Today's LAT article on the struggles of little people in Hollywood to change the public's image and gain mainstream acting roles effectively (and probably inadvertantly) advances their cause—by illustrating that actors of small stature can act just as crazy in the pursuit of a part as your run-of-the-mill, full-size Cheesecake Factory waiter with a 1982 Datsun full of headshots. Little person actor Eugene Pidgeon has tried to write himself into Gilmore Girls and is finally receiving the "equal treatment" he craves.

After mentioning an upcoming, barely-fictionalized account of working under Star editorial director Bonnie Fuller, we've received word of another roman à clef about, we think, the exact same thing. Hurry, it's a race to the publishing house:

Time journalist Matthew Cooper, best known for being held in contempt of court when he refused to testify in the investigation of the outing of CIA "operative" Valerie Plame, has been set free from the threat of impending legal doom. District courts have dismissed the orders against Cooper because he has conveniently been given permission by Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to finally talk about certain confidential conversations pertaining to Plame.

Los Angeles magazine profiles "difficult" but "influential" L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, who recently gave the LAT and NYT fits with her coverage of GraydonGate and The Great Bicoastal Newspaper War. To illustrate the Finke Experience, writer R.J. Smith takes us inside a phone call:

· Scott Omelianuk, a former GQ and Esquire editor, has been tapped to helm This Old House magazine. Did you even know there was such a thing? We sure as hell didn't. [NYP]
· Publishers attempt to hit the college demographic with various free magazine titles to be distributed around campuses, including a National Georgraphic spin-off. Yeah, undergrads are really going to put down their bongs for that one. [MediaWeek]
· Conde Nast gets a new vice president in the form of deposed Glamour publisher Suzanne Grimes. Don't worry, Grimes doesn't intend to make the icy tower a "kindler, gentler place." [NYP]

Los Angeles magazine profiles LA Weekly's rogue reporter, Nikki Finke — maybe you recall her loquacious ripping of some new assholes over at GQ. But this isn't about Nikki. No, this is about our lover, New York Times media reporter David Carr, who always says the sweetest things:

It's come to our attention that our fortress of gossip, the New York Times, is expanding their dishy coverage during the forthcoming apocalypse Republican National Convention. Yes, as if the stunning "Boldface Names" beat weren't enough, the grizzled paper is planning a special-edition column for RNC week entitled "Pink Elephants." Watch out, Lloyd Grove, this one's going to be nipping at your heels.

The New Republic reminds us today that media writer-turned-political-pseudo-journalist Michael Wolff, sadly enough, is indeed alive over at Vanity Fair. We had no idea, seeing as we try to avoid anything that weighs more than US Weekly. The article treats us to a view of Michael's Upper East Side digs, complete with cats and dogs and all the fluffy accoutrements of a happy media life. Jealous? Don't be:

We apparently hit a chord when earlier discussing the poor practices of some major media outlets. Awesome! Time for another redact-o-rama. A delighted reader writes in:

We can hardly feign shock at revelations of inflated circulation numbers in major publications, especially regarding Newsday's stalking of deceased and/or uninterested readers. The problem of false circulation figures is widespread, no doubt. According to a super-redacted tip, even the glossies are playing the game:

Fall is our favorite time of year for one reason: big, fat fashion magazines hit the stands like Naomi Campbell's hand on a maid's face. In the race for ad dollars, there's no stopping magazine publishers from strength-testing the limits of your local mailperson with forest-killing issues. Vogue pushes out the biggest of the fall preemies at a whopping 3.75 lbs.

Slate pokes around the newspaper circulation number inflation scandal and comes up with some very disturbing news: Newsday is literally forcing itself upon innocent civilians, both alive and dead. Horrific, indeed!

Bitchtastic sister site Gawker gets its meticulously manicured hands on an e-mail exchange between LA Weekly "Deadline Hollywood" columnist Nikki Finke and an editor at GQ. We fear that Finke might be suffering the early signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from her time reporting from the trenches of the bloody NYT-LAT Newspaper War of 2004, because she really goes off on the glossy, ad-riddled mag. (Note to LA Weekly staffers: Don't mention Manohla Dargis or you risk setting off a flashback episode involving your throat and one of those gigantic "Rambo" knives with the compass on the bottom.) An excerpt from the exchange follows:

It's not too often that the taut and tanned Hollywood set gets a chance to smackdown the pasty New York media circuit, but leave it to LA Weekly's Hollywood writer Nikki Finke to make it happen. Someone's leaked an email fray between hellcat Finke and an unassuming, unnamed GQ Editor, and I just started twitching uncontrollably. So many LA flashbacks before breakfast! Sample some serious bitch-slappery after the jump.

We're kind of falling in love with the New York Observer's new-ish media reporter Tom Scocca. In today's interview with The Black Table, Scocca gives his thoughts on his gig covering the media and preaches to your choir:

· When we mentioned New York mag's ugly Time Warner Center restaurant reviews yesterday, we failed to note that the restaurants also paid $42K for a full-page ad in the very same issue. Advertising and editorial content don't go hand in hand? Scandal! [NYDN (2nd item)]
· Magazine numbers are in: People magazine reports that their highest selling issue was "Mel's Passion." Given People's core audience of Christ-loving hunk-worshippers, this should surprise no one. [NYDN]
· A sad missive from the LAT/NYT wars: New York Times assistant editorial page editor Andres Martinez has been named editorial page editor for the Los Angeles Times. I'm not sure if being shifted from New York to LA counts a promotion, per se, but let's allow Martinez to celebrate for now. [LA Times]
· Finally, someone says what we want to hear: Martha Stewart has no cash. [NYP]

We're more than a little heartbroken to learn that Vincent Gallo has pulled his surely-riveting, three-page essay from the Village Voice in reaction to a dispute over the issue's cover image. Voice editor-in-chief Don Forest wisely refused to run a headshot of Gallo on the cover in lieu of a kinder, gentler image, the one you just know they'd pick: the lovely shot of Vinnie being serviced by poor trash-monkey Chloë Sevigny. Gallo, however, didn't want the paper to run the picture and thus withdrew his essay — because, you know, that image is really sacred and special and should only be seen on massive billboards.
Gallo Yanks Voice Story [Page Six]

· The New York Times opts to censor passages from novelist Tom Wolfe s upcoming book, I Am Charlotte Simmons. Questionable language will be replaced with the classy phrase "sexual activity." Borrrring! Why must the Times demur from a little rimjob talk? [NYP]
· A rundown of the fall fashion mags tells us what we already knew: Vogue weighs in at just under four pounds, making it the heaviest, most obnoxious magazine ever —except for a few other notable issues, including last September's Vogue. We are so buying it... to use as a bullet-proof shield. [NYDN]
· Wal-Mart insists there s no hidden agenda in its minority journalism scholarship program, except for the obvious Let s Get Some Minorities To Shop At Our Store And Write About It agenda. [NYT]

Evidently The New Republic has taken New Yorker editor David Remnick's recent crack about a lack of Paris Hilton coverage to heart. It's cute when stuffy publications dip their toes in the shallow end! Everyone please put on your serious faces for some Paris Hilton coverage, TNR style:

Sure we're all hot and bothered about newly self-outed ex-Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey — everyone in the media wants to get into his pants, evidently. (We can only hope you didn't miss Fox and CNN between 7 and 8 last night, as Shep Smith and Anderson Cooper got down and dirty on their respective networks over the breaking gay Governor story. Oh, it was a real treat, believe you me.)