Ramsey Allington, the bad-boy manager of Google's book-search operations who stands accused of sexism and discrimination by his employees, has turned electronically shy after Valleywag's exposé of his misdeeds. His blog, Ramsey's World, is now friends-only — which just suggests he's got more to hide.For example, a now-yanked video of him singing a karaoke version of Britney Spears's "Baby One More Time." (Allington is wearing glasses, at right.) The occasion appears to be a party for coworkers in Hyderabad, India, where Allington helped open up a customer-support office for Google. How charming: This fellow has gone from sharing the worst of American culture in India, to showing the worst of Google's toxic insideriness at home.

The internecine drama between Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Joy Behar receives the lion's share of our attention at Defamer, but as we watched today's show we thought to ourselves, what of the silent war that Hasselbeck's stylists are clearly waging on her? We're generous enough to admit that the conservative co-host usually looks on-point (in a chilly, blond, Fox News kind of a way), but on today's show, her hair was fashioned into a prim "Texas polygamist bride" coiffure that was only outdone by the latest in what has become a Hasselbeck trademark: the pirate shirt.

Tonight, Barack Obama will appear on your television screen for 30 minutes in order to convince you to vote for him next week. He'll be on CBS, NBC, Univision, Fox, MSNBC, and BET. (But not ABC! Tune in for Pushing Daisies!) Obama's half-hour TV buy tonight has some historical precedent, of course; Ross Perot did it, and look where it got him! But for a good look at how far the Democrats have come, let's all go back to 1983, when the Democratic National Committee hosted, yes, a telethon. It, uh, it didn't go so well. In fact it went unbelievably, comically awry. As the 1980s began, the Republicans introduced and perfected their massive, modern fundraising apparatus, utilizing direct mail and donor targeting to build a database of party supporters willing to shell out cash whenever and wherever it was needed. In 1980, the GOP raised millions more from hundreds of thousands more than the Dems could manage. And they kicked the Democrats' asses. So, heading into the 1984 elections, the Democrats knew they needed a lot of cash to compete. The GOP had more than a million active donors, the Dems had almost 300,000. So the Democratic National Committee somehow decided that a star-studded telethon on NBC would solve the problem. They spent $5 million on the program, hoping to raise an initial $10 million over 18 hours on Memorial Day weekend. And it was a star-studded affair! As the AP reported:

Despite the avalanche of media layoffs, (Gannett, Time Inc., and Business Week publisher McGraw-Hill have all announced major job cuts this week) New York Times executive editor Bill Keller bucked the trend by doing his best to pour cold water on our earlier tip about 20% layoffs coming to its 1,200-strong newsroom. Per the Observer, he told his staff, "I do not see another round of newsroom reductions on the horizon," and that he had access to some sort of special "investment fund" for new hires on the business desk. He even gave a non-denial denial of our original item: "Consider the source." Okay then! But what we're still hearing is that Keller's editorial side of the paper is in the midst of a big fight with the business side over the timing and size of staff cuts. So, while layoffs may not be on his horizon, they are for the people looking at the numbers.The scenario sounds reminiscent of the three-year, knock-down, drag-out battle at the L.A. Times that led to three different top editors stepping down rather than implement the job cuts demanded by Tribune Co. executives staring at dwindling circulation and advertising trends. Eventually, management won (who'd a guessed it?) and the LAT has been shedding jobs ever since. And in another parallel to the ongoing Tribune saga, we also hear that some in the NYT executive suite have broached the topic of putting prize New York Times Co. assets (such as its office building, its stake in the Boston Red Sox, About.com, regional papers) on the block to raise enough cash to take the company private, which, considering the five-year, 80% swoon of its stock price to a $1.4 billion market cap, is becoming an ever cheaper proposition.

Sarah Lacy works at Yahoo. Sort of. As the anchor of Yahoo Finance's Tech Ticker show, Lacy is a contractor, an employment status which already makes her a second-class citizen on the Yahoo campus. But Yahoo's ostracism of its Web-video star goes further. She's not listed in Yahoo's electronic directory, and her badge doesn't admit her anywhere on campus. Jerry Yang, Yahoo's nervous-nelly CEO, seems afraid that the longtime Valley reporter might stumble across his secret layoff plans. What his ban has really accomplished: Obstructing floral deliveries.

