Do you love the High Line but wish it had a more palpable element of danger? Artist and balloon animal enthusiast Jeff Koons is here to help.

American artist Jeff Koons, the man behind those giant balloon sculptures of dogs, is trying to stop a San Francisco gallery from selling balloon dog bookends. Rich people are so greedy! But the gallery is fighting back!

[An 11-foot-tall Jeff Koons' "Balloon Flower" sculpture is on display in front of Christie's in New York. It is expected to sell for around $12 million at auction in November. We should all become artists. Image via AP]

[An image of Bettie Page sexys up a mural being painted in Jeff Koons' studio in Manhattan last night. Image via Getty]

Artist Jeff Koons turns 55 today. Cindi Leive, the editor-in-chief of Glamour, is turning 43. Opera great Placido Domingo is 69. Reclusive Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is turning 57. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is 59. Federal judge Kimba Wood is turning 66. Geena Davis is 54. Film heavyweight Mike Medavoy is turning 69. Singer-songwriter Chan Marshall turns 38. Singer Billy Ocean is 60. And golf legend Jack Nicklaus celebrates his 70th birthday today.

Art! Who goes there? Now: we do. In the first installment of our Sunday art column, Kelsey Keith's got a few ideas for some people who think they know what art's good for New York City's taxis.

[Onlookers gawk at Jeff Koons' giant inflatable rabbit installed in London's Covent Garden to celebrate the opening of a new pop art exhibit at the Tate Modern. Image via Getty]

Larry Gagosian's new "art store" (or museum gift shop on steroids) debuted last night. Looking to treat yourself to a Marc Newson marble credenza ($375,000); Richard Prince "Nurse Hat Chair" ($175,000); or Jeff Koons-designed puppy-shaped vase ($7,500)? Look no further! [WSJ]

Dasha Zhukova is young and beautiful and has already started a fashion line, opened an art gallery, been appointed editor of a fashion magazine, and gotten knocked up by a Russian oligarch. No wonder people hate her.

Last week, we pointed your attention to a story in the Post about the very unusual Jeff Koons sculpture that hedge fund mogul Richard Perry and his wife Lisa put out on their penthouse terrace. We mentioned that Vogue had published a set of photos inside the Perry pad a few years ago. Now the magazine tells us they've posted the entire shoot from back in 2002 on the web. Do enjoy. [Vogue]

Hedge fund manager Richard Perry and his fashion-designer wife, Lisa Perry, live in a 17-room penthouse on Sutton Place. They're also big-time modern art collectors and home design obsessives. (Their Manhattan apartment earned a 10-page spread in Vogue a few years ago; in the Hamptons, they may own the only house that has a pool installed in its dining room.) But their art collection has landed the couple in a bit of trouble. The Perrys installed a green stainless-steel "diamond" sculpture by Jeff Koons, which they purchased for $2.3 million in 2005, on the terrace of their Manhattan pad. (A crane was required to put it there.) Not only do the couple's neighbors totally despise the piece ("I think it's as ugly as it comes," says one), some are now complaining that it's blinding them:

Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb hasn't had the easiest time as of late. Heavy losses forced him to dismiss a number of employees at the end of 2008 and the $5 billion he managed a year ago had dwindled to $1.8 billion last month. But Loeb is nothing if not crafty and he's since come up with a handful of way to cut costs and raise cash. He started renting out his jet on an hourly basis a few months ago, and he put an extra $5.5 million in his pocket when he sold off his carriage house in the West Village back in March. And now he's done it again.

