As a member of the vaunted Time Inc. magazine empire, People has always stood a cut or two above most celebrity magazines, ethically speaking. But Angelina Jolie is "scary smart," in the words of celeb-mag editor Bonnie Fuller, and the actress seems to have had little trouble corrupting People's soul. Set aside the now-common practice of paying for baby pictures. Judging from a Times exposé, Jolie also banished the word "Brangelina" from People's pages, dictated coverage of her charitable work in Cambodia and won from People the "positive" tone she demanded. She seems to have pulled this off with a little editor-source dance that gave People plausible deniability.

Lifecasting, a kind of do-it-yourself reality TV broadcast on the Internet, has thousands of practitioners. Until last night, one of them was Abraham Biggs, a 19-year-old Florida resident, who used a webcam to broadcast his death, too.Wednesday night, after he posted a suicide note on the Web, he overdosed on pills on camera as users of Justin.tv, a lifecasting site, watched. Some posted comments egging Biggs on. When he took the pills and stopped moving, they laughed, expecting his corpse to revive and announce it was all a joke. No one called the police until hours had passed. They kept watching as officers came to the scene and verified his death. Even then, commenters wrote "OMFG" and "LOL." NewTeeVee, an online-video industry publication, called the incident a "a striking display of the power of live video." The power, but definitely not the glory: It shows how the viewers of lifecasting devalue life. Users of sites like Justin.tv have grown accustomed to watching people mug for the camera. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women on webcams are merely players. But what happens when we're not playing around? Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel, in a statement, didn't comment on the video, merely noting the site's policy for removing content flagged as "objectionable." The digital record of Biggs's death is just bits on a server. What about the users who cheered Biggs on as he performed a snuff film? Can we flag them, too? There will always be teenagers who try to kill themselves in awful ways. But one would hope the audience would not applaud.

If Chinese viewers want to watch Disney's Hannah Montana — no accounting for global tastes — they can do so on 56.com, an online-video site akin to YouTube. The show is pirated. But does Disney really mind? Its startup-investment arm, Steamboat Ventures, put money into 56.com two years ago.Eric Garland, CEO of an online piracy research firm, told the Wall Street Journal Disney's investment in 56.com is "ironic" and "shocking." John Ball, Steamboat's managing director, says the company invested in part to help 56.com curb pirated videos. But 56.com is just one of six Chinese companies in Steamboat's portfolio, all of which aim to distribute movies and videogames online. And that's the dirty secret of Disney and other media companies. They don't ultimately care about shows like Hannah Montana. What matters is their channels of distribution, through which such evanescent fare courses — and 56.com promises to be another one. Viacom isn't suing YouTube for $1 billion because it's upset about piracy. It's upset about piracy happening on a channel it doesn't own.

Like any other governor/aspiring president, Sarah Palin had to pardon a Turkey right before Thanksgiving. But then, because she's a moosehuntin' MAVERICK snow eskimo, the former Republican vice presidential nominee had to do something fun 'n differ'nt, like give a TV interview in front of a guy chopping off animal heads, and then call the activity "neat... levity." We'd hate to see what a rip-roaring good time looks like for the Alaska governor, but points to her for drumming up some free national TV exposure that reinforces her frontierswoman image without doing her any real harm. Video after the jump (keep an eye on MSNBC's leftist subtitles!).

Katie Couric is on the Late Show again tonight, to try and convince David Letterman that she didn't purposely steal John McCain for her CBS Evening News that night the Republican presidential nominee infamously flaked on Letterman. Of course this is a lie, assuming Couric is as ruthlessly competitive as any network news anchor must be in order to succeed. But her exchange with Letterman is worth watching if only for all the fun bashing of Keith Olbermann, the MSNBC shouting head who filled in for McCain. Click the video icon to watch.

Pat Buchanan is defending Hillary Clinton, the Guardian is scooping on U.S. political news, and now this, perhaps the ultimate WTF moment in media this week: Lefty, anti-corporate folksinger Ani DiFranco performed two songs for Wall Street Journal editorial staff today, right before deadline, we hear. "Weird time to be a biz reporter," one staffer at the conservative business newspaper Twittered. The setlist?

