Deboroah Solomon's Seth MacFarlane interview for her NY Times Magazine "Questions With..." column was a landmark not only of hostility toward a subject, but she has chosen that readers would rather hear what she has to say than her subjects.

The St. Regis Monarch Beach, the rich-people hotel that AIG executives partied at after getting all their bailout money, couldn't pay its bills and so now a bailed-out Citigroup owns it. And it's losing money. Your money.

The June numbers are in, and Peter Thiel's hedge fund is looking puny, having shrunk to just $1.5 billion in assets, from $7.8 billion in June 2008. Placed in an historical context, the PayPal co-founder's fund looks even worse.

With so many companies going bust these days—and with so many giant figures bandied about in the media—it's hard maintaining any perspective on what's happening in corporate America, isn't it? Fortunately, the good folks at GOOD magazine created a useful chart using little—or big!—boats in a selection of lovely pastel colors to illustrate it all. [GOOD]

The Huffington Post has been taking flack for not paying writers, but it's not so simple. Most bloggers aren't paid, but some are. On staff, there are paid interns, unpaid interns, and paying interns. It's all very complicated, but luckily we made you a chart.

Times TV reporter Bill Carter's profile on NBC co-chairman and Executive Bong Smoker Ben Silverman ran today. To put it lightly: Carter takes Silverman by the collar, beats him, and stuffs him in a locker.

We asked. You answered. Now it's time for the second installment of the fun thing where we reveal the Media's Worst Late Payment Offenders! Plus: a success story!

Just in case you had any doubts that the fourth quarter of 2008 was a horrible one for hedge funds, the bloody 13F charts compiled by Wall Street Folly will help you put the misery into perspective in a matter of seconds. [WSF]

What are "50 New York Socials" thankful for this holiday? Guest of a Guest talked to people who are supposed to be the city's tastemakers, movers, and shakers—yet aside from a few things, like not having to mix with the proles on the subway and utter fearlessness of God, their lists sound just like your Aunt Martha's: family, friends and being able to afford weed and champagne. We've broken their predictibility into a pie chart, proving that there truly is no randomness in the universe. Click for it.
Friends: 25 Family: 21 Mom: 7 Being employed: 7 Barack Obama: 6 Getting knocked up: 3 Not having to ride the subway: 2 God: 1 Weed and other trifles: 18

Rember how Obama's election was the greatest thing to happen to the newspaper industry in a decade? People lined up across New York City to buy copies of the New York Times proclaiming his victory! And the smart ones put those copies right on Ebay. This chart shows the average of the five highest prices paid on Ebay each day for that November 5 issue of the NYT. One early seller fetched $400; today you can have your pick for less than $30. Oh, the metaphor.

The Gossip Girl kids have gotten political. Two of them at least, Penn Badgley who plays Dan and his off-screen ladylove Blake Lively, who plays his on-screen ladylove Serena. They're appearing in a MoveOn.org anti-McCain ad in which regular kids—including these two soap stars at that Hannah girl from that American Teenager documentary—condescend to their McCain-voting parents as if they were about to drink or take doobies. Har har. So Gossip Girl is a bit liberal, but it's not the only politicized show on the air. No indeed there are others, subtly (or not so) spouting rhetoric from both sides of the aisle. Our Photoshop expert Steve Dressler has created a simple chart that we'll explain after the jump.

Page Six is not just a gossip column; it's the ultimate favor trading tool. Boss Richard Johnson can (within reason) make the in-crowd believe that a particular restaurant is a great place to see and be seen-whether true or not. We took a look back through all of Page Six's coverage for the first six months of this year, and put together the chart you see above, tracking the most-mentioned restaurants. It conforms to one's mental list of New York hot spots, with one exception: Cipriani, whose 21 mentions (for three locations) took the top spot. Now, Cipriani is prestigious in its own musty old way, but it hardly fits in with the rest of the list, which is full of buzz-worthy celebrity nightspots and the odd mogul hangout. Favor trading illustrated? Below are some of the more press release-like Cipriani "gossip" items P6 saw fit to print this year; judge for yourself: 6/22/08

Who is Madonna dating these days? Isn't she married to some failed British movie director? Or is she sleeping with that irksome baseball player? These are all very important, and understandable, questions. The iconic singer and fake Englishwoman has dated many, many mens (and some womens) over the years. It can be hard to keep track of them all. Luckily, in a fit of boredom, our video man Richard Blakeley has put together a handy little chart as a refresher course in Madge's topsy-turvy love life. She's been with some wackos! Or maybe she herself is the wacko. The edifying chart lies after the jump.

