Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Happy Birthday | Give Joe Biden a high five. The Vice President of the United States turns 67 today. (Let's all hope he gets through the day without any more accidents.) The oldest member of Congress, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, turns 92 today. Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton is 61. Mike D of the Beastie Boys turns 44. Joel McHale of The Soup and Community is turning 38. Pat Kiernan of NY1 is turning 41. Actress Sean Young is 50. Bo Derek turns 53. Author Don DeLillo is turning 73. TV anchor Judy Woodruff turns 63. Avant-garde performer Meredith Monk is 67. Tween star Cody Linley turns 20. Former Eagles member Joe Walsh is turning 62. And Mark Gastineau, the retired football star and father of Brittny, is 53. Below: A few folks celebrating birthdays this weekend, including Scarlett Johansson and Tina Brown. More

• Mariah Carey must be determined to earn back the title of "world's most demanding diva." For an appearance at a London shopping shopping center to kick off the holiday season, she asked for 20 white kittens, 100 white doves, and confetti shaped like butterflies. She also requested a Rolls-Royce, pink carpet, pink podium, and a security staff of 80 to protect her entourage of 15. Then again all she asked for in her dressing room were a few bottles of water, so it isn't as if she's totally out of control, is it? [NYDN, DM]
• Jude Law made the unfortunate decision to move into a building next to an NYU dorm and he hasn't been too happy about the students who invariably look down on him as he plays with his kids or works out with his trainer. When Law recently noticed students waving at him from across the way, he responded by pelting their windows with oranges. That'll do it! [NYP]
• Madonna is still saving the world. But she isn't taking any chances while she does it, clearly. She insisted on wearing a bullet-proof vest under her jacket while touring a "lawless" Rio de Janeiro favela recently. [P6]
• Lindsay Lohan's gig at Emanuel Ungaro may be coming to an end soon. The company's chairman reportedly wants her out since he, like the rest of the world, wasn't impressed with the "cheesy and dated" outfits she debuted at Paris Fashion Week, and many stores are refusing to carry the line. Ungaro CEO Mounir Moufarrige wants to keep her, though, to save face. [P6]More

New York City has picked its latest big public art project. And it doesn't involve setting up a water show in the East River or wrapping up Central Park in brightly colored fabric. It's going to be distributing seven million Metrocards with the word "Optimism" printed on the backs. It's cooler than it sounds:

Composed in clean, bold, sans-serif letters, it floats in a sea of white just beneath the boilerplate fine print... At first glance, the word appears simple and unassuming, a non sequitur easily overlooked amid the blur of travel in the city.

So simple and unassuming, in fact, even the people who came up with the brilliant idea "acknowledge that many subway and bus riders may never see it."More

• Dean Poll has a new name for Tavern on the Green if the city loses its legal battle with the LeRoy family: He'll rename it Tavern in the Park instead. [CNY]
• New: Pichet Ong's dessert place in the EV is open; Bobby Flay's second Bar Americain has debuted in Connecticut; and Death & Co. has a new menu.
• The East Side Social Club opens at Midtown's Pod Hotel next week. [GS]
• Michael Bloomberg celebrated his electoral win with a trip to Paris last weekend and a fancy meal at a fancy restaurant by the Seine. [NYT]
• LaGuardia airport hosted a pizza-eating contest today for some reason. [BB]
• The producers of Top Chef are at work on a new food show for NBC. The winner of the competition gets to open a restaurant chain. [THR]

The path from socialite to reality TV star isn't an easy one. A pilot rarely leads to a full series. And even if it does, there's no telling what may be required to stir up the necessary amount of drama. (See here and here for a recent example of the lengths some will go.) That certainly hasn't stopped every other member of the social set from seeking out a TV deal, of course. To get a little perspective on the socialite-reality TV madness, Douglas Marshall took a few minutes to chat with power publicist Alison Brod and socialite Emma Snowdon-Jones at last night's Solerno-sponsored screening of Robin Baker Leacock's new documentary, A Passion for Giving, at the Four Seasons. More

• It's official: Oprah says she plans to call it quits in September 2011. [ABC]
• Layoffs: The BusinessWeek cuts continue (and include a handful of the mag's more notable names); meanwhile the AP body count now stands at 90.
• Sarah Palin sold 300,000 copies of her book the first day, alas. [TDB]
• Condé Nast and Adobe are teaming up to bring Wired to electronic reading devices. Digital versions of Vogue, VF, and the NYer will follow. [WSJ]
• Vogue's design director is exiting the magazine after a four-year run. [WWD]
• In other Anna news, her de facto stepdaughter, Alexis Bryan Morgan, is leaving the Condé Nast family to take Nina Garcia's old job at Elle. [NYM]
• Cable mogul John Malone isn't happy about the idea of Comcast and NBC teaming up. Meanwhile NBC chief Jeff Zucker is staying mum about the deal.
• Another rumored Playboy bidder is denying interest in an acquisition. [NYT]
• Does Bonnie Fuller's new website stand a chance? [NYP]

