​• BP's total legal cost for cleanup of the spill -- including criminal fines -- has been estimated at $62.9 billion, far more than the $20 billion escrow. BP shares gained after the announcement of the fund yesterday. [NYT]

• Indiana Jones has made Ally McBeal an honest woman, or something. Bill Richardson played the minister. [TMZ]

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Special guest stars: Ace from American Idol, the cast of Hair, and from Jersey Shore, Snooki and that young man who named his abdominal muscles. Enjoy.

​Last month robbers five men with guns burst into the In Style USA perfume warehouse in Carlstadt, New Jersey, tied up the workers and, assisted by factory workers who may have thought they were just doing their jobs, drove off with boxes of scent. Authorities picked up Brooklynites Luis Morales, 32, and Ansenmo Jimenes, 29, later.

New indictments reveal that two of the gunslingers were New York City cops, and one an ex-cop.

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Jayson Williams, the former New Jersey Nets basketball star who killed his limo driver with a shotgun in 2002 and then tried to cover it up, was sentenced today to five years in prison. But under a plea deal with New Jersey prosecutors, he'll be eligible for parole in only 18 months.

It can't be confirmed that Williams chose prison over resuming his career with the hapless, deeply depressed Nets, who at 5-51 are on pace for the worst record in NBA history.

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​New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg has stomach cancer. The 78-year-old Democrat will begin receiving chemotherapy today.

Lautenberg fell down in his home earlier this week and was upon examination revealed to suffer from a bleeding ulcer, which led to the tests that revealed the cancer.

His office expects a full recovery and "after he receives his treatment, back to normal," though such a diagnosis has to be troubling for anyone, especially a near-octogenarian. Along with friends and family, his political opponents ("Will it be Frank 'The Louse' Lautenberg or Robert 'Sheets' Byrd to die next?") are watching closely.

​What's with the animosity toward former elected officials this week? Yesterday someone took a swing at Mitt Romney. Today the son of former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne reveals his father -- best known for his arena -- was punched in the face in London yesterday. Byrne reported his attacker, previously unknown to him, warmed up by punching a phone booth, so his son assumes the man was mentally ill. Police apprehended the attacker promptly.

The 85-year-old Byrne says he's not badly hurt. "I never fell down," says the ex-governor, "like when I fought Muhammad Ali." (No, really,that actually happened, at an exhibition in 1979.)

​Haisong Jiang, the Rutgers grad student whose romantic impulse control issues shut down Newark Airport for six hours, delayed travelers nationally and exposed a gaping hole in Newark's security was taken into custody by Port Authority Police last night.

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The Jersey gay marriage vote, which had been stalled for weeks, is now scheduled to be held in the state senate on Thursday. There was thought to be a bushel of bills ahead of it, and it had previously been pulled from the state senate agenda for fear of failure, but someone must have done a quick cost-benefit analysis, or owed someone else a favor.

The state senate president Dick Codey's remarks are not encouraging: "We're gonna post the bill and see what happens."

If the bill fails before Chris Christie -- who has pledged to veto it -- comes in as governor on the 19th, some supporters plan to take the issue to the state supreme court.

​It would have been pretty embarrassing if Jersey were to one-up New York on civil rights and pass their marriage equality bill just weeks after the Empire State told its own gay couples to go to hell.

Given how many ex-pat New York gays have colonized Jersey from Asbury Park to Montclair, it's a taunting marriage equality advocates would gladly have accepted.

Alas, even with an endorsement from the Boss, Jersey isn't going to show up New York -- certainly not this week, anyway. Now their state senate is punting -- and the bill is running out of time.

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​Incoming Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie asked Jersey bard Bruce Springsteen to play at his January 19 inauguration. The Boss declined. Christie's people say "he doesn't want to get involved in state politics" and wished Christie "every success."

The Governor-Elect will instead hire a popular Springsteen cover band, the B Street Band, which played at Christie's election night celebration at the Hilton in Parsippany....

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