Lady GaGa plays the Tony Britton role

No, no, she's not becoming a doctor and moving in with her son; it's the other Tony Britton role. "Are you familiar with the term... sleeping partner?" That one.

In other words, she's bought a share in a restaurant:

The 'Poker Face' hitmaker recently became a part-owner of Vince & Eddie's in Manhattan's Upper West Side, putting her money into the longstanding Italian-American eatery.

The report says she wants to keep her involvement low-key, which seems a bit out of character.

It's a smart move, though, as she can negotiate great deals with slaughterhouses when she buys the ingredients for dresses and entrees at the same time.

Sympathy for the Bono: He's struggling

How can Bono make poverty history? He's having trouble stopping himself making his own wealth history. He's the worst investor on Wall Street, reckons 24-7 Wall Street. It stares at Elevation, his equity group:

The most well-known of the Elevation investments is Palm (PALM) which made a completely unsuccessful run at the smartphone business dominated by Apple (AAPL), RIM (RIMM), and handsets powered by the Google (GOOG) mobile operating system known as Android. Wall St. had hoped that Palm’s new line of Pre handsets would allow the company to be a modest competitor in the industry. It has, instead, burned through large amounts of money and, ,by its own admission, is in trouble as it tries to reach what were fairly modest sales goals.

Yes, but everyone can have one bum deal, can't they?

Oh. There's more. There was three hundred million sunk into Forbes:

Forbes may have done somewhat better than that, but the value of the family controlled business that was once run by Malcolm Forbes has dropped by at least 80%. Elevation owns an illiquid investment in a media company that is now worth perhaps $100 million.

And Elevation also invested heavily in Move.com:

Move.com shares have lost about 50% of their value since then. Last year, Move had a net loss of $7 million on revenue of $212 million. The market value of the firm has dropped to $340 million and the stock trades at just above $2.

Oh, and Elevation stuck cash into Yelp. Yelp bravely turned down a $500 million bid from Google just in time to be hit by a wave of lawsuits claiming its reviews were less than genuine.

Don't titter, though. If he ends up losing his shirt, he's going to have to more songs to scrape together the money for his glasses.

[Thanks to Michael M]

Money for old stope

Could there be value in that stuff which you'd normally be shucking off to landfill? If there's a vague celebrity conenction, you could be quids in. A company called Marquee Capital is looking to create an investment opportunity in high-grade celebrity memorabilia, with a strong focus on Madonna.

It'll take anything with a value - Gary Glitter's old teaspoons, Richard from the Verve's uncollected dry cleaning - but mainly, yes, it's suggesting you invest your pension scheme in stuff Madonna has touched. Why?:

* Continued Popularity, Appeal and Diverse Fan Base – she has successfully been able to continuously reinvent herself, ensuring longevity in an otherwise ruthless industry
* Achievements and Success – she is the most successful female music artist of all time and continues to flourish
* Diversity – she is not only a renowned singer/song writer, but Madonna has authored 5 children’s books, won a Golden Globe award for her role in Evita and more recently, designed a range of clothing for the retail chain H&M
* Supply / Demand Imbalance – the demand for genuine Madonna memorabilia outstrips the supply available; genuine Madonna memorabilia rarely come up in auctions – when they do become available, the increase in bidding activity drives the values up

The "otherwise ruthless industry" bit is interesting, suggesting that she has a kind of Daniel In The Lion's Den aspect to her.

Still: it makes sense, doesn't it? Madonna stuff will probably continue to grow in value, at least for the next few years (although long-term, we'd still suggest bricks and mortar would be less risky.)

So, the rest of the people whose discarded stuff is being invested in are equally top-notch, then?

Well, except Goldie Hawn, perhaps. And I'm not sure I'd want to gamble my plans for a comfortable old age on a part-share in Latoya Jackson's used leather trousers.