July 4 – 8 - Alt-country singer/songwriter Ryan Adams, (sick of being confused with Canadian rocker Bryan Adams!), headlined a July 4 concert in furnace-like heat at New York’s Battery Park. At one point he donned a denim jacket, but quickly removed it. It was way too hot to look cool.

Traders at the New York Stock Exchange returned from the long Independence Day weekend to find the Def Jam Records crew ringing the opening bell. Def Jam CEO Lyor Cohen, President Kevin Liles, founder Russell Simmons and rapper LL Cool J joined NYSE honcho Richard Grasso in setting off Monday’s trading floor pandemonium. IPO anyone?

Walter Isaacson signed copies of his acclaimed new Benjamin Franklin biography, Ben Franklin: An American Life. He dreaded the New York Times review of his book by “the master”, Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Not to worry; Ellis called Isaacson’s biography “a prime candidate for the authoritative Franklin of our time.”

Teen heartthrob Shane West invited fifty of his biggest fans to Planet Hollywood for lunch and a private screening of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. West appears in the upcoming film, which stars Sean Connery. He's also on the cover of this month's YM magazine. One excited fawning fan burst into tears!