Longtime New York Observer editor-in-chief Peter Kaplan's 15-year tenure ended yesterday; last night, Jesse Oxfeld compiled a great, 2,000 word piece of quotes and anecdotes on Kaplan, which Daily Intel ran. It is, as one commenter noted, perfect. My three favorite quotes, after the jump:

Page Six gossip Paula Froelich's first novel is concerned with a certain set of New York ladies in crisis, Mercury in Retrograde (she may be among them, as a "composite"). So surely other "composites" were in attendance at her book party last night.

• The publisher of the Los Angeles Times is defending his decision to put an ad disguised as a news story on the front page of the paper yesterday. [LAT]
• A Fox Entertainment employee has reportedly been arrested for stealing the personal information of other Fox employees. [TVN]
• NBC is developing a sitcom based on George Gurley's Observer column. [P6]
• Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham and Lauren Conrad were among the "most salable cover faces" for fashion magazines in 2008. The least? Nicole Kidman, Carrie Underwood, and Rachel Weisz. [WWD]
• Dylan Ratigan talks about his departure from CNBC and move to ABC. [BI]
• Speaking of covers, are struggling celebrity tabloids paying for them? [NYP]
• The Daily Beast, Tina Brown's website, will introduce ads shortly. [AdAge]
• Fox News chairman Roger Ailes and his wife, Elizabeth, have purchased another local newspaper in Putnam County. [Portfolio]
• NBC will air a "comedy showcase" featuring Jay Leno on May 19. [NYT]

NBC is reportedly developing a sitcom called "George and Hilly" based on New York Observer writer George Gurley's columns about couples therapy with his fiancee. Here's what prime time viewers have to look forward to:

amfAR kicked off Fashion Week with a gala at Cipriani last night, where the long list of attendees included Donna Karan, Mary J. Blige (left), Anna Wintour, Calvin Klein, Rachel Zoe, Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Liza Minnelli, Candy Pratts Price, Robbie Myers, Jessica Stam, Lily Donaldson, Kenneth Cole, Stefano Tonchi, John Demsey, Stacy Bendet, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Lisa Dennison, Terence Koh, Vito Schnabel, Noemi Lenoire, Harry Belafonte, Mary Alice Stephenson, Jennifer Creel, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Taylor Momsen, Maggie Rizer, Doutzen Kroes, Robert Verdi, Mario Cantone, Eliza Dushku, Kipton Cronkite, Derek Blasberg, and Howard and Cindy Rachofsky. [PMc, Wireimage, WWD, NYO]

Adrian Grenier and Jessica Stam hosted Scott Harrison's third annual Charity: Water benefit last night at the Metropolitan Pavillion. Attendees at the event included Richie Rich, Olivia Palermo, Whitney Port, Byrdie Bell, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Rocco DiSpirito, Jenna Elfman, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Jamison Ernest, Cee-Lo, and models Larissa Bond and Masha Rudenko. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG]

The Observer's George Gurley explores male fantasies about the Republican running mate. It would be a prime example of the sexism her supporters pretend to detect in the media—were not the piece quite so eccentric.

• George Gurley's brilliant survey of the social scenesters you'll find hanging out at the Beatrice Inn. [Gawker]

Over-sharey reporter George Gurley interviewed Christina Ricci for the upcoming issue of Black Book. They've got the SEXY PHOTOS of disconcertingly tiny Ms. Ricci up at their site, but you might be more interested in the Observer columnist embarrassing himself a bit, as would be his wont if he was capable of embarrassment. After the jump, Ricci, who is trying to promote some sort of movie about a speedy racer, makes the mistake of looking at Gurley's notepad.

George Gurley

The New York Observer's George Gurley: such a heartbreaker. Who knew? The louche reporter, a throwback to days when journalists still drank and stayed out late, proposed over the Christmas holidays to his girlfriend Hilly, who features often in his writing. One former girlfriend, Baroness Sheri de Borchgrave, has not given up. "We could be such a perfect couple. I will not give up hope," she says. How romantic, except that it was Page Six to which she bared her heart.

We hear that over Christmas, two of the New York Observer's all-too-rare bachelor heterosexual reporters stopped being so single! According to office gossip, both nightlife reporter Spencer Morgan and man-about-town George Gurley got engaged! Morgan's intended is Alexis Bryan, the daughter of Vogue editor Anna Wintour's man-partner. This means that Colonel Potter from M*A*S*H*, who is Morgan's grandfather, will be the stepfather-in-law of Anna Wintour. (Crazy!) Rumor has it that Morgan's in-laws-to-be bought their future son-in-law a Cadillac. (Though it might be Alexis' mother, not father, who so gifted.)

