Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

♦  Mirco del Vecchio, the executive chef of Ago, says he'll sue Robert De Niro for breach of contract if he's replaced at the restaurant by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. [Page Six]
♦  Why is Alain Ducasse's Benoit earning such bad reviews? Ducasse blames American journalists who "don't quite understand French bistro." [RG]
♦  Ruth Reichl paid an early visit to David Bouley's recently-relocated Bouley and describes it as New York's "loveliest restaurant." [Gourmet]
♦  The reservation line is officially open for John Dory, the Brit-themed restaurant by April Bloomfield, Ken Friedman, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich that is scheduled to open on November 24th. [Eater]More

The Tribeca Film Institute hosted a benefit screening for the Quantum of Solace last night, which was followed by an afterparty at Tavern on the Green. Attendees included Daniel Craig, Becki Newton, Chris Diamantopoulos, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal, Julia Stiles, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Jeffrey Wright, Debra Messing, Andre Balazs, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Hoda Kotb, Jill Stuart, John Sykes, Judy McGrath, Howard Stringer, Rob Wiesenthal, Liya Kebede, Stewart Rahr, Molly Sims, and Serena Altschul. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG] More

You might want to think twice before stopping by Alexis Stewart's apartment uninvited: The daughter of domestic diva Martha Stewart has a permit to keep a loaded gun at home, according to the Post. Other notable locals with gun licenses include David Wright and Carlos Delgado of the Mets, Robert De Niro, billionaire supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis, and Donald Trump. (Two of Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Jr., also have licenses to keep firearms at home; Ivanka Trump's apartment is gun-free.) But it's Alexis, who recently launched a new TV series on the Fine Living channel, who may have the creepiest explanation for why she feels the need to keep a gun in a lockbox in her TriBeCa apartment: She keeps it in case an emergency forces her to abandon the city and she has to euthanize her elderly dogs. "They could never make it out of Manhattan. I could never leave my dogs to die of thirst in my apartment, so I looked on it as a euthanasia situation. I would never kill my pets unless they were going to die anyway."

♦  The Madonna-Guy Ritchie messiness continues: The biological father of Madonna's adopted son says he might be better off in his native country of Malawi, Ritchie supposedly told friends that having sex with Madge was like "cuddling up to a piece of gristle," Madonna has described Ritchie as a gold-digger, and the two sides aren't even close to finalizing a divorce settlement, which means this is going to continue for a long, long time. [NYDN, Mirror, NYP, SS]
♦  Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen may get married at Tavern on the Green, of all places. [P6]
♦  Sam Ronson and Lindsay Lohan got into a little fight aboard the Acela. [P6] More

Yes, Bobby, we're talking to you. When are you going to get things straightened out at the Greenwich Hotel already? Fine, it's a new place and it takes some time to work out the kinks. But it's been more than six months since you opened, and it's been four months since Frank Bruni ripped Ago to shreds. Plenty of time to figure out how get the food to the table on time, especially when you're asking people to pay $57 for a breakfast of juice, coffee, cereal and fruit. Oh, also: When a reporter from a major newspaper shows up to look around, we'd recommend that your general manager not scold her for taking a photo of the lobby with her digital camera. Especially when he explains that the hotel doesn't permit photography on the premises and there happens to be a photo shoot taking place on the other end of said lobby. [WSJ]

♦  The NYC Wine & Food Festival came to town this past weekend and just about every chef, foodie, and critic was on hand. Among the highlights: Rachael Ray hosted a Burger Bash on Friday (Katie Lee Joel took first prize); Tom Colicchio broke out his guitar and later chatted with Eater about his upcoming plans; Ferran Adria took the stage with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Asimov; Gordon Ramsay vented; Rocco DiSpirito showed off his dancing skills; Bobby Flay mentioned his plans to re-open Bolo; Scott Conant talked about his upcoming eatery in Miami; Marco Maccioni gave details on the restaurant he has planned for the Beekman Hotel; and everyone in attendance generally ate and drank way too much. More here and here. More

♦  Yesterday evening the New York Women's Foundation Fall Gala took place at Gotham Hall: Michael Bloomberg and Diana Taylor, Iman, Joel Klein and Nicole Seligman, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Felicia Taylor, Jamie Niven, Herbert Wachtell, and Jonathan Farkas ate, drank, and watched a performance from the American Ballroom Theater Youth Dance Company. [Wireimage, PMc]

♦  Last night Donna Karan celebrated her 60th with a party at The Box worthy of someone a third her age. Joining the debauchery: her daughter Gabby, Simon Hammerstein, Alan Cumming, George Wayne, Andre Balazs, David Furnish, Nadine Johnson, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Kelly Klein, Jackie Astier, Steven Klein, and many more. [GoaG, PMc]More

