"In the main, and from the beginning of time, mysticism has kept men sane; the thing that has driven them mad is logic," wrote G. K. Chesterton.

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Nicole Kidman – our Nicole – playing a sex-change person who is at first the husband to Gwyneth Paltrow and then becomes a woman??!! (This is ostensibly for a movie based on David Ebershoff’s novel The Danish Girl.)

Well, Nicole is ever brave and daring in her choices. She’ll try almost anything, even opening a movie portraying a male, which she in no way resembles. The LA Times let these two big stars have it this week, writing: "Two of the coldest and least sexy actresses in Hollywood? (Make that on the planet.)" This will no doubt encourage Nicole and Gwyneth to heat up their images, though the LA Times contends that Gwyneth would make a better male than the porcelain-skinned Nicole.

We can add to all this, Nicole’s newly imagined world-image as she fights the trafficking and selling of women everywhere. For several years, she has backed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s fight to improve the lot of battered women and children via his Fund to Advance New York. Now she is going international.

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Lachlan Murdoch, my personal favorite of all the Murdochs worldwide, is the eldest son of Rupert. He has just outbid the ever-changing Nicole Kidman, the never-changing Russell Crowe and six others to buy a famous house in Sydney, Australia, which was the former French Consulate, located in the exclusive eastern suburbs.

Lachlan, who leads an investment group called Illyria Pty, and his beautiful wife, Sarah, are expecting a third child in Australia. He paid a record $23 million for the six-bedroom house with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. It has a tennis court, swimming pool, five bathrooms, two studies, guest powder room and three-car garage.

For a while, Lachlan was working in Manhattan running his father’s tabloid The New York Post. In my humble opinion, things have never been the same since he left to go to Australia. Recently, The New York Times carried a headline, "Sober Mood at New York Post As Circulation Spirals Lower." The Times reports that the paper’s circulation is down almost 30 % in 2.5 years. (Hmmm, maybe they shouldn’t have fired that veteran gossip columnist last March; somebody named Liz something.)

But here’s to the Post surviving. I don’t like to see any newspaper go under and we need as many newspapers as we can get. The Post is a vital part of the New York zeitgeist.

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This Saturday, under the aegis of Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers and the U.S. Marshals Service, you have the chance to bid on a New York Jets jacket with the name "Madoff" on the back! Yes, some of Bernie’s stuff will go under the hammer, though the Marshal’s service doesn’t assume liability as to the accuracy or value of all the jewelry (seven diamond rings, earrings and bracelets), yacht boat rings, a milking stool, fur coats, three boogie boards, fishing tackle and at least $500,000 worth of various Rolex watches.