These are difficult times for the LeRoy clan, the family that controls Tavern on the Green in Central Park. The 20-year lease on the fabled restaurant expires at the end of the year and Jennifer Oz LeRoy, the daughter of the late restaurant impresario Warner LeRoy, has been fighting to hold on to the venue. (More than 100 other parties have expressed interest in taking over the lease, although several of the biggest names—such as Danny Meyer—have since dropped out.) Now the LeRoy family has another headache to contend with.

• Veteran theater producer Rocco Landesman has been nominated to be the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. [NYT]
• Why did David Geffen try to buy a stake in the New York Times? It wasn't because he thought he'd make money, that's for certain. [Newsweek]
• After taking some heat over a $75,000 speaking fee he received last week, the Times's Tom Friedman says he now plans to return the money. [LAT]
• Sarah Palin's book deal with HarperCollins is a go. How much money was involved isn't clear but the memoir will be out in 2010, which just so happens when she'll be running for reelection in Alaska. [LAT, AP]
• Bad news, hooker fans: Craigslist is dropping its erotic services section. [WP]

• Jim Dolan's Cablevision says that Newsday is not for sale, which is good since there isn't a company on the planet that wants to buy it. [E&P]
• David Geffen made an offer to acquire the stake in the New York Times Co. controlled by Phil Falcone's Harbinger fund; Harbinger passed. [Fortune]
• The mood isn't too upbeat at the Cannes Film Festival, unsurprisingly. [THR]
• 60 Minutes' segment on Anna Wintour should air this Sunday. [Gawker]
• As of the publishing biz didn't have enough to worry about, "web pirates" are now posting copies of books on the Internet. [NYT]
• Anderson Cooper's ratings have been on the decline all year. [LAT]
• OK! appears to be dissolving into chaos. [ASSME, Gawker]

Do you know how to "flirtext"? No? Prepare to be single for the rest of your life then. Flirtexting is what women "have to learn" to keep up with the 21st century dating scene, according to Olivia Baniuszewicz and Debra Goldstein, the authors of a new book called Flirtexting: How To Text Your Way To His Heart, who describe themselves as "graduates of The Rules and He's Just Not That Into You"). Now that we live in the "A.C. world of dating"—that stands for "after cell"—it's essential that women be comfortable with flirtexting etiquette, the duo claim, although men can still send the same old boring text messages they've always sent. (Flirtexting isn't for men, since it's a little "girly," explain the authors.) But if all of this sounds a little sexist and clichéd, well, think again.

Alexandra Lebenthal has scored a book deal, according to Publishers Marketplace: "New York Social Diary contributing editor, CEO of wealth management firm Lebenthal & Company, and active figure on the NY social scene, Alexandra Lebenthal's debut novel, telling the story of four Manhattan socialites whose perfect Upper East Side lives get turned upside down when the economic collapse wreaks havoc on their pampered existences, to Karen Kosztolnyik at Grand Central, by Richard Curtis of Richard Curtis Associates (World)."

Peter Arnell can't seem to catch a break these days. Earlier this year, the advertising mogul and "brand expert" was widely mocked for blowing millions on a silly, new logo Pepsi. Just weeks later, his decision to change Tropicana's packaging turned into an epic disaster, causing thousands of consumers to cry foul and sending sales plummeting by 20 percent. Now he has another more defeat to add to his list. HarperCollins just won a lawsuit against Arnell and he'll now have to write the publishing house a check for $100,000.

• The New York Times Company reported a first-quarter loss of $74.5 million today, as advertising revenue plunged by more than 28 percent. [NYT]
• Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's Wenda Harris Millard is stepping down as the company's co-CEO and president. [Crain's]
• One magazine that hasn't been crippled by the recession: Hearst's Food Network Magazine, which is now ramping up circulation. [AdAge]
• What's former Condé Nast star James Truman up to these days? Among other things, he's working on the in-room magazine for Ritz-Carlton. [Portfolio]
• Washingtonian magazine has a shirtless pic of Obama on the cover. [WM]