Graydon Carter, Robert De Niro, and Ron Perelman hosted a Vanity Fair-sponsored dinner at the State Supreme Court House last night to celebrate the opening of the Tribeca Film Festival. They were joined by Carter and De Niro's wives (Anna Scott Carter and Grace Hightower) and Tribeca Film Fest co-founders Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal, as well as a long list of guests, including Bono and Ali Hewson, Kanye West, Diane von Furstenberg, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, André Leon Talley, Fran Lebowitz, Spike Lee ... (continued)

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]

• Hedge funder Scott Bommer and his wife Donya have lowered the price of their 29th-floor apartment at the Ritz-Carlton, which they purchased for $28.5 million last July and put on the market for $35 million in November. It's now listed at $29.75 mil. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Jeff Koons has closed on the purchase of a six-story townhouse at 11 East 67th Street for $12 million, two years after he first went into contract. [NYP]
• Loews heiress Laurie Tisch—daughter Bob and Joan, sister of Jonathan and Steve—paid $29 million for a 13th-floor apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue. Her new upstairs neighbor? Rupert Murdoch. [NYO, previously]
• Former Lehman exec Jack Rivkin has put his 7,000-square-foot home off Further Lane in Amagansett on the market for $31 million. [Newsday, Sotheby's]

Karole Armitage's Armitage Gone! dance company held its annual benefit last night at Capitale. The honorees at the Think Punk! event, Jeff Koons and Earle Mack, celebrated with their wives, Justine and Carole, as well as with attendees like Rufus Wainwright (left), Andre Balazs, Calvin Klein, Fabiola Beracasa, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, Nicole Miller, Lauren duPont, Allison Sarofim, Peter Marino, Mary Boone, David Salle, Michael Musto, Dominique Levy, Sandy Brant, Tom Sachs, Todd Eberle, Francesco Clemente, Michele Zalopany, and Jamie Niven. [PMc, VF, WWD]

• Fashion photographer David LaChapelle's two-bedroom pied-à-terre at 170 Second Avenue is now up for sale for $1.65 million. The apartment has been discounted by $100,000 since first hitting the market this fall. [NYM, PDE]
• Furniture designer Vladimir Kagan and his wife, needlepoint artist Erica Wilson, have sliced $1 million off the price of their 3,840-square-foot co-op at 1185 Park Avenue, which they put on the market for $8.75 million in December. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• After spending more than two years in contract, it looks like artist Jeff Koons should soon be closing on the purchase of a six-story townhouse at 11 East 67th Street. The home was originally listed for $18.75 million; Koons is expected to pay in the neighborhood of $10-12 million. [NYT]
• Former Newsday publisher Raymond Jansen has lowered the price of his home in Lloyd Neck to $1.99 million, down from the original asking price of $2.795 million. [Newsday, Sotheby's]

Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive turns 42 today. Artist Jeff Koons is 54. Placido Domingo is turning 68. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is turning 56. Geena Davis is 53. Singer Cat Marshall is 37. Legendary (and now retired) Post reporter Steve Dunleavy is celebrating his 71st birthday. Golf legend Jack Nicklaus is 69. Federal judge Kimba Wood is 65. Hollywood producer Mike Medavoy is turning 68. Political consultant/powerbroker Josh Isay is 39. And former Spice Girl Emma Bunton turns 33 today.

Not even the presence of high-profile collectors like Steve Martin, Valentino, and billionaire Eli Broad (who dropped $8 million on works by Ed Ruscha, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, and Donald Judd) could save last night's Sotheby's contemporary art sale from being a big disappointment. Twenty paintings, including a Lichtenstein and a Damien Hirst, were left on the block, and the total tally was $125.1 million, far below the conservative presale estimate of $202.4 million. One genre that's apparently recession proof: John Currin and his trademark boobies. His "Nice 'n' Easy," an oil of two curvaceous naked women, went for a record $5.4 million. [NYT, Bloomberg]

Think it's easy being a rich art collector and the husband of a supermodel? Think again. Just consider the upkeep required of Peter Brant to keep Jeff Koons's famous 40-foot-tall Westie, which is made out of flowers and greenery, in tip-top shape: "Every spring, the reinstallation of "Puppy" requires 10 men to labor for 12 days." [T Mag]