Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

KFC Punks the UN | Remember when Donald was tricked into renting his Bedford estate to Libya during last month's opening session of the UN General Assembly? Consider the score settled, even if Donald didn't have anything to do with it. To promote its new line of chicken sandwiches, an actor dressed as Colonel Sanders managed to sneak his way into the UN yesterday and ended up scoring a photo op with a Libyan diplomat. Not that the official should have been expected to recognize the colonel. Libyais one of the few countries that remains KFC-free (and may very well remain that way after this little international incident). [NYDN]

Your Subway-Related Stunt of the Day | The pranksters at Improv Everywhere have struck again: "For our latest mission, we installed a photography studio on a random subway car. We claimed that the MTA had hired us to take photos of every single person who rides the subway and that we'd be producing a yearbook at the end of the year. Most people were happy to pose for us, and the resulting photos show just how diverse New York subway riders can be." Bonus: They show just how gullible New Yorkers can be, too. [Improv Everywhere, previously]

Meet Me Here [Urban Prankster]

Free Parking | If you're sick of paying for parking—or paying the city for those $105 parking tickets you've been getting—you may want to consider investing in a color printer and a laminating machine. Transportation Alternatives, the advocacy group that promotes bike-riding and mass transit, tested out the city's crackdown on parking permits last week with a totally bogus one they created bearing the seal of the official-sounding (and non-existent) "Citizen Protection Administration." It worked like a charm: Not a single ticket was issued. [NYP] 

As is our custom on Friday afternoons, we gave a quick call over to Steve Schwarzman to check in and see how he was holding up, especially after this bit of news a couple of weeks ago, which had us as alarmed out as anyone. Alas, we didn't get an answer over at 740 Park, so we thought we'd try him down at the Palm Beach manse. Because if you're not getting paid, might as well head off for a three-day weekend, right? Well, you can imagine how relieved we were when this guy answered. (Click on the video above.) We can't be sure, of course, but it sure sounded like a French guy to us. Steve's famous French chef, perhaps? Quite possibly! Regardless, after a week like this, we're taking this as an encouraging sign that Steve's $3,000 food budgets remain intact and the spending goes on. Which it most certainly has to if we're ever going to get out from this mess.

Improv Everywhere Strikes Again | The merry pranksters from Improv Everywhere have posted their latest "mission" online. They set up an art gallery opening at the 23rd Street subway station, had tuxedoed waiters hand out drinks, recruited a cellist to perform, and put little signs next to the fixtures thereby "transforming them into works of art." Video of the group's antics is below.More

Let's say you just launched a new product line, or opened a small boutique. You desperately need to advertise your company, but you don't have the cash to buy ads in magazines or plaster billboards across town. What to do? The website Public Ad Campaign created an instructional video that explains how to open up break open a New York City phone booth, remove the silly poster for Verizon or Burger King or whatever, and replace it with a poster of your own. Yes, of course, it's totally illegal—and you'll need a bunch of tools to do it—but as evidenced by the video below, it's not like passerby will pay you any mind while to carry out your guerrilla ad campaign. More

We didn't have much success last week getting one of our operatives past Bernie Madoff's doorman, and we really didn't have any interest in trekking to Greenwich to pay a visit to our second favorite villain in the saga, Walter Noel. But could we at least get Walter or his wife Monica on the phone? Ask and ye shall receive. After calling half a dozen numbers and getting nowhere at Walter's office (voicemail), his house in Greenwich (the maid picked up), the Noel home in Southampton (was it one of his infamous daughters who picked up?), and the Noel's apartment on Park Avenue, we finally got a hold of Mrs. Noel herself. You can view the video above to see how it went down. But we're guessing you're going to come to the same conclusion we did: Monica does not sound like a very happy woman these days.

The silly pranksters at Improv Everywhere just posted their latest stunt: The performance group sent 20 "agents" to JFK to welcome home total strangers with flowers and balloons, cribbing their names from car service signs. More photos and video of the shenanigans here. [Improv Everywhere]

It's been a month since Tina Brown launched her Barry Diller-backed website, The Daily Beast. But it appears the massive budget for the new launch—reportedly $18 million over three years—didn't create room for a fact-checker on staff. The Smoking Gun reports that Brown's site was fooled by a Canadian college student who posed as Jay McCarroll, the winner of the first season of Project Runway, when he submitted a design for a burlap dress for Michelle Obama to wear to the Inaugural Ball.

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The Lines Are Now Closed | Many thanks to the handful of you who left messages for us yesterday and today at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Uzbekistan. (The imaginary one, at least.) His Excellency will return your call just as soon as possible. Or, you know, not.

Islam Karimov is the autocratic leader of Uzbekistan and a man routinely described as one of the worst dictators on earth by the likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. (The group Common Dreams once suggested he's so bad that he made Saddam "look good.") Since taking over the oil and gas-rich country in 1989, he's plundered billions, held fake elections to keep himself in power, censored the media, and tortured those who dare to challenge him, often using some of the most barbarian methods to do so, like submerging them in boiling water. And now he's coming to visit New York! Not really. But we wondered: What would happen if one of the most evil tyrants did decide to come to New York. Would he receive a warm welcome from the local political establishment? We wanted to know. So we did what you'd probably do in such a situation: We printed up some official-looking letterhead and sent out letters to various City Council members and local congressmen to see if they'd take the meeting. And guess what? Lots of influential politicos have no objection to sitting down with one of the worst men on earth. Details on the people we duped—with audio of their calls to Karimov's "office"—after the jump. More

There's a bizarre craze threatening the very fabric of society, but luckily the Wall Street Journal is bringing it to our attention so we can protect our children and alert Congress. "Inane pranks" are apparently sweeping cities: One recent weekend fake zombies "idly roamed" the streets in San Francisco, while in New York people in Union Square—get this—"danced to music no one else could hear." More

There's less than one week left until Ikea Red Hook's June 18th opening, and the store couldn't be opening at a better time, really. Between the sweltering summer heat (free air conditioning!) and rising grocery bills ($4.99 Swedish meatballs!), you could basically spend an entire cheapo day lounging in Ikea's living room sets and napping on Ikea's beds, just like you'd do at home. Or you could be like two guys in California and take it one step further by throwing an actual dinner party in the store. The practical jokers organized an entire semi-formal dinner party at a Sacramento Ikea store, complete with invitations, a sit down meal, wine and coffee, board games, and after-dinner drinks in the outdoor garden when the store closed at 9. It was a dinner party with no cleanup required. They tossed out the wine glasses afterward (which they'd purchased downstairs before the party) and headed home—and Ikea employees didn't seem to mind one bit. A party at the new Brooklyn outpost has even more potential: It will stay open until 10, leaving you an extra hour for Boggle. Video from the stunt after the jump.More