Former dating columnist Julia Allison will teach you how to fameball at Learning Annex for $45, way less than Parsons' protocelebrity program. But don't expect financial advice: Amid turnover at her startup, Allison is considering applying to Stanford Business School.

Good news for ANTM fans who want to get up close and personal with noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker, but don't want to have to attend some pretentious art party or reality show cattlecall: for only $39.99, you can learn all his secrets — in person — at the Learning Annex! We read the class listing with great interest, hoping to learn more about the man, the myth, etc, and we weren't disappointed:

You may recall Stephanie Adams, model, Playmate, author, lesbian, and alleged gun-toting vampire. For many moons now, Adams has been tangling with Metadish, the blog formerly known as BlogNYC, over God knows what trivial shit. Anyway, Adams recently stepped on the next logical rung of F-list perdition, namely teaching a class at the Learning Annex: "How to Marry Rich: The Rich Are Going to Marry... Why Not to You?". Our own former comrade AJ Daulerio sat in on the class for the New York Press, and we'd happily link to his account of the sad affair if the NYP website wasn't slagged. However, the best/worst parts are reproduced on Metadish, where Adams's detached demeanor gives her the "sex appeal of a colostomy bag." The class sucked, even by Learning Annex standards, and a refund was issued. This low opinion was pretty universal apparently, as Adams has already been replaced as course "instructor" by Jewish dating micromogul Shoshanna Rikon (though Adams's name and picture remain in the course title and "Your Instructor" blurb. Not sure what the next level of hell is after the Learning Annex won't have you, but time will tell.

• Bob Woodward's in truh-ble. [NYT]
• WP's Walter Pincus set to go the way of Judith Miller in the Wen Ho Lee case. Except without the everyone-hates-him-at-the-end part. [WP]
• Need your dose of softcore porn more frequently than once a month? It's looking like Keith Blanchard's prototype for a weekly lad book might see life at Bauer. And thank God for that. [WWD]
• William T. Vollman, Joan Didion win National Book Awards. [USAT]
• Hotshot founders of Penguin's Riverhead imprint bolt for Random's Doubleday Broadway group and a new, yet-to-be-named imprint. [NYP]
• The lucky winner of that fundraising lunch with Rupert Murdoch? Learning Annex chief Bill Zanker. Be you're even happier now that you overpaid for that mediocre lecture. [Guardian]
• HBO still confident it owns Sunday night, Lisa Kudrow's dreadful Comeback notwithstanding. [NYT]
• Speaking at the University of Texas, Maureen Dowd — who, apparently, has a new book out — speculates that Judy Miller will end up with a Fox News talkshow. [Daily Texan]
• Bad things often happen to Time Persons of the Year. [The Media Mob/NYO]

When we walk by the free paper newsboxes, we tend to black out from the overwhelming scent of piss — so we just recently saw the October/November catalogue for the Learning Annex. The Gastineau Girls, James Patterson, Ludacris, the Chronicles of Narnia, AND Star Jones? We think we've got a record here for the highest number of fascinatingly inane features on a single cover.

Don't get us wrong; it's a nice Atoosa Rubenstein. Well made. We like it. We'd love to buy it. But, what, you expect we should pay retail?