Haim Saban (pictured, at right) is a billionaire entertainment mogul and a major Democratic political donor. This week, he voiced what might be considered a new mainstream Democratic attitude towards civil liberties.

Billionaire entertainment industry power player and Clinton pal Haim Saban is probably still getting over the sting of being unable to completely manipulate The New Yorker's profile of him. Perhaps he will buy Newsweek, as a consolation prize.

Last Friday, The Wrap reported that The New Yorker was being pressured by billionaire Hollywood power broker and Clinton pal Haim Saban to remove politically (and economically) sensitive portions of a massive new profile of Saban. It didn't work.

Portly chef Emeril Lagasse turns 50 today. Indie filmmaker Todd Solondz is turning 50 today, too. Fellow director Mira Nair is 52. Artist Brice Marden is turning 71. The least appreciated Jackson brother, Tito, turns 56 today. Director Penny Marshall is turning 67. Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca is 85. Paige Davis, the host of Trading Spaces, is turning 40. R&B singer Ginuwine is 34. Singer Keyshia Cole is turning 28. Billionaire media mogul Haim Saban is 65. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, is 50. And singer Eric Benet, who may be best known as the idiot who cheated on Halle Berry, is 43 today.

• Janice Min isn't renewing her contract as editor-in-chief of Jann Wenner's Us Weekly. Her No. 2, Michael Steele, will become acting editor in chief. [NYT]
• Condé Nast announced yesterday that it had retained the management consulting firm McKinsey to "develop new perspectives." They sure have their work cut out for them. Condé revealed today that its monthly mags witnessed a 37 percent drop in advertising in September. [Gawker, AdAge, NYO]
• More pain at Condé may be on the way: "Significant cost cuts, including more layoffs and the closing of more magazines" are coming, says Keith Kelly. [NYP]
• Yet more Condé news: The company is closing down Men.Style.com so it can focus on the soon-to-be relaunched websites of GQ and Details. [AdAge]
• The Boston Globe's largest union voted yesterday to approve the new contract that had been proposed by the New York Times Co. [NYT, E&P]
• This can't be a good sign about the state of affairs at CNN: Time Warner Cable is moving it from channel 10 to 78 and replacing it with FX. [MCN]

The reported efforts by a "suspected Israeli operative" to get Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) to quash an espionage prosecution into AIPAC hinge on Haim Saban, an Israeli-American billionaire. Who is he?