Ex-Source EIC and courtroom victor Kimberly Osorio just saw her $15.5 million verdict against her former bosses cut down to $8 million after Judge Jed Rakoff overruled the jury's award. Rakoff says the jury, which went back and forth in deliberations, mistakenly awarded Osorio $4 million from ex-owners Raymond (Benzino) Scott and David Mays, as well as $4 million from the magazine itself; the total damages should've been just $4 million total. (Add in the $3.5 million defamation award and $400,000 in past and future earnings, and you get your $8 million figure.) Osorio, who was quoted last week saying, "I definitely hope this has an impact on the attitude of hip-hop toward women," will have to settle for half the impact, it seems. But put it in a decent hedge fund, and the interest could add up quick.

After Monday's $15.5 million victory against The Source magazine on charges of workplace sexual harassment and defamation, former EIC Kimberly Osorio has hope for a better future:

“I definitely hope this has an impact on the attitude of hip-hop toward women,” Kimberly Osorio said yesterday during a news conference at her attorney’s office. “Hip-hop is a very respectable art form and a lot of times, we see the negative images of women portrayed in hip-hop. I hope that this case is significant in that people will understand that that’s not what hip-hop represents.”

Oh, good. Glad we've got nothing to worry about.

Ex-Source editor hopes ruling redefines rap [Joshua Rhett Miller, Metro]

• Business Week leaker pleads guilty to leaking stock names before the issue went to press. Elsewhere, Vanity Fair sleeps soundly knowing if it can protect Suri Cruise's photos, it can keep any secret. [Bloomberg]

• It took just two hours for a jury to demand Source co-founders Raymond (Benzino) Scott and David Mays pay out $14.5 million to former editor Kimberly Osorio, who claimed sexual harassment and defamation. Calling women "bitches" at the office, it turns out, is frowned upon. [NYDN]

• If it's easier to stomach, feel free to call Katie Couric's performance on the CBS Evening News a "disappointment" rather than a "disaster." [Newsday]

• Time Inc.'s fired fleet might be interested to know its execs are still flying high. [Memo Pad]

• Nobody wants Time Inc.'s stable of 18 crappy magazines. Not even Rodale. [NYP]

• Even at PBS, it's better to tow the line than raise a stink. [PBS]

Note To Readers: We were sent this story from Jeff Bercovici's email account (nstead of from the flak who usually floods our inbox) and e assumed he wrote the story. However, though Jeff did work on this piece, it was ultimatey a callaborative effort, accomplished with the help of many a Radar staffer. So don't any gangster magazine people go and shoot Jeff, K? Just open fire on the whole staff.

Dude, Jeff Bercovici some Radar staffer (apparenty other people besides Jeff work there?) is talking to some embedded folks in this biz. We don't know who his the hook-up is, but, well, it's good. And it talks. He's Whoever it is has inside sources at the Source and Vibe, and is delivering mad mag news this week — guess that's what happens when you're forced to sit on your scoop for over a month.

Anyways, there was always some assumption that David Mays (Berco secret staffer knows him so well, though, it's Dave now), founder of the once-much-buzzed-about Source magazine, would eventually launch a new pub — and now it's looking pretty offish. Mays is pairing up with former Source staffer Benzino Scott and entourage members Wendy Wiliams and Mimi Vades (former Vibe EIC) to form a new mag, tentatively called The Truth.

Six months after being forced out of The Source, Dave Mays is set to return to magazine publishing with a new title that's being described as an urban version of In Touch …

The plan is to launch later this fall, according to a source familiar with Mays's plans. While none of the parties involved returned messages seeking comment, another individual close to Mays says it's a done deal. "I can tell you that it's not a hundred percent, it's a zillion percent true," says the friend. "It's confirmed."

A zillion percent true? We just can't argue with that. Plus, we really do feel the need for a Black tabloid. Beyonce, 50 Cent, Oprah, and Mekhi Phifer are definitely not getting enough face time.

