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NEW YORK — Put Angelina Jolie’s face on a magazine cover and sales will surely rise. Get her to write a memoir and it would be worth millions. But write a book about her, without her cooperation, and you’re taking a chance. Coming a week after the release of her latest film, “Salt,” a biography has been published. “Angelina,” by Andrew Morton, is out with an announced first printing of 150,000 copies and the promise of a “spellbinding” adventure.

Jasmine Hirst In her book, Bad Reputation , performance artist, playwright, and one-time citizen of the world of Andy Warhol and his Factory (even appearing in Warhol’s and Paul Morissey’s film, Women in Revolt ), Penny Arcade (born Susana Ventura) has collected three of her foundational performance pieces for the first time. In the ” disenfranchised world of queers, junkies, whores, stars, stalkers and geniuses,” that forms Arcade’s interior life, we find her commentary on sexuality and censorship ( Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore!

BY SAMANTHA CRITCHELL, AP: NEW YORK — Marc Jacobs took home the big prize as the top talent in womenswear at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards Monday night, but the big moment on stage at Lincoln Center was Sarah Jessica Parker’s tribute to the late Alexander McQueen. McQueen committed suicide earlier this year. Parker told a celebrity-studded crowd that included Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Biel and Rachel Weisz that it was with “honor and great regret” that she was there to mark the contribution and creativity the designer gave to his industry.

President Barack Obama has been the target of endless tirades from the Republican opposition, nonetheless, the president has remained poised as he has made progress on a wide range of important issues. But will the “Yes we can!” voters of 2008 be energized enough this fall to overcome those whose rallying cry is “Hell no!”? The incumbent party almost always loses House and Senate seats in a midterm elections, and that will certainly be the outcome this coming November.

BAGHDAD — Dr. Abbas al-Sahan’s patient wasn’t a war victim. She didn’t have a scar that needed cosmetic surgery. All she wanted was a cute nose. And she got it. Speaking after the surgery, bandages and swelling gone, 23-year-old Sarah Saad Abdul-Hameed was ecstatic. Friends who visited “were surprised with the change in my face,” she said. “They compared my nose to Nicole Kidman’s!” Even in the worst spasms of violence that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, cosmetic surgery didn’t go out of style.

In their opening remarks, the 2010 Whitney Biennial curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari confessed that they approached the selection process (gasp) open-mindedly, without a preconceived theme. Fortunately, the exhibition itself faithfully reflects their intent, presenting a resonant sampling of contemporary art practice. That is not to say that the show selection is thematically unfocused or ungrounded.

My daughter, Mavis Spencer is 18, six feet tall and size zero. She’s got the long-limbs, big eyes and head-of-hair kind of beauty that causes people to stare and ask, “Are you..somebody?” When she and her mother - who is ’somebody’ (Alfre Woodard, two-time nominee, winner 1998, Miss Ever’s Boys ) - walk around together, especially all dressed up like they were on Sunday night at the Golden Globes, it’s a powerful sight.

20th Century Musical Geniuses… Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) was a Jewish American-born violinist, violist, and conductor who spent most of his adult life in the United Kingdom. He began playing the violin at age three, and his first public performance, with the San Francisco Symphony, occurred when he was only seven.

  “Bicycle Christmas lights - drivetrain” (SF Bay Area), by Richard Masoner  (creative commons)   “Santa Claus is coming to town,” by Luke Redmond (creative commons)   “Neighborhood decor” (Chester County, PA), by Sharkey M.

The year began on an uplifting note with Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th U.S. President and the first African-American elected to the nation’s highest office. It was all down hill from there, however. 2009 quickly became known as the year of the Great Recession; with jobs shed at an alarming rate (unemployment the highest its been in 26 years), fears of banks on the brink of insolvency, foreclosures at an all-time high, reduced credit availability for consumers, shrinking investor confidence, and a marked decline in business and consumer spending.