You gotta admire a writer like Walter Kirn. One week, he's telling us how we live now in The New York Times Magazine, the next he's sharing his experiences as an outsider at Princeton, the next he's reviewing books for The New York Times Book Review, the next he's explaining fly-over country in TIME, then he's writing copy for an international calling card website. All while waiting for the movie version of his book to come out.

At right, it's happy! To the left, it's sad. Click to enlarge.

Sure, it was a hack idea, but there's some small glory in being the first hack to hack it out.

While Katie Couric continues to languish away (they're calling it "vacation"), Ann Curry is doing her best to make America fall in love with her while she can. She's even said "Show me the money!" (Matt Lauer barely conceals a grimace.) See, Ann Curry is HIP! SHE'S AWESOME! YOU WILL LOVE ANN CURRY ABOVE ALL OTHERS!

From today's Cindy Adams column:

· Is singer-songwriter Keren Ann the newest patron saint of the Times? Two prominent mentions this weekend (in Arts and Styles) means love is in the air. [NYT & NYT]
· If you didn't catch Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's monologue on SNL this weekend, here's a recap: funny 'cause it's true. [goldenfiddle]
· When you think of the johns that rip off tranny hookers, you rarely think of NYPD officers. But maybe you should. [Gothamist]
· The death of John Delorean means the end of time travel and the beginning of several Photoshop gags of questionable taste. [low culture]

· Liberals do Bush supporters one better; learn to read. [NYT]
· Mediabistro talks with new Paris Review editor (and new honorary New York City Fireworks Commissioner) Philip Gourevitch. [Mediabistro]
· Women and Woody, two views: Our old elementary school buddy Allen Konigsberg is interviewed by Suicide Girls and deconstructed by n + 1 all in the same week! Who'd a thunk he'd do so well. (We thought he'd be into leather.) [Suicide Girls, via Fimoculous; n + 1]
· New National Enquirer editor Paul Field gets to the heart of what's different about America and his native land: "In the U.K., everybody reads the newspaper every day. Most people read two or three." No wonder they have no time to brush their teeth in the morning. (Hack-choo!) [NYM]

In this week's New York Times Book Review: Hollywood Edition, Intern Alexis is forced to care about that great, golden city to the West and its ever-important entertainment industry. Sharon Waxman gets ripped a new one while her new book gets a beaten to a bloody pulp, and we're treated to more Eisner analysis than you can shake a stick at — all served with a side of traditional Queenan bitchiness. After the jump, Alexis' weekly review.

Who says we have to choose? Can't Michael Jackson be the kind of creepy clown that gives kids wine, calls it "Jesus Juice," then shows them some porn as a warm-up to an inappropriate sleepover in his bed? Leno, on the other hand, can be the kind of creepy clown who devotes his monologue to "such topics as electrocution and prison rape" and jests "about the possibility of Jackson attempting suicide." First, cultural critics and pointy-headed types like Elaine Showalter should stay off our turf. Secondly, when did Leno's monologue get funny? Eh, we're not going to lose any sleep over it. We're sure his prison rape and suicide jokes are hacky anyway.

From Rush & Molloy comes word that the Times' Boldface Names columnist Joyce Wadler will be throwing in her quirky towel. Wadler — who was the closest thing the Times had to a gossip columnist — will take her patented space-cadet screenplays and Columbia J-School lessons to the Home section, where perhaps she might be better understood. She'll be replaced by Campbell Robertson, who, we assume, is twice as sane but half as endearing.

Jeff Koyen is this week's Gridskipper guest editor. You may remember Koyen from the time he singlehandedly destroyed the legacy of New York's leading free newspaper by printing something mean.

Ask Jeeves Inc. to Be Bought for $2 Billion [NYT]

'PLAYGIRL' EDITOR FIRED AFTER OUTING SELF AS REPUBLICAN [Drudge Report]

Man, it sucks to be Howell Raines. The former New York Times executive editor's reputation continues to drown, yet people keep gleefully tossing water on 'im.

America's favorite fake White House correspondent/male prostitute Jeff Gannon/James Guckert talked to Deborah Solomon in this week's New York Times Magazine. It's a one pager, but packed to the margins with hilarious, quotable Gannon fodder.

Above, left: Rebecca Eckler's author photo from Knocked Up; right, illustration by David Chelsea from Eckler's Times 'Modern Love' column, "Two Men, Baby on the Way and Me."

The New York Post works itself into a predictable lather over The New York Daily News' $100,000 Scratch-N-Match mistake.

In this weekend's New York Times 'Style' section, LA Weekly's 'Deadline Hollywood' columnist Nikki Finke looks back the Plaza hotel, the Peach Pit for a previous generation of Preppies. (Or should we say "U.H.B."s in deference to Whit Stillman's Metropolitan?) It's the sort of old sepia-toned old New York nostalgia piece that makes non-native New Yorkers swoon:

News? What news? Nothing to see here, people, move along...

Last night's episode of Topic A With Tina Brown featured our lady's best impression of a schoolgirl who'd just discovered ecstasy; we're suspect the Tizzinator was putting her best face forward in light of the intranetwork competition from dLife. Luckily, last night's episode wasn't a total abortion — although Tina does seem to be doing her best to introduce "hoot" into the modern intellectual's lexicon. After the jump, Henry the Intern's weekly report.