If you've been watching HBO's Entourage lately, you've probably been enjoying the performance of Martin Landau as Bob Ryan, a past-his-prime producer unfamiliar with the new ways of Hollywood and able only to communicate in anecdotes that refer back to people long since dead and forgotten. It's an incisive portrayal, but it's also difficult to watch, since Landau does such a great job of conveying what a creature of the past his character is.

Post gossip dowager Cindy Adams relates the following news concerning a recent game of chance: "HUNCH players in New York's daily lotto game won the other day when they boxed numbers 1880. That just so happens to be the year of N.Y.C.'s legendary snowstorm. And how's that for 100-degree August?"

Fascinating piece in the Times this morning about Mrs. Astor. The hook: It's not about the recent allegations of poor treatment at the hands of her son, it's about how she managed to live so long in the first place. The Times offers a variety of reasons that the woman could have lasted this long: diet, health, exercise habits, and genetics are all offered as possible solutions. While we claim no expertise in the study of longevity, we'd like to propose our own thesis:

Either it's the heat or her medication's been adjusted, but Post gossip dowager Cindy Adams is even more disjointed than usual today. Items crash into each other with no attempt at transition, there's an entire bit about Star Jones that never once mentions Star Jones by name, and, best of all, there's this:

Three questions inspired by this weekend's Times:

Blogger Josh Horowitz went to a screening of Miami Vice the other night and lived through the kind of experience that those of us who have an inexplicable hatred for certain elderly film critics can only dream of. Josh?

Post gossip dowager Cindy Adams is in a wistful mood today, reflecting on patriotism and great moments in our city's past. Cindy claims that the following information comes from the kind of pamphlet you pick up in any hotel lobby, but we're pretty sure this is actually gussied up oral history from her own memory:

Post gossip dowager Cindy Adams shakes a bony finger at her readers this morning as she reveals how, once again, the world won't listen to her powers of prognostication:

Post gossip dowager Cindy Adams alights from her crypt this morning to remind you that she sees and knows all. Specifically, she predicted that "House of Representatives members would be indicted," George Pataki would run for president, Charlie Gibson would take the top slot at ABC's "World News Tonight," and that Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe would get divorced. Cindy's freakish powers of prognostication have also allowed her to reveal that "George W. Bush will leave office in January of 2009," Britney Spears will "regret" her marriage to Kevin Federline, and "the Earth will continue to revolve around the sun." We're not sure how she does it, but you've got to admit, it's pretty fucking spooky.

Post gossip dowager Cinday Adams today breaks the news that "just before his fight with Sonny Liston, [Floyd Patterson] told me: "If I lose the championship tonight, I hope you'll give him the same honors and respect you've always given me."

Mayor Bloomberg has signed a proclamation honoring Sigmund Freud here in town, which provides The Times' Take-A-Senior-To-Work-Day columnist Clyde Haberman yet another opportunity to dial it in. Haberman, who's never met a bad joke he didn't like or an easy assertion he wouldn't make, turns his laserlike acuity on the fact that, well, a lot of New Yorkers are in therapy. He suggests a variety of reasons, including the predominance of shrinks who settled in town during the war (World War II, that is, although he probably remembers the shifting demographic patterns of the city after the War of 1812), the stresses of living in such a hard-charging city, and, of course, New Yorkers' natural introspection and curiosity about themselves. Not mentioned: Having to read crap like this twice a week. Can we get someone to take Clyde out for a ride into the woods already? Just be sure you don't turn on your cell phone until he's completely out of the car.

As a coda to her controversial column "Nicole Kidman deserves to be happy," antediluvian tattler Liz Smith notes that her own recent appearance on "CBS Sunday Morning" sent her book Dishing (a "little work about celebrity and food"; and here we'd thought Gael Greene had cornered the market on geriatric culinary gossip) soaring toward the rafters of the Amazon rankings. In a subtle dig at the inability of The Post to move merchandise, Liz puts this down to the power of television. We're just impressed that the seven aged viewers of "CBS Sunday Morning" were able to switch from their TV screens to their internet connections and successfully order the book, which, hopefully, is available in large-print format.

In a rare move certain to assert its relevancy amongst the under-25 crowd, the NY Sun dips into MTV's Sunday Stew and comes out with a mouthful of the Andy Milonakis Show: