Marisa Noel Brown has been keeping busy. Despite the fact her father and husband have seen their reputations go up in smoke the last few weeks, face a slew of lawsuits, and will probably never live down the shame of having enabled Bernie Madoff for so long, the society fixture has made it to two events over the past week or so, including the Gilt Group's anniversary party last Thursday and yesterday's Junior Collector's Night at Doubles. Unfortunately, her peers haven't been quite as thrilled by her presence, at least judging by the look on Jennifer Creel's face, who'd probably rather be sticking pins in her eyes rather than stand next to Brown, but who manages to put on a brave nonetheless. Commenters on the socialite blog Park Avenue Peerage haven't been any kinder: "Marisa get out!!! You should have be in jail!!! Take all you family with you!!!!" says one. But at least Marisa was thoughtful enough to wear black, no?

• Madonna's interest in Alex Rodriguez appears may have waned (she's been spotted with a young Brazilian model in recent weeks), but there's another rich, older, equally Kaballah-obsessed woman happy to take her place. At a New Year's party in Parrot Cay last week, Donna Karan seemed smitten with the slugger, although A-Rod "refused Karan's advances" since he's "still hung up on Madonna." [P6]
• Not only are most people on Mustique happy the Noel family stayed off the island this year, but a bar even created a "No Noel" cocktail to celebrate. [P6]
• Lindsay Lohan says on her MySpace blog that she and Samantha Ronson have not broken up, just in case you've been up all night worrying. [People]
• Officials in the Bahamas have completed an autopsy on John Travolta's son, Jett, and claim the death was caused by a seizure. [CBS, NYP]

A Very Noel Christmas [NYM/Daily Intel]

The Business Sheet was kind enough to dig up (and scan in) the 2002 Vanity Fair article on the "fabulous Noel sisters," the daughters of disgraced hedge fund manager Walter Noel, the man who handed over $7.5 billion to Bernie Madoff. The article concludes by pointing out that none of the five Noel girls have never been mixed up in any unseemly scandals. Guess there's a first for everything! [Business Sheet]

• Was the "exhaustion" that sent Samantha Ronson to the hospital the result of a marathon screaming match with Lindsay? [TMZ]
• Walter Noel's five daughters are a bunch of maneaters who used to steal other girls' boyfriends, at least according to one of their former Georgetown classmates. [P6]
• Now that he's dated half the blondes in New York, Lance Armstrong says he's having a baby with his girlfriend, Anna Hansen. [NYDN, PM]
• Star Jones has supposedly gained 30 lbs. recently and is now worried her boyfriend, chef Herb Wilson, is going to dump her because of it. [NE]