Silda Wall Spitzer turned up at Michael's yesterday to celebrate the birthday of "communications consultant" Kathy Lacey Hoge and the wife of the former governor is doing "just fine," you'll be relieved to hear. More importantly: What on earth happened to Ashley Dupre? Now that summer is over and she's no longer spending her days sunning herself on the Jersey Shore with her mother (with Post photographers following closely behind her, naturally), she seems to have vanished! Do drop us a line if you know more! [NYO, NYSD]

Click to viewBoomp3.com After enjoying a delicious meal at popular restaurant Bossa Nova, actress Kirsten Dunst was dealt a parking ticket by the cruel hand of fate. Dunst intitally shrugged it off fine, but upon further inspection became slightly miffed. There was a small note attached to the ticket that read: “Thanks a pantsful for putting Cameron Crowe in movie jail. I hope you can sleep at night." [Photo Credit: X17] *A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

Advertising agencies of the world, I send you this request with the greatest urgency: Please stop reanimating dead people to be in your ads. We've seen Fred Astaire selling vacuums, John Wayne selling beer, and scary Orville Redenbacher selling his popcorn from beyond the grave. It's got to stop, because who knows what terrifying undead army is massing against us on The Other Side to take revenge for the commercialization of their legacies? Now the very dead John F. Kennedy, looking like some sort of monster out of DOOM, has taken to the airwaves to harangue the public on behalf of Greenpeace, his long-decayed vocal chords screeching out a chilling simulacrum of his Massachusetts twang. Watch environmentalists flirting with the undertaker, after the jump:

Luke Russert, son of the late Meet the Press moderator Tim, is now working as a correspondent for NBC News, attending political conventions and reporting and stuff. So, I guess, he's sorta famous now. Really, though, he's been in the public eye for like three years. And we helped put him there by posting his 'babes in a jacuzzi' Facebook profile picture. Haha, oops! Well he recently was interviewed by MediaBistro, and, when asked, had this to say of Gawker and the hottubbery:

Pundits like to blab that Apple should buy Sony. With quarterly profits down 72 percent, SNE's market value is now a stupefyingly low 58 percent of its book value. Steve must be tempted. Buy Sony. Shut it down.Remember the original Walkman? The first Vaio? These days, Sony products don't threaten Steve Jobs. They irritate him. Even Sony knows their stuff's not cool. Look at the photos on their home page: James Bond. Pink. "Try to solve the mystery of the Passengers ... Save the world from bad music." No product shots except a thumbnail-size Playstation HD shoved in the lower right corner. I'm sure the focus group loved it. But to a gearhead like me it screams, "I'm Sony. Please kill me."

Jim Cramer now has more to worry about that just the horrifically lousy stock market predictions he's been doling out to naive investors. He'll now have to figure out how to revive his sagging financial news site, TheStreet.com, too. Although the financial crisis has led to a boost in traffic—the company reported that the number of visitors to the site was up 27 percent during the third quarter—the finance portal "missed sales estimates, posted a surprise loss, and shook up its boardroom," replacing the company's current chairman with Cramer himself. That should solve everything! [SAI]

It looks like Lionsgate will find a way to come to terms with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner on a third season of Mad Men. That's good news for fans of the show, 49 percent of which — we learned in the solid ratings for Sunday's finale, perhaps due to Jon Hamm's SNL appearance the night before — make over $100,000. That so many rich viewers aged 25-54 watched each week is certainly a plus for advertisers, but the secret to the show's continued success may be the expanded audience it received off . Click to find out just why lower income viewers aren't tuning into Mad Men with greater frequency.The last show Weiner worked for was The Sopranos, unique in its ability to hit both demographics. Set in New Jersey as opposed to the glitzy Manhattan of Mad Men, it was hardly a glowing portrait of the underclass, but it featured a more accessible, middle class fantasy for those without means. Carmelo Soprano aspired to what being rich is for lower class folks: shiny SUVs, tacky furniture and owning your own home in a leafy burb. It's a vision deeply different from Mad Men's slice of 1960s Manhattan, a sexy playground that's only really available to those who are already wealthy.

Cloris Leachman's improbable Dancing With the Stars run concluded Tuesday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where the irascible 82-year-old hoofer ultimately settled not long after being ousted from the show's final seven competitors. Ever the gracious host, Kimmel joined her on his stage, Indian-style, for an exit interview combining a heady blend of batshittery, pathos and defiance amounting to a defeated cry for help that not even nine Emmys, a Golden Globe and an Oscar waiting for Leachman at home could quell. Or maybe it's just her final, insolent means of saying, "Suck it, Lucci." Either way, Cloris remains first in our hearts and has a standing invitation to rearrange our furniture any time. Godspeed, girl. [ABC]

HarperCollins appears to be standing by Tatiana Boncompagni as she battles her sister, Natasha, over who actually authored the forthcoming novel Hedge Fund Wives. At least for the moment! We just heard back from Erin Crum, director of corporate communications at HarperCollins: "We hope that they can work it out amicably, and we will still be publishing the book on May 5th."

Yesterday we took a look at the celebrity glossies' websites, to get a sense of how this weeks issues would cover the Jennifer Hudson story. People and Us Weekly seemed like they planned to devote the most space reporting on the murders of the singer/actress's mother, brother, and nephew. And, sure enough, they were the only two to run the story as the main image on their covers. But what's inside? Us spoke with people who described the inciting incident, a fight between Hudson's brother and the man suspected of doing the killings. That story isn't really featured in any of the other five magazines we looked at, so I guess Us gets the points for that. People's is typically heavy on the personal interest, though surprisingly they didn't set aside a space for other celebrities to weigh in on the tragedy, as three others, Life & Style (they got fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama!), Us, and InTouch, did. They pretty much all have the same photos, especially the terribly cute and just, well, terribly sad photos of Hudson's seven-year-old nephew. So, who wins? Us Weekly, we guess. Though, it also kind of feels like nobody won.

Tonight, fight for your right to mix and mash music with Lawrence Lessig, the intellectual-dreamboat Stanford law professor. Lessig will be launching his new book, "Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy" at the W Hotel at 6:30 p.m. More concerned about catching the next show than the culture wars? ParisSoMa is bringing Andy Gadiel, founder of concert search engine JamBase, to its Howard Street digs from 6-8 p.m. For a flashback to the original broadcasting panic attack, the Castro is presenting a 70th anniversary performance of Orson Welles' now infamous "War of the Worlds" live on stage at 7:30 p.m.

No, Bobby Trendy didn't swallow a hand grenade and detonate all over the walls of Anna Nicole Smith-legacy-upholder Larry Birkhead's living room. The stay-at-Anna's-home dad is packing up a Liberace museum's worth of gaudy pink mementos from Smith's Coldwater Canyon residence and moving elsewhere. He tells Life & Style why in a Life & Style is Covering Larry's Moving Expenses Exclusive!

Twee crooner John Mayer on the trauma of 9/11: "[How] can you process the idea of everything changing and things never being the same when you have no point of reference for what 'everything' and 'the same' is?" Good point. [HuffPo]

Barack Obama t-shirts remain really popular in Union Square Park. (Just a few of the lines you can have emblazoned on your chest: "Obama for yo mama," "Barack's How I Roll," and "Bark for Obama.") Most are on sale for $20. Of course, if you're still searching for an Obama tee that summarizes your political beliefs, you can also just wait a week and pick one up for $0.50 on Ebay. [Urbanite]

Yahoo's deal to outsource some of its search advertising to Google continues to face scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Google CEO Eric Schmidt had said he'd carry out the deal whether or not regulators had finished their review. Regulators called his bluff, and America's CTO has now lost face, not to mention credibility. Why not just bow out and move on? That seems easier.