• Diane Sawyer made her debut this evening as anchor of ABC's World News; Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the night's big attraction. [AP]
• Avatar pulled in $73 million at the domestic box office (and $232 million worldwide), although it would have made more if it hadn't snowed. [LAT, NYT]
• Yelp walked away from a deal to be bought by Google over the weekend. [TC]
• Radio giant Citadel Broadcasting Corporation has filed Chapter 11. [NYT]
• Jay Leno's already bad situation appears to be getting worse. [B&C, NYP]
• Howard Stern is in the middle of tense contract talks with Sirius XM right now, which is why he's threatening to leave the satellite radio company. [AP]
• Twitter will turn a profit in '09, although it still isn't worth $1 billion. [BN]
• Kim Kardashian plug products on Twitter for $10K/tweet. No joke. [AdAge]
• Useless year-end awards: Taylor Swift was named the AP's "entertainer of the year"; Madonna was deemed the "most famous celebrity of the decade."

Emmy Rossum and Adam Duritz hanging out in Washington Square Park on Saturday ... Leighton Meester and Sebastian Stan kissing in the street in front of Five Points ... Hugh Jackman playing in the snow with his kids as Cate Blanchett's sons played nearby ... Rachel McAdams walking with Jude Law's assistant, Ben Jackson ... Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick walking home from a play ... Ed Westwick shopping at Armani Exchange ... Sienna Miller walking downtown ... Catherine Zeta-Jones leaving the Walter Kerr Theater on West 48th Street ... Howard Stern and wife Beth Ostrosky watching a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden ... Amanda Seyfried walking her dog in the meatpacking district ... Britney Spears and boyfriend Jason Trawick arriving at JFK ... and Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Lance Bass taking a stroll in the meatpacking district.

• The list of New York Times staffers accepting buyouts from the paper to leave has grown. And it includes Jenny 8. Lee, surprisingly). [Gawker, NYO]
• Television news: The Early Show has a new boss as of today; profits are up at CNBC; and Joy Behar's new show on HLN is doing pretty well in the ratings.
• Will Vevo, the new Hulu of music videos, succeed? That's up in the air, but it did host a glam launch party last night and traffic's been strong. [AdAge, CNET]
• Tavi, the 13-year-old blogger who's transfixed the fashion world, is writing a column for Harper's Bazaar; a bit of controversy has followed. [WWD, NYM]
• Great news! R. Kelly has signed a deal to pen his memoirs. [Vulture]
• Even better news: ABC has a reality show debuting in January that combines dating and romance with a "moving conveyor belt." It's about time! [Wrap]

Daniel Craig walking near Columbus Circle with girlfriend Satsuki Mitchell ... Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump walking downtown ... Iman crossing the street with her daughter in SoHo ... Michael J. Fox watching a New York Giants game ... Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos seated next to Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky at Lure on Saturday night ... Emily Blunt leaving her trailer on the set of The Adjustment Bureau in Midtown ... Mel Gibson walking with a friend in SoHo ... Adam Brody on the set of The Romantics on Long Island ... Sienna Miller walking her dog ... David Blaine hanging out in SoHo ... John McEnroe walking up Central Park West ... Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts pushing a stroller downtown ... Mariah Carey filming her latest music video ... Taylor Swift heading to the SNL afterparty ... Katie Holmes going to dinner in Tribeca ... and Alex Rodriguez and Jay-Z leaving Nello's.

• A&E has agreed to acquire Lifetime, which means it's not entirely out of the realm of synergistic possibility that Duane Chapman of Dog the Bounty Hunter will make a cameo on Project Runway sometime next season. Yay. [THR, NYT]
• The Daily News has dropped its restaurant critic, Danyelle Freeman, and doesn't appear to be making any plans to replace her. [P6, NYT]
• Another luxury magazine is coming! The Financial Times plans to bring its quarterly glossy, FT Wealth, to American shores this October. [Crain's]
• It's been nearly two years since Oprah announced plans to launch a cable channel, and the venture's been riddled with problems ever since. [LAT]
• Italian officials are now investigating Google for its "lack of transparency." Yes, the same Italy that's governed by a man named Silvio Berlusconi. [NYT]
• Larry David will be bringing the cast of Seinfeld together for a multi-episode appearance on the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Which makes sense considering it's not like Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, or Michael Richards have anything better to do, now do they? [EW, LAT]

If you suspected that Ivy Supersonic, the Howard Stern groupie and self-described "fashion designer, entertainer, publicist, promoter, event planner, and animated character designer" wasn't the most balanced person on the planet, consider your suspicions confirmed. It seems she went off her meds recently, has been roaming the streets armed with a knife, thinks Ray Kelly is conspiring against her, and had to be sent to Bellevue by the police yesterday. [NYDN]

If Tory Burch is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, she certainly isn't showing it. The designer and social fixture is now petitioning Southampton's Architectural Review Board for permission to demolish the Meadow Lane home that she purchased for $22.5 million earlier this year.