♦  Charges will not be filed against Shia LaBeouf in connection with his car accident in LA in July. He may still lose his license, though, for failing to submit to a blood-alcohol test after the crash. [E!]
♦  Lindsay Lohan is so scared of her dad that she may take out an order of protection against him. [P6]
♦  Last week it was rumored Leonardo DiCaprio and Bar Rafaeli had split up. Now it's rumored they're back together. [OK!] 
♦  Robert De Niro is a giant pain to work with who makes "weird midnight phone calls." Or at least that's what Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino said in a taped phone conversation from 1997 that's just now been leaked. [P6]
♦  Julia Roberts left the Waverly Inn covered up in a pashmina, which means it's time for a fresh round of rumors that she's secretly pregnant. [The Sun]More

• It's no fun living near Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Neighbors in the West Village say the two are "spoiled brats" since they have bodyguards posted outside their apartment on West 13th Street who make neighbors get off the stoop whenever the twins are arriving home, and the twins keep SUVs idling in front of the building for hours at a time. [P6]
• Justin Timberlake has been hinting to friends that he and Jessica Biel may get married soon. [MSNBC]
• Ashley Dupre doesn't like it when randoms make fun of her on the street. [P6]
• Star Jones' new relationship with chef Herb Wilson? The two actually first dated 10 years ago back when she was fat. [NYDN]
• Jennifer Lopez is throwing Marc Anthony a birthday bash at the Bowery Hotel on Sunday. [In Touch]

Happy Birthday | Top Chef's Tom Colicchio turns 46 today. Also celebrating: Marquee co-owner Noah Tepperberg is turning 33. Dealmaker (and Bill Clinton golf partner) Vernon Jordan is 73. Artist Andres Serrano is 58. Ben Affleck is 36. Times style editor Trip Gabriel is 53. And producer Linda Ellerbee is 64. Saturday is the big day for Madonna: The material girl will officially be 50. She shares her birthday with Kathie Lee Gifford, who is turning 55, and Steve Carell, who's turning 45. On Sunday, Robert De Niro will be 65, the same day Jorge Posada will be 37, Jonathan Franzen celebrates his 49th, and Sean Penn turns 48.

There's probably been a time or two when you've been tempted to check out a restaurant or bar simply because some celebrity supposedly "owns" it. Maybe I'll see Justin Timberlake devouring a plate of ribs at Southern Hospitality! Or I'll spot Robert De Niro slurping on some pasta at Ago! Restaurateurs know this, too, of course, which is why they're all so eager to attach a celebrity name—any one will do!—to their ill-conceived bistro, brasserie, speakeasy, lounge, or barbecue shack. We don't want to be the ones to crush your dreams and tell you that there's no chance you'll see these famous faces at these venues. Just in case you're the more optimistic type—or just curious who has a stake in what—we happily introduce the Cityfile celebrity-owned restaurant/bar map!

• Celebrity Restaurant/Bar Map

The six people above are all offspring of notable New Yorkers. Know who they are? Answers after the jump!More

What do you do when the restaurant you opened a couple of weeks ago is getting some of the worst reviews imaginable and you're under fire by the Landmarks Preservation Commission for improperly adding an extra story to the hotel you opened in Tribeca? If you're Robert De Niro, you head off to the peaceful lakes of Northern Italy and pay a visit to your good friend George Clooney. While critics continue to bash De Niro's Ago (it earned one out of six stars in Time Out this week) and while the fate of the penthouse at his Greenwich Hotel remains in doubt, De Niro is about as far from chaos as can be. He's spent the last couple of days with his wife and kids aboard a boat called "Sweet Dream."

Tribeca colonist Robert De Niro testified before the Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday in a bid to save the penthouse of his Greenwich Hotel—which has come under fire for being bigger, more unwieldy, and all-around less Tribeca-like than the one he'd said he would build—from the wrecking ball. "If there are any minor little mistakes, my apologies for it," Bobby told the Commission at a public hearing as he sought retroactive approval for the amped-up penthouse.  De Niro & Co. also enlisted a few boldfaced supporters to testify on his behalf, like fellow Tribeca resident Ed Burns, who spoke as though the 88-room lodging (with rooms starting at $525 a night) were an aesthetic achievement on the scale Bruneschelli's Dome: "The building is beautiful and, for me as a layperson, architecturally beautiful." If the Landmarks Commission ultimately rules in De Niro's favor, maybe he'll treat its members to a free dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Ago—although that might be more of a punishment than a reward, come to think of it.

Note to restaurateurs: spilling wine on Frank Bruni's dining companions is not the fastest way to his heart. That's what we learn from the Bruni's hilariously abusive zero-star review of Ago, Robert De Niro's Italian restaurant in the Greenwich Hotel. Said downpour of sauvignon kicked off his train-wreck of a meal. But this wasn't any old spill—"I'm talking about the "Poseidon Adventure" of wine spills. Shelley Winters could have done the backstroke in it." And this happened before Bruni was even seated. Somehow, some way, everything went downhill from there. Other amusingly terrible aspects of his dinner: More