By "pals around with," we mean "has received political donations from people who, subsequent to those donations, publicly expressed support for." Same difference! We await Politico's tally of the blood money Obama got from people who've appeared on Letterman.

The death of Gourmet has prompted plenty of maudlin remembrances. And plenty of suggestions as to why we should mourn it: the food, Ruth Reichl, the jobs, the beauty. One theory to ignore: the internet is ruining smart magazines!

It seems like the actual Letterman scandal broke so long ago, yet the straitlaced scoops about the straitlaced funnyman's straitlaced affair continue, forever. Today: A motive, in the form of a kiss; the perp's solid rep; and advertisers don't care.

Divorces are ugly business. That's what we can learn from today's gossip roundup, which includes Madonna and Guy Ritchie acting like children, Peter Brant taking on Stephanie Seymour's fashion habit and, on another note, the return of Tina Fey's Palin.

It's incredible that today, in the 21st century, gay folk can cause such a stir. Take, for example, a case that unfolded this week in Egypt: a newspaper was banned after claiming that famous movie stars were gay. That's fair...

The 96-hour orgy of navel-gazing, unseemly on-camera veneration that attended Tim Russert's untimely death was not enough, nor was the accelerated career advancement afforded his son. Nope—now Russert's old NBC News office will become a museum exhibit.

• David Letterman appears to be through discussing the little sex scandal he now finds himself in. The subject doesn't come up on tonight's show. [NYP]
• Gourmet may have gone down, but the editor of Saveur says the mag is doing well (and that she's been flooded with resumes, not surprisingly). Meanwhile, while Condé Nast is laying off staff at Brides, a brand new bridal magazine is now preparing to launch. The dream lives on, clearly. [Forbes, NYO, Gawker]
• Related: Condé Nast's digital division is facing issues, as well. [NYO]
• The remaining bidders for BusinessWeek, now that Mort Zuckerman and a private equity firm have dropped out: Bloomberg LP and ZelnickMedia. [NYT]
• Barbra Streisand has scored her ninth No. 1 album, beating out Mariah's new record. It makes her the second-oldest living artist to top the charts. [Reuters]
• Famed fashion and celeb photographer Irving Penn has died at age 92. [AP]

Press release that's right on time: A new wedding magazine is launching. How optimistic!

The big round of cost cuts and layoffs at Condé Nast isn't just being felt at 4 Times Square. The gloominess has also made its way to Paris Fashion Week. Instead of spending their days observing the action on the runway, some Condé editors have been forced to remain in their hotel rooms to take part in a "dizzying" number of "budget-related conference calls and team meetings," reports The Daily. This could be why Vogue editor Anna Wintour hasn't "been spotted since Dior on Friday." Budget cuts could also explain why poor Anna has been forced to make do with a single snakeskin coat at Fashion Week in London, Milan and Paris. [FWD]

When Conde Nast folded Elegant Bride and Modern Bride in its magazine purge this week, the company also announced it was increasing the frequency of Brides. But now tipsters are telling us that Brides is suffering its own purge.

In your crushing Wednesday media column: another media bankruptcy, the Businessweek sale draws nearer, Paula Froelich occupies her time, and the magazine industry has an idea!

The magazine bloodbath continues today. Condé Nast laid off staffers at Brides this morning, two days after shutting down Modern Bride and Elegant Bride. And rumor has it a big round of layoffs at Forbes is imminent. The good news? At least one former Condé employee got a free lunch today:

"I don't think it will be substantially more [Death, Doom, Destruction, and Layoffs]," Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend tells John Koblin. "It'll be a trickle." A trickle, you say? What the hey does that mean?

Mort Zuckerman's latest attempt to expand his media empire has failed, it seems. Reuters is reporting the real estate developer and owner of the Daily News and US News has decided to drop out of the race to acquire BusinessWeek, possibly because he sensed execs at the mag's parent company, McGraw-Hill, are more interesting in doing a deal with Bloomberg LP instead.

We really feel for all those Conde Nast staffers who have been sent out to join the unemployed masses. That said, we just adore the entertaining anger spilling out of their sad, drunken fingers, like this numerically-minded missive...

Tom Delay quit Dancing with the Stars because his feet are broken. And he stinks.

One of the last 48 Hours stories that CBS Newsman and accused David Letterman blackmailer Joe Halderman worked on—airing just one month before he allegedly launched his plot to extort the late-night host—involved a ransom scheme. Weird, huh?

OH HO: Politico reports that Obama's chief strategy henchman David Axelrod had a hush-hush meeting with Fox News Slug King Roger Ailes when Obama was in NYC two weeks ago. The explosive, secret conversation, we allege, went like this:

• The Condé Nast shake-up continues: A day after the company shuttered four titles, it's ousted the publisher of Details. And rumor has it the Condé cuts may now "inspire" similar such moves at Hearst and Time Inc. [AdAge, NYT, NYP]
• Ruth Reichl says she was completely surprised by the news Gourmet was closing. (She says she's planning to write a book about her years there.) And Gourmet's offices have since been completely cleared out. [NYT, Gawker]
• David Letterman should apologize on his show every night. His latest mea culpa generated better ratings than anything NBC aired during primetime. [AP]
• CBS is talking to Nancy Grace about hosting a Judge Judge clone. [B&C]
• The only big media company hiring and not firing? Bloomberg LP. [Crain's]

In your controversial Tuesday media column: A magazine tries to claim NYC as its own, Details loses a publisher, Nancy Grace is the next Judge Judy, and Madonna wants to suck a newspaper's life blood (money).