Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Jann Wenner and his partner, Matt Nye, will soon be moving into new digs in Montauk. The founder of Rolling Stone and publisher of Us Weekly and Men's Journal is paying $11.9 million for a 6,300-square-foot home on Old Montauk Highway. The waterfront property had been been originally listed for $14.9 million. [NYP, Corcoran]
• Whitney Houston has put her New Jersey home on the market. The 12,561-square-foot manse in Mendham Township is listed for $2.5 million; her guest cottage next door is no longer available, however. [Real Estalker, CB]
• Real estate developer Ara Hovnanian may have found a buyer for his fourth-floor apartment at 820 Fifth Avenue. Five months after the co-op's board rejected Jeff Blau's $31 million offer, the board has reportedly given the go-ahead to Ken Griffin, the CEO of Chicago-based Citadel Investment Group. The hedge fund billionaire is expected to pay "just under" $35 million. [NYP]
• It looks like Katie Lee is getting the West Village townhouse as part of her split from Billy Joel. The cookbook author is paying Joel $3 million for his share of the the Perry Street home, which the couple purchased in 2005 for $5.9 million. [NYO]

• One of Madonna's neighbors has filed a lawsuit against their building's co-op board for not doing anything about the "pounding noise and vibration" emanating from Madge's triplex, which the neighbor says has been doubling as a "dance rehearsal studio." The good news is Madonna is moving in the near future, so the angry tenant should soon be able to go back to complaining about her other neighbor who just plays the radio too loud. [NYDN, AP]
• Lindsay Lohan avoided jail time but had her probation extended by a year last week when a judge ruled that she hadn't completed an alcohol treatment program. Then she went out to a party in the Meatpacking district this weekend and actually stayed sober. What a delightful surprise! [P6]
• Bethenny Frankel is engaged to her boyfriend of 11 months, Jason Hoppy. "She is very much a handful," Hoppy said, "She needs a man that can handle her, and that I can." More power to you, sir. [People]More

• Even President Obama has acknowledged (unofficially) that Kanye West's microphone-snatching episode at the VMAs made Kanye a "jackass." Lucky for Jay Leno—and his ratings—Kanye apologized (again) on the comedian's primetime debut last night. "It was rude, period... I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt," West said. [NYDN, People, Us]
• Topper Mortimer is hooking up with Vogue editor Valerie Boster. (It's about time the dude moved on.) Meanwhile, his ex, Tinsley, is having issues with her new reality show. Producers are trying to drum up other socialites to make appearances since she's not "dynamic enough on her own." [P6]
• Jeremy Piven won't be hugging it out with the Public Theater any time soon. His lawyers have served the venue with a cease and desist over its play, "The Piven Monologues," which details his fishy bailout from "Speed the Plow." [P6]
• Patrick Swayze has died after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Stars have been paying tribute to the Dirty Dancing star via Twitter, and the old-fashioned way, in released statements. [NYDN, People, Us, Star]More

• Madonna's trip to Israel is over. And it sounds like it was quite the party. Her entourage occupied a total of 11 suites and 25 hotel rooms; she brought her Italian chef with her as well as all her own exercise equipment aboard her private jet; and she received the sort of reception typically reserved for visiting presidents. Fun! [NYP]
• Michael Jackson's burial is finally scheduled to take placed today in Glendale, Calif. [MSNBC]
• DJ AM's burial took place in LA yesterday. Travis Barker, Scott Caan, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and members of Crazy Town turned up for the small service. In related news, although Goldstein didn't leave a will, he left behind about $1 million in assets. [Us, TMZ, People]
• The filming of the Sex and the City sequel has been getting a little chaotic, since fans have been turning up in droves at the locations. Fortunately, Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth remain unarmed. And extra security has supposedly been hired. [NYDN] More

• The average person consumed 32.2 hours of TV each week this summer. It's a new record. And it's all thanks to the quality programming that cable channels have been putting on the air the last few months, obviously. [NYP]
• The bad news for newspapers is getting worse: Ad sales dropped by 29% during the second quarter, which means newspapers have $2.8 billion less in their (already empty) pockets than they had at this time last year. [AP]
• Related: Please take the time this weekend to read the massive story about Hurricane Katrina in the New York Times Sunday magazine. It cost the paper and ProPublica a record-setting $400,000 to produce. [CJR]
• Because Nightline feels left out of the war between Conan and Letterman, the show is launching a campaign to remind you that it still exists. [AdAge]More

