Some people are toning things down because of the recession. Then there's Andrew Farkas, the real estate heir and yaching aficionado who purchased the Montauk Yacht Club in 2007 and has since presided over a multi-million-dollar renovation of the property. Farkas is hoping "to lure the mega-yacht crowd into his…

• Alex Rodriguez has a new, more age-appropriate celeb to spend his lonely nights with. The Yankee was spotted with Kate Hudson at a UES restaurant and outside 15 Central Park West, the apartment building where he rents. And they seem happy, too, which may be because she doesn't force him to wake up early on…

Former Estée Lauder CEO William Lauder fathered a child with New York socialite Taylor Stein. While "Dancing Bear" cooed at the baby via email, he wanted to keep his illegitimate daughter secret from his mother.

• It looks like Bethenny Frankel will be staying single a little while longer. A day after she and A-Rod were spotted on a "date" at a steakhouse in Florida, the Yankee was seen "canoodling" with a "trashy blond girl" at the Delano. Oh, well. [NYDN]
• It's official: Heidi Klum is with child. [Us]
• Good news for…

Hockey's reigning bad boy Sean Avery turns 29 today. Mandy Moore is 25. Haley Joel Osment is turning 21. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds 51. John Madden turns 73. Q-Tip turns 39. Actress Laura Bell Bundy is 28. Writer Paul Theroux is turning 68. Editor Kate Medina is 66. And Steven Seagal is 57. Weekend birthdays below!

• One of the biggest sources of inspiration for designers in 2009 thus far: mid-20th century space-traveling superheroes. Naturally. [NYT]
• Thom Browne is denying media reports that his line is on the verge of going bust. [NYM]
• Speaking of financial trouble, Marc Ecko seems to be knee-deep in it: He may be forced…

• Did Kelly Killoren Bensimon ask her boyfriend to lie about getting beat up so she could use it as a PR ploy to "better her chances of being asked back" on Real Housewives next season? That's what her bitchy co-stars are saying as part of a PR ploy to get the attention turned back on themselves. [NYDN]
• Estée…

Taylor Stein, the mother of Estée Lauder CEO William Lauder's love child, is going to court to get him to pay a $9.5 million settlement he agreed to in exchange for her silence.

• Giuseppe Cipriani hasn't been seen in New York for months, but he says that has nothing to do with the handful of investigations now underway, or because he's banned from the US. He's just "busy" and says he'll return to New York "soon." His son Ignazio has been busy, too. The 20-year-old has been charged with…

♦ 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…

The grandson of Estée Lauder and son of Leonard Lauder, William served as the president and CEO of the Estée Lauder Companies from 2004 to 2009.