"That's how she rolls. Just when you least expect it, Mariska throws you a curve. Over the years, I've come to expect nothing less from the hardest working—and needless to say, hottest—perp-buster on TV." That's from the "blog" of T.V. star Mariska Hargitay, which is written solely by people who are not Mariska Hargitay (but who may know her!). "Preorder your 'XO, M' t-shirts!" reads another "blog" post. It turns out that a lot of celebrity blogs aren't blogs at all, but just a collection of markedly amateurish press releases. But! At the other end of the spectrum, some celebrity blogs are deeply personal, like Al Roker's. He recently wrote a moving eulogy of his mom there! Its gravity is only slightly undermined by the cartoon of Al in a prop plane buzzing around the screen. So what else do famous people do with their personal webjournals? Our Intern Mary applied her analytical tools to the most recent posts on 48 of these sites and came up with some findings.

"God bless you!" wrote Steve Almond's editor Julia Cheiffetz to me, after we ran a long excerpt from Steve's new essay collection, effectively shoving the book into the consciousness of at least the 6,966 readers who clicked on the post and who may not have previously known of its existence. Today, Steve writes on the Huffington Post that "Until a few weeks ago, I'd never paid much attention to Gawker. I had a vague sense that they were a gossip website that had something to do with New York. Then my editor sent me a link to a post they wrote about me. As it turned out, they'd been talking shit about me for a while."

Of the twelve San Franciscans running against unbeatable incumbent god-mayor Gavin Newsom in next month's election, two are formally listed as "blogger" in the San Francisco Examiner's rundown of the doomed dozen. One of the two has made the Guinness Book of World Records — for jail time.

Glaring Omissions reproduces tips received from readers in the last week that weren't covered on Gawker, either by accident (it happens!) or by design (it happens more often, particularly in the case of ad hominem Internet biliousness).

Reader comments have been added to the front page of NYTimes.com. Disgraced stock analyst Henry Blodget writes that "it will definitely help increase the site's popularity." Hank, this is the New York Times. Having reader comments next to top headlines won't increase their popularity. It will dilute the brand. I guess the Times really is just a fancy blog.

"Joost's greatest asset right now is not it's peer-to-peer technology. It's the momentum its gained so far by being an early mover." — TechCrunch trophy hire Erick Schonfeld demonstrates the value of the old-media copy editors he left behind at Time Inc. [TechCrunch]

For the record, j'adore le Peter Kafka, managing editor of Silicon Alley Insider, the New York-based tech blog from disgraced stock analyst Henry Blodget. But seriously, girlfriend needs to loosen up. First of all, last time I was in town, the former Forbes writer totally ditched a little cocktail hour I threw in an East Village bar. Now, he freely admits to missing out the drunken, gossip-laden "debauchery" at a party thrown by TiVo and RealNetworks. I wasn't even there, and I got a story out of the party. I hear Blodget is a taskmaster. Hank, baby, for your readers' sakes: Let this guy roll into the office a little later. (Photo of Kafka by Glen Davis)

"Drudge, Drudge, Drudge. One can only imagine the particular kind of loathing the Dickensian music of that name must inspire in White House staffers," observed Steve Silberman a decade ago. Today, Matt Drudge curdles the whey of journalists and bloggers, too. At 16 million visits, a slow day on drudgereport.com is still an order of magnitude beyond the New York Times's website. Drudge even beats the 10 million or so auto-delivered daily to MSN by Internet Explorer (DISCLAIMER: I write for MSN. And you don't.) As the world's most-read standalone journalist, Matt Drudge makes Instapundit Glenn Reynolds — 198,000 daily visits — seem like a piker. So it always brings a smile to watch tech bloggers jockey for position. Robert Scoble, #43 on the latest hot list, gets props for publishing his blog's stats yesterday, but reality check: Even the Scobleizer's fan club measures under one-half of a millidrudge.

"Ok, so you know how it's pretty typical that a blogger doesn't want to go outside—that they just want to stay indoors and blog all day long? Well when a blogger wants to get outside, they generally want to be able to get out. Unfortunately for me, that is not the case this morning. I AM LOCKED INSIDE MY APARTMENT. Yes, that's right—the door will NOT open, no matter how hard I try." This blog post, and its subsequent 8 updates, did not actually result in this blogger being freed from her apartment sooner than she otherwise would've been. [The Modern Age]

Did Boing Boing, Digg and Engadget bloggers get paid to appear in Virgin America's ads? Who cares! Bloggers don't believe in the complicated conflict-of-interest rules of traditional news reporters, any more than rappers care about classic rock's stance against "selling out." Virgin, Microsoft and other household names don't need to pay famous-for-the-Internet people to appear in their marketing campaigns. Bloggers do it for the far more valuable quid pro quo of being associated with a bigger brand. Be honest: You would, too.