The Recovery Is Well Underway, Clearly | Just in case you had doubts that the economy was bouncing back, there's more great news today. Enjoy. [Crain's]

Blame Hollywood | Why is this country so fat and getting fatter by the day? Apparently one reason is that some Americans have yet to figure out that consuming a six-pound bucket of movie popcorn bathed in butter is not healthy. Weren't aware yourself? Make a note of it! [NYDN]

Ebay Descends on Midtown | In what may be the clearest evidence yet that New York's real estate market is royally screwed, Ebay is opening a pop-up store on 57th Street tomorrow just a few yards from Louis Vuitton and Bergdorf Goodman. Fortunately, it won't be filled with junk that an old lady in the Midwest has been keeping in her garage for the past two decades. It'll be selling brand-new stuff (like Michael Kors handbags, M.A.C. cosmetics, and Anthropologie dresses), and the company says it will match whatever is spent in the store and donate it to charity. But if the idea of a Ebay store still horrifies you, do remember it's temporary. It will disappear from sight on November 29. [WWD]

JPMorgan Splits It Down the Middle | Goldman Sachs decided against holding a holiday party this year. Condé Nast revealed yesterday that it plans to proceed with its annual fête, albeit at a slightly less expensive restaurant. Now JPMorgan has weighed in. The party is on this year, which is certainly nice to hear. Not as nice: It will take place in the company cafeteria. [Dealbreaker]

Is Giuliani Planning a Senate Run? | It seems the New York Times only had half the story when it reported earlier that Rudy Giuliani had abandoned plans to run for governor. "A source familiar with Giuliani's thinking" now tells the Daily News that he plans to run for Senate instead and challenge Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010 to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton's term. "If elected, the source said, he could use that as a stepping stone to run for President in 2012—rather than run for re-election to the Senate." Be afraid. Be very afraid. [NYDN]

Murdoch's Mea Culpa | Rupert Murdoch called Gov. David Paterson earlier today to apologize for his bizarre comments yesterday in which he suggested the governor was clueless about the political goings-on in New York because he was blind. And Paterson accepted. "Apparently, Paterson was willing to chalk Murdoch's bizarre comments up to a 'random misstatement.'" [NYDN]

There are an estimated one million dogs living in New York City, and the breeds of dogs represented are as diverse as the people who own them. But do certain canines reveal traits about their owner without that person even having to utter a word? We took it upon ourselves to ask Dan Rubenstein—dog behaviorist and co-owner of Spot (formerly The Paw Stop), a dog daycare, grooming, and training facility in Tribeca—to explain what you can glean about a dog owner just by looking at what kind of pup he's walking. Generally speaking, of course. "Owners tend to pick dogs and dog breeds that exhibit personality characteristics similar to their own," Rubenstein says, "although it's not as if they do it consciously." After the jump, Rubenstein sizes up a few popular New York City breeds, descriptions you can compare to one of the boldfaced people who happens to own one.More

Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for governor next year, reports the Times: 

It was not clear what prompted the decision, but the prospect of potentially facing Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who is quietly planning his own run for governor on the Democratic ticket, may not have appealed to Mr. Giuliani, who suffered a bruising defeat in the 2008 Republican presidential primary. While many political analysts believe Mr. Giuliani would have comfortably beaten Gov. David A. Paterson, he would likely have faced an uphill battle against Mr. Cuomo, one of the most popular politicians in the state. 

So what will he do instead? Continue to collect a zillion dollars per speech, so he can keep up with Judy Giuliani's Louis Vuitton addiction, that's what. [NYT]

Your Commute Just Got Creepier | Here's some news you'll find disturbing (unless you have a really weird fetish, in which case you won't). It turns out you're more likely to be groped on the subway these days. Complaints of subway sexual abuse are up four percent this year, although arrests are down six percent, according to the NYPD. Manhattan is the worst borough, and the stations at Grand Central Terminal and 14th Street are supposedly the choicest stomping grounds for these miscreants, who are typically most active during the morning and evening rush hours since they love it when the subway cars are crowded. So keep your wits about you. Unless you fall into that other category, in which case you now know where to be and when. [NYP]