A-Rod turns 34 today. Billionaire investor Eddie Lampert turns 47. Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 32. Musician Pete Yorn is turning 35. Maya Rudolph is turning 37. Legendary TV producer Norman Lear is 87. Comedian Jerry Van Dyke turns 78. Former Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming is turning 61. Taxi & Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus is 41. And Nick Hogan, the scandal-prone (and recently imprisoned) son of Hulk and Linda Hogan, turns 19 today.
You heard about the 25 men—and they are always men—who were ranked the top-earning hedge fund managers of the year, walking away with a collective $11.6 billion during 2008. What about the biggest losers? Alpha magazine will publish that list tomorrow, but Dealbreaker has the deets on the top three people on the list: In first place is Ken Griffin, who watched $2 billion vanish, while Eddie Lampert came in second, having witnessed $1 billion evaporate into thin air. Right behind him is Steve Cohen, who was mercifully spared a 10-digit loss but still ended up down $750 million on the year. That doesn't account for the unrealized losses related to Cohen's massive art collection, naturally, but you can't really expect Alpha to tackle that. We're counting on you, Artforum! [Dealbreaker]
Some of these women are still riding high. Some may soon be packing up their homes in East Hampton and taking a final spin on the Gulfstream jet. Their identities after the jump.
Vanity Fair's perplexing list of the "New Establishment," that collection of people who aren't remotely "new" but certainly represent the establishment, is now online! The usual suspects (and Graydon Carter pals) continue to dominate (Barry Diller, Ron Perelman, Steven Spielberg), but there have been a few changes, too. The love affair with private equity moguls and hedge fund titans has clearly subsided: Both Eddie Lampert and Steve Schwarzman have been booted from the list, Henry Kravis went from 51 to 77, and SAC Capital founder Steve Cohen fell from 45th place to next-to-last on the list. And Harvey Weinstein's inability to generate hits at the box office has resulted in a precipitous fall from 41 to 87, which will undoubtedly make for an uncomfortable moment the next time Graydon bumps into Harvey at the Waverly Inn.
It looks like Eddie Lampert, the beleaguered billionaire chairman of Sears/Kmart, has a new secret weapon to revive the company's fortunes: LL Cool J. The struggling big-box chain signed up the rapper to design a children's line called LL Cool J for Sears, according to WWD, which will include items like $22 graphic T-shirts and $50 pairs of jeans. The upcoming ad campaign will feature J with his wife, Simone, and their four kids: Najee, Italia, Samaria and Nina. And to think some investors have been concerned that the company is lacking in big, brand names now that Kmart's deal with Martha Stewart will come to an end in 2010.
Eddie Lampert is the billionaire founder of the hedge fund ESL Investments. He's best known for carrying out one of the biggest gambles in distressed investing history—the purchase of Kmart out of bankruptcy and merger with Sears—and for his high-profile kidnapping in 2003.