SOURCE Duo Back In Business [Jeff Bercovici, Radar]

When a tipster writes into an unknown blogger and the blogger sends their tip to us, we figure that it's just about as unconfirmed as gossip can get. Our disclaimer: we have no idea if this actually happened or not. Hence, making it gossip.

From a blog called Bittervibes:

How come I just called Jeremy Miller at The Source (212) 253-3700, extension 1711) and some nigga named Mike answered his phone trying to be gangsta telling me not to call back again because the source "ain't got no money"? That nigga cursed me out! Asked me if I needed him to tell me in french and spanish that the source doesn't have any money! When I told the bitch to tell me in french he hung up.

I have been trying to get paid by those clowns for over a year. Jeremy Miller promised he would send me a check but that shit ain't happen yet. When I call his office he's got some punk named Mike cursing me out?

Interesting, because we heard that very, very similar conversations took place at Budget Living when they shut down. Except we later found out they did pay their freelancers about 30% of what they were owed.

Hey 10 bucks is better than nothin'.

Tomorrow The Source will finally be pulled out from under founder and former stockholder David Mays and handed over to somebody who actually believes there is a chance of reviving the thugged out music mag.

Tumultuous times at the pub recently led to the axing of Mays and his b-boy Benzino (Ray Scott) when the new board took the reigns. But as the Post points out, Mays hasn't stopped proving his street cred by brawling with hip-hops best.

But the pair are still living large in Miami. They have continued to claim that new owners seized control of the company illegally, and last week they even managed to get the auction postponed by a week.

In Miami, Mays was involved in an altercation with Busta Rhymes, and after insulting the rapper, was allegedly bashed in the head with a champagne bottle. All in a day's work in the wacky world of hip-hop.

New directors still have no clue who is going to take over as owner of Source, but Jay-Z is mentioned as a possible candidate. (Remember, this comes from the column of Keith Kelly who was mentioned as a possible candidate for Time managing editor.)

The rest is a lot of financial business stuff that sounds like the mumbo jumbo of Cindy Adams column, but the gist of it that Mays and Benzino sucked up all the mag's money as it was plummeting, had drug charges brought against them, got in gun fights, harassed women, and inevitably ended up under the glare of the feds.

Which is basically the same old news: The Source is fucked. Only this time it's official … or, it will be tomorrow.

THE SOURCE, GOING ONCE… [Keith J. Kelly, New York Post]

As of this morning, we thought housekeeping was the most dangerous businesses in the world. But, more violence against Source employees reminds us that producing a hip-hop magazine totally increases your chances of getting your ass kicked.

Busta Rhymes, who went on raging spree, in Miami last Sunday reportedly screamed at a gay guy after brawling with Source editor David Mays at the city's hotspot Opium.

Many of the artists on Busta's management company, Violator, including 50 Cent and Eminem, have had a problem with Mays over his coverage of them in The Source.

Rhymes allegedly cracked a champagne bottle over Mays' head, sending him to the hospital for a gash. (According to a tip we got the other day, "someone left Opium Sunday night seriously gushing blood all over the place." Until Gatcrasher cracked the case, however, we weren't sure who it was.)

50 stitches later, Mays is all right, but we think he should consider leaving the mag … what about Giant? That seems to be the place for editors who were once beat up by members of the hip-hop community.

Rhymes busts a bottle over adversary's head [Ben Widdicombe, Gatecrasher]

• If Sara James' list of media holiday parties at WWD wasn't enough for you, the Observer surely rounds out the list. Well, ours isn't included, though it might help if we were celebrating with more than our reflection and a bottle of Ketel One. [NYO]

• Now that Wikipedia has been outed as entirely inaccurate on occasion, NYT staffers are now prohibited from using it to fact check. Judith Miller, however, is still an A-OK source. [Romenesko]

• Katie Couric's interview with TV Guide might as well have been an open letter to Les Moonves. [TVNewser]

• Turns out G+J didn't accurately represent the circulations of the three family titles it unloaded on Meredith Corp. [AdAge]

• The NYT claims to have "not lost one ad" to the WSJ's Weekend Journal. Uh huh. [AdAge]

• With Oddjack folding, Gawker kingpin Nick Denton needs to keep his blog roster figures up. So welcome The Consumerist, a goth approach to spending. [The Consumerist]

• Radar staffers will no longer have to go to work wearing Kevlar: Neighbor The Source is being evicted from West 23rd Street. [NYP]

• Lots of reporters, killed at once. [LAT]

Could Radar's new neighbor be Jay-Z? That's the word that's spreading, with the hip hopper said to be considering a joint bid for The Source magazine — which, as you should know by now, looks to have the same lifeline as Aaron Brown.

