On the weekend before the commencement of public hearings on a legislative proposal to extend term limits, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn held a brief press conference to announce what everyone around City Hall already suspected—that she favors Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to allow elected officials to serve three terms in office, up from the two currently allowed.

Quinn painted her decision as a demonstration of leadership in a divided City Council, and also as a bold stand during a financial crisis which, ultimately, will give voters more choices in next year’s election.

“As we move forward in these very difficult times, continuity in leadership will allow our city to continue to work,” Quinn said this afternoon at a press conference in City Hall’s Red Room.  read more »

PHILADELPHIA—In an effort to boost voter turnout in the all-important battleground state of Pennsylvania, Barack Obama held four separate rallies on the afternoon of Oct. 11 in which he sought to connect with largely black audiences on economic grounds.

At each event, Obama was introduced by Governor Ed Rendell, who plainly laid out the campaign’s mission to the crowd.

“53 percent this Election Day won’t cut it, right?” Rendell said during an event in Germantown, referring to the Democratic turnout of the Philadelphia area during the primary. “I want to see Philadelphia go over 70 percent.”

The day started early, in North Philadelphia's Progress Plaza, where Obama stood, in shirtsleeves, in a square surrounded by stores with signs like “Auto Tags,” or “Dollar World.  read more »

We talked mob money with writer Gay Talese at the screening of Gomorrah.

After months of speculation, we got to the bottom of Marquee's temporary summer shutdown.

We tallied gifts, drank absinthe, and chatted with godfather Michael Musto at nightlife heir Liam McMullan's 21st birthday party.

Russell Crowe got a little testy at the Body of Lies premiere--par for the course, we suppose.

We partied with Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Fern Mallis, Martha Stewart and Rory and Elie Tahari as the CFDA welcomed its newest members.

It looks like residents of the Soho block recently taken over by Delicatessen--one of whom peed on the restaurant's glass roof in early September--still have not warmed up to their loud, cocktatil-gulping neighbor. Via Eater, we bring you what they are calling "one of the best reader emails of all time":

Last night a friend and I were walking around SoHo and saw Delicatessen...Within five minutes of sitting at the bar, some young super-angry dude storms up to the bar and starts laying into the bartending staff screaming shit like, 'Fuck you!!! Fuck your restaurant!!! Fuck your hipstery little patrons who think they are so fucking cool!!! People fucking live on this block!!! I can hear these people screaming outside my fucking apartment all fucking night!!!' And all through his rant everyone, including the bartending staff, are just staring at this dude with big grins on their faces, clearly enjoying his rage.  read more »

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission may vote on developer Aby Rosen's proposed Norman Foster-designed commercial tower at 980 Madison Avenue at its meeting next week, according to a Landmarks spokeswoman. Such a move would bring to an end a more than two-year debate over a planned tower at the site, which has sparked a firestorm of criticism in the Upper East Side from nearby residents and author Tom Wolfe (see our Q&A with Mr. Wolfe here).

Lisi de Bourbon, the Landmarks spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that the commission would "comment, and possibly vote" on the tower on Tuesday.

Among the most useful exercises to ward off mental plaque is to imagine reversed circumstances. Now a provocative version of that exercise has popped up on various message boards, written by someone who wonders how America would receive an Obama family that was ... well, more like the McCain and Palin families. It is especially useful for those who imagine that racial prejudice has magically disappeared:  read more »

Barclays Capital has fired Mark Walsh, the man in charge of Lehman Brothers' commercial real estate investments, along with nearly all the rest of Lehman's commercial-mortgage-backed securities team, according to the trade mag Commercial Mortgage Alert.

Mr. Walsh has often been described as the "man behind the curtain" who made Lehman Brothers loads of money during the heyday of the CMBS market, but also as a man who took far too many risks and ultimately played a significant role in Lehman's demise. Indeed, Mr. Walsh financed Tishman-Speyer's ill-conceived $22.2 billion acquisition of Archstone-Smith, a luxury apartment building portfolio that has since been devalued; and financed SunCal's $110.2 million purchase of a 2.25-acre plot of land in Southern California.  read more »

Anya Hindmarch's handbag collection for Target sold out within two minutes when it went on sale at 11 a.m. on the designer's Web site. [Vogue UK]

Balenciaga has signed a deal with Coty Inc.’s Coty Prestige division to create a new line of fragrances under the Balenciaga name. [WWD]

Gossip Girl Taylor Momsen's high fashion spread in Crash magazine is everything we hoped it would be: a little awkward, a little scary, and way too fun to stare at. [FabSugar via The Cut]

Marc Jacobs is still wearing skirts around town. [FashionIndie]

Former New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse tells Radaronline.com's Charles Kaiser that the most "gripping scene" she ever saw at the Supreme Court was when the 2003 decision of Lawrence v. Texas came down:

I think that was probably the most gripping scene I ever witnessed at the Court—when Kennedy read the majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas. Usually, when you go up to the Court, you don't know what's coming that day. But it was the last day of the term, and Lawrence was the last undecided case. So everybody knew, and the Court was filled with gay and lesbian members of the Supreme Court bar.

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According to a report from Variety's Michael Schneider, V, the 1983 alien invasion mini-series, is being redeveloped for television. (This comes via TVTattle.)

Writes Mr. Schneider:

ABC is developing a new adaptation of the franchise — which spawned a second mini and TV spinoff — written by "The 4400" co-creator/exec producer Scott Peters.

Warner Bros. TV, which was behind the original longform, is once again producing the project, which was sold as a spec script to the Alphabet net.

Mr. Peters is quoted as saying, "Whenever I mention 'V' to anybody, they still have a lot of good memories about the original movie and series. … Everybody has that imagery of their uniforms, or the visitor eating a hamster. It's a science fiction icon and too good to pass up."

"Good memories"? We just remember being completely terrified. But not as terrified as we were watching The Day After that same year.  read more »