• Victoria Beckham received a $120,000 diamond-studded Birkin from David for Christmas. To be fair, $120,000 is almost a full week’s wages for the man. [Daily Mail]

• Speaking of celebrity largesse, Michael Jordan has unveiled the latest shoe to bear his Air Jordan imprimatur. It includes a carbon plate “to increase propulsion and explosiveness on-court,” because you will naturally want to wear a gleaming white $190-$230 pair of kicks to shoot hoops. [WWD]
• Before dropping that much cash, you might want to make sure the goods are legit: Shoes are a leading growth segment of the counterfeit market, and this weekend British officials seized fake Gucci, Jimmy Choos, and Nikes with a face value of $3.5 million. [UPI]
• In this week’s first bankruptcy, retailer Searle confirmed it has filed for Chapter 11 protection. [WWD]
• Meanwhile, vintage jeweler Fred Leighton is financially shaky, and actively courting "equity partners,” according to one of its owners. "But in terms of the time and environment it’s never enough people…There’s never enough money." The jeweler hired Peter Bacanovic, the former Merill Lynch trader who lost his job and served jail time for his role in the Martha Stewart ImClone insider trading scandal, as company president last year, but fired him this weekend. [WWD]
• Former Chloé designer and Anna Wintour favorite Phoebe Philo was all set to get back in the biz at Céline this spring, but apparently clashes between Philo and her label’s new CEO, Marco Gobbetti, are dimming hopes for her triumphant return. Philo had intended to show her first collection for the French label via a presentation at Paris fashion week this March, and to follow with a runway show in October. But sources say a team has been put in charge of the presentation collection. A company spokesperson gave this cagey response: “Phoebe's debut show will be in October, as has always been planned and we are as excited as ever for Celine's partnership with Phoebe Philo.” [Vogue.co.uk]
• Do designers think sober, dependable menswear is recession-proof? Matthew Williamson, Carlos Miele, Gareth Pugh, Christophe Decarnin, Roland Mouret, and, now, Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi, who are the duo put in charge of Gianfranco Ferre less than a year ago, are all debuting collections for persons of the male persuasion. [Fashionista]
• Valentino's menswear designer, Ferruccio Pozzoni, however just quit. The renowned Italian house fired its womenswear designer, Alessandra Facchinetti, in October, after just one season. [Reuters]
• Who dressed Jeremy Piven for the Golden Globes? Two designers are claiming credit for the actor's tuxedo. Domenico Vacca and John Varvatos each sent out press releases offering details of the star's outfit, proving once and for all that even the people who design these things can't tell one black suit from the next. [WSJ]
• Kanye West showed off a pair of the shoes he designed for Louis Vuitton on his blog. They look like puffy Docksiders in a practical shade of white. [Sassybella]
• NY Mag asked Patricia Field what she keeps in her handbag at the Lous Vuitton/Stephen Sprouse event last week. "A revolver," shot back our favorite flame-haired stylist extraordinaire. [Daily Intel]
• At the same event, Ice-T told reporters he and his wife, Coco, are cutting back on expenses. "You don't want to be like, 'Damn, I wish I didn't buy that $8,000 jacket,'" said the star, who wore a $100 suit from Bangkok. Coco's solution? Wear less. "My wife — everybody knows Coco likes to show her body, but I tell her all the time, 'If everybody looked like you, they'd be walking around naked. You're lucky.' And she's like, 'I just want to be nude.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, because you look good.'" True love, people. [The Cut]
• Will the first daughters wear a namby-pamby cheese-eatin' cafe-au-lait-drinkin' surrender-monkeyin' French label at the inauguration? Or will they wear good, honest, 'Merican clothes spun of pure hope and freedom fibers, woven on a liberty loom? Froggy kid's label Bonpoint sent the Obama family some outfits for Sasha and Malia, but the fact that they're willing to give details of the garments seems to indicate interest was underwhelming. [WWD]
• Robin Givhan's reader contest for a Michelle Obama inaugural gown has yielded a winner, in the form of Katie Ermilio, a 23-year-old up-and-coming designer from Philadelphia who has previously dressed Julianne Hough of Dancing With The Stars. At the site, you can see Ermilio's deep green dress with a draped, criss-crossed bodice, along with all all the other submitted designs. Some labor under, as Givhan writes, a misimpression that "the 44-year-old, physically fit lawyer who will soon be first lady would like to look like a 70-something mother-of-the-bride on Jan. 20." [Washington Post]