Dealbook has an update in the case of Ivy Supersonic, the "fashion designer, entertainer, publicist, promoter, event planner, and animated character designer" who was busted for bringing a "recording device" to Bernie Madoff's sentencing earlier this week. As suspected, she says she was planning to tape the proceedings for Howard Stern's radio show. (In fact, she tells reporter Zachery Kouwe that the "device" was a Blackberry Pearl that belonged to Robin Quivers.) She also reports that she's talking to her lawyers about whether she has a legal right to get the tape back, since it "could be worth $1 million." Best of luck with that, Ivy. [Dealbook, previously]

• Lindsay Lohan will officially celebrate her birthday tomorrow. But it looks like she'll have some extra spending money in her pocket if she decides to buy herself a present. Lohan collected $70,000 to appear at an all-day birthday party in her honor at the MGM Grand last Saturday. [P6]
• A semi-private funeral was held yesterday for Farrah Fawcett. The public wasn't permitted to attend, but a gaggle of photographers was more than welcome. [Us]
• Day 6 of the Michael Jackson mess: No one seems to know who really gave birth to Jackson's kids, no one is totally sure about the final funeral arrangements, and it still isn't clear what drugs he was taking exactly, or who gave them to him. And so on it goes. [Mirror, Sun, TMZ, Us, TMZ]
• On a more positive note, David Gest says Jackson was just another "manly man" who loved women, chowing down at McDonalds, and pursuing his "passion for classic literature." That's nice to hear, isn't it? [Sun]

Does Ivy Supersonic strike you as the sort of person who would have fallen victim to Bernie Madoff? Not so much? Perhaps that explains why her attempt to tape-record Madoff's sentencing yesterday didn't turn out so well and she got caught in the act. Ivy Silberstein, as she's known in real life, brought a "recording device" into the courthouse, a violation of the rules, obviously. But someone apparently spotted her and Judge Denny Chin ordered that court officers seize the device and delete the material before returning it.

Filmmaker and Transcendental Meditation enthusiast David Lynch brought Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr together for the first time in years as part of the Change Begins Within benefit at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday night. A slew of celebrity performers and guests were on hand for the occasion, including Sheryl Crow, Laura Dern, and Ben Harper (with Ringo, left), as well as Jerry Seinfeld, Yoko Ono, John McEnroe, Martin Scorsese, Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky, Matthew Broderick, Moby, Jennifer Aniston, Desiree Gruber and Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, David Arquette, Michael J. Fox, Robin Quivers, Eddie Vedder, Jason Bateman, Barbara Bach, Bettye LaVette, and Mike Love. [Wireimage, Getty, VF, NYO]

There was a tragic shooting in Binghamton, New York, as the shouty 24-hour news channels all hastened to tell us. One brave Howard Stern fan stood up against the strictures of seriousness and good taste.

Ellen Barkin walking in the West Village ... Mario Batali having lunch with the family at Da Silvano ... Gisele Bundchen going to a photo shoot at Chelsea Piers ... Julia Roberts walking in Chinatown ... Jessica Alba leaving her Tribeca hotel with her daughter Honor ... Claire Danes carrying a shopping bag in Soho ... Leighton Meester walking in the Village ... Mickey Rourke sporting a new 'do after leaving a salon on Madison Avenue ... Jennifer Aniston standing on the set of her new movie, The Baster ... Howard Stern walking a few blocks from his apartment building ... Mary J. Blige shopping with friends at American Apparel ... and Bernadette Peters hailing a cab outside Barneys.

Gwyneth Paltrow carrying daughter Apple after lunch Da Silvano ... Howard Stern walking home from a workout with his daughter Ashley ... Agyness Deyn getting a drink at Liquiteria on Second Avenue ... Mary-Kate Olsen leaving her apartment in the West Village ... Hugh Jackman riding Razor scooters around the Village with his daughter Ava ... Kristen Johnson walking her dog downtown ... Michelle Williams kissing Spike Jonze on the sidewalk ... and Matthew Broderick walking to his birthday dinner at Gradisca on West 13th with Sarah Jessica Parker and their son James.

Beth Ostrosky—or Beth Ostrosky Stern, as she'd like to be known these days—has sealed a deal to write a book about dogs, according to Publishers Marketplace: "Animal-rights activist (and wife of Howard Stern) Beth Ostrosky Stern's user-friendly guide for anyone who owns a dog, covering everything from tips for doggie dental hygiene, diet, health, and etiquette to planning the perfect party for your pooch, to Jennifer Bergstrom at Simon Spotlight Entertainment, with Emily Westlake editing, for publication in Spring 2010, by Richard Basch at Don Buchwald Agency (world)." Presumably she shared the section on "doggie dental hygiene" with the owner of this particular pooch before going in for the photo op. [Publishers Lunch, sub req]

Do you listen to satellite radio? Do you find Howard Stern's antics amusing? Do you have some spare change buried in your couch? Get to work. Unless Sirius XM finds a buyer in the next few days, the company will probably file for bankruptcy protection "within days." [NYT]

Radio personalities Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh don't have much in common, but they do share a birthday: Howard is 55 today, while Rush is turning 58. Others celebrating: CNN's Christiane Amanpour is 51. Kirstie Alley is 58. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is 45. Badgley Mischka's Mark Badgley is turning 48. Chef Rebecca Charles is turning 55. Actor Oliver Platt is 49. New York City Councilman James Oddo is 43. Rob Zombie is 44. And Heather Mills turns 41 today.

• Kanye West is astounded by the lack of sober judgement and integrity in the MTV Video Music Awards. He thinks they're fixed! The cable network is shocked he would question the ethics of the "MTV Academy." [Sun]

Two weeks ago the news surfaced that Viacom chief Sumner Redstone and his second wife, Paula Fortunato, were divorcing after five years of marriage. Much was made of Redstone and Fortunato's 39-year age gap and the couple's pre-nup, which will provide Fortunato with a $5 million fortuno for the five years she spent by the not-so-healthy billionaire's side. But she's hardly the only one who has been married to someone who could easily pass for her father or granddad. After the jump, a list of famous New York couples and their equally famous age gaps.

Sad news that catty style assessor Mr. Blackwell passed away this weekend. Though, maybe not so sad for the decades' worth of celebrities that he slammed as his Worst Dressed picks of the year. If you're curious about who Mr. B selected as his top (bottom?) choice each year since 1960, you can find a list here. We've also compiled a photo gallery of the most recent 20, after the jump.