Court hearing yesterday for cover model Liskula Cohen, who's suing Google to try to force it to reveal the identity of an anonymous blogger who calls her a skank, which "impugned her chastity." Hilarity ensued.

May we first gently point out that 26878 times more people are now aware of Liskula Cohen's alleged skankiness than would have been had she not sued this blog and gotten herself all up in the tabloids? Thank you. That said, this trial (not really a trial yet, court hearing stuff in front of a judge) offers us all some fascinating insight into the various legal protections of anonymous skanktity allegations:

"If you turn on VH1, skank, ho, skank, ho is every other word," [the blogger's lawyer] said.

People have been called worse, Salisbury added, noting that terms such as sleazebag, slime, pimp, bastard, bitch, son of a bitch, seedy, tramp and big skank have been found to be constitutionally protected opinion over the years.

Absolutely fascinating. Even "big skank?" Anyhow Liskula Cohen, who we heard on the internet was a seedy tramp, broke down in tears on cue in court. We look forward to following this closely. [NYP]