You probably won't find Carl Icahn reclining in a chaise lounge in the Caribbean this winter—at least not on the deck of his 177-foot yacht. In a grim reminder that even billionaires are feeling the pinch of the recession, this week Icahn put his boat up for sale for $37 million.

After the young, bald, intense Neel Kashkari was named last week as the unfortunate bastard who will lead the government bailout of Wall Street, all the media was scrambling to find out anything about his background. Besides the fact that he's a Republican ski bum, they haven't really turned up a single iota of dirt on Neel. But we have, possibly! Fellow Americans: Was our new Head Of Money a Ferrari-posing, flag-waving, "egocentric jerk" in high school? A tipster writes:

Islam Karimov is the autocratic leader of Uzbekistan and a man routinely described as one of the worst dictators on earth by the likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. (The group Common Dreams once suggested he's so bad that he made Saddam "look good.") Since taking over the oil and gas-rich country in 1989, he's plundered billions, held fake elections to keep himself in power, censored the media, and tortured those who dare to challenge him, often using some of the most barbarian methods to do so, like submerging them in boiling water. And now he's coming to visit New York! Not really. But we wondered: What would happen if one of the most evil tyrants did decide to come to New York. Would he receive a warm welcome from the local political establishment? We wanted to know. So we did what you'd probably do in such a situation: We printed up some official-looking letterhead and sent out letters to various City Council members and local congressmen to see if they'd take the meeting. And guess what? Lots of influential politicos have no objection to sitting down with one of the worst men on earth. Details on the people we duped—with audio of their calls to Karimov's "office"—after the jump.

If NYC residents could hope for anything good to come out of this economic crisis, it would be this: the rollback of gentrification. The Observer is already writing trend stories on it, whether it happens or not! Are you worried about whether your current neighborhood will remain safe for yuppies once the economy tanks? Click through for our citywide, neighborhood-specific map showing the fate of post-recession NYC; you may not be pleased, hipsters: [The key: Purplish-pink for traditional strongholds of the rich that will remain unscathed. Red for core neighborhoods that are probably too gentrified now to roll back significantly. Pink for marginal hoods, where a recession could send gentrifiers fleeing. And grey for wilderness neighborhoods, where yuppies would fear to tread after The Poors and other non-glamorous types take them back for good.]

It seems hotelier Jason Pomeranc (left) and his two brothers have more to worry about than construction delays or declining demand for overpriced hotel rooms south of 14th Street. According to court documents filed this week, someone hacked into the Thompson Hotels email system two weeks ago by impersonating an employee, made off with confidential company documents, and is now threatening to disclose them to the public. The identity of the hacker is unknown, and the U.S. District Court complaint does not specify what sort of information was obtained—although judging by Thompson's reaction, we're guessing it wasn't a revised room service menu. Thompson's suit against "John Doe" after the jump.

She spent the afternoon filming a segment with Katie Couric! Guess she'll have to wait until next year to atone for the sin of reuniting with Jimmy Kimmel. Have a photo/tip/story you'd like to share? Hit us up at tips@cityfile.com.

Hip Hop Weekly is an execrable, half-assed attempt at a hip hop version of Us Weekly. HHW was founded a couple of years ago by Dave Mays and Benzino, the guys who ran The Source into the ground through sheer selfishness before being forced out. Suffice it to say there's no reason to have a sympathetic view of the magazine's existence. Which makes this epic email fuckup on their part—reprinted below!—that much more enjoyable: HHW, we hear, has trouble paying its vendors, writers, and photographers. Or just doesn't want to. Either way, lots of people who have done work for the magazine are pissed at it. So it was pretty dumb for HHW to (mistakenly?) blast out an invitation to its 50th issue release party to a long list of contributors who hadn't been paid yet. Cue the responses!

After lots of slobbering positive reviews on our part, the anonymous subway ad vandal known as Poster Boy has finally made contact. And he sent us a present: an exclusive Photoshopped work (after the jump). Which is outside his usual methodology, but hey, since this kid is on his way to being a star, it just makes it that much more special. You can all say you knew him way back when. Suck it, New York magazine:

It will be boring. John McCain will be friendly and upbeat to questioners but still cold to Obama. Obama will be well-prepared and not at all nasty, again. McCain's shot at the presidency will continue to gradually escape him, leaving him increasingly tortured and miserable. Update: Come back here at 9 for the liveblog!

This isn't a great day for Dick Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers who watched his firm go up in smoke a couple of weeks ago: As if leading the investment bank into bankruptcy wasn't bad enough, today he's packing up his corner office to move to the Lehman office building on Sixth Avenue that's home to the firm's admin and tech support groups. It's been a wretched few weeks for Fuld. But we're also guessing it isn't that much fun these days being Richard Fuld III either. Dick's youngest child, 23-year-old Richie graduated from Middlebury last year. (His father serves on the school's board of trustees.) While it can't be easy watching your dad get pummeled by the press, here's hoping his dad's downfall doesn't tarnish his rep with the ladies or put an end to his very active social life. Photos of Richie chillin' with the babes and drinking beer after the jump.

It looks like billionaire art dealer Guy Wildenstein has already found a new home now that he's put his apartments at the Plaza up for sale. Wildenstein has paid $32.5 million for former Primedia chairman William F. Reilly's 9,250-square-foot townhouse at 7 Sutton Square. The five-bedroom home, which is actually two townhouses that were renovated and combined 10 years ago, includes a three-story mezzanine, gym, sauna, rooftop garden, and 15-foot glass rotunda. Photos and floorplan after the jump!

