This is the promo video for the Committee to Save New York, the outrageously-named pro-Cuomo PAC that loves Andrew. The Governor urged the creation of the fundraising committee before he stepped into office and the monies gathered have supported the advertising of his first term's achievements thus far. 

Run by three business-y board members - Rob Speyer of Tishman-Speyer, Kathryn S. Wilde of the Partnership for New York City and Steven Spinola of the Real Estate Board of New York - the Committee to Save New York raised over $17 million last year for the head honcho of Albany. Except it didn't come from "ordinary, hard-working New Yorkers."

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www.weheartit.com

Derp

​There's good news and bad news: Fact-phobic Dude, Where's My Car star Ashton Kutcher is heading to space. Unfortunately, he's not staying.

On his blog yesterday, Sir Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin Group, announced that Kutcher would be the 500th person to get shot into space on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane.

Branson also vows to bring him back safely.

From Branson's blog:

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Ruth Madoff: villain or victim?

​Are your torches and pitchforks handy?

As you may have heard, Ruth Madoff, the wife Bernie Madoff, one of the most hated men in New York, is back living in the Tri-state area -- and none of her neighbors can muster a kind word about her.

Ruth Madoff has moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, reportedly to be closer to her one remaining son and his children. She moved there in 2011 after living in Boca Raton, Florida, for the past several years.

Bernie Madoff, as you know, ripped off thousands of investors -- to the tune of an estimated $65 billion -- in a Ponzi scheme that's widely regarded as the largest case of financial fraud in U.S. history. He's currently serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in March of 2009 to 11 federal felonies.

His wife, however, hasn't even been charged with a crime -- yet, she gets the Casey Anthony treatment every time she shows her face in public.

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www.inquisitr.com

​So, Morgan Stanley really took it on the chin in the PR department this week...

The public relations beat-down is the result of two of the financial giant's employees' suspected involvement in two fairly serious, but unrelated, crimes -- in one case, one of the company's bigwigs pleaded not guilty this morning to charges that he, in a drunken rage, stabbed a Middle Eastern cab driver while screaming "I'm going to kill you, you should go back to your own country.

The company's other public black-eye stems from one of its financial advisers getting placed on leave amidst suspicion that he was involved in a prostitution ring with a Manhattan mother of four.

If it's any consolation, Morgan Stanley's stock prices, as of 1:37 p.m., are up 29 cents.

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He's baaaack.

After throwing in the towel for his own bullshit-loaded, presidential race pre-campaigning that predictably amounted to NOTHING, Donald Trump has decided to endorse Mitt Romney's bid in the 2012 election.

There had previously been rumors that Trump -- the loud-mouthed, over-bronzed birther -- would back Newt Gingrich, but he was apparently wooed by the Mormon millionaire after watching televised debates and "supports Romney's stance on China, which has been a key issue" according to USA Today.

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Despite a rousing victory in Florida yesterday, Mitt Romney continues to mess things up for himself without any help from his rivals. In an interview earlier this morning on CNN, Romney practically handed the GOP ammunition to take him down.

"I'm in this race because I care about Americans," Romney told CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien. Yet, puzzlingly, he followed this statement with, "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there."

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A new in-depth report from the New York Times reveals that some of the city's most desirable private elementary and high schools are now charging more than Harvard does for a year's tuition. (The yearly tuition at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School is already above $38,000, while Harvard still charges a comparably paltry $36,000.) Imagine that -- private schools are expensive! How utterly surprising.

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Sophia Kandelaki

File this under things that would make good Law & Order episodes and/or Bravo TV shows: The New York Post reports that one-legged millionaire Thomas Hartmann was convicted Friday of assaulting Sophia Kandelaki with the Rolex on his wrist on the Upper East Side. On the stand Kandelaki described herself as a "gunpoint kidnapping survivor, a reality star hopeful, a stripper, a private shopper, a vegan chef, a singer, a composer and an expert in 'deep, inner tantric massage.'" Did you get all that?

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The latest installment of Gwyneth Paltrow's indispensable GOOP newsletter deals with a topic of immediate interest to those planning to go out on New Year's Eve: hangovers. The surprising part of this is that Paltrow ever allows herself to drink to excess, but the unsurprising part is that her hangover tips are totally as highfalutin as anything else you'd find in GOOP. And there's no mention of Blowfish. Exhibit A:

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That right there is the most expensive rental in New York, clocking in at a staggering $165,000 a month. The Astor Suite went on the market today and has three bedrooms, five bathrooms, a dining room, a library and an eat-in kitchen.

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