Fox News chairman Roger Ailes bought his very first newspaper! It's a tiny paper, upstate, and was a gift to his his third wife, or at least that's the cover story. The wife, Elizabeth Ailes, is a former NBC News executive and big supporter of George W. Bush who told the Times (the Times? go figure) the "quaint paper" will "probably stay the same." In other words, the staff is already learning how to work Keith Olbermann insults into virtually any story, and reporters for competing community papers should start burning their garbage. [Times]

So Julia Allison and fellow internet fameballs Meghan Asha and Mary Rambin have launched their big new project thing, Non Society, which they describe as "YOUR WINDOW INTO OUR CRAZY LIVES." On the site, they are each "lifecasting," which consists of taking the Tumblr blogs they already had and turning them sideways, so they scroll horizontally. CRAZY. Also, they made a four-minute video in which Allison rides on the lap of a zamboni driver, Asha poses topless with an iPhone and Rambin buys merchandise without insurance. CRAZY. The video is filled with the sort of footage the trio was already shooting, but heavily-edited, MTV style, and with an Aerosmith song in the background ("Pink"). This is the "online show" Allison talked about after she was fired from Star magazine, the one for which she lined up outside investment? That actually is truly crazy. Intro video after the jump.

This is the New Yorker's new cover, depicting Barack Obama and his wife Michelle in the Oval Office. It accompanies a big article about how Obama maybe was not always about CHANGE but in fact may have been a skilled Chicago politician at some point. The cover promises to become an election flashpoint, and the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign has already called it "tasteless and offensive." The caricature, according to the Huffington Post, "combines every smeary right-wing stereotype imaginable" about Obama. Ha ha, as if. Sure, the stereotypes about Obama being a flag-burning terrorist muslim and Michelle being an ashamed-of-America black power revolutionary are all there, but shouldn't Obama somehow also be an aloof Harvard elitist who hates "bitter" working-class whites? Instead, he's in rags and robes, with no jewelry or caviar or sociology texts and so forth. Anyway, the cartoonist said he's trying to mock the stereotypes, not perpetuate them:

Sure, our end-of-the-day video-fests are usually about the 70s and 80s, but the 90s were pretty long ago. And, the fact is, it was a fairly rocking decade for the cinema. So let's celebrate it! I'll get us started with an instant classic.

There's that cuddly animal video I was looking for! Over 100 totally deadly snakes confiscated from an illegal reptile dealer in Frankfort, Kentucky! You southerners! What will you think of next? Video after the jump.

I should not have dared venture out. Lots of important stuff happened! Hellboy 2 made $35.9 million. Brad Pitt cut the umbilical chord! John McLaughlin called Barack Obama "Oreo"-sort of. The Times' public editor wondered at length about using the word "nuts" in his paper. Somebody leaked a photo of Miley Cyrus in a wet T-shirt, and then she got a manicure! And Jose Canseco got his ass kicked. Now that we're all caught up, I'm gonna look for some cute animal videos.

Midwesterner in NYC posed this question in the previous thread. It's as good as any ideas I've got. Thoughts? Will Ledger get that posthumous Oscar nod? Opinions? Bueller...?...Bueller...?

I'm still all happy about today's Joss Whedon interview, so let's share our favorite scenes from science fiction, fantasy, and comic book movies and TV shows. I'll get it started with the trailer for a childhood favorite.

Actor Josh Brolin is getting way, way into character while shooting Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic, W., in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was busted last night for interfering with cops outside a local watering hole when they tried to arrest a pal of his for public drunkenness.

Grunge-breaking, Nirvana-discovering Sub Pop Records turned 20 this week! Awww! To celebrate, they mounted an attack on the Seattle Space Needle, and proudly flew their freak flag. And it was actually sunny for the event. Happy birthday guys! Video of the siege after the jump.

As long as you're here, why not watch this video of a Chilean hero who enlivens the commutes of her fellow subway passengers by performing impromptu subterranean pole dances? Clip after the jump.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Serenity creator Joss Whedon's writers' strike project "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog"-starring Nathan Fillion and Neal Patrick Harris-premieres the first of three fun-filled acts Tuesday. To that end, the director has done the unthinkable-agreeing to a Q&A session with Weekend Gawker! Yaaaay! The totally biased interview after the jump.