• Tara Reid looks like she has no longer been ridden hard and put away wet! The former winner of Miss Hot Mess 2002-2007 is dating fashion executive Julien Jarmoune and apparently fending off marriage rumors. A pal of the couple says, "It looks like she's finally gotten her act together!" [E! Online, AHN]
• Someone who has decidedly not gotten her act together: Amy Winehouse. She was spotted stumbling out of a Camden pub at 3:30 this morning, looking a fright. [Daily Mail]
• The Olsen twins are causing dramz in the West Village: their partying habits are bugging the neighbors near the W. 13th Street apartment they're renting for $12,000 a month."Plenty of other celebrities around this block [Sarah Jessica Parker, Liv Tyler, Gisele Bundchen and Julianne Moore] are good neighbors and blend in with the neighborhood - but these two are invaders," a source says. [Page Six]
• One half of the gruesome twosome, Mary Kate, was spotted at fashion week with a new boyf, artist Nate Lowman. [Perez]

• Even too-cool-for-school New Yorkers are gaga over Michael Phelps, who is currently in town to host the season premiere of SNL this weekend. At Blue Ribbon Sushi on Monday, "It was funny to see jaded New Yorkers, who always see celebs around town, act like excited schoolkids," says a witness. "People kept sending over bottles of champagne and sake! Never seen anything like it." [Page Six]
• Daily Show funnyman Rob Corrdry and his wife Sandra are expecting a second daughter! Rob says, "We have a short list of names that we are considering. My 2-year-old (daughter Sloane) is pretty set on the name 'Freeka.' She also likes 'Laurie Berkner,' but that sounds weird in front of Corddry. We may just go with 'Baby the Entertainer' in case she grows up to be a black comedian." [People]
• He said, she said, on their nude scene in the upcoming film The Duchess. Dominic Cooper: "I knew there was a scene in which I had to get naked. It wasn't gratuitous, but still quite overwhelming. There were a series of devices I was offered to wear which protect my [naughty] bits. And I gave Keira the choice in a very gentlemanly way, 'You can chose either the furry soft, the pink diaper or the Spandex." Keira Knightley: "I don't remember choosing. I think he's making that up. Unless I was feeling particularly malicious, I don't think I would have chosen to put a man in a skin-colored diaper. I could have been feeling particularly malicious, however, that's entirely possible." [ People]
• Oooh!! Britney might have a new album ready for Christmas! The plan right now is to release the single in November and then have the LP out in December along with some live shows. Don't pressure the girl, she's just getting her sea legs back! [The Sun]
• Matthew McConaughey: "When I'm lucky enough to be in a place where I don't have to wear a shirt and shoes, I don't." No, really? [People]
• Lynda Carter, aka Wonder Woman, had this to say about Sarah Palin being referred to as "the new Wonder Woman." "Don’t get me started. She’s the anti-Wonder Woman. She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ve got to live their lives. And a superior religious self-righteousness … that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin. She did it all, didn’t she?" [Philly Mag]
• Um, so apparently, Viggo Mortensen is always being detained by airport security because the favorite tea that he carries with him looks like pot. "And it doesn't help that Mortensen, who grew up in Argentina, drinks his tea with a pipe." That isn't a joke. [Showbiz Spy]
• Ugh, Hugh Grant is such an old skeeze! He was spotted in London hitting on women at a club for 18-22 year-olds. [Perez]
• Oprah is atop the list of Most Generous Stars. Also in the top ten: trumpeter and A&M records co-founder Herb Alpert, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, Brangelina, Michael Jordan, Canadian ex-hockey player Eric Lindros, Lance Armstrong, and though it pains us to tell you, Rush Limbaugh, who gave $4.2 million to children of marines and law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. [Reuters]
• Queen Latifah on her status as Jenny Craig spokesperson: "If anything, I was worried about alienating my big girls. I didn't want them to think, Hey, she's leaving us. But if I can be an example of loving yourself regardless of what you look like, I can be an example of loving yourself and being healthier." [Reader's Digest]
• Rob Lowe's recent sexual harassment issues with his nanny have been hurting his wallet in more ways than one. “Since the headline that a second nanny sued me for sexual harassment, I have been passed over for at least three commercials, any of which could have ultimately resulted in income of over $1 million," he said. [MSNBC]

Susan Ziegler, a sports psychologist, thinks that the focus on the players' appearances isn't healthy for the athletes, as it diminishes their legitimacy. "Once you begin to worry about how the person looks as opposed to how she plays, you've crossed the line into dangerous play," Ziegler said to the Trib. "We're not really focused on marketing them as athletes but as feminine objects."

