The BBC confirmed today that their star correspondent in Iran, Jon Leyne, has been asked to leave the country by the Iranian government. Leyne was accused of being a diplomatic mouthpiece and inciting violence. BBC's Iranian office remains open. [AFP]

Nothing embodied the gaudy excess of New York's restaurants more than Central Park's Tavern on the Green. But today the restaurant is up-for-grabs and no one seems to be grabbing.

Fear not, fans of rational portrayals of modern urban career women on television and film. Candace Bushnell's influence is almost gone from our lives. The Sex and the City authoress (or is she??) co-created a TV show last year called Lipstick Jungle that was basically a tired rehash of the SATC series but without all the fun swears and nudity and stuff. Well, that show was blessedly canceled yesterday, so we no longer have to deal with its particular brand of shoes-as-metaphor-for-longing ladybusiness. And now, oh my, Bushnell's satellite radio show has been euthanized as well. She was doing a show for Sirius XM radio called Sex, Success, and Sensibility, which was about how to make love like a perpetually neurotic and self-obsessed shopaholic. But then—in these horrible, ruined economic times!—she refused to take a 50% pay cut, so the station just out and out pulled the plug. So, that's sad for her I guess? But it's kind of a relief for us. Now if we could only stop those Sex and the City: For kids! books from coming out.

After viewing Carson Daly's initial writerless effort on his revived Last Call Monday night, the NY Times opines that even though there's been much hand-wringing over the host's decision to be the first late-nighter to cross the WGA picket line, "a bland interview with the underwear model Karolina Kurkova and pop music by the Plain White T's" is hardly going to be the death of the Movement, as Daly is not exactly threatening to fill the void left by the darkening of The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live sets. True, but the next thing you know, the Scottish guy who's on after Letterman gets back to work, and from there it's a slide down a slippery strike-breaking slope that doesn't end until Ryan Seacrest is guest-hosting for Leno for months. [NY Times]

Vincent Gallo (the actor the Times once called a "misunderstood auteur pursuing an intensely personal vision") and fashion photographer Terry Richardson (whose work has been described as having "real pertinence in an industry that tends to be conservative and anodyne") are featured in a new Belvedere vodka ad. I saw it last night and it is depressing.