The cruel reality of Popular Entertainment is that it needs to be entertaining before it can be popular. Your mileage may vary with the next tentpole comic-book movie to desecrate your local multiplex, but as the producers of the Spider-Man musical have learned, it’s not as easy as it looks.

Which is why we’ve never had much patience with the Liberal Hollywood Conspiracy complaint. Yes, Norman Lear wore his politics on his sleeve, but All in the Family was funny, and Rob Reiner certainly wasn’t an untouchable youth hero. For that matter, jumping ahead a generation, we thoroughly enjoyed the fourth season of 24, which was so wonderfully over-the-top that we felt deprived if Keefer didn’t shoot somebody in the thigh on a given Monday night.

And hey, we still enjoy Mamet, even if he is a fucking asshole.

All of which is to say, the well-intentioned producers behind a new direct-to-DVD TV series are missing the point:

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Title: “The Original Argument: The Federalists’ Case for the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century”

Author: Glenn Beck

Rank: 4

Blurb: “Adapting a selection of these essential essays — pseudonymously authored by the now well-documented triumvirate of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay — for a contemporary audience, Glenn Beck has had them reworked into ‘modern’ English so as to be thoroughly accessible to anyone seeking a better understanding of the Founding Fathers’ intent and meaning when laying the groundwork of our government.”

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Mark Grisanti is a Catholic Republican state senator from Buffalo, who has opposed gay marriage. Last night, he changed his mind:

Tonight, I joined my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to legalize same sex marriage in New York State. Since I began my term as Senator I have met with many people on both sides of this issue, read numerous documents and independent studies. Given the high stakes, I felt I owed it to everyone to make a well-informed decision. I have come to believe that all New Yorkers should be entitled to the same 1,324 rights that come with a civil marriage. As an attorney I analyzed the legislation and concluded that the amendments provide critical exemptions for religious institutions. Passage of this bill now rather than later ensures that these protections be included. I cannot deny anyone in my district and across New York the same rights I have with my wife.

Barack Obama is the Democratic President of the United States. Thursday night, speaking in Manhattan, he waffled:

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Ladies & Ladies and Gentlemen & Gentlemen, start your gift registries.

More discoveries from Osama’s Pakistan resort…

As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that al-Qaida was suffering from a marketing problem. His group was killing too many Muslims and that was bad for business. The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead and he barely knew their replacements.

Faced with these challenges, bin Laden, who hated the United States and decried capitalism, considered a most American of business strategies. Like Blackwater, ValuJet and Philip Morris, perhaps what al-Qaida really needed was a fresh start under a new name.

In case you’re wondering why AirTran Airways (née ValuJet) is on the clever AP writer’s mind, we invite you to revisit ValuJet Flight 592.

Terror by any other name: Osama eyed name change [AP]

‘Columbo’ star Peter Falk dies at 83 [Today, via RML]

So we’re catching up with Conan last night — the TV show, not the bewildering movie remake — and he drops a joke about Rick Perry fending off gay rumors. This is news to us, because we’ve never heard of any Rick Perry gay rumors. (Is he seceding from heterosexuality?) So we rev up the StinquePad, start typing Rick Perry’s name into Google…

…and before we can get to “gay”, before we can even get to g, we get this.

What’s up? Is another wingnut getting rickrolled?

Near as we can figure, Rick Perry’s Rainbow Condition began, as all things do, with a Politico story this week:

If Texas Gov. Rick Perry decides to run for president, his team is more than prepared for a re-airing of unsubstantiated rumors, circulated on and off for years in the Lone Star State, about his personal life.

The crusted-over rumors were in the ether among some attendees at a dinner hosted last week by the Manhattan County GOP, where Perry gave the keynote speech. The rumors, which have never been proven despite repeated review by media outlets, were addressed by the governor himself in a lengthy 2004 American-Statesman story that is sure to see new life if he runs.

The claims, which had made the rounds for months by the time the story was written, included rumors that Perry and his wife Anita had split, and that the governor was gay.

This is classic Politico: “crusted-over rumors in the ether among some attendees” is all the sourcing you get for this story, which could mean that somebody revived an old joke at a back table. But that’s all you need to spark a Google trend and wind up the pawn of a late-night comedian. By comparison, Anthony Weiner is an overachiever.

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