• The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today. [Pulitzer.org]
• It's been six years since the release of The Da Vinci Code, but Knopf says Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol, will hit stores in September. [AP]
• Hollywood agencies Endeavor and William Morris appear to have cemented a merger, although an official announcement is still forthcoming. [THR]
• With the radio business struggling, some commercial stations are now following the lead of public radio and asking for donations. [WSJ]
• 17 Again was No. 1 at the box office with a gross of $24.1 million. [THR]
• Fran Drescher says she's in talks to host a cable TV talk show. The program would cover politics, culture, and health issues, and she claims she's in discussions with MSNBC, PBS, and Oprah Winfrey's OWN. God help us. [USN]

The quickest way to land a book deal? Become besties with Gwyneth Paltrow, obviously! A month after Gwynnie's bikini waxer inked a deal with Penguin Books. Now comes word that Tracy Anderson, the personal trainer Paltrow shares with Madonna, has landed a six-figure deal of her own with Grand Central Publishing. So if you can't afford the $900 a month membership fees to Tracy's gym, or even the $200 workout sessions she's offering at a depressing Midtown hotel, you'll be able to take advantage of her wisdom in a slim, paperback volume. Best of all, you won't need to exercise your body or your brain doing it.

• Amazon.com is in the hot seat for stripping gay and lesbian books of their sales rankings, something the bookseller is now calling a "glitch." [EW, WSJ]
• MSNBC is reportedly in the process of developing a weekend political show to be moderated by chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd. [NYO]
• More bad news for barely-living BlackBook: its longtime fashion director is out. And Jann Wenner's marketing chief is leaving Wenner Media. [WWD]
• Alpha Media has laid off a handful of employees at Maxim, including deputy editor Chris Wilson and editor-at-large Steve Garbarino. [NYO]
• Magazines are looking to raise subscription rates to save themselves. [NYT]

So are publishing houses sensibly dealing with their beleaguered state by paying modest advances to talented, seasoned authors, rather than throwing huge sums of money at writing neophytes with famous last names in the (likely vain) hope that the ensuing cheap publicity will render whatever crap is stuck between the covers irrelevant? Don't be silly! Meghan McCain has just signed a deal in the "high six figures" with Hyperion, reports Leon Neyfakh, for a book about—well, it's not yet clear what it's about, probably because Meghan's agent Flip Brophy knew that having her client actually write anything wouldn't exactly help with the pitch. None of which is to imply, of course, that the collated thoughts of a 24-year-old spotlight-loving Republican—whose literary disquisitions to date include her noble acceptance of being a size 8 and what a bummer it is trying to date when your dad has lost the election—isn't exactly what the world needs.

• To celebrate 1,000 episodes (and 35,892 sound effects), CNBC's resident buffoon, Jim Cramer, rang the opening bell of the NYSE today. [CNBC]
• Sales of romance novels are on the rise, since in times like these, we all just want to indulge in happy endings. Or something along those lines. [NYT]
• Why is the New York Times Co. frantically looking to cut costs at the Boston Globe? For one thing, it's on track to lose $85 million in 2009. [NYO, Portfolio]
• It's hard getting people to pay for newspaper content they now get for free. Let Coke guide you, Arthur Sulzberger Jr.: "Coca-Cola took tap water, filtered it and called it Dasani, and makes millions of dollars a year." [NYT]
• Magazines are blurring the line between editorial and advertising by putting ads on the cover. If they don't, they go bust. Rock, meet hard place. [NYT]

You may blush at the contents of Gloria Vanderbilt's forthcoming book, Obsession: An Erotic Tale, but Anderson Cooper isn't expressing any embarrassment. The CNN anchor says he's totally supportive of his mom's new tome, since "at 85, whatever she wants to write is fine by me." How sweet! Of course, he may just be relieved that the attention paid to his mom's private life is finally taking a little bit of focus off of his own. [NYP]

• The New York Times Co. says it will shut down the Boston Globe within a month unless the paper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions. [BN]
• Fox News gossip columnist Roger Friedman got axed after he reviewed a pirated version of Fox's new X-Men movie, Wolverine. [DHD, NYT]
• Vanity Fair is scrapping its annual "green issue." [Independent]
• Michelle Obama may be beloved by the media world, but she isn't a sure thing when it comes to selling magazines on newsstands, apparently. [AdAge]
• Playboy's former fashion director is suing the mag for discrimination. [NYP]
• Hearst's Country Living is launching a line of products. [MW]
• Michael Crichton died last November, but two more novels by the best-selling author will be published over the next year and a half. [NYT]
• Eliot Spitzer was on the Today show this morn, in case you missed it. [Jossip]
• Fast & Furious was No. 1 at the box office this past weekend. [THR]