Paramount production president Brad Weston has had a squirmy few days since Patrick Goldstein outed him as the man who put Twilight in turnaround at the studio, deflecting blame where he can while watching the movie blossom into a potential billion-dollar franchise for Summit Entertainment. But listen closely through the heckles and snickers around town, and you'll hear a voice imploring calm, even understanding: Turnaround is a good thing!Or so argues an anonymous filmmaker who today sent word to Hollywood Elsewhere praising the timeless tradition of unloading book and script options, lest they moulder in middle management's closets instead of rocketing past a green light on another lot:

Oscar-winning Halle-smacker and notorious pressophobe Adrien Brody agreed to sit down with The Advocate for one of their Big Gay Following interviews—saucy, cheeky affairs that usually elicit a juicy pullquote or two. Well, after luring in the actor with a string of resume questions so obscure they would make James Lipton blush, the interviewer then went in for the kill. But Brody wasn't biting. Then things got really awkward, really quickly:

Reaction Shots: This morning, Barbara Walters chastised Rosie O'Donnell for continuing to perpetuate a feud with the ladies of The View. Later today, in a video on Rosie.com, O'Donnell continued to perpetuate a feud with the ladies of The View. The clip, after the jump: [Rosie.com]

The Ends: A freakishly minded movie obsessive at Flickr has spent the last year compiling the closing-title cards from 133 films (and counting), providing hours of guessing-game fun and/or free procrastination material to close down your day and maybe even your week. A new one is up this week, and alas, we didn't know this entry either. Share the challenge with someone you love, but be warned: It's addictive. [Flickr via Cinematical]

Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Sergey Brin, is exceedingly pregnant — and Brin himself has been spotted at the maternity ward. What will their baby look like? Wojcicki's genetic-testing startup, 23andMe, lets you spit into a vial and get a map to your genetic future. MakeMeBabies is not nearly as scientific, but we thought we'd run the couple's photos through to get a glimpse of their future progeny. Can you suggest a caption for the billionaire baby to be? The best will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: "French blue shirt, khakis shortage hits Valley hard." (Image by MakeMeBabies)

Breaking news, as THR is reporting that ABC "has decided against picking up" struggling series—in decreasing order of belovedness—Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Eli Stone. By not actually saying the word "canceled," the network leaves the door open to ordering future episodes, but THR puts the odds of that at "improbable." UPDATE: Scrubs lives.Still—you never know! Brooke Shields has chosen to go the full denial route with Lipstick Librarians, and it's been working out for her! (The studio custodians and security have been great about keeping up the charade that the show is still in production when she arrives on the lot every morning.) UPDATE: The network did pick up Scrubs, set to premiere in a one-hour episode on Jan. 6. WTF? They pluck Daisies but re-animate Scrubs? Why can't that show die? It's so irritating. And we're told that yes, Zach Braff comes with the package, for one final swansong season. [THR]

Since Roger Ebert's return to writing after the 2006 thyroid surgery that left him without part of his jawbone, he's been a notably more adventurous scribe, unafraid to toss off deadpan satire, rice cooker meditations, and a good Ben Lyons slam now and then. Now, though, after a thoughtful essay on the internal, decay-obsessed Synecdoche, New York, Ebert has been moved to write one of his most personal stories yet: a digressive, Charlie Kaufman-esque meditation on life, death, and his new, Phantom-like face.

Michael Kinsley argues that Barack Obama, smoker, claims he quit smoking, but probably didn't quit smoking. Kinsley makes the very good point that why the hell does Barack Obama need to quit smoking? We elected him because he's so cool and calm, the last thing we should do is take away his cigarettes. Not mentioned: why do we never see our smoking politicians smoke anymore? No photographs! How can a man be followed around by cameras essentially non-stop for two years without someone snapping a photo of him bumming a smoke? Everyone's in the tank! (Of course, it doesn't matter anyway, as Barack Obama is not even eligible to be president. It's true!) (It's not true.)

