been posted to the United States Golf Association website, suddenly vanished. Unfortunately, we were unable to confirm the latest disgrace to a man who couldn't even play golf if he wanted to: A woman who answered the club's phone said no one would be prepared to comment on the matter. But all is not lost for the Madoff clan!More

Palm Beach Residents Still Making Their Feelings Known | Sure, it's not quite as bold as stealing the statue next to his pool or wrapping his home in toilet paper, but lest you think residents of Palm Beach have forgotten about Bernie Madoff, well, they clearly haven't. [Page2Live]

Jeffrey Epstein Can't Stay Out of Trouble | Poor Jeffrey Epstein hasn't even been released from prison yet and he's already finding himself in more legal hot water. Palm Beach Post gossip columnist Jose Lambiet reports the shadowy money manager, who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution, is now being sued by the contractor who built him a larger boat dock for his $10.7 million Palm Beach mansion. Apparently Jeffrey failed to  pay a $105,000 bill, and the contractor says he's been trying to collect the debt since August. In Epstein's defense, though, he has been a wee bit tied up recently. [Page2Live, previously]

You missed your chance to swoop in like a vulture and take advantage of some of the poor souls who lost everything to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Over the weekend, Palm Beach's Kofski Antiques held a two-day "Madoff Estate" sale and offered up the possessions of two Madoff investors who lost their fortunes as part of the alleged fraud. Included in the mix was a $3,000 mink coat and $3,850 crystal horse head. Then there there was this set of Eureka Grand Baroque Sterling flatware, which went for a mere $350. Don't be too disappointed if you missed out, though. Kofski's owner says he has another Madoff sale in the works, as well as a sale by a "top executive of Lehman Brothers." Excellent! We're totally buying one of Dick Fuld's old squash racquets.

Rudy: Ice Cream Lover, Reckless Driver | Barack Obama is sitting behind a desk in the Oval Office this morning, charged with carrying out the most important job in the country. How is former presidential contender Rudy Giuliani passing the time these days? He's eating ice cream and violating traffic laws, apparently. A tipster tells Page2Live that the ex-mayor "abandoned his dark blue set of wheels in the middle of a turn lane" in Palm Beach yesterday, so he could pick up some sugar-free cappuccino ice cream at Sprinkles Café. Guess it's a good thing Palm Beach doesn't have an overly aggressive mayor who insists on punishing traffic offenders to the fullest extent of the law. [Page2Live]

We paid a visit to Bernie Madoff's Manhattan apartment last night (or at least the Chinese food deliveryman we sent over did). But what about the houses in Palm Beach and Montauk? On the left, you'll see Madoff's digs in Florida.  The photo on the right is of his beachfront home on Long Island. Brokers interested in offering up these homes on Madoff's behalf can reach out to the man who will be charging Madoff $750 an hour for the next four years or so, Ira Sorkin.

Social queen Tinsley Mortimer was kind enough to scan the profile of her in the December issue of Palm Beach Illustrated and send it over to Park Avenue Peerage. And what do you know? According to the glossy mag, Tinz is just now stepping "into the spotlight" and taking "the world by storm," a phenomenon you're welcome to attribute to her "brains, beauty and exquisite taste." But there's so much more! Did you know, for example, she grew up in the biggest house in her "part of the state" of Virginia? That she was a nationally-ranked tennis player in her teens? Were you aware that she was actually really shy up until just a few years ago when she came out of her shell? More

♦  Socialite Carroll Petrie took a $500,000 loss on the sale of her four-bedroom Palm Beach house, which she bought for $3.5 million last year and sold to tire heir John Firestone for $3 million last month. She still has a 6,700-square-foot mansion a mile away, which she purchased for $7.45 million in May. [WSJ]
♦  Feminist author and activist Gloria Feldt and her husband Alex Barbanell sold their two-bedroom apartment at 200 Central Park South for $3.25 million. [Cityfile]
♦  The Meadow Lane home in Southampton that was home to Virginia and Billy Salomon (of Salomon Brothers fame) is about to hit the market. The six-bedroom, oceanfront manse will be listed at $38 million. [Newsday]

Congratulations, Donald! You finally closed on the sale of your Palm Beach manse! We hope you get a chance to have a glass of champagne with the man who will be its new occupant, Russian fertilizer kingpin Dmitry Rybolovlev. We don't know if Dmitry speaks any English, but you'll undoubtedly be capable of bonding over your shared love of all things gold and shiny. Oh, and nice work describing it as a $100 million sale even though you actually sold it for $95 million. You always remember to round up! Remember how you used to insist there were 68 floors in the Trump Tower, even though we all knew there were actually only 58 stories, and you'd simply skipped ten floors to make the building seem taller than it actually is? Yea, it was kind of like that. Good work.More