In a power move sure to rock the universe of self-absorbed Westside LA liberal showbiz activists, Arianna Huffington has grabbed Billy Silverman, producer Brian Grazer's former "cultural attaché" to head up her forthcoming Los Angeles local site.

The Huffington Post has brought back its old trick of posting embarrassingly high-resolution photos of celebrities, Portfolio.com notes, to much controversy. HuffPo defends its pics as "playful spin on our... fascination with celebrity images." OK, let's "play." With your founder.

It may seem crass to put a pricetag on a human life. But you never know when a brand-name blogger like Matt Drudge or Perez Hilton might be tragically killed. Luckily, 24/7 Wall Street has calculated the economic loss.

Arianna Huffington is accustomed to a life of wealth. She rides her friends' yachts and jets. She even wanted to buy a plane for the Huffington Post, says an insider. So why's she talking about CEO "excess" on The View?

Did Arianna Huffington love Michael Moore's new movie so much, and also she knows Michael Moore personally, and had Michael Moore over to her house to talk about his movie and eat lasagna? Click through to find out!

Internet mogul Arianna Huffington thinks female sadness is a growing problem, so she's brought on a blogger to teach women how to "live richer, more purposeful, and, yes, happier lives." And he's a man, so he really knows his stuff.

Is there anything Arianna Huffington can't do? Well, we'll all see, for the Internet queen's about to jump into prime time television. And, of course, she;s not jumping too far from her roots.

Tony Robbins made an absurd 9/11 video; Oprah invented a very awkward way to mourn tragedy on Twitter, and Lauren Conrad needs your help getting naked. The Twitterati were having poignant moments, in their own way.

Salon has a great post by a doctor about medical quackery at the Huffington Post, where a columnist recently suggested colon cleansing could treat swine flu. This is the downside of HuffPo's open, unpaid model — and culty recruiter.

The Huffington Post just hired another VIP's child, this one the son of White House senior adviser David Axelrod. Funny how a website famous for not paying bloggers finds room on the payroll for an undistinguished corps of rich kids.

The Huffington Post has hired its fourth ex-Washington Post reporter, young Jose Antonio Vargas. How did Arianna pull of this latest bit of poaching? Emails of "passion" and "exploration." Oh, my, Ms. Huffington!

Arianna Huffington's 59th birthday has been nothing if not dramatic. The internet publisher returned to her birthplace of Athens, Greece before ending up in Dubrovnik, Croatia, possibly via David Geffen's boat. Then, Huffington did whatever Twitter told her to.

How has Arianna Huffington been spending her 59th birthday? She started the day in Greece before making her way to Croatia, reportedly aboard the Rising Sun, the 454-foot, $250 million yacht that is co-owned by billionaires David Geffen and Larry Ellison. [Gawker]

If you see Arianna Huffington today, don't forget to say "xronia polla." The pundit, author and Greek native is 59. Others celebrating today: Beth Ostrosky Stern is turning 37. Actress Diane Kruger is turning 33. Paul Sevigny is 38. Forest Whitaker is 48. Guitar legend Joe Satriani turns 53. David Easton, the prominent interior designer, is turning 73. Club owner Don Hill is 65. Real estate scion Dan Tishman is turning 54. Former wrestler (and governor) Jesse Ventura is 58. Actor Scott Foley is turning 37. Marky Ramone of The Ramones is 56. Brian Austin Green is 36. And Brigitte Nielsen celebrates her 46th birthday today.

After microblogging a bank robbery, Annemarie Dooling discovered her real enemy was the news media; Penelope Trunk fact-checked her former client, Time Inc. and a New Republic writer afflicted the comfortable... in a bar. The Twitterati weren't having it.

Back in 2004, Arianna Huffington didn't have a well-funded, fast-growing internet publishing empire. So she could afford to call the hiring of foreign workers a "crime against America." You'll never guess what Huffington is doing today.

Many people have criticized The Huffington Post for not paying its writers. But Ken Lerer, who co-founded the site with Arianna Huffington and remains the company's chairman, sure has one heck of a generous streak. Last week, we noticed that Joey Bartolomeo, a senior writer at People and frequent TV talking head, had purchased an apartment on the Upper East Side. What was strange was that Bartolomeo didn't buy the $1.025 million co-op on her own. Lerer's name appeared on the property documents as well. And it turns out that Joey isn't the first member of the Bartolomeo family to have benefited from Lerer's largesse. Bartolomeo's older sister, Stephanie Bartolomeo, picked up a $1.25 million co-op on the Upper West Side back in March. And once again, Lerer co-signed for the apartment.

The trail between the Washington Post and Huffington Post is becoming something of a pipeline: ousted liberal WaPo columnist Dan Froomkin has landed at Arianna Huffington's well-funded website. His new home may be worse than the old one.

HuffiPo's Nico Pitney was called on at an Obama presser to ask a crowdsourced question from Iranians. Dana Milbank called out Pitney in a Washington Post column for collusion with Obama's administration. They smacked each other down on CNN today!

Microfame expert Rex Sorgatz asks: "The second local version of HuffPo, NYC, launched last week. Will anyone read it?" I can say from personal experience: no. In other news, Gothamist is still very servicey. And pays their writers. [Fimoculous]