After wooing San Francisco at its hub airport, Virgin America has enlisted seven Internet heroes to pitch the new airline. Seen here are Xeni Jardin, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz, and Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing; Peter Rojas of Engadget; and Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose of Diggnation. You can see them in these Virgin cartoon spots, which are like C-minus episodes of Sealab 2021.

Lit blogger Mark Sarvas displays the condescension and rudeness for which he's become notorious in a recent interview with Fishbowl LA. Asked "Last book you read?" he responds, "Hah! You're kidding, right?" Also, "I have neither TiVo nor TV. It's not a snob literary thing—I just don't have the time." Also! When asked what his enemies feel is his worst quality, "That I have a bigger audience than they do." [FishbowlLA]

Advertisers are realizing that the blogs written by pro athletes are an attractive advertising platform — at any rate, as far as blogs go. They have a built-in audience of rabid and loyal fans. Many of the most popular athletes tend to be outspoken and controversial, drawing in a wider audience. Mere talk of on-field or locker-room disputes can generate buzz. Likewise, non-sports talk builds interest. The downside: Advertisers are leery of controversial athletes being associated with their brands. But everyone knows the mainstream media ignores blogs, so they're safe, right? Best of all, while bloggers in the self-righteous tech world are vilified for pitching products, fans expect pro athletes to be walking billboards. The occasional awkwardly inserted product pitch may rub a few readers the wrong way, but it doesn't lead to an angry horde with pitchforks and torches.

Gadget blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo pride themselves on getting photos of new cell phones and MP3 players before anyone else — even the lightning-fast wire services. And to protect their scoops, they've taken to watermarking their photos. A wise practice. Reuters has apparently run, uncredited, a composite image, above, incorporating three watermarked photos from a post that ran last week on Engadget detailing Verizon Wireless's new holiday line. Product photos are generally seen as fair game by gadget bloggers, of course — but for Reuters to carry Engadget's watermark but not acknowledge the blog in any fashion seems not just ungracious but clueless. (Photos by Engadget, not Reuters)

Is any blogger still satisfied with merely blogging? The quirky alternative website Boing Boing, which claims 7.5 million monthly viewers, will debut a daily online video show Wednesday. After closet negotiations with national networks, the Boing Boingers decided to go it alone and own the show themselves. But this is no basement operation. BBtv's Hollywood agent is George Ruiz at clout-wielding ICM, who also handles Christopher Walken, Jennifer Connelly and Richard Dreyfus. Robolicious blogger Xeni Jardin (left), whose TV credits include appearances on Dennis Miller and most of the big nightly newsies, will host. She'll coanchor with fellow BB editor Mark Frauenfelder, best known for his TV appearance in an Apple ad.

One could say many things about blog-tracker Technorati and its founder, David Sifry, but the worst charge, I think, to make, is that he helped popularize a delusion particularly congenial to the self-involved world of the Valley: That links to your website somehow matter more than traffic. A newly hired CEO may fix the business, but he's unlikely to repair the damage that idea has wrought. Now, Techmeme has launched a similar tracking service, the Techmeme Leaderboard, that will surely make things worse.

Who was College Humor boy Jakob Lodwick thinking of in this morning's "morning photo" on his blog Obeastiality? (He takes one every morning and every evening, often topless, often in mixed company.) He's posted a quote from one "A.A.," who says "It occurred to me that possibly hundreds of people across the dashboard were thinking (for just a split second) that you were referring to them—I include myself in that number." Gagging yet? Well, take the bucket away from your face: now ain't the time for your gags. We suspect that the real object of Jakob's morning thoughts is his former girlfriend, Star Editor at Large Julia Allison. Wait, former? Oh, hadn't you heard? They're back on!

"I am the luckiest dude alive tonight. Had dinner with john dvorak and don Clark of WSJ and bill watkins, CEO of Seagate, among others." — Blogger Robert Scoble, the personification of self-promotional hyperbole, waxes overenthusiastic about his tablemates. [Twitter]

There is absolutely no blogging job anywhere in the world like the one PeopleJam is trying to convince someone to take. It begins: "Here's what a typical day might look like: 1. You wake up feeling totally jazzed and alive." [L.A. Observed]

Oh no, those rumors about socialclimberite Olivia Palermo's family having fallen on hard times might be true! It seems that Libs has had to turn to blogging for Paper as a source of extra cash. "Hi everyone. Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. Well it is that time of year — New York Fashion Week. I was very honored when Papermag.com asked me to write a blog for Fashion Week," she begins inauspiciously.