Controversy! Did Jesse Jackson want to rip Barack Obama's nuts "off" or "out"? No big deal, you say? Tell it to the Post! "Veterinarians and doctors talk about cutting nuts 'off.' Only a thug or a gangster cuts a man's nuts 'out.'" Jeff Johnson makes the importance of the distinction a little clearer: "Maybe Jackson simply does not understand human anatomy. Perhaps he tells women, in the throes of passion, that he'd like to chew on their breasts, rather than suckle them. Maybe he puts his shoes on, then his socks. Maybe he thinks that hearts don't beat, that they 'squeeze.'" [Fitted Sweats]

So while we're on the subject of Radar and who owns them and what they won't cover, let's all read this fun story about the Jesse Jackson family from last February's New Republic! It's about Barack Obama the Jackson kids. First: the younger Jacksons like Barry Obama a lot more than Jesse Sr. This has been amply demonstrated recently. But the Obama family and the Jackson family are totally intertwined! Let's learn about that, shall we?

The hip hop magazine XXL has a serious problem: It was founded back in the days when hip hop people actually wore XXL clothes. Now, everybody wears tight pants, and young'uns don't even understand what "XXL" means. So Byron "Bol" Crawford, a blogger for the magazine's website-whom I secretly love (NO HOMO, Bol) because he is perhaps the most offensive asshole on earth-is trying to revive the relevance of XXL's name by encouraging hip hop to "reclaim its manliness." By, uh, smashing all "teh gheyness."

Did you enjoy the lengthy "in defense of" Rush Limbaugh profile in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine? Then you'll love the friendly profile of MSNBC token independent conservative Joe Scarborough in Monday's New York Magazine! We haven't read the piece, but we imagine it will explore his crazy trip from Gingrichian Congressional Republican to funny conservative that liberals love, all because he took over Don Imus' TV slot, started doing an entertaining morning show, and basically revealed himself to be totally in the bag for Obama. (As we learned last month in the Times.)

At one time-1994, specifically-Nas was the king of New York, and the greatest rapper alive. Over successive albums he got somewhat less great. But he did a good job of scoring free publicity for his new album by naming it "Nigger," then, predictably, being forced to change it. You have to like him though-he's the kind of guy who tells the WSJ that he envisions the hip hop nation growing old and "going to Snoop Dogg concerts in the meadow." And he has this sweet Fox News dis track out too. You all (meaning "Briganti & Co.") should have memorized it by now:

HBO announced it was moving forward with a pilot for Washingtonienne, based on the book that lightly fictionalized Senate staffer Jessica Cutler's adventures as an anonymous blogger who took money from politically-powerful men for sex including, famously, for lots of ass fucking. The show, whose development has been previously reported, is to be a half-hour comedy. Cutler sells her body, wacky hijinks ensue, presumably. Sarah Jessica Parker is executive producing, so it sounds like it will basically be Sex And The City, but in DC. Filming is set to begin soon. Does this mean casting has already occurred? Who will play Cutler? Who will play Gawker Media alumna Ana Marie Cox (who publicized Cutler's online diary in 2004)? Vote on this critical civic issue in the comments, even if it's the only vote you cast all year! [Variety]

"Menupages, the New York City based online restaurant menu guides site, is being bought out by New York Magazine, we have learned. This is the first such online buy for NYM..." [Paid Content via Silicon Alley Insider]

It's not entirely surprising that the PR firm that misspelled the online signature of the guy they were trying to impersonate has now been busted for ineptly trying to blame an unidentified "intern" for everything. Bumbling disaster of a publicity shop 5WPR posted, in the name of a rabbi, fake blog comments about a sweatshoppy kosher slaughterhouse. When busted, senior vice president Juda Engelmayer blamed an unpaid 5WPR intern who he refused to name. Now, news service JTA is severely undercutting this explanation by reporting it traced one of the fake comments to Engelmayer's home (in part by matching the internet address of a comment to the internet address of an Engelmayer email). Whoops! Hard to blame interns at the office when the stuff is coming from your own pad. How are you going to explain this one, Juda?