But a rap artists slash music executive owning a magazine? That sounds like it might be a conflict of interest or something. What do they think this is, the fashion industry?

Sizing Up The Source [WWD]

• After yesterday's reported troubles paying the rent, The Source can claim a minor victory in a judge's ruling to keep a principal investor from having a say in how the mag's execs spend its money. [WWD]

• Jon Fine's advice for Knight-Ridder: Find yourself a "small pool of potential suitors." Now if only we understood the financial situation that K-R is in, we might be able to agree .. or disagree. [Business Week]

• Some fault Chris Matthews for his attempts to drive the same point home time after time (a Hurricane Katrina savior, for instance). But not Arianna Huffington. [HuffPo]

• After paying a half bil for MySpace.com, News Corp. wants to reach out to its newfound 36 million users with its own record label, MySpace Records. First up: MySpace Records Volume I, which might hopefully end Now That's What I Call Music's chart reigning. [LAT]

• Chicago Sun-Times publisher Hollinger International set aside nearly $870 million (still less than the MTA's surplus this year) for tax penalties it's expecting, thanks to those illegally payments to former chairman Conrad Black. [E&P]

• Anderson, Anderson, Anderson! [TVNewser]

• Where was Anna Wintour when Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were welcomed at MoMA? Dining with her boyfriend and daughter at the $20-per-plate Cafe Edison. [Fox 411]

• Kate Moss Watch™: What did the supermodel learn the last time at rehab? "A lot about alcohol", she claims — while ordering two glasses of champagne at 11:00 a.m. [Gatecrasher]

• Notoriously grating photog Steve Sands lived up to his reputation when he chased down Martha Stewart at Bette Midler's annual Halloween-slash-birthday gala at the Waldorf. Sands demanded she pose in her Jungle Jane outfit and ended up getting kicked out of the hotel (and a bandaged forehead) for the shot. [Gatecrasher]

• Not that they can do anything about it, but the Yankees handed superstar slugger Alex Rodriguez a stern warning to keep out of illegal gambling dens. Somehow his illegal activities don't violate the team's morality clause. [NYDN]

• Normally Radar staffers are too frightened to write about their upstairs neighbors The Source magazine, but when it comes to not paying the rent — well, that's worth the risk. [Radar]

• Gabrielle's "Union" with hubby Chris Howard is over with after four years and they're asking for the requisite "privacy please" request. And just after she got shamed into apologizing to Mood's owner. [AP]

• Lindsay Lohan and Jared Leto are ready to go public with their relationship. If only it wasn't months too late. [Gatecrasher]

• What's Paris Hilton's current beau Stavros Niarchos III doing with spare cash? Offering it to homeless men to dump soda on themselves. [Page Six]

Working at a magazine, we'd expect one of two things: 1) Pussying out and turning over your confidential sources to the government; or 2) Getting denied entry at a Meatpacking District nightclub. What we would not expect, however, is to wrap up the weekend facing attempted murder charges.

But hey, we're not Source magazine staffers, so those expectations don't really apply. They do, however, stick to Leroy "Bum" Peeples and Alvin Childs, who were charged yesterday with three counts each of attempted murder after a Saturday morning shootout left three men injured.

It went down early Saturday morning outside the Limerick House Pub on West 23rd Street, when up-and-coming rapper Orlando Orenga refused to play his demo for the magaziners. Guns were brought out and Orenga was left with a bullet in his head, while his cousin Alex Colon and a busboy also took gunfire.

Nobody died, thankfully, but they are suffering enough punishment: They're laid up at St. Vincent's. Ew.