James Frey, peddler of that fake addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces, was on to something: there is a lot of money in addiction. It’s a veritable cash cow.

That seems to be what Radar magazine founder Maer Roshan has in mind with the launch of his new site for recovering addicts, TheFix.com, a Web site that combines feature writing, news, video and, as the New York Times puts it, “Zagat-like reviews of rehab facilities.”

I mean, it’s tough not to look at this a little cynically because the addicted are such a vulnerable population, clearly open to exploitation. Roshan himself spent time in alcohol abuse recovery, where he discovered that the in-recovery community is “large and eager to spend.”

“We’re certainly not looking for any kind of Victorian freak show element,” said Joe Schrank, a co-founder of TheFix.com. That’s reassuring, we guess.

At the very least Roshan doesn’t mince words about his belief in the financial viability of his venture: “They’re people who have lots of new disposable income because they’re not spending it on crack or Absolut,” he said. Unlike the rest of us.

— DIANE CLEHANE

Evidently, you’re nobody these days unless you’re hawking something on one of those hypnotic home shopping networks. Come on, confess: Who hasn’t bought something that just happened to catch their eye while flipping through the channels looking for Bravo’s wacky Housewives? I chatted with no less than four folks in Michael’s dining room today who have taken to the airwaves to sell ‘style at a price’ to the fashion obsessed right in their living rooms. First, my good pal Dr. Robi Ludwig arrived with her sister Ramy glittering in head to toe bling. I always love how Robi puts herself together for her many television appearances on LX TV and the Today show. That woman really knows how to accessorize! When I complimented her on the stunning gold bib necklace she was wearing, she told me: “It’s from Stefani Greenfield‘s line on HSN!”

When Stefani showed up a few minutes later ladden down with gold, I asked her about the necklace and she reported that none other than Barbara Walters has worn it too. “But not in surgery,” she quipped.

When I wrapped up my chat with Robi, who is jumping ship from QVC to shopnbc where she’ll be expanding her own jewelry line, I stopped by to say hello to Glamour editrix Cindi Leive and designer Liz Lange, who are also part of HSN growing stable of clotheshorses. Read on for more dish about their respective collections.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd

1. New York Social Diary‘s David Patrick Columbia (in seersucker!) presiding over a table of elegant gals and a bespectacled gent.

2. Author Michael Gross and Maer Roshan. Michael’s latest, Rogue’s Gallery, about the politics and posturing behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is now out in paperback in case you’re looking for a good (and juicy!) beach read.

3. Glamour editrix Cindi Leive and designer Liz Lange. I congratulated Liz on her new line for HSN, Completely Me by Liz Lange, which sold out during its debut a few weeks back (The next show is scheduled for July so get those credit cards ready!). Seems that Glamour is jumping into the home shopping ring with a line of costume jewelry as reported in today’s Wall Street Journal. The piece also reports that the magazine is partnering with Match.com to help its readers find Mr. Right. Impressive.

4. Esther Newberg with a gentleman who was attacking his fries with great gusto.

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— DIANE CLEHANE

Sometimes it’s the random celebrity sighting like recent visitors Michael Douglas and Glenn Close that gives Michael’s that jolt of adrenaline during our weekly Wednesday visits. And sometimes it’s the sheer power quotient of the dining room that gets our attention. As one regular told me: “I can always tell who is looking for money and who is writing the checks when I come here. It’s the best business scorecard around.”

Today I was joined by power publicist Catherine Saxton, who knows just about everybody but never spins and tells, and Richard Smullen, co-founder and CEO of Beezag and AdGenesis. We had a fascinating chat about the ‘wild west’ of Internet advertising and how absolutely maddening those unwanted pop-up ads are. When Richard launched Beezag last November with Laurent Alhadeff, they created a different kind of online advertising environment which they’ve cleverly coined as ‘Me-commerce.’ Richard explains beezag’s consumer-centric marketing concept this way: “It’s about relevancy and reward. Consumers watch entertaining branded content and video ads they love and get discounts they deserve because they’re thanked with special offers and incentives from advertisers.”

