A tipster tells us Law & Order has put out a confidential casting call for someone who sounds a lot like Kari Ferrell, our favorite Brooklyn scammer.

Covering American Idol is often like reporting on a maze wrapped in an enigma washed down with a mystery. Could it be the entire free world—including us—was duped into thinking Paula Abdul walked away from TV's biggest show?

[Indian artist Bagha gives the paint-by-numbers treatment to statues of the Hindu deity Krishna in preparation of the festival Janmashtami. Image via Getty]

Rupert Murdoch's hanging out on his 183-foot sailboat, in Alaska, reportedly with Mel Gibson; Sarah Palin is probably there too, chattin' n' cuttin' deals. But why not rent this beauty for your own sexy trip? Just $310,000 per week.

Touré explained how Halle Berry got touchy with him, in a nice way; Caterina Fake explained the price of "bullshit" and a Washington Post writer explained how he gets through the day. The Twitterati were refreshingly educational.

The body of the guy Andrew Jackson shot in a duel in Kentucky has been located! The thousands of Indians he killed remain, for the most part, at large. [UPI]

The Anna Wintour Tries To Make People Like Her Tour 2009 continues with a stop on Late Night with David Letterman on Monday, August 24. Does she think he can get her contract renewed?

• In his next-to-last review for the Times, Frank Bruni upgrades Danny Meyer's Eleven Madison Park from three stars to four, making it Bruni's sixth four-star review in five years and making Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park's 32-year-old chef, an extraordinarily happy man, suffice it to say. [NYT]
• Related: Over on Diner's Journal, Bruni explains the big decision. [NYT/DJ]
• Other reviews this week: Time Out's Jay Cheshes gives Aureole four out of five stars; Restaurant Girl comes away from the Standard Grill very impressed; the Post's Steve Cuozzo is thrilled with the Standard Grill, too; and Bloomberg News's Ryan Sutton gives two stars out of four to SHO Shaun Hergatt.
• As rumored a few months back, the Sant Ambroeus team is taking over the former Lever House space and turning it into Casa Lever. [NYT]
• Todd English has signed on to oversee the kitchen at the Great Jones Hotel, a 13-story hotel that is currently under construction. [Eater]

Shepard Fairey, career vandal, applied "anti-graffiti coating to the walls" of his LA gallery. Wack.

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, so it's time once again to remember how great things were, how different things are, and how they'll never be that good again.

Hunter Walker recently gave up a lucrative career as a media blogger to enroll in Columbia's Journalism School. Today was orientation and a pitch for why a $47,000 journalism degree is a better investment than a year-long drug-and-hooker bender.

Are you a gay Californian looking to get married? You could do it right now! To someone of the opposite sex. But if you want to get gay married, you will have to wait until activists get their shit together.

A tipster tells us that Gannett's Westchester newsroom was told today that "50 out of 140 people would be laid off and everyone else would have to reapply for a job." This is unconfirmed. Know more? Email us. [UPDATED]:

No more disturbing stoner moments for Jakob Lodwick! The hipster internet nabob has quit weed and cut back on booze, even caffeine. Unfortunately, detox just means more nakedness.

The American television dream can come true, attention addicts! MTV has picked up a new reality show called "Downtown Girls", which will make one media refugee blogger type momentarily pseudofamous. Not Julia Allison, though!

Someone needs to tell AMC that vampires are the host monster now, as they shell out big bucks for a zombie show. Natalie Portman also gets a TV deal. And Legos (yes, the toy) are coming to the big screen.

Tory Burch must be in a good mood today. Sally Spanburgh reports that Burch's proposed plan to tear down her house in Southampton—the one she bought from her ex-husband earlier this year for $22.5 million—has been approved. Small sacrifices were involved, however. Town officials gave her the green light after her architect agreed to lower the height of the house he's planning to build in its place by three and a half feet, so it won't block her neighbor's view of the ocean. [SVR, previously]

The Way We Live Now: Peachily. It's over, people. The economy is "leveling out." The Fed says so! So please, stop doing poor things. In particular, stop your pandemonium-plagued grabs for free money from check-cashing spots. It looks bad.

If Danny Pang is California's Bernie Madoff, it's no wonder he tried to innovate on the romantic side of his scheme: Pang's apparent partner is safely abroad, with his assets, rather than despised and poor at home, like Ruth Madoff.

"Tea Party Patriots" National Coordinator Jenny Beth Martin got a friendly little "media request" from CNBC: could you crazies maybe go crazy up a town hall somewhere? Sure, a 'Bagger says: how bout the guy who got the swastika?