A reader passed along a quote from Mark Sanford she ran across in an April edition of Time: "I think the fatal flaw of a lot of people in politics is that they want to be loved." Ha! [Time]

Rupert Murdoch's Sun coaxed some paramedics and UCLA hospital employees into talking anonymously about Michael Jackson's death today, and according to those sources, Jackson collapsed shortly after an injection of the painkiller Demerol.

Danny DeVito was a guest on Letterman's show last night and Letterman took the opportunity to ask DeVito about his most recent episode of public drunkenness.

Oh. Oh no. Oh no they didn't. Today in "Onion Stories Come True": The city of Toronto adds some diversity—magically!

Yesterday we learned that an entry in Maureen Dowd's Sunday Times column appeared to be lifted straight from a blog post by TPM's Josh Marshall on Thursday. Last night, Dowd admitted to plagiarizing Marshall.

Yesterday we told you about how the Washington Times ran a photo of the Obama girls with a story about schoolchildren being murdered in Chicago. Outrage ensued. Now we have the Times' explanation.

Why didn't SEC employees catch Bernie Madoff? Porn browsing. [ProPublica]

Friend of the commoner Tom Wolfe is all white on the outside. But don't judge. The Observer caught up with the fancy author and had him explain what the rappers are talking about (SEX):

More details have emerged on how the White House is bravely defending the DC area from the freeloading Obama family and their rowdy entourage. No adults allowed, it's neocon party time!

No explanation of the Twilight Phenomenon™ would likely be complete without such sizable insights as Kathie Lee Gifford's and the authoritative cultureklatsch at Fox and Friends. The latter group's ownership of the story — as evidenced by last Friday's extraordinary investigative study of "babes" headed to the multiplex in droves — continues today with a more think-y survey of how the chaste-vampire genre trumps the more occult flavor of the Harry Potter series, but over on TodayKathie Lee diclosed the real trick nudging Twilight toward box-office immortality: Teen girls are more into romance than sex. And those who aren't will be after the dressing-down delivered here. Failing the ready availability of another tween-friendly franchise, Hollywood would do well to bottle this and sell it.

Having already dodged one crotch-burning close call this week, Robert Downey Jr. wasn't about to set himself up for another one for the sadists at MTV. In an interview this afternoon, the Iron Man star hewed close to the Marvel party line when asked about the expulsion of co-star Terrence Howard from geek Eden in favor of an allegedly less-difficult Don Cheadle:

Kelly Cutrone continues to be a scary, awesome delight. The PR maven recently sat down with MediaBistro to talk about her public relations firm, People's Revolution, and about her increasingly frequent presence on MTV reality soap schlock The Hills. Cutrone has a six-year-old daughter and does constantly worry, she says, about where girls get their ideals from, whether it be from Disney cartoons, Hannah Montana, or The Hills. The interviewer asked her to explain the success of the gross, glossy docusoap and Cutrone's answer was typically informed, a little nutty, and mostly funny considering she's kinda criticizing a show she's about to be on a lot. Read her answer, which involves theories about High School Musical and showbiz narcissism, after the jump.

Yesterday, the New York Post splashed with a big story about on-air cussing WNBC anchor Sue Simmons being a drunk who liked to down cocktails before doing her show. Today, the tabloid's follow-up mentions how she denies having a drink before showtime in the last 15 years, without even acknowledging that Simmons is talking about the Post itself when she says "I understand now why many people don't trust the media." Apart from the "Journalism" issue here (ha), the odd part is that the paper should have a little more respect for fellow professional drunks. After all, boozing is a Post trademark—and it starts right at the top, with the paper's heroically enthusiastic alcohol-abusing editor Col Allan!

This morning we posted the "Nefarious O Value" theory of the mystery Facebook Stalker feature. Now, a second tech-savvy tipster writes in with step-by-step instructions for how to find Facebook's unexplained "O" ranking for every single one of your friends on the site. In other words—from what we can gather, at least—there's a file on your computer that tells you exactly how the site's algorithms rank each and every person in your social circle. The instructions are after the jump. Please write in and let us know what your results are. The code may soon be cracked!

Not long ago, a media reporter asked your day editor if he seriously doesn't like Greg Gutfeld. Because surely it's an act, all this mocking him! We send attention his way, he responds with an amusing attack on our commenters, we trash him again, everyone goes home to cash their tax refund checks and buy some $10 cigarettes. But the truth is, no, I don't really like Greg Gutfeld. He's not funny. And his two-dimensional controversialist routine is tired. Regardless of how much either of them mean what they say, Colbert does a wittier Bill O'Reilly. Gutfeld is a mediocre Morning Zoo Shock Jock. He seemingly used to be funny—some of his HuffPo posts were truly inspired. But his show is terrible and his "noxious gay-baiting even though he's friends with plenty of homos" routine is, once again, done better by Ann Coulter. So when Greg says, as he did to MediaBistro recently, that Gawker only trashes him because he refused to write for us, well...

A huge new study of sexuality in France has just been released, with a shocking conclusion: French women like sex. They are becoming more like men in the age they first have sex (17-ish), the number of sexual partners, and the length of their sex lives—90% of women over 50 say they're still getting laid, versus a mere 50% in 1970. But more surprising than that is a worrying trend among young French men: they're just not that interested in this whole sex business, thank you very much!

Unfortunately for Miller and unknown to the crew, her IFB failed before she began speaking with Hunter. Another host might have known to alert the crew about the problem and delay the interview while the technical issues were worked out, but the inexperienced Miller gamely tried to speak with Hunter without hearing her responses.

We understand that the "dark week" at the New Republic was "long-planned," and in any case, "it's not so dark," since half the office is there. (So again, we wonder: paid or unpaid?) But there might be a very compelling reason for the involuntary vacation: Editor "Frank Foer is expecting child at any moment," a source tells us. Aw! How cute! Paternity leave! Uncle Jonathan Safran!