By matching brands to the consumers who want to hear about them, Richard reports that beezag delivers clients an average of 25 percent click-through rates. The members-only, opt-in multi-platform community has some pretty serious brainpower behind it. Richard tells me his ‘executive council’ of advisors includes Gerry Byrne, Wenda Millard, Michael Kassan and Bob Friedman. For someone who just landed in New York from South Africa in January of last year, Richard seems to have figured out pretty quickly how to make things happen in Manhattan. We’re impressed.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Boy wonder Jared Kushner with his dad Charles, presiding over a table full of movers and shakers. The New York Observer owner must have had some big deal brewing, because he stepped outside several times to take a very important call. Or perhaps it was just the missus, Ivanka Trump, asking what to make for dinner.

2. My friend and PR maven extraordinaire Lisa Linden and former Bush administration advisor Charles Millard, celebrating the launch of Charles’ new venture specializing in pension funds and financial services, Cardinal Advisors.

3. Catherine Saxton, Richard Smullen and yours truly

4. LVMH’s David Anton

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WebNewser: Condé Nast Digital has entered into a content sharing agreement with Boxee, the startup whose free software allows users to integrate personal media, Internet media and social networking tools. The deal will give Boxee users access to Wired.com and Style.com video content, and Style.com photo slideshows.

AgencySpy: USA TODAY reporter Theresa Howard, who has been covering consumer marketing and advertising for the nation’s most read paper, is leaving her beat to join the enemy. She’s joining Crispin Porter + Bogusky as a copywriter.

The Observer: Where did Maer Roshan, the editor of now-defunct Radar go? A year after his mag folded, Roshan can be found in Los Angeles, working on TV projects.

Forbes: A new report shows that marketers will pay publishers an average of $2.27 for every reader they can get to enter information on their Web site. “That hefty price suggests publishers should consider abandoning cheap ads sold for guaranteed prices and should instead try to use space on their Web pages to convince readers to turn over their personal information.”

The Coaching Commons: Last week we learned that disgraced New York Times reporter Jayson Blair is now working as a life coach. This week, Blair sat down for this lengthy interview.

The Radar refugees are resurfacing. Aaron Gell signed on as editor-in-chief of Hemispheres. Choire Sicha, Alex Balk and David Cho launched TheAwl.com. And now Maer Roshan, the man at the top of the thrice-failed magazine, has a new full-time gig. Buried at the bottom of Keith Kelly‘s column today comes the news that Roshan will join TheWeek.com as editor.

The Week, brought to the United States by Felix Dennis after the magazine was a huge hit in England, saw its ad pages jump 42 percent in the first quarter of 2009 (or 19 percent, depending on your source). Given the struggles of other newsweeklies, Roshan looks to be in a good situation.

Gawker is reporting (and FBNY has also heard separately from sources within) that Maer Roshan‘s multiply-launched magazine Radar is folding. The magazine, which pubbed at varying degrees of frequency, and was rumored to have been funded (at least in its later incarnations) by Ron Burkle, never really gave the impression that it was on solid ground. So in the current economic environment the news comes as no real suprise.

However! The Website (a completely different animal run by former Gawker Alex Balk) was, in our modest opinion, a must-read. And we not only will be sorry to see its demise but are amazed that the powers that be are shutting it down. The NYO is reporting “there might a business arrangement to keep the web site afloat and that it will be sold to AMI.” One can hope. Stay tuned.

Update: Hooray! (We think). Looks like the NYO had it right and AMI is indeed purchasing radaronline. Full press release after the jump. But wait! On second glance this part of the press release is quite worrisome for those of us who enjoy our Daily Intelligence just the way it is:

Chairman and CEO David Pecker said that David Perel, Executive Vice President of AMI News, will leave that position to become managing editor of RadarOnline. At AMI, Mr. Perel was responsible for breaking many of the biggest celebrity stories of the past two decades.

Also, the release makes it sound like they are interested in turning the site into some sort of online National Enquirer (also owned by AMI). One imagines if The Daily Beast has their wits about them they will quickly go on some sort of hiring spree.

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Something to celebrate! It’s Rosh Hashanah next week, and to mark the occasion The Jewish Channel has launched Holy Dazed, four half-hour episodes on the channel featuring New York media celebrities! In this episode Maer Roshan, Jesse Oxfeld, Rachel Sklar, A.J. Jacobs, Andrew Krucoff and others discuss good deeds done this year, perhaps a topic the titans on Wall St. would do well to consider but we’ll take what we can get.