What to expect when you're expecting a billionaire? A tipster reports seeing Google cofounder Sergey Brin running into a hospital, orange Crocs and all. Here's what that means: His wife, Anne Wojcicki, is nine months pregnant with the couple's first child — who will be born into a fortune still worth $10 billion or more, even with Google shares plummeting. The spot where Brin was sighted, El Camino Hospital, has one of the Bay Area's best childbirth practices, and is close to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. When we last saw Wojcicki, she was on Oprah talking about 23andMe, her genetics-testing startup, with the TV host herself begging Wojcicki to give birth already. It's possible that Brin was just there to tour the hospital, a common practice before birth, but his haste suggested otherwise, our tipster claims:

It's another big-time star on 30 Rock this week. No, we're not only talking about Jack McBrayer, but also Kennedy Center honoree/banjo enthusiast/author/Marcia Brady rejecter Steve Martin. With NBC's guest-star wattage reaching capacity, it's no wonder Ben Silverman had to remove a couple shows from the grid. WATCH 30 Rock [9:30 PM, NBC] - First Oprah, then Jennifer Aniston, and now that dude from Cheaper by the Dozen 2. This week, Jack (Alec Baldwin) and Liz (Tina Fey) consider a proposal presented by Gavin Volure (Martin), a businessman who finds Liz irresistible. Meanwhile, Tracy (Tracy Morgan) is afraid that his kids are scheming against him.The Money Pit [10:45 PM, Encore] - Remodeling their dream house turns into a nightmare for Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. All of you screenwriters trying to adapt the original Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House for the post-subprime mortgage crisis world should think again, because this remake was as far as we needed to go. Sure, we didn't think this was funny when we were kids, but Hanks's early career broad comedy stylings just get better with age. This kid loves it, though.

It's the trend that wasn't: certain ladies are part of the new power elite of women who pay for their own travel via private jets. According to Private Air Daily, "[Dating columnist] Julia Allison and fellow Internet glamour girls Mary Rambin and Meghan Asha, stars of Bravo's upcoming reality show It Girls, [rumored show -Ed], are emblematic of a growing feminization of the [private jet] flight ceiling." With the show and their startup Nonsociety in mind, it's time to step right up and dance like monkeys to perform the art of the shill:

Josh Brolin's World Candor Tour '08 stopped by MTV this week, where he announced that the script for his upcoming comic-book adaptation Jonah Hex is "awful." Except he means it in a good way, he insists, and how could he not — especially now that the writer-directors have been left the project citing "creative differences"?Crank fauxteurs Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were originally slated to direct Hex from their own screenplay next spring. Variety reports today that DC Comics parted ways with them, however, while for his part Brolin was coy about the duo's role in the project. Of course, after an exchange that started with "I love it" before devolving to "It's awful," there was little else left to say:

The S&P 500 closed down today, again, at 752, the lowest level since 1997. That was a long time ago. We've seen two booms pass by — first dot-com stocks and now the real estate bubble. In 1997, I was still in college, Bill Clinton was still president, no one had heard of Monica Lewinsky, and Rudy Giuliani hadn't yet cleaned out the open-air heroin markets in the East Village. So, let's remember what's passed in between, now that the last eleven years have been, financially speaking, wiped clean. All those corporate-sponsored parties, those condominiums, the blinged-out phones, the Maybachs. It may as well have never happened.

Conde Nast is folding DNR, the men's fashion trade magazine. It's also shuttering its website, DNRNews.com. The feeble spin is that WWD will pick up the slack by launching "comprehensive, round-the-clock men’s fashion and retail coverage." [#2 of the ">four ways to kill a magazine, for those keeping track]. Points to the PR department for attempting to create an upside. But it's clear that this is evidence of weakness in the fashion category specifically, and more momentum for the scary Great Magazine Die-off in general. The company hasn't announced how many layoffs will go along with DNR's death, but departing staffers with more details can email us.