The Huffington Post removed a 9/11 "Truther" post from former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. According to their editor's note, "The Huffington Post's editorial policy, laid out in our blogger guidelines, prohibits the promotion and promulgation of conspiracy theories...." Oh, really?

The Lancet has formally retracted a paper it published in 1998 on the causes of autism based on research conducted by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. So that's it for that, then, right?

A movie with a giggle-worthy title and great cast that you've probably never heard of. Neither had we.

She got married last weekend, but Ivanka Trump will be getting another big stack of presents today. It's her 28th birthday. Also celebrating: Simon Doonan, Barneys' inimitable creative director, is turning 57 today. Mega-agent Binky Urban is 63. Fashion photographer Mario Testino is 55. Gavin Rossdale is turning 42. NBC News' Andrea Mitchell is 64. Private equity bigwig Wes Edens is turning 48. Former Page Sixer Paula Froelich is 36. Henry Winkler turns 64. Actress Nia Long is turning 39. Kevin Pollak is turning 52. Harry Hamlin is 58. Cash Cab host Ben Bailey is turning 39. And Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin is 20. A few weekend birthdays after the jump.

She is very powerful, and so she will probably destroy Newsweek for reporting this, but: Oprah's popular show, when it is not about giving you free things, is about promoting stupid and often dangerous quackery and pseudoscience.

Mother's Day is right around the corner, and to honor those who have sacrificed so much only to watch in horror at the rotten people we've since become, Adecco Group—"the largest staffing agency in the world"—asked a bunch of people about the moms they admire most. (Do note that just because it's a temp agency that did the survey, that should not suggest that motherhood is a temporary occupation. It isn't. Well, not usually.) In any event, the survey asked working moms, working dads and working non-parents to answer this question of great importance, and unsurprisingly, all three groups picked Michelle Obama as the most admired mom in America. But then the results get a little screwy! Apparently, Sarah Palin—yes, really—came up No. 2 for two of the three groups. And Jenny McCarthy (above), who has always gone out of her way to set a good example, is the fourth most admired mom in America. The list/press release that will instantly undermine your faith in the future of this country is below.

Oh, good, Oprah is going to give Jenny McCarthy a talk show, because she wants your kid to die of the measles.

• Tense negotiations over proposed budget cuts continue between the New York Times Co. and unions that represent workers at the Boston Globe; in the meantime, the Times has postponed plans to shut down the paper. [NYT, WSJ]
• Another way the Times is planning to rake in some much needed cash: It may raise newsstand prices as early as this week. [FT]
• NBC announced several shows that it plans to add to primetime. One show noticeably missing from the lineup: Law and Order. [Variety, NYT]
• Ex-Portfolio publisher William Li has landed at Condé Nast Traveler. [NYO]
• A positive aspect to the cuts at Conde Nast? Media buyers "say that publishers and salespeople are becoming easier to work with. [Crain's]
• Wolverine grossed a whopping $87 million at the box office. [Variety]

• Sarah Jessica Parker is dying to cast Britney Spears as Carrie Bradshaw's younger cousin or niece in the next Sex and the City movie, or at least that's the rumor anyway. [MTV]
• Jeremy Piven was not on the plane that crashed yesterday, just in case you were worried or anything. [NYDN]
• Lindsay Lohan says she works "as hard" as other actors, but she gets no credit due to the "mess that I created in my life." [NYP]
• Is John McCain thwarting our chance to see Cindy McCain on Dancing With the Stars? Say it isn't so! [P6]

When did Ellen DeGeneres turn into such a yenta?

Heroes star Hayden Panettiere spoke at aerial art event for her Save the Whales Again! campaign yesterday, where supporters rallied to form a giant human pilot whale. While we applaud the young starlet's initiative in fighting the destruction of a vital species, we can't help but think there's something more behind her advocacy. Click to unravel a plot most sinister: like National Treasure, but a blog post.We can't blame Hayden for being excited about her first election, and she connected her pet cause to get out the vote efforts yesterday. We don't doubt her sincerity, but a series of clues points to a different explanation for her actions.