Shed a patriotic tear, fellow Americans: we are the most drugged-out nation in the world. A new study (of 17 nations) shows that more than 16% of Americans have done coke, and more than 42% of us have smoked weed, absolutely blowing away second place finisher New Zealand and the rest of the civilized world. Suck our woolie blunt smoke, Kiwis! Fetch our crack pipe, Netherlands lightweights! All it takes is one look at this handy chart to see... did you lock the front door? Did you hear something? Click to enlarge. Dude, awesome.

Sports reporters are making bank. Some of them, at least. While foolish idealistic journalists shell out cash to go to J-school and get petty jobs reporting on corporations or wars or political campaigns, a handful of lucky guys sit around spouting completely unverifiable opinions on ballgames and burning $100 bills to fuel their tailgating barbecues. A few of these people-who do nothing that an average American male does not do every weekend, for free (yap about sports)-are making millions. Millions, we say! The Big Lead has a list of the (estimated) top earners in sports journalism, which we have assembled into a handy chart, after the jump. Contemplate the fact that the 15 highest-paid reporters average close to $1 million per year; then go read Deadspin to find out how many of these guys are pricks.

The Center for Disease Control just released a study finding that teens are having less sex and doing fewer drugs than they were in 1991. We graphed the teen sex continuum—as you can see, there are fewer sluts (teens with over 3 sexual partners) and more virgins. [AP] Click for the graphicle!

The "graphs about songs" fad has evolved into a project from the makers of I Can Has Cheezburger where users post pop culture graphs instead of LOLcats. Below are my six favorite graphs from GraphJam, such as "Other man's pee strength vs. How badly it's weirding me out."

We've been covering Natalie Portman and Paris Hilton a good deal of late. Largely because they both have new shoe lines out, as well as new movies (The Hottie & The Nottie for Ms. Hilton, The Other Boleyn Girl for Ms. Portman). Because Natalie may have botched her big launch party last night, some folks are suggesting that Natalie could learn a little something from Paris about how to launch a shoe line. Respected Actress Natalie Portman learning something from Paris Hilton?? The two are apples and oranges! How can you compare them? Well, we decided we'd go ahead and do just that. So, after the jump find a handy little chart comparing and contrasting various facets of the stars' lives. And, because everything in life is a competition, we've declared winners.

Now that the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue has hit the stands, most Americans are wondering: What does it mean for the S&P 500 Index? Luckily, some financial bloggers have gone through their back issues, correlated the country of origin of the cover models with economic statistics, and answered the question! Turns out that an American on the cover, like we have this year, equals a much higher average gain for the S&P. This so-called "Swimsuit Issue Indicator" is the exact opposite of the "Time Magazine Indicator," which predicts that having George W. Bush on the cover of Time correlates closely with poverty and war. Har. After the jump, Bespoke Investment Group's full 30-year chart in all its number-having glory [via Dealbreaker].

Our first indication that something might be awry with Jessica Alba's career came not when that guy on TRL told her that getting pregnant was "Not cool, dude", but rather when we saw the one-sheet for her new movie, The Eye. While certainly a captivating Photoshop job (ish), we found it fairly bizarre that Lionsgate would choose NOT to use the beautiful visage of one of the most lusted-after actresses in the world to promote their film. But then we did some research on Rotten Tomatoes and realized something very important. Save for fanboy fave Sin City, no one really seems to have liked any of the films she's starred in.