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“Top Ten” Ways To End The Writers’ Strike?

• Is David Letterman about to bust the the writers’ strike wide open? News hit this weekend that the King of Late Night is looking to put together a side deal with writers to get his show back on the air, stat. [ABC News]
• The story: After negotiations between the writers and the studios hit another snag this weekend, the union representing the writers said they’d try to bypass the umbrella organization representing all of the studios. Instead, they’d try to strike individual deals with individual production companies. [NY Times]
• David Letterman’s response: Yes, please! [Deadline Hollywood]
• See, Letterman’s show is owned not by CBS but by his own production company, Worldwide Pants. If writers strike a deal with him, his show could come back without affecting the ongoing war with CBS.
• In comparison, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are owned by their studios; they couldn’t strike the same deal Dave can.
• Sigh. Neither can Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show,” who is also interested in striking a deal with the writers; his show is owned by Comedy Central.
• J. Nicholas Counter III, head of the producers’ alliance, called the possibility of individual deals “grasping for straws.” Then he poured his bags of cash onto his bed and rolled around in them yelling, MONEY! I LOVE MONEY! (Description of activities may or may not be accurate.)

We can tell you one group who probably doesn’t look forward to having Letterman and Stewart back on the air: The presidential candidates, who so far this cycle have gotten a pretty free pass.

Dreaming Of A Space Christmas

• The astronaut’s living in the international Space Station had a nasty holiday surprise: they won’t be home for Christmas. But they’re not letting that get in the way of their yuletide festivities. [USA Today]
• Astronaut Daniel Tani was hoping to be home with his wife and daughters, but technical difficulties mean he’s stuck on the space station ’til early 2008.
• Here’s what he and his crewmates have put together for their holiday celebration:
• A day off! No experiments or repairs will be performed.
• “A Christmas banner and a tabletop tree — made of a heat-resistant nylon used for firefighters’ coats — with Velcro ornaments.”
• “Canned candied yams, cornbread dressing and pouches of smoked turkey.”
• NASA also sends each astronaut a stocking with gifts from their family. The presents will arrive by robotic cargo launcher on December 26, along with fresh tomatoes and onions for a hamburger feast.
• On January 7th, because of the Russian cosmonauts on board, space station crews usually celebrate the Russian Orthodox Christmas.

In space, Santa is a robot carrying fresh produce.

Extreme Makeover, Gangland Style

• Today’s gang members may look a little less like a Crip and a little more like a Biff. [ABC News]
• Tattoos? Piercings? Colored bandanas? Dude, that’s sooooo ’98.
• Today’s gang members have been reading the preppy handbook.
• Many of the nation’s most vicious gangs are undergoing an extreme makeover in a new tactic designed to keep them out of the sights of Johnny Law.
• With blazers, khakis and loafers, these new gang bangers would look more at home at the local university club than on the streets. And that’s the whole point.
• Top members say gangs today are looking to go bigger – and badder – than their predecessors. Instead of corner muggings, they’re setting up elaborate extortion schemes, prostitution rings and kidnappings. And that means blending in.
• Security Adviser Sammy Rivera: “Before they would rob a bus and could take away some cell phones and a little money. Now they have a steady income from the extortion they carry out in their territories.”

Here’s a helpful hint: The next time you’re surrounded by a bunch of teens with tattoos and piercings, they’re probably AP Trig students.

Old And Pricey: The Most Expensive Restaurants In The U.S.

Tired of always trying to stay on top of the Next Big Thing in the food world? Allow us to offer a suggestion: stick with the classics when it comes to restaurants. Turns out, the priciest meals can be found at the nation’s oldest eateries. Take a look. [Forbes]

• $39.46: The average cost of a meal at a U.S. restaurant.
• $400: The cost — per person — of dinner at Massa in New York City.
• $168: The cost of a meal at the Inn at Little Washington, in Washington, DC.
• $75: The cost of a meal at Canlis in the Pacific Northwest.

It could be worse: In London, the average cost of dinner is $79.46.