King and his wife flank the Trumps

The short hallway between the “Pool Room” and bar acted as a sort of cosmic, generational media portal last night at the Four Seasons, where a pair of cocktail parties — one celebrating Larry King‘s 50 years in broadcasting (a.k.a the “old people room”), the other celebrating the New York Observer‘s redesigned paper and Web site (a.k.a the “kids room”) — were in full, boozy, media-centric swing.

In the “Old People Room”: King and his television and famous New York pals, like Joan Rivers, Donald and Melania Trump, the View‘s Barbara Walters (at one point Trump and Walters were just feet from each other, but didn’t appear to acknowledge each other) and Joy Behar, Campbell Brown, Mario Cuomo, Lou Dobbs, Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas, Tina Brown, Jeff Greenfield, Ron Howard, Time Inc. managing editor Jim Kelly, Keith Kelly, Ray Kelly, Oprah B.F.F. Gayle King, Calvin Klein, Time Warner chief Dick Parsons, Sandra Bernhard, Jerry Stiller, Arliss actor Robert Wuhl, Mort Zuckerman, American Morning‘s newly-installed Kiran Chetry, Glenn Beck, Montel Williams, James Carville, Tom Wolfe, Andy Rooney and artist Peter Max, whose colorful rendering of King served as the room’s centerpiece.

In the “Kids Room”: 23-year-old Observer owner Jared Kushner held court with twentysomething bloggers and their youthful bosses, like Gawker’s Choire Sicha, Radar‘s Jeff Bercovici and Maer Roshan, Page Six‘s Corynne Steindler, Slate‘s Jacob Weisberg, Domino‘s Deborah Needleman, WWD‘s Irin Carmon, and HuffPo’s Julia Allison, Katharine Thomson and Rachel Sklar. Fittingly, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, chose the Observer party over King’s.

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We’re guessing many of our favorite media celebrity regulars have headed south with their families for spring break or to rev up from the endless winter doldrums that have left us feeling a bit grumpy. Today, the tables were packed with a cross section of Prada and Gucci suits, and the mood was definitely all business. Luckily, we got our boldface name fix Tuesday when lunchtime chronicler Diane Clehane broke bread with fashion maven Jaqui Lividini and the bustling dining room brimming with the usually eclectic mix of celebs. We spotted Marlo Thomas, Danny DeVito, Ron Perelman and Tommy Mottola in the mix. Some of the staffers were still buzzing about last week’s visit from David Hasselhoff, who most recently headlined a Las Vegas production of The Producers. Seems “The Hoff” made quite an impression. Says one fan of the tireless showman: “He looks great! If he’s had surgery you can’t tell — and believe me I’ve seen some scary ones in here. The guy is amazing!”

Here’s a rundown of today’s menu:

1. “Men Who Lunch”: BusinessWeek‘s Jon Fine (husband to our own mediabistro.com founder and CEO Laurel Touby), Radar editor Maer Roshan ABC News communications VP Jeff Schneider, Peter Himler, Arnold Huberman, Sirius Satellite Radio pr czar Patrick Reilly, Radar‘s Jeff Bercovici and Magazine Publishers of America’s Howard Polskin.

2. Casual chic: a tweedy Luke Janklow. The uber-agent was lunching with an unidentified jeans-clad beauty.

3. Univision’s Maryann Bannikarim and three guests.

4. Producer Jonathan Hart (Chicago) and four well-dressed gents.

5. Michael Fuchs and a bespectacled fellow who passed the time waiting for him by reading Variety.

6. Glamour editrix Cindi Leive and guests.

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Via Page Six:

One clumsy editor accidentally dialed out on his cellphone during the editorial confab — and a six-minute segment of the insipid brainstorming session was captured on voice mail. On the recording, staffers at Radar are heard discussing a photo spread for an upcoming issue, with [Maer] Roshan prompting his underlings to come up with ideas to illustrate “homemade porn.”

“It should say ‘amateur’ on the top,” suggested one helpful staffer.

“We should definitely get models who are really hot,” said another.

Another scribe proposed they use “all beautiful girls and just one really ugly guy.” A voice resembling that of photo director Greg Garry supported the notion of using models instead of regular people because “porn people are ugly. They are, like, really average.”

“No, they should definitely be hot,” Roshan agreed, ordering someone to “look at Details. See what they’re doing.”