Happy Birthday | Twins Charlotte and Samantha Ronson turn 32 today. David Duchovny is turning 49. Charlize Theron is 34. Author and radio personality Garrison Keillor is 67. Conservative political commentator Alan Keyes turns 59. Wayne Knight, the actor best known for playing Newman on Seinfeld, is turning 54. And Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is 43 today—at least according to his Wikipedia page. A handful of weekend birthdays—including that of Michael Kors, Chris Cuomo and Dustin Hoffman—follow below.More

Spotted | Jimmy Fallon and wife Nancy Juvonen walking downtown and holding hands ... Marla Maples and Tiffany Trump waiting for their luggage at JFK ... Susan Sarandon walking by herself ... David Hasselhoff leaving ABC Studios ... Justin Long on the set  of Going the Distance in the Bronx ...Whitney Houston arriving at LaGuardia ... Larry King's wife, Shawn Southwick, getting out of an SUV on the Upper East Side ... Jennifer Aniston shooting scenes for her new movie at Blue Ink Tattoo Parlor in Brooklyn ...and Katherine Heigl getting out of an SUV in front of her hotel.

• It looks like Heidi and Spencer Pratt and NBC concocted yet another clever PR stunt over the weekend. Heidi was rushed from the set of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! to a hospital in Costa Rica for a stomach ulcer and later blamed NBC for "torturing" her. For its part, NBC is reminding the public they can see what really happened on an upcoming episode of the show. [NYDN, E!, TMZ]
• The police had to called to the Greenwich estate of Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant on two occasions last Thursday after Seymour got into an altercation with Brant's bodyguards. [P6]
• Why did David Carradine end up dead in Bangkok hotel room? According to his family's lawyer, it may have been the work of a "secret sect of kung fu assassins" who "silenced" him because he was looking into "their shadowy activities." Or it could have been a case of autoerotic asphyxiation since according to his ex-wives he had a thing for being tied up. [NYP, NYDN] More

Spotted | Larry King eating lunch at Michael's ... Heidi Klum returning to her hotel in Soho with an armful of kids' clothes and toys ... Michelle Williams and Spike Jonze going to breakfast with Matilda in Brooklyn ... Denzel Washington sitting in an SUV outside his hotel in Midtown ... Chace Crawford carrying a cup of coffee in the West Village ... Katy Perry leaving her hotel in Midtown ... Iman shopping in Soho ... Whitney Houston arriving at LaGuardia ... Matthew Broderick leaving his West Village townhouse ... Rachel Zoe walking by herself ... Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr leaving dinner at One Lucky Duck on East 19th Street ... and Martin Scorsese standing on the sidewalk with wife Helen and daughters Domenica and Francesca following Easter dinner in Midtown.

• Is Billy Joel planning to split up with Katie Lee? That's what the Enquirer is claiming this week, suggesting that Katie's "cozy relationship" with "hunky designer" Yigal Azrouel has caused Billy to consider dumping her. But not until his tour ends in November, which doesn't make much sense. [National Enquirer]
• A New Jersey man says Bruce Springsteen caused the breakup of his marriage. In divorce papers, he alleges Bruce and his estranged wife have been having an affair since the two met up at a local gym more than a year ago. [Star]
• Michael Phelps "skeeved out onlookers" at Marquee on Tuesday by drinking straight from a bottle of vodka and "dancing like a loon," all while making out with his cocktail waitress girlfriend. [NYDN]
• Breaking! Brad Pitt took sons Maddox and Pax to a Dunkin Donuts in Oyster Bay yesterday morning just like a "regular guy." [Star] More

• Is Jennifer Lopez getting ready to say goodbye to Marc Anthony? She neglected to wear her wedding ring to a premiere last week, which obviously means her marriage is now "at a breaking point." [Us, The Sun]
• Jeremy Piven is heading home. Just two months after arriving on Broadway (and after showing up late to performances and skipping matinees), he says he now plans to return to LA because he's suffering from some sort of "mysterious mercury ailment." [NYP]
• Good news for anyone going to the inauguration: Alec Baldwin says he plans to stay home and watch it on TV. [MSNBC]More