Richest Get Way Way Richer

• It’s a good time to be unbelievably disgustingly rich. [NY Times]
• From 2003 to 2005, the increase in income from the richest 1% of Americans was higher than the total income of the poorest 20%.
• The poorest 20% had incomes totaling $383.4 billion dollars in 2005, and the richest 1% saw their incomes go up $524.8 billion. Ooof.
• In 2005, the richest three million Americans made as much as the poorest 144 milion Americans.
• A new gilded age: the last time the top 1% and fractions of the top 1% had this much relative wealth the year was 1929.
• How’d we get this way? Bush’s tax cuts for the rich and a stock market rebound.
• But middle class Americans, facing spiraling costs of living with only marginal gains in income, aren’t sharing in the prosperity.
• Says Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, “It is meaningless to middle- and low-income families to say we have a great economy because their economy looks so much different than folks at the top of the scale because this is an economy that is working, but not working for everyone.”

“The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

By the Numbers

“Hey guy I don’t know but saw on TV one time! Will you sign your name on a piece of paper so I can sell it on eBay?” We don’t know about you, but we’ve never really seen the point of autographs. Millions of people cherish those little scraps of paper, however, so Autograph Magazine has put together their list of the celebs most willing to put pen to paper...and the ones who really wish you’d just go away and leave them alone. Here are the top 5 of each: [NY Daily News]

Nicest

1. Johnny Depp
2. Matt Damon
3. George Clooney
4. Jack Nicholson
5. Rosario Dawson

Nastiest

1. Will Ferrell
2. Tobey Maguire
3. Joaquin Phoenix
4. William Shatner
5. Renée Zellweger

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“De Niro, Redford, Keaton, Allen, Pacino ... They’re all just tragic parodies of themselves. Al Pacino looks like a mad old freak now. I say give it a rest, or go and do some serious stuff...”

and

“[George] Clooney thinks that, provided he does films which are politically committed, he’s allowed to do Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13″, he says. “But the Ocean’s movies are a cancer to world culture. They’re destroying us.”

— Come on, actor Rupert Everett, best known for your role in “My Best Friend’s Wedding” a decade ago, tell us how your *really* feel. [Huffington Post]

Speed Round

FAREWELL

Singer/songwriter Dan Fogleberg passed away yesterday from advanced prostate cancer. He was 56. We’re just a living legacy to the leader of the band. [AP]

GONE

Brian Sean Griffith, the guy who orchestrated the attack against Nancy Kerrigan’s knees, died yesterday. He was 40.[Fox News]

SING IT

Rolling Stone has it’s list of the top 100 songs of 2007. At the very top? “Roc Boys,” by Jay-A, a song that “plays like the Copacabana scene in GoodFellas translated into hip-hop.” [Rolling Stone]

OH, BABY

Of the new Forbes List of the Top 10 Most Influential Babies In Hollywood, three have the last name Jolie-Pitt. [Forbes]

FOR BETTER OR WORSE OR MOST

A 26-year-old woman in Florida just got busted for having ten husbands. So if she started dating at, say, 16, that works out to a new hubby a year. [AP]

CELEBRITY MASH-UP

After getting divorces from their respective spouses, golfer Greg “The Shark” Norman and former tennis star Chris Evert are engaged. Wait…what? [AP]

ATHLETIC VIOLENCE

Atlanta Hawks forward Sheldon Williams was carjacked out of his Chrysler Saturday afternoon before a game against Charlotte. In other news, a guy in the NBA drives a … Chrysler. [WSBTV]

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

No one wants to buy the mansion where Michael Vick ran his dog-fights. [AP]

RACIST CHEESE STEAKS

The owner of Geno’s Steaks,one of the two most famous cheese steak joints in Philadelphia, goes to court to defend a sign in his shop reading “This is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING PLEASE ‘SPEAK ENGLISH.’” [AP]

CANCER WATER

California is draining two massive reservoirs over concerns that the water could be tainted with cancer-causing contaminants. [Fox]

DEATH

The sort of sketchy dude who helped Tanya Harding attack fellow figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is dead at 40. [AP]

MEANIE

Wrestler Hulk Hogan wen asked which celebrity he’d like to see pummeled by a gladiator: “Without a doubt Rosie O’Donnell. Somebody needs to shut that big mouth up.” [Fox]

YOU’RE SO VAIN

The vainest city in America is...Salt Lake City? [Forbes]

HER HEART WILL GO ON

Celine Dion bows out of Cesar’s Palace in Vegas for the final time. [CNN]

EXTREME MAKEOVER

America’s gangs are trading in their bandanas and tattoos for fashionable blazers and university recruits. Watch out, Harvard. Watch. Out. [CNN]