A New Jersey man says he was burned by Christie’s and CBS Paramount when they knowingly dumped counterfeit Star Trek memorabilia at an auction in October ‘06. Diehard Trekkie Ted Moustakis has filed a $7 million dollar lawsuit against the auction house and the producers of Star Trek who supplied the disputed items, which included Data’s poker visor – made but never worn – in an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, a “one of a kind” uniform worn by Data and the poker table from the episode. more ›

Were you the anonymous bidder who got the model of the Starship Enterprise at the Christie's auction? It's okay - your $576,000 secret is safe with us. The auction brought in double what Christie's had expected, with certain items going for well over than what was previously estimated. For instance, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's chair sold for $52,000 (original estimate $9,000). The entire sale brought in over $7.1 million, proving that Star Trek fans still rule the sci-fi/fantasy world -- that is until Peter Jackson decides to auction off bits of the Lord of the Rings lot. more ›

If you got a copy of today's NY Times, there's no way you could have resisted reading the Styles section story about Ellen Barkin. Not only was there a big headline ("Ellen Unloads") and big photograph of her, there were photos of jewelry accumulated during her marriage to Ron Perelman - jewelry that will be auctioned at Christie's New York on October 10. And it's some decadent stuff. We looked up the auction on the Christie's website, where we learned that sometimes necklaces are called sautoirs and that Ron Perelman must be many a jeweler's friend (apparently Ron loved to buy diamonds rings). The "Magnificent Jewels from the Collection of Ellen Barkin" is expected to bring in $10-15 million, and Barkin tells the Times she's using proceeds to fund her own film production company. Now we understand the discrepancy in her post-divorce settlement numbers. more ›