In this week's coverage of the New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis delves into the Jewtastic world of letters, taking time to tackle Gore Vidal while pointing out the NYTBR's new punk rock take on things. In a week without any mentions of the Jonathans Lethem or Foer, Alexis finds there's plenty of room to take down androgynous hipsterbot JT LeRoy. After the jump, her weekly dive into the bookish abyss.

Here's a little warning to journalists out there who might be thinking about profiling literary uberkinder Jonathan Safran Foer for the release of his new novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: clear your schedule first. Based on the intimate portrait by Deborah Solomon (who's much nicer as a profiler than an interviewer) in this weekend's New York Times Magazine, Foer requires a lot of time and TLC, mostly via email:

The bodybag is a nice touch. Subtle.
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Mediaweek's Tony Case visits the offices of Radar Magazine and talks to editor-in-chief Maer Roshan about what we can expect when the title relaunches in May:

Slate's Mickey Kaus has some advice for the Los Angeles Times, which lacks a proper gossip column:

We definitely think it's awesome that The Rock is on the cover of Out this month. But couldn't his people negotiate right of refusal for all coverlines? The Rock can't be happy to have his smiling mug just below "UNHUNG MEN: HOW THEY COPE."

Liz Smith takes a break from covering boring old actors and their dumb self-congratulatory awards today. For some reason, she chooses to open her column with a look at posable, lifelike right wing talking doll, Ann Coulter:

Women's Wear Daily reports—well, repurposes the press release—that The Harvard Lampoon will be creating a standalone spoof of Premiere:

From: Gawker
Date: February 25, 2005
To: James Wolcott
Subject: Ocicat or not?

To better appreciate this FOXNews.com column by Radley Balko, replace all instances of the word 'bloggers' with 'FOXNews,' as in:

We were struck by the opening lines of Andrew Sullivan's most recent Sunday Times column:

A spokesperson for The New York Times alerted us to an error we made this morning. The New York Times Company and Granada Media, the producers of I'm a Celebrity- Get Me Out of Here are no longer connected to each other, as we implied in Wubba-Wubba-Synergy. The Times, therefore, had nothing to do with any "scarring, inflammation and blood infection" Downtown Julie Brown may have suffered.

We weren't even aware of The New York Sun's existence until this morning (with all those free papers being handed out near the subway, it's hard to keep up), but apparently it's a real newspaper.

Just yesterday we were complaining that The New York Daily News was being a tad insensitive with its headlines. Seems like things are only gonna get worse.

From today's 'Arts, Briefly' in The New York Times:

Who said journalists aren't helpful? Sometimes when a writer interviews someone, there are statements that are left unsaid or implications that linger between the lines. It's up to the writer to either clarify those statements or let the subject dangle on the end of their own ill-chosen words.

Have you heard? British newspaper and magazine editors are coming to New York! Their arrival is so important, American editors have to run articles about the phenomenon every few months. Oh, and they have to use the lede "The British are coming!" It's the law.

Ha, ha! You've been punk'd! You didn't think Drudge was employing a popular metaphor, now did you? For shame; you should know better. Drudge is to be taken very, very literally — the popester isn't dead, he's just being quiet! JP2 is doing his thing, probably napping or reading, or maybe just meditating. Oh man, the look on your face...hilarious. He really got you.
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Pope Breathing On Own Again; No Infection [AP]

As the snow gently blankets our island with pretty inconvenience, we think now is the perfect time to cozy up in front of the fireplace with our a copy of Brad & Jen: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Golden Couple. Why go out in this weather when you have the love of the Brad & Jen book club to keep you warm? Today, from page 131:

· Talon News, the rightwing news site that brought the world Jeff Gannon/James Guckert goes dark. Now we'll never find out the end of their important series on which gay Democrats are also child molesting Communists. [E&P]
· Chris Rock is the William F. Buckley of comedy? Kind of a stretch. Then again, in a piece on Buckley and The National Review from the July 1989 issue of SPY, Bob Mack recounted the following Rockian riff by the old man of the Right: "In November 1986 NR ran a cover story, 'Black and the G.O.P: Just Called to Say I Love You,' that outlined possible GOP stategies for attracting black voters. Presiding over the traditional post-issue recap, Buckley quipped, 'Maybe it should've been titled "Just Called to Say I Love You, Niggah."'" [Slate]
· US Weekly's Ken Baker helpfully forwards our brother site's content to Paris Hilton's hacked Sidekick in the same way we send our own posts to our grandmas. [im.a.hacker.la, via Defamer]
· America almost, like, stands by its ideals: Judge rules The Times can protect its phone records. [AP, Yahoo]