Over at journalist George Gurley's latest couples therapy session transcribed in the Observer, the saddest trainwreck takes a turn for sadder trainwreckiousness, as his ladyfriend has demanded an engagement ring (which according to her and their terrible therapist, has nothing to do with getting married): "HILLY: You know what I'm sick of? I hate the stigma of feeling like one of these sucker-punched spinster loser Manhattan hags with a million cats and a stack of New Yorkers. I'm sick of it! I just want it done." You know, I ran into George and Hilly the other night and they seemed completely reasonable! But that was an illusion! [NYO]

Therapy patient George Gurley's long love affair with Republican propagandist Ann Coulter, 46 (now 48??), continues today in the pages of the New York Observer. It's the same old shtick from the fiery polemicist, and, like Ann herself, it's pretty damn thin: Hillary Clinton will "impose communism" on America if elected, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are responsible for 9/11, the death of 3000 American troops in Iraq is no big deal, etc. Frankly, it's a little pathetic: Ann has pretty much tapped out her ability to provoke outrage, because we've heard it all before from her. There's pretty much nothing she can do or say at this point to shock or offend. Unless she's somehow satisfied with her increasing irrelevance in the national conversation, she's going to need to make some grand gesture that once again puts her in the forefront of American hate figures. We're not sure how she could do it, but maybe she could start by calling Barack Obama what the kids call "the n word." That might ruffle a few feathers.

Today's Page Six stumbles when it should have scooped: "Sightings: Maxim Deputy Editor Chris Wilson howling out a Monkees song with N.Y. Observer writer George Gurley, followed by fellow Observer scribe Spencer Morgan and his girlfriend, Vanity Fair fashion editrix Alexis Stewart, belting out Heart's "Magic Man" at Sing Sing." So close! Alexis Stewart is Martha Stewart's crazy daughter. Spencer Morgan is dating Alexis Bryan. Shelby Bryan's daughter. You know, Vogue editor Anna Wintour's lover Shelby Bryan? Crazy, right? (Sort of better than Spencer's boss Jared Kushner dating Ivanka Trump even.) Please God, let them have children together and make Anna Wintour a grandmother at the same time as Colonel Potter becomes a great-grandfather!

When the New York Observer's lover-for-hire George Gurley embarked on his quest to reveal the top ten sexual fantasies of the women at the Beatrice Inn, we lauded his Kinseyian quest for knowledge. As vapid and annoying we find those jangly-braceleted, soft-cotton-cosseted lithe young things who frequent the Beatrice, we also secretly want to touch their soft parts. So we looked forward to the article as a playbook, if nothing else. Imagine our flaccid disappointment when Alexa Rose Greenstadt, ("a lush, busty and witty 21-year-old who was wearing Lanvin pearls, a Zac Posen dress and brand new Prada shoes") divulged her sexual fantasy.

Today's Deepest Thought comes to us courtesy of bar-hound George Gurley, whose work in the Observer never fails to make us fantasize about moving to one of the Portlands, or an upstate ashram. This week, George asked the patrons of Bungalow 8 to opine about the Iraq war.

A few weeks ago, George Gurley wrote a long profile for the Observer about a certain Charlotte Bocly, a 19-year-old Park Avenue/Bridgehampton resident with blonde hair, big teeth and more money than God, and we wondered whether Charlotte might be pulling the rug out from under Melissa Berkelhammer's unsuspecting ass. But now maybe Charlotte should be watching her own ass, since Socialite Rank seems to have discovered George's next profile subject. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Olivia Palermo, New School University student, horse owner and A-1 debutard. Like her predecessors, she's got a lot to say. Gurley, are you listening?

• Washington Post executive editor thinks it's inappropriate for his reporters to actually report what they've heard from sources. Unless those sources happen to be frat dudes who reveal the secrets of pawning your friend off on the ugly chick. [NYS]
• Observer editor Peter Kaplan punks George Gurley; introduces intern as new owner Jared Kushner. Good sport Gurley chuckles, drags intern into bathroom for traditional "Bump Off George's Knuckles" welcome. [NYDN]
• Jon Fine actually has an interesting angle on the whole "Time moves to Friday" thing: It's gonna hurt Life. And possibly BusinessWeek, but that goes unsaid. [BW]

This morning's news of the Observer purchase got us wondering: Just how far does ten million bucks really go in this town? We assembled a crack team of experts who put together the helpful chart you'll find after the jump.