Yippee, more fun from Maria B!

We refer, of course, to CNBC's very own Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, who keeps insisting that just because she's best buds with some of the biggest names in bidness doesn't mean she can't retain her skeptical, journalistic chops when it comes to covering bidness. Case in point: Her introduction of everybody's favorite bad boy billionaire, Blackstone Group's Steve Schwarzman (I guess he'd prefer Steve Schwarzman's Blackstone Group - y'know, just like the casino owners). Bartiromo said she was introducing Schwarzman "not as a journalist" but as a friend. "Steve," Bartiromo gushed, "you’re a pioneer. There’s no other way to look at it. It's all good." Schwarzman was honored at a fund-raising dinner for the New York Public Library (Deal Journal). Meanwhile, Blackstone will now set the price of its much-anticipated IPO on Thursday, a week earlier than expected. So much for the rumbles that Schwarzman would pull the offering because of Congressional legislation that could sharply increase the firm's tax bill in future years (AP). Whatever goes down, you can be sure Maria will set us straight.