Yes, we’re going for the most obvious Oscar-broadcast joke imaginable, because if we don’t go there, Bruce Vilanch will. For that matter, he’d probably add a button about the Death Montage running long because of last-minute additions since the show began ages ago. Because Bruce Vