She is on Twitter, at least; not only does she follow the Google CEO on her @teflonblondie account, but the Burson Marsteller flack also tracks him on the much more selective @momnet, where he joins Demi Moore as one of just five followed accounts. We've been told the @momnet account is Simon's, and that seems obvious enough: It's owned by "marcy" and Simon retweets its content the very instant it goes online.

Her relationship with the nominally married Schmidt, whether professional or something more, does seem to be humming along again: Our tipster says the pair were spotted together in Los Angeles, at the opening of The Little Seed, the organic cosmetics company co-owned by Punky Brewster actress Soleil Moon Frye, who Simon and Schmidt both follow on Twitter.

As interesting as Simon's make-up shopping may be, we're more intrigued in the bridal jewelry retailer she's become a fan of on Facebook. A client? A friend's shop? Or is something more interesting brewing? We might feel uneasy asking such a personal question if this wasn't totally innocent, public information (per Facebook), and if virtuous people like Simon had any use for secrets (they don't, per Schmidt).

As we reported last night, Harsh — full name Griff Harsh V — was forced to withdraw from the university for a year, moving from the class of 2008 to the 2009 (thus presumably graduating last May. (The Daily Princetonian's seems to confirm the timing; the campus paper last year said ID'd him as a member of the class of 2008 but in January this year ran a correction saying he's really in the class of 2009.)

Our tipster, who lives in Princeton, NJ and says he knows the university well, says that the suspension appears academic, given Harsh's reputation as a not-so-bright legacy.

The Whitman kid does sound more like a boor than a bright light, given the party antics described in a campus magazine, which had the heir bragging that his wealth protected him from obnoxious behavior.

But the heir may have another reason for his brashness: According to our tipster, the university assigned one of the toughest guys on campus to be his roommate, the lacrosse-playing son of a New Jersey real estate developer.

The bodyguard roomie was probably the doing of Momma Whitman, who is very concerned Griff might be kidnapped, our tipster claims. Having donated at least $30 million to the university, she wouldn't have much trouble wielding influence with the housing office. Her fears would also help explain why we haven't been able to find any pics of her son on the internet, save for the tiny thumbnail above.

Genuine or not, Whitman's protectiveness over her son provides a ready-made excuse to avoid all discussion of and appearances with him on the campaign trail. Whitman can hardly be expected to answer questions about hearings and suspensions when she's trying to prevent an honest-to-God kidnapping, right? If only the Republican had some similar excuse to avoid answering questions about gay marriage rights.

• The Killers. The rock/synth-pop bad played for Mayer and her guests Friday night at San Francisco club Bimbo's. Mayers' friends tried to Twitter discreetly about the private performance; others around town caught wind of the show but the not the bride.
  
• Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Vongerichten is considered one of the world's best chefs and is proprietor of, among other establishments, an eponymous restaurant in New York with three Michelin stars. He doesn't have a restaurant in San Francisco, however, which makes it all the more remarkable that Mayer brought his culinary services into the SF Four Seasons, where she lives and the home base for her nuptial celebration. Rumors of his presence at the hotel have already begun to circulate.
  
• Singing toaster: Mayer was serenaded by Google co-worker Craig Silverstein in a singing toast. Anyone have further details?
• Mystery pastry chef: Also something of a star, apparently, though we don't know who it is yet.
  

Mayer is an obsessive and data-driven planner in her role as VP for search products at Google. She also loves Oscar de la Renta and having her own fashion spreads in Glamour and Vogue. So it's no surprise her wedding was such an elaborate affair, from the ornate, velvety invitation boxes right through to the celebrity catering. Husband Bogue, a hunky investment manager one year her junior, is no doubt accustomed to handling the pressure of such complex, high pressure events.

Many of Mayer's friends seemed similarly in sync with Mayer, tweeting infrequently during the three-day affair in a nod to Mayers' privacy (not to mention her intense security policies).



Speaking of which: We've yet to find any pictures from the wedding. Mayer banned outside photography, one source tells us. If you have one, or can answer any of the questions above, or know the names of the more prominent guests, I'd love to hear from you.

Oh, and Marissa, Zach: Congratulations!

(Top pic: Mayer at New York's Carnegie Hall in November, accepting a "2009 Women of the Year" award from Glamour. Getty Images.)

Mayers' three-day nuptials at the San Francisco Four Seasons, where she lives, were announced via an elborate invitation, a heavy red box covered in a velvety material, as we've reported previously. That sounded about right for the fashion-conscious overachiever.

The Google VP's obsessiveness apparently extends to security, as well: The invitations indicate guests are to keep some sort of ID card on them at all times during the weekend, we're now told.

And said guests aren't sure what this means: Are these "smart" cards implanted with radio "RFID" tags? If so, guests could theoretically be tracked across a 135-foot radius with a stationary receiver. Or maybe they'll be simple credit-card-style tokens with a magnetic stripe, swiped on demand. Or maybe former cheerleader Mayer has something more festive and creative in mind. If you've got a clue, do share it with us.

Requiring that guests basically wear a tracking tag will certainly further the image of Google as Big Brother. The search giant tracks a staggering amount of personal data, and company executives have lately been clumsy in answering mounting media questions about the info-hoard. Then again, some of Mayers' guests will be fellow Google executives; perhaps having a taste of their own medicine will have a moderating effect on the data Google collects.

Speaking of which: Though Mayer is employee number 20 at Google and has great power within the company, it's not at all clear that co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be in attendance at her wedding. Mayer was not invited to Page's private-island wedding to Lucy Southworth, a source close to the event tells us, so she could hardly be expected to invite Page to her bash.

In any case, a tracking scheme will certainly help Mayer keep out the likes of Valleywag as her wedding party makes its way around the Four Seasons, even as it reinforces her rep as something of a data-hungry cyborg. No worries Marissa; we'll try not to take it out on your gift.

(Pic: Mayer, by Esther Dyson)

The big bashes are off this year, a tipster tells us. Which is just as well: Last year, there were YEPs in New York, Los Angeles and the San Mateo headquarters; these plus the departmental parties meant that many Yahoos easily got to four parties a year, a tipster told us at the time. All the festivities came despite a wave of layoffs, which left Yahoo in the awkward position of having to set up metal detectors at its LA party, and of featuring Vegas-style showgirls in dollar-bill getups at the main headquarters party (see pic above) in the face of all Yahoo's bloodletting.

The 2007 party featured a Neil Diamond tribute band, so at least Yahoos apparently won't have to worry about any such torture this year. Ironically, though, 2009 has been a much better year for layoffs at Yahoo than 2008 was.

Know what any other tech companies are doing (or not doing) to celebrate the holidays this year? We're dying to hear about any conmpany parties: drop a line toryan@valleywag.com.

(Pic by Phil Hollenback)

AOL is expected to complete mass layoffs after its spinoff from Time Warner is complete, supposedly by the end of this year. But it sounds like some cuts are too obvious to wait. One hundred firings is modest for a company of around 6,000 workers; AOL continues to work on "Project Everest" to plan the rest, our tipster said. If you know more, email us.

UPDATE: Kara Swisher at All Things D, who has written two books on AOL, was told by her sources that 100 or so layoffs are indeed coming down today. PaidContent later reported likewise.

Meanwhile Electronic Arts is laying off 17 percent of its workforce after the company saw net sales drop 12 percent from the prior year. Which, if you think about the state of the economy, is bizarre: Why aren't you unemployed people out there buying more videogames? Staying home is cheap.

(Image via Zazzle t-shirt/sticker)

Socketside heard Cruise was the buyer of an $18 million mansion in the ritzy Sea Cliff neighborhood. NBC Bay Area soon pointed out that, if that's true, Cruise's neighbors would be Robin Williams, Cheech Marin and the guitarist from Metallica. It's like the Bay Area's very own stunted little fog-swept Beverly Hills. But many locals will remember that the Church of Scientology was on the hunt for "apparent expansion" space starting in 2006, nosing around the once countercultural North Beach neighborhood.

So is Cruise, the alleged inspirer of Scientology beat-downs, spearheading a renewed expansion campaign by the cult to which he belongs? Maybe, or maybe said SF mansion is just being bought by another local tech exec like Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, per a SocketSite update:

Another reader quickly notes the mailing address for the purchasing LLC ("Tawaraya") is that of "a high-end accounting firm in Walnut Creek" which happens to advise Larry Ellison (amongst others). And The Real Estalker adds, "Tawaraya is a super posh and searingly expensive, 300-year old ryokan–which is essentially a Japanese bed and breakfast sort of place–located in Kyoto" which is rather Ellison-esque.

Oh great, more Larry Ellison dick waving. Don't we at least deserve some fresh megalomaniac mansion owners, out here?

Google co-founder Page and model-PhD wife Lucy Southworth's new startup would appear to be going public right on schedule. It was seven months ago that word of Southworth's pregnancy leaked in a Silicon Valley newspaper. Now the infant has apparently arrived, following in the golden-bootied footsteps of Benji Brin, billionaire baby boy of Page's co-founder Sergey Brin and wife Anne Wojcicki. Page's child has already done well for himself, entering the world more wealthy than when he was conceived: Page's wealth shot up by $3 billion to $15 billion from March to September on rising Google shares, according to Forbes (here, here). Shares have only gone up more since then.

There's no word yet on whether the new child was preceded by a weird baby shower of the sort Page threw for Brin, involving adults in diapers. In fact, we don't even have a name or sex at this point. Send us more information if you've heard anything. Google.com hasn't been any help on this one. Go figure.

UPDATE: It's a boy! So we're told.

(Pic: Page and Southworth at their December 2007 wedding on Richard Branson's island.)

The genetics-testing startup, co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of a Google co-founder, recently confirmed a fresh layoff round to TechCrunch. A source close to the company tells us close to 18 staff were let go in that round. "They're hemorrhaging cash with no real business plan," said the tipster.

A cash bleed would help explain some other recent developments: co-founder Linda Avery left in September, saying she wanted to focus on Alzheimer's research, according to emails first published by Kara Swisher at All Thing D. And in June, 23andMe laid off close to 10 employees, according to both our current and prior tipsters. Layoff rounds of about 10 and 18 workers are quite significant for a startup that once had an estimated mere 30 on staff.

In another, way, though, the layoffs seem odd: Google just put $2.6 million into the company this past June as part of a $24 million financing round, and Wojcicki's husband Sergey Brin invested another $10 million prior to that. Wojcicki's company even started leasing space from Google. So why would the company be allowed to crater now?

We've been trying to get answers from 23andMe's publicists since last week and have yet to hear back. But we can guess at some possible reasons: To attract well-heeled customers for its $400 tests, the company has been shelling out to fly a zeppelin all over Silicon Valley, which can't be cheap (good thing for Google that the search giant may well own the zeppelin company, helping it recoup some of its investment). Come to think of it, genetic tests can't be cheap either, and the price must seem especially high when customers learn they are buying "recreational genomics" rather than proper medical tests.

Recreational though they may be, 23andMe's tests can at least give clues about a person's medical future. For corporations, they are useless. Perhaps someone can come up with a genetic test for founders that will help predict startup success. We can think of 28 or so recently-fired people who'd be keenly interested in signing up.

(Pic: Wojcicki, by Esther Dyson)

Google and its Dutch map provider told the UK Telegraph they have no idea how the fake town got onto Google Maps. "There are occasional errors," a Google spokesman told the paper. But the paper points out cartographers often insert fake minor features like "trap streets" to catch people copying their work. If Google and its partner don't know anything about the town, that leaves a possibility the Telegraph was too polite to bring up: Perhaps the data in Google's maps was, itself, purloined from an offline source.

Time to start asking this Dutch company some tough questions, Google. Either that, or you can risk that some aggrieved British mapmaker might see the coverage of "Argleton" and starting asking the tough questions for you.

(Top pic: Adam Burt)

Or so we hear from a College Park tipster claiming to be familiar with the residences of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (paper wealth: $2 billion) and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim (estimated wealth: $64 million). Public records confirm that Karim lives in the two-by-twelve-block Palo Alto neighbohood, adjacent to Stanford University; records indicate Zuckerberg has for months occupied property nearby, albeit in the form of Facebook's new headquarters, a short walk away from Karim.

But Zuckerberg is now a neighbor in a much more real sense, according to our tipster, renting a home right next door to Karim (as in side by side) on the same street. The brief commute would be one good reason for living there. Another: It looks like a leafy, laid back area, according to the ample photographs of the street on Google Maps. Based on Karim's address this is the block they share:

Why are Zuckerberg's neighbors ratting out his address? His employees are taking up the parking, and, we're told, residents complain that the fast-growing company is not providing enough spots (they're apparently not mollified by a proposal to begin requiring residential permits in some areas). You should probably get on that, Mark; these people know where you live.

In the meantime, local residents are missing the real outrage: That, in their 'hood, even insanely wealthy startup founders live in what most American suburbanites would consider modest pads.

Among the victims: Klaus Kneale, nephew of CNBCer Dennis Kneale, and Lauren Sherman, girlfriend of Silicon Alley Insider's Dan Frommer. We're told the layoffs are hitting both the magazine and print Web sides of the publication — and that they're not yet done. Still, we're told the growing list of names is long enough to soon meet expectations of 40-60 layoffs.

We first reported about a new round of layoffs at Forbes three weeks ago, and the rumors have only grown louder and more persistent since then. Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes finally confirmed them earlier this week, blaming "seismic shifts wrought by the Web." He had shot down layoff rumors just five months earlier — a period of time that, in the context of print journalism, used to seem like a brief flash, but which can now deliver brutal new realities.

UPDATE: We're told the Los Angeles bureau has been eliminated, along with LA-based staff writer Evan Hessel. We also hear Scott Woolley has been axed.

UPDATE: Other casualties we're hearing about: The London bureau; one correspondent each in Japan and roving Europe; Becky Buckman, lured from the Wall Street Journal to Forbes' Silicon Valley bureau; banking writer Bernard Condon; plus "a bunch of junior people." Killing so many — virtually all? — the bureaus is apparently part of a concerted effort to save on real estate costs.

UPDATE: Former Forbeser Peter Kafka tweets that he's seen a list of 27 editorial staff let go today alone. We've heard the layoffs will span multiple days.

Here's how it works: Schmidt is an angel investor in Giiv, a Web service for sending gifts via cell phone that recently raised $2.3 million. Schmidt invested his money through TomorrowVentures LLC, a venture capital fund of which Court Coursey is managing director. Court Coursey is a 36-year old entrepreneur, investor — and "dear friend" to Bohner, according to her website.

None of which is to say Schmidt is back with video producer Bohner; there's no telling when he committed the money (his investment was announced in July), whether he met Coursey through Bohner or vice versa, or whether it's all one big coincidence. But connecting the dots is certainly fun. Let us know if you have more clues.

(Pic via)

Whispers emanating from the Journal's parent, News Corp., have the paper on track to lose $100 million this year, says one tipster. That's hard to believe, given the $59 million contribution that Journal publisher Dow Jones made to News Corp.'s bottom line as recently as the last quarter of 2008. But Dow Jones profits fell in both of the quarters reported since, according to public earnings reports. News Corp. didn't give precise figures for Dow Jones or the Journal, but did disclose that all News Corp. newspapers saw combined profits fall 97 percent January through April and revenue fall 24 percent in the three months after that.

The Journal could cut some costs by slicing its ridiculous video army down to one guy, plus a cameraman with a cheap recorder, and maybe a video editor. After all, as Current TV's Brett Erlich has show, it's possible to create some seriously fun financial programming with bare-bones production values. Or the Journal can just keep imitating cable news networks, even to the point of absurdly saying "we're running out of time," as the host did toward the end of today's "AM Report." After all, it's not like News Corp. owns a real financial net of its own, or anything.

UPDATE: Dow Jones says it uses "less than 10 staffers" to make the video, and Business Insider has updated its post to reflect that assertion, adding it got its earlier number from "people involved in the show."

The online auction company told us earlier this month it planned a "small" round of layoffs as part of an ongoing restructuring. Inside the company, staff whispered that eBay might shave the bottom five percent of performers, GE style, but a spokesman told us the number of lost positions would be "not even close" to five percent. A rumor also spread that laid off workers would get no severance.

An eBay tipster who helped bring the layoffs to our attention writes that they are now set to happen on Thursday. We've asked eBay for comment and will update this post if they provide any. As always, if you have any additional information, we'd love to hear from you.

UPDATE: eBay says a layoff impacting fewer than 60 positions should be announced by Oct. 21. See post here.)