BREAKING HEADLINE NEWS over the wires from Extra! We'll cede them the floor: "An outspoken activist for autism awareness, Jenny McCarthy speaks out about whether [Sarah] Palin, who also has a child with special needs, can make a difference in Washington. McCarthy responds, 'You know, I don’t know.'" MUST CREDIT EXTRA! [Extra]

About Time: It was only a matter of time before the week's two big autism stories collided, but let's thank Access Hollywood for hastening things along. Billy Bush caught up with "cleavage and veggies" advocate Jenny McCarthy to get her comments on Denis Leary's assertion that autistic kids are stupid and lazy, and she described a scene that sounded as though it had come straight out of a Sarah Palin rally. "Whoo! First of all, let me tell you, the autism community has received probably 10,000 emails [saying] 'Go kill him!' 'Go yell at him,'" she told Bush. "[But] it’s so hard to even get up enough juice in me or energy in me to even try to fight someone that is obviously stupid." Really? Jenny, consider your guest-blogging privileges at Defamer revoked. [Us]

While Rescue Me star and Miss Worcester second runner-up Denis Leary may have rankled some with his book's assessment of autism sufferers as being "dumb-ass kids," "junior morons," and "dumb, lazy, or both" ("Totally out of my book's context!" rebutted Leary), one true believer in the disorder—an outspoken activist, in fact—is Jenny McCarthy. Where she veers from her fellow crusaders is in her theory on its cause: She blames the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccination of draining the life out of her young son Evan, and giving him autism. Now she's raising even more eyebrows by claiming on the cover of the current Us Weekly that she "saved [her] son" through "a strict no wheat-and-dairy-free diet." From usmagazine.com:

Let's face it: As well-intentioned celebrity spats go, Jenny McCarthy vs. Amanda Peet was a total disappointment in its attempt to bring awareness to the cause and treatment of autism. What it needed was less born-again book-tour proselytizing and more substantive debate about nature, nurture and science itself. In other words, it needed the radical authority of a medical professional like Denis Leary, who, in his own new book, tastefully settles the problem of autism once and for all:

For some reason Denis Leary, who is actually an accomplished TV and movie star and halfway-decent comedian, has joined with reliable moron and talk-radio screamer Michael Savage and misguided trashy-TV host Jenny McCarthy in spreading scientifically-dubious pap about autism. The charitable explanation is that Leary was rushing to meet the deadline for his book, Why We Suck, or, as all-too-many comedians do, filling it with unfiltered, subliterate transcriptions of experimental new stand-up comedy material when he wrote, "there is a huge boom in autism... because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can't compete academically." The Autism Society is obviously thrilled. More, via Page Six:

Larry King had noted medical expert/softcore video star Jenny McCarthy on the program last night to talk about AUTISM. Specifically, how it's caused by VACCINATING YOUR CHILDREN. This is patent conspiratorial nonsense, but it's very popular conspiratorial nonsense. Of course, in a battle between concerned, credulous parents and medical experts, the media will generally frame it as, say, Debate Rages Anew on Vaccine-Autism Link. Faced with a panel of three trained pediatricians, Ms. McCarthy shouted "BULLSHIT" twice. Then Larry put it to an internet poll. Clip after the jump!

The time: 1 p.m.
The date: September 11.
The place: Bergdorf's.
Sighted: "Jenny McCarthy, 5th floor of Bergdorf's with an entourage of 2, wearing a plaid coat and sky high heels and hair, on her cell, saying 'better than the $20 million that Ryan Seacrest is going to pay me?'."

• Butterscotch Stallion shuns 2-dimensional image of Kate Hudson. Still probably sleeping with real Kate Hudson. [US Weekly]
• Jenny McCarthy still exists? [Cindy Adams]
• Tom Cruise wins award for being kind of an asshole. In other news, Tom Cruise finally gets something the old fashioned way, by earning it. [Salon]
• Carly Simon gets spanked before every show. We refrain from making jokes in honor of our mother's love for Carly Simon. [Gatecrasher, 3rd item]
• Former US WeeklyStar writerresearcher wins right to finally write book no one wants to read. (Sorry, our bad. Still, we feel the heart of the joke was in the right place.) [Page Six]
• Cindy Adams to shit in woods. [Cindy Adams]
• Television industry masturbates, cums on its own face. [TMZ]