Fashion publicist/MTV reality show regular Kelly Cutrone has a book in the works! Aimed at "young women who have their sights set on power and success but lack the know-how to attain them," her co-author will be Observer reporter Meredith Bryan. Whatever you do, though, don't compare the "power girl's guide" to anything by Candace Bushnell: "It's a real girl's guide to the real fucking world... Sex and the City was a lot of frosting. I like Candace, and I think she's a good writer, but this isn't four girls holding hands running around New York. It's the real thing." [NYO]

Paula Froelich's debut novel, Mercury in Retrograde, doesn't come out until June, but the Page Six gossip already has MySpace and Twitter accounts set up for two of the characters in the book, along with illustrations by Marisa Acocella Marchetto. And they're both a bit fiesty! One recent tweet from "society writer" Lena Lipppencrass who goes by "LpstickCarcrash" on Twitter: "Ran into Dori Cooperman on the street—she's glowing." That she is! [Twitter, MySpace]

• Former president George W. Bush has signed a deal with Crown to publish a memoir. Rumor has it he landed a $7 million advance for the book. [AP, NYP]
• For his part, Barack Obama has two books in the works with Crown. He plans to release an abridged, youth-oriented version of Dreams From My Father as well as write a nonfiction book once he leaves office. [CBS News]
• CNBC's keeping it classy. Larry Kudlow set a dollar bill on fire today. [CJR]
• Jim Cramer is still rattling on about Jon Stewart. [Gawker]
• NBC is planning to launch a "singing competition series" that sounds a lot like—yes, you guessed it—Fox's American Idol. [THR]
• CBS is keeping Two and a Half Men on the air through 2012. [NYT]
• The finalists for the Man Booker International Prize include E. L. Doctorow, V. S. Naipaul, Joyce Carol Oates, Mario Vargas Llosa and Alice Munro. [NYT]
• The noms for the National Magazine Awards are out. [AdAge]
• The cable channel Starz would like to remind you that it exists. [NYT]
• How screwed is the newspaper biz? Here's a pic that sums it up nicely. [BI]

It looks like being Gwyneth Paltrow's bikini waxer has its benefits. Beautician Janea Padilha, who counts Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Uma Thurman and Lindsay Lohan as clients of her J Sisters salon on 57th Street, has signed a five-figure book deal with Perigree, an imprint of Penguin Books. Brazilian Sexy will give readers advice on "love, life, and being sexy," and Padilha says she'll "talk about what happens in the room where I work." Everything you wanted to know about Gwynnie's pubic hair situation: coming to a bookstore near you in 2010! [NYO]

• Jim Cramer hits The Daily Show tonight. And in what can only be interpreted as an effort to dial down the ass-kicking headed his way, Cramer is now claiming Jon Stewart is "his idol." Good luck with that there, Jim. [HP]
• Should CNBC's Erin Burnett really be making appearances on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice? Maybe not: "NBC keeps testing the limits between news and entertainment in pursuit of cross-promotional synergy." [NYT]
• "Sully" Sullenberger has scored a two-book deal worth $3 million. [TDB]
• Ann Coulter "has been especially noisy in her self-promotion lately," which may have something to do with the fact her book isn't selling. [Portfolio]
• More and more TV shows are working the recession into storylines. [ABC]
• These are dark days for the newspaper biz, as you've probably heard. [NYT]
• More on Ross Douthat, the conservative blogger who has been hired by The New York Times to take over Bill Kristol's Op-Ed column. [E&P]
• Post staffers reflect on the life and times of Braden Keil, the paper's real estate columnist who died on Tuesday and who will be very much missed. [NYO]

If you were one of the dozens of people let go from Simon & Schuster in December, back when CEO Carolyn Reidy lamented that the company had "literally examined our budget line by line to find those areas large and small where we might further economize," you'll be particularly thrilled to hear that S&S imprint Scribner has dropped a ridiculous $5 million on Time Traveler's Wife author Audrey Niffenegger's second novel.