(Pic: eBay CEO John Donahoe at the eBay Developers Conference in June. Getty.)

Some Forbesers darkly note that, barring a summer recess, company layoffs have come near the end of this year's financial quarters, with 19 let go from the magazine and website in early January followed by a reported 50 or so at the very end of March. Another round now, just after the close of the Sept. 30 quarter, would fit the pattern. CEO Steve Forbes assured staff in May that layoffs were done for the moment and "Forbes continues to outperform its competitors." But in such a severe an ad recession that's not much reassurance.

We've put in an inquiry with Forbes PR and will update with what we hear back.

The online auction giant does plan layoffs, a spokesman confirmed to us, as part of a restructuring that fuses product and technology leadership at the company and unifies internal organizations devoted to buyers and to sellers. CEO John Donahoe, a former Bain consultant, has been trying to finely tune eBay's core auction and retail sales businesses while positioning the company as a sort of online Costco.

But inside eBay, staff are worried for their own hides. The eBay spokesman said layoffs should be "small" in scale. But one eBay-er we spoke with believed the MBA-led company is planning to cut the lowest-performing five percent of staff, emulating an old General Electric tactic. eBay said five percent is "not even close" to the limited layoffs planned — way too high.

So staff should cast a skeptical eye on the other rumor going around, that eBay plans no severance for laid off workers. Still, given Donahoe's apparent readiness to break with past company culture — or, as he calls it, "religion" — it's no wonder some employees worry they'll be lost in the shuffle.

(Pic: Donahoe at Allen & Co. Sun Valley schmoozefest in July.)

We were surprised to see a carefully-calibrated communicator like Simon drop Schmidt's name on her Twitter stream (see screenshot below); she's been tight-lipped about Schmidt in the past. And isn't she supposed to be pimping TV gigs by Burson's actual clients, like Microsoft?

We're guessing some sort of new relationship is afoot, if not between Schmidt and Simon, then between Google and Burson:

Simon, we hear, joined Schmidt on his jet for a flight last Thursday from California to Teterboro. Apparently she wasn't put off by his taking her last month, as we heard he did, to The Island Mermaid on Fire Island when the couple visited together there in August. That's the same place where Schmidt took actor Stanley Tucci three years ago; we'd urged him to find a new haunt.

But between this Simon-Schmidt sighting and the earlier ones in Aspen and California, it's sounding increasingly like Schmidt is a creature of habit. Which shouldn't affect Google shareholders — unless it causes Schmidt to inadvertently expose something of himself to the PR firm of his lethal enemy (we're talking about proprietary information here, pervs). Or unless it leads to a relationship that finally puts in play Schmidt's Google shares, via a divorce from the wife from whom he's reportedly separated.

If you know anything, including why Punky Brewster was also tweeting up Schmidt, we'd love to hear from you.

Like the current movie-star governor, the carefully-shellacked San Francisco mayor makes the Golden State's gubernatorial race feel surreal in a "fruits and nuts" way that competitors like ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman and even former hippie governor Jerry Brown just can't. This is the guy whose press secretary jokes merrily about weed, and who recently had the gall to tell the New York Times that his affair with his friend's wife was "much more benign than [things] actually appeared in print."

The blog I Love You Gavin Newsom claims that City Hall and campaign sources say Newsom will quit the governor's race, probably in the fall, since he's anywhere from 9 to 29 points behind Brown in the polls. On the other hand, Newsom is rumored to be getting an endorsement from former president Bill Clinton, and I Love You Gavin Newsom has proven a touch too conspiracy minded in the past (we sympathize!). So let's hope they're wrong on this, if only because we might otherwise have to draft Gary Coleman to run again.

The $1.5 billion hedge fund — one-fifth as large as it was a year ago — fell 4.5 percent in August, a tipster whispers to us, virtually the same loss it posted in June; StreetInsider.com hears the same thing. The fund is now down 8.3 percent for the year, the tipster said. That's versus versus 6 percent at the end of June. If Thiel can't turn things around soon, why not consider unwinding the fund altogether? He's still got his early Facebook investment to cling to, and the unshakable confidence that he's surrounded by "frauds" who aren't half as smart as him. Sounds like a once and future startup founder to us.

(Pic: by Robert Scoble)