A tipster this morning sends a photo of what appears to be another mural by street art god Banksy going up in SoHo, NYC—notice that it uses the same attractive rat motif as his other NYC mural, which went up last weekend. The actual painting work has been subcontracted, obvs. We know you're in town, Banksy. We know what you look like! Seriously, email us with Banksy info, we'd like to buy him a drink. Click through for a larger pic of the rat art in action:

Tristan Taormino, the "Pucker Up" sex columnist who has been with the Village Voice for nine years, was laid off on Friday, she confirmed to Gawker today. Voice editor Tony Ortega told her she was a victim of budget cuts. We also hear that the ailing alt-weekly's photo editor, Staci Schwartz, was recently laid off [UPDATE: more on Schwartz here]. Older, more expensive employees appear to be getting the axe (thought Taormino, at least, has a pornography career to fall back on). Anyone with further info on Voice layoffs, email us.

Lobster-loving chef Rebecca Charles has lived just a few blocks away from her Cornelia Street restaurant, Pearl Oyster Bar, for years. But it looks like she'll soon be headed north: Charles closed on a Flatiron district apartment for $2.425 million, according to public records posted today. The two-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot loft at 14 West 17th Street features original maple floors, exposed brick, and, of course, a gourmet chef's kitchen. Charles' new floorplan after the jump.

♦ Hairstylist-to-the-stars Orlando Pita paid $3.416 million for an condo at 101 Warren Street, the 35-story Tribeca building developed by Ed Minskoff. [Cityfile]
♦ Tom Freston has taken his Upper East Side townhouse off the market, just a week after he reduced the price from $38.5 million to $35 million. Freston purchased the 6 1/2 story manse—which was once occuped by Andy Warhol—in 2000. [WSJ]
♦ Alexander Tisch, the son of Andrew Tisch, sold his apartment at 42 East 20th Street for $3.025 million. The 2,222-square-foot pad had been listed at $3.3 million. [Real Deal]

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist is on the move. According to city records posted today, Lundqvist paid $3.9 million for a three-bedroom, three-bath duplex penthouse at 310 West 52nd Street. The 2,035-square-foot apartment features a terrace and a chef's kitchen, and it also comes with storage space, which will be perfect for all of Lundqvist's bulky hockey gear. We're guessing this means he'll be leaving his current digs—he purchased an apartment at the Bromley on the Upper West Side for $1.75 million in 2006—and so he'll no longer get to rub shoulders with Michael Moore in the elevator, but that may not be the worst thing in the world. [Cityfile]

While controversy isn't something we'd normally associate with Conan O'Brien, apparently NBC's Los Angeles-area station disagrees. After performing last night's monologue on Late Night, O'Brien repaired to his desk to begin what sounded like an innocent joke about "celebrity douchebags" like Spencer Pratt and Dog the Bounty Hunter. That's when Channel 4 News abruptly cut in, with anchorwoman Colleen Williams warning the audience that "right now in New York," O'Brien was about to make a joke about colliding trains, and that KNBC found it inappropriate to air in light of the September 12 train collision that killed 24 people in Chatsworth. Williams then showed excerpts from John McCain's speech yesterday about the economy, which was funny, but not really ha-ha funny. Watch the weirdness happen up above. [NBC]

Dick Fuld has been missing in action for nearly a week now. The man who presided over Lehman Brothers as it plunged into bankruptcy, Fuld hasn't uttered more than a few words to the press since the firm went belly up last week. He hasn't made an appearance in the office (or has he?), although as we noted last week, his secretary is answering the phone outside his spacious 31st floor office at Lehman (Barclays!) headquarters at 745 Seventh Avenue. But what about the big man himself? We guessed he was holed up at his compound in Greenwich. But it turns out he's not at home either! Click on the video above and it will also become clear that despite the millions he's pocketed in recent years, Dick's yet to invest in a decent answering machine.

After months of open canoodling with celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson, Lindsay Lohan has stopped playing coy about whether the two of them are in a relationship, finally confirming the news on (of all places) last night's episode of the radio show Loveline. And she wasn't even prompted by the harsh interrogation techniques of Dr. Drew, either! No, Lohan — who had the phone passed to her after Ronson called in to discuss her hospitalized friend DJ AM — was caught flat-footed after an innocent question by Dr. Drew's cohost, Stryker.Asked, "You and Samantha have been going out for how long now?" Lohan giggled and demurred, but Stryker pressed on. "Like two years?" he asked. "One year? Five months? Two months?" Finally, Lohan allowed, "A very long time." The MySpace pundit then accepted compliments on her relationship, eventually signing off in a bit of Italian that stumps the hosts (is that how lesbians talk?). Our congratulations go out to the newly confirmed couple. Stryker, you'd better prepare for tonight's inevitable Michael Lohan call-in. [Loveline]

♦ Jewelery designer Barry Kieselstein-Cord, the ex-husband of Cece and father of former "It" girl Elizabeth, has sold his Lexington Avenue mansion, known as the Parge House (left), for $23 million. Cord purchased the seven-bedroom townhouse for $3 million in 2008 and first put it on the market for $23.5 million in 2006. (You can see the photos here.) The buyer is listed on property records as Lex 65 LLC. [Cityfile]
♦ Filmmaker Anja Murmann paid $2.6 million for a loft in SoHo. The three-bedroom space on 451 Broome Street was purchased from Chelsea Art Museum founders Jean Miotte and Dorothea Keeser. [Cityfile]
♦ Asian art dealer Michael Weisbrod's Westhampton mansion, which was previously on the market last year for $9 million, is now being handled as a bankruptcy sale, with an asking price of just $6 million. [Newsday]