THE BUCK STOPS WHERE? It can stop with you!

YOU, THE STOCKHOLDER, CAN SCREAM “ENOUGH!” and stop rewarding CEOs with ridiculously inflated paychecks, golden parachutes, buyout bonanzas and amazing stock options.

CEO PAY HAS GONE UP 512 PERCENT SINCE 1988. The average salary is $10.9 million. The average worker saw his pay go up a meager 3.8 percent. Who is sitting on the boards of companies that provide all the runaway millions? Rubber-stamping buddies of the CEOs, plus CEOs from other firms who keep compensation high so they can benefit when their own pay is considered.

WALT DISNEY’S BOB IGER GOT 85 percent more in 2008,, $51 million even though the stock has slipped 64 percent and Iger fired 1,900 employees.

AVON PRODUCTS’ Andrea Jung oversaw the 14 percent drop in stock, eliminated 3,000 jobs and got a 75 percent increase in pay.

ESTEE LAUDER’S William Lauder survived a 29 percent stock drop, fired 2,000 and got 12 percent more salary.

THE PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE formula is out of whack. Firms doing poorly reward CEOs and make a mockery of true achievement, growth and fairness. And it happens in the boardrooms.

RESTRAINT AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CORPORATE AMERICA means no more out-of-control gravy trains, especially for firms that outsource U.S. jobs. Only the stockholders can insist on proposals to stop ridiculous pay. You own stocks. You have a voice. Be vigilant. Use your power.

EBONY MAGAZINE HEIRESS LINDA JOHNSON RICE was thrilled with the outpouring of love and respect for her mother, fashion icon Eunice Johnson at the Metropolitan Museum of Art tribute luncheon in New York City that recognized her strong support for designers and the industry. President Bill Clinton and Whoopie Goldberg were among speakers. Actress Diahnn Carroll was ill and couldn’t attend. (Linda and her second husband, football star and car dealer Mel Farr, are now divorced but remain friends as Linda stands at the helm of the media empire founded by her late father, John, and Eunice.)

WHO IS THE HIGH-PROFILE LADY BOSS whose cheerleading team of public relations experts paints her as a wise, compassionate mentor to her employees? In reality she’s a toxic, mean-spirited witch who fires and hires at an alarming rate. But everything you read about her is soooooo inspiring. Yuck!

ULTIMO IS CLOSING JAN. 30. It marks the end of an era of swank designer duds for scores of Gold Coasters. For the past 30 years it was under the guidance of the late Joan Weinstein and since 2000 with Sara Albrecht at the helm. Sara, who owns the valuable 116 E. Oak site, is excited and happy about her new plans but wouldn’t divulge them. No new tenant to report.

BABY IS IN THE FUTURE of our favorite TV couple, Giuliana and Bill Rancic of E! and the Style Network, who are eager to have a little apprentice join them. Last season they thought Giuliana was pregnant but it just wasn’t so. But they decided that it was a state they desired, so they have been working with fertility medics. (We interviewed a famous fertility specialist years ago and he told us “most of my patients get pregnant when they go on vacation and relax. Stopping the frantic race to be pregnant seems to help.”)

A GIANT OF A MAN, WITH THE VISION TO CHANGE LIVES, is mourned. Joe Kellman, who died on his 90th birthday with wife Louanne and family around him,

was a poor kid who founded the nation’s largest privately owned auto glass replacement company, The Globe Group. He devoted himself to helping poor families in the North Lawndale community and with comic Buddy Hackett founded the Better Boys Foundation, plus boxing clubs, scholarship programs and corporate-sponsored schools. His love affair with his beautiful wife Louanne was the envy of friends who admired this dedicated duo and their unselfish work for the less fortunate. In the past few years they moved from 1000 Lake Shore Plaza and lived in Texas and California. Joe bred racehorses, and his most famous was named Shecky Greene for another comic pal. They don’t make them like Joe Kellman anymore. He was a one-man dynamo determined to help young people and he moved mountains for them. He had a great sense of humor, of honor, of making his life matter. He was a magnificent man.

CHICAGOANS IN PALM SPRINGS had a blast watching the stars at the 21st International Film Festival hosted by Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight. Ogling were Merle Reskin, Chaz Ebert, Brenda Sexton, Mamie Walton, Stanley Paul, the Bill Hoods, Donna Atwater, Judd Malkin, Terry Newman, the Norman Markses, former Chicagoans Irene Michaels and Arny Granat, and Jerry Berliant. Clint Eastwood, Mariah Carey, in a boozy rambling speech, and Sean Penn, were among the stars.

A HOT TICKET IS TO THE CRYSTAL HEART BALL on Feb. 6 at the Field Museum where the Little Company of Mary Hospital will honor popular Christopher Kennedy, president of Merchandise Mart Properties, for his devotion to humanitarian causes. (He’s a Kennedy and service to others is a given.) For 20 years he has supported

the Greater Food Depository and the Special Olympics plus a number of civic and charitable endeavors. Chris is the son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy and the eighth of their eleven children. He is married to Sheila Berner and lives in the suburbs with kids Katherine, Chris Jr., Sarah and Clare.

WARREN BEATTY BEDDED 12,775 women, according to a new book about the actor by writer Peter Biskind titled Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America. He quotes actress Joan Collins: “Warren was insatiable ... three, four times a day was not unusual.” Well, Beatty is 72 and we presume he has been sexually active at least 55 years. So that means at least one woman a day forever. You do the math. ... He’s married to Annette Bening who doesn’t look the worse for wear. Perhaps Warren has slowed down. Even with Viagra?

THE DEEP END is a new TV series that begins Jan. 21 and will bring us our local talent Billy Zane as a law associate in an L.A. firm.

OUR CONDOLENCES to financial whiz Terry Savage on the death of her mother, Paulette Markoff, golf champ and interior designer, who died in Florida at 86.

BIG DEAL. THE GATE-CRASHING Michaela and Tareq Salahi, who made that White House state dinner a fiasco, had a job — for a bit of cash — to host a party at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

OUR JOHN MALKOVICH, who can personify evil without even raising his eyebrow, will star in Red, an espionage thriller movie adapted from the comic book.

KENNETH GRIFFIN, BILLIONAIRE FOUNDER of the Citadel Investment Group, and his wife, Anne, who runs Aragon Global Management, have donated $16 million to the new Children’s Memorial Hospital. According to Melissa Harris, the couple have just purchased a $40 million 12th-floor residence at 820 Park Avenue, across from the Central Park Zoo. For another $11 million they bought four acres overlooking the ocean at the Four Seasons’ Hualalai resort on Hawaii’s big island. Wow!

PERKY JENNY Q. SCHMITZ, ex-Chicagoan, pens from her Vegas home with husband Larry List, “everyone comes to visit Vegas so we are always busy.”

SIXTH WIFE GETS DIVORCE PAPERS. CHICAGOAN NORMAN PERLMUTTER, who has homes in Aspen and California, shocked his sixth wife, interior designer Donna Livingston, with divorce papers. (With his record, why was she surprised?) Norman’s fourth wife was the lovely Kathy Finley, daughter of the late, colorful Charlie Finley who owned the Oakland Athletics baseball team. They have two sons. Norman doesn’t get the trophy for the most marriages. There is a sexy cougar among us who boasts eight weddings and eight divorces. She never poisoned any of them!

“TO SURVIVE THE DAY IS TRIUMPH ENOUGH for the walking wounded among the great many of us.” — Studs Terkel

Mail news and photos to 5036 Fairview Lane, Skokie, IL 60077 or call 847-677-2232 or e-mail annbgerber@gmail.com.