We live in a looksist society — you can be sure that Michael Jordan made so much money on endorsements not only because he was the best player in the NBA, but also because he was gorgeous. You think Larry Bird made anywhere near that kind of dough? But the WNBA's assumption that the perceived attractiveness of their players will draw men — and otherwise disinterested females — to the court seems foolhardy. Whenever I hear a man complain about women's basketball, he's whining that the quality of play is somehow inferior to that in the NBA, not that the players are "ugly". The Chicago Tribune asked Ziegler for advice on how to market Parker, and she offered, "As a pure athlete... As the top athlete in the country. Leave it at that."

WNBA Offers Advice To Rookies [Chicago Tribune]

Earlier: Tennessee Lady Vols Trounce Stanford To Win NCAA Title

• So, the "pregnancy rumors" are just a ploy to keep Nicole Richie out of jail! This is so silly we are nominating it for a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship in Absurdity. It's like if Banksy were a publicist. [Page Six]
  
• Mandy Moore tells Blender it was "tacky" of Wilmer Valderrama to tell everyone about how he took her virginity. Especially when so many other twenty-something male stars manage to make their appearances on Howard Stern so totally refined and cerebral. [Rush & Molloy]
  
• It is possible to simultaneously be stupid famous and celebrate your 21st birthday barf-free. Next the Olsen twins are going to drive sober, eschew coke, have low-key bachelorette parties, and still somehow be famous. Because they are thin! [Page Six]
  
• There's a new scandal about Las Vegas authorities allowing into the public record the "wild and unsubstantiated claims" that former President Bill Clinton had been a client of a whorehouse. Nice try, New York Post, but the feds already committed to public record the fucking Starr report. [Page Six]
  
• Did you know Paris is still in jail? That Lindsay sometimes drives drunk? That confidentiality clauses are not always so much effective? Then the news on TMZ today will not be so like shocking. [TMZ]
  
• Naomi Campbell's old assistant settles on unspecified cash for assault by Blackberry, not to be confused with the assault by jewel-encrusted mobile phone or the assault by hotel land line. [ Yahoo News]

• The San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Finals. It's their fourth title since 1999 so they're getting very close to that place where the Chicago Bulls were when those pictures of Michael Jordan and his five championship rings were so ubiquitous, except that their form of Michael Jordan is this really geeky Caribbean with a voice like Colin Powell's and their form of "Chicago" is "San Antonio" and the kid who's getting paid nine figures to be the "next Jordan" was on the team the Spurs clobbered in four straight games. So yes, branding=everything. [Sports Illustrated]

Sara Kova is a model and a small-time actress and she posed in a small photo shoot for us I guess, and she was topless, and because of that she I guess put on a multitude of other things online. We're better-known in the news this week for being on Heidi Klum! I don't think Sara Kova has really done anything. I think that the owner of the store met her out one night. Stronghold is a store and also a brand. We sell to Fred Segal and Bergdorf. Can I ask what Sara Kova did to get her in the news today? I think she knows someone at WireImage.

Ha ha! Like the words "Heidi Klum" mean anything in the face of a comprehensively unremarkable amateur who manages to get her topless photos on Wireimage, freeload her way to the Bahamas during the most celebrity-studded weekend since that Costume thing, flirt with a billionaire basketball legend and corrupt the domestic bliss of Coke N'Bloke in the space of THREE AND A HALF WEEKS. Have you guys not seen 'The Hills' or something?

Like, Really, Mike? [Mollygood]
Sara Kova Stronghold Fashion Shoot Video [Mas18]
Earlier: Lindsay's Starfucking Boyfriend Attracts Starfucker Of His Own