• David Beckham tears ligaments in his knee, inspires flurry of "Beckham can no longer bend it" jokes.

• And while the extent of Beckham's ligament damage is still unknown, David will undoubtedly be relieved to hear that his injury woes will in no way ruin his wife's upcoming reality show prospects.

• And in less interesting celebrity injuries, Will Smith has "non life-threatening" shoulder surgery.

• Whiny Columbia seniors: "We spent 40K on an Ivy League education, and the best graduation speaker you could find was Matthew Fox?"

• Bill Maher wishes VP Dick Cheney would just die already. And suddenly, things are looking up for Ann Coulter.

• K-Fed keeps Britney in the custody game by likewise shaving his head, then ditching the kiddies to party all night in Vegas.

• Why should Kanye West settle for the local Indian take-out joint, when he could just as easily fly in a real, live Indian chef for $4,000 (plus travel and accommodations costs)?

Columbia University's daily student pub the Spectator, is getting ready to launch their weekly mag The Eye this Thursday. And who was set to be the college pub's features editor? None other than pending graduate Bee Shaffer, daughter of Vogue editrix Anna Wintour.

This in from a sweet little blog which tracks the comings and goings of the Ivy leaguers, Ivygate:

Shaffer, Columbia '09 and spawn of Vogue's Anna Wintour, is quitting as features editor of the new Spectator magazine just days before its Thursday launch, a Columbia tipster tells us …

Shaffer didn't reply to our e-mail, but word has it she didn't split because of any editorial friction. She just decided she's not that into journalism. Which might be for the best.

We're the decision to not be "that into journalism" is joyous news for the staffers at the Telegraph. It's not every day that a Vogue EIC's daughter blatantly explains how all her friends get fabulous NYC internships while everyone else was forced to push pens in a dreary London office for years.

Wintour Spawn Quits Spec Magazine [Ivygate]

This week, New York magazine gets political on us, reminding New Yorkers that if anyone can stop Hilary Clinton, it's the man who invented the Internet. (As an aside, can anyone keep track of weather we are supposed to support or tear down Hil? We can never keep up with those hip political trends.)

Despite the challenge of moving forward in the face of the Police Commissioner, New York mag managed to go to press, relaying all the city, media, and celeb gossip we can handle — minus the coverage of Lindsay Lohan's pink tie crotch or Britney Spears' almost dead baby. Just for you, Intern Zack weeds out the pointless crap from the need to know stories. After all, it's their city; we just try to keep up.

• Peter Gatien's exile from New York leads him to much greener pastures. No, not Europe or South America. We're talking about a little place called Toronto. Ugh. Good luck Pete. [Bright Lights, Medium-Size City]

• What happens when female teachers sleep with their teenage students? They give the student bragging rights amongst his friends for years to come. Not shocked enough? Maybe realizing this is one teen sex article David Amsden didn't write will do the trick. [Dirty Old Women]

• For some inexplicable reason, Columbia students don't want to be famous when they come out of college. Oh if only they had interviewed the kids at NYU, where slinging dope and having class with an Olsen puts you on Page Six. [Pomp and New Circumstances]

• And speaking of dirty old ladies, Madonna reprised her 80's persona of being a whore by cheating on her designer Jean Paul Gaultier. [Madonna’s Gaultier Holiday]

• When pop culture and politics blur, as they have been so frequently of late, the important lesson to learn is that TV presidents are as unrealistic and easy to hate than the ones in real life. [The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad President]

May 22, 2006 · posted by · Link · Respond

• After forty years, the Harlem peirs are coming to town. [NYT]

• Amy Sacco's old eatery, Lot 61, is being turned into an art space. Expect to see the same crowd looking about 10 pounds lighter. [Art News]

• Calling all Bushwick dwellers! Shake Shack sherpas are the new bike messengers. [NYDN]

• The government kidnapped a Columbia engineering student for their secret underground nuclear development program. Ok, we made that up — except for the kidnapped Columbia student part. [NYP]

• If your hipster co-workers rolled into work like half an hour ago, it wasn't their fault. They were stuck on the L train. But now they're free. [Gothamist]

For the third year in a row, New York University beat out Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia as high school students’ “number one dream college” by The Princeton Review.

The findings mirror the mind- boggling admissions numbers at NYU, which for three straight years has received more than 35,000 applications for 4,000 freshmen slots - making it the most sought-after private college in the country.

Ah, yes. The hopes and dreams of coming to New York, living in the Village, hanging out at Washington Square Park for a full school year because you’re too scared to take the subway … it really is like a dream.

Just remember that when you wake up in Brooklyn four years later, $100,000 in debt, and unemployed, your school will be there, taking away your gym membership and sending old professors out of the woodwork to ask, "aren't you supposed to have to a job?"

But seriously young high school saplings, NYU is great. It really, really is. And New York City always welcomes NYU kids with wide smiles and open arms. (Just don't forget to get that access to your parent's bank account.)

NYU IS 'DREAM' OF THE CROP [David Andreatta and Jennifer Fermino]

Finally, thanks to a huge chunk of change donated to New York University, New York's largest private university will be able to get that ancient world studies department off the ground.

The gift to N.Y.U., among the largest it has ever received, will create a multidisciplinary center for the study of the ancient world. Consisting of cash and real estate valued at up to $200 million, the gift is from the Leon Levy Foundation. Mr. Levy, who died in 2003, was a Wall Street investor and benefactor of art and archaeology.

The new center will be named "the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World," and it will focus on research and teaching of antiquity, with a focus on cultural evolution through time. And across societies and regions. And it will incorporate the history, archaeology, literature and art of antiquity. Phew, lots of money sure does mean lots of learnin'. As for the brighter bulb uptown, Columbia, well, they're using the millions to "study the brain."

It seems almost odd for a uni like NYU, who's students pride themselves on making up their own majors, to incorporate something so "learned" into their curriculum options. But, they had to find some obscure subject where John Sexton could embrace his love for verbosity and knack for long-winded class descriptions, so, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World will do.

N.Y.U. and Columbia to Receive $200 Million Gifts for Research [John Noble Wilford and Jonathan D. Glater]

• Because Cargo readers don't admit they're gay, shirtless Orlando Bloom covers won't sell. But, slap some shirts on Jeremy Piven and Rebecca Romijn and the metros come a runnin'. [WWD]

• By “long awaited” online mag, does Keith Kelly mean "unheard of" online mag? [NYP]

• Columbia J students, it's time to put your dreams of reporting in Mexico to rest, along with that margarita glass you've been clinging to for four years. Mexico is almost as dangerous as a country full of fake WMDs. [NYT]

• Real journalism and blogs are spawning faster than celebrities. So all those "reporter bitches" may still have a shot at working in the future. [OJR]

• Life & Style's executive editor gets fired for having an obnoxious British accent. [Gawker]

• The kids at Teen People welcome their new daddy, Greg Hano. [Media Week]