Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• It's been two days since Condé Nast announced plans to shut down four of its magazines, but the bad news continues to trickle in. According to some number-crunching by Newsweek, the magazine giant could see ad revenue drop by $1 billion in 2009; rumor has it additional layoffs went down today; and the decision to shutter Gourmet is still generating controversy.
• CBS execs must be breathing a sigh of relief. Despite the insane media attention focused on David Letterman's sex scandal over the past week, Late Show advertisers appear to be sticking by him. [NYT]
• TV news: NBC has canceled the cop drama Southland. And ABC is picking up three show for the full season: Modern Family, Cougar Town, and The Middle.
• A Project Runway videogame is coming to the Wii next spring. [Variety] More

Rush Is Disappearing Before Our Very Eyes | Rush Limbaugh can't seem to bring himself to leave New York City, as he's promised on several occasions over the past year. But he is disappearing ever so slowly. The right-wing demagogue has lost 80 pounds over the past few months thanks to some sort of diet called "Quick Weight Loss," bringing him down from 300 pounds to a svelte 210. At that rate, you can look forward to him vanishing entirely sometime before the end of 2009. [Page2Live, previously]

Remember back in March when Rush Limbaugh said he was getting rid of his Fifth Avenue apartment because New York was planning to raise taxes, which was precisely the same thing he said right before the 2008 presidential elections? Well, it's been four months since the threat—the most recent one, at least—and he's still here. And there's no evidence he's even bothered to list the 4,000-square-foot penthouse condo at 1049 Fifth Avenue, according to Daily Finance's Jeff Bercovici. New York City is hard to quit, apparently. Kind of like OxyContin. Or so we've heard! [Daily Finance]

The War on Painkillers | Disturbing news for people who go through life with excruciating pain and rely on painkillers to get them through the day: A federal advisory panel voted yesterday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, due to the drugs' potentially harmful effects on the liver. The recommendation doesn't mean it will become the law of the land; the FDA still has to vote on it. And the ban wouldn't have an impact on other popular painkillers like OxyContin, so Rush Limbaugh won't have to worry about taking up another cause. For the moment, at least. [NYT]

Right-wing blowhard Rush Limbaugh set off a minor controversy this week when he announced that he planned to sell his apartment in NYC now that Gov. David Paterson is backing a plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers. Describing it as a "stupid, punitive, massive tax," Limbaugh said "a bunch of corrupt politicians" were "punishing the achievers," and so he's "going to get out of there totally, 'cause this is just absurd." We'd take the threat/promise a bit more seriously if this were the first time he'd said it. It isn't, of course. He said the same thing on Election Day, announcing that if Obama were elected, it would "become stupid to own any property there." Perhaps someone out there can help him make the leap once and for all by putting an offer on the table? Limbaugh hasn't listed the apartment yet. But send your best offer to the various email addresses he uses—rhl@eibnet.com, rprivate@eibnet.com, rush@eibnet.com, and elrushbo@eibnet.com—and let's all hope he bites.

Ann Coulter Really Needs to Find Better Things to Do with Her Time | It seems someone is stalking Rush Limbaugh! Apparently Limbaugh's caretaker in Palm Beach called 911 yesterday to report that a woman had tried to sneak on to Limbaugh's property when the gates of the compound opened to let in Rush's Maybach. She's been described as white, between 30 and 40 years old, and she's reportedly driving a "new white sedan of undetermined make." Ann Coulter is a little old to match the description, yes. But Rush's new fiancée fits the bill and they do say OxyContin can impair judgment, so you may want to take that into consideration. [Page2Live]

Happy Birthday | Radio personalities Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh don't have much in common, but they do share a birthday: Howard is 55 today, while Rush is turning 58. Others celebrating: CNN's Christiane Amanpour is 51. Kirstie Alley is 58. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is 45. Badgley Mischka's Mark Badgley is turning 48. Chef Rebecca Charles is turning 55. Actor Oliver Platt is 49. New York City Councilman James Oddo is 43. Rob Zombie is 44. And Heather Mills turns 41 today.

Rush Limbaugh Plans His Exit | You may not be able to sneer at Rush Limbaugh as he makes his way down Madison Avenue for much longer. He said on his radio show this week that he's considering selling the Upper East Side apartment he purchased in 1994, since "it may now become stupid to own any property there." Condolences to the pharmacy department at Zitomer's on the loss of a dedicated customer! [NYO]

• Ashley Dupre might be leaving the beaches of New Jersey for the beaches of California to star in a new reality show. Just what the show will consist of isn't clear (or what network is going to pick it up), but there's a possibility it could be a dating show a la Tila Tequila. [E!]
• Cynthia Rodriguez's divorce lawyers now claim Madonna and A-Rod didn't have sex, but they did have "an affair of the heart," which caused A-Rod to emotionally abandon his wife. Because of this, Cynthia wants a judge to throw out her prenup and award her more than half of A-Rod's earnings. [People]
• For his part, A-Rod is sniping at his estranged wife for the $100,000 she racked up at spas and restaurants during her trip to Paris last week, and for suggesting she was cheating on him with Lenny Kravitz. [NYDN]

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Last week brought the appalling news that pill-popping professional idiot Rush Limbaugh signed an eight-year, $400 million contract with Premiere Radio Networks. He'll now collect $38 million a year, which he'll probably direct to some of the passions detailed in a NYT Magazine profile of Limbaugh this past weekend, like La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel cigars, private jets (he just purchased a Gulfstream G550) and life-size oil paintings of himself. (The deal also provided him with a $100 million signing bonus.)  But what about the rest of the news media heavyweights—how much coin are they taking home annually? The salaries of America's most beloved anchors and blowhards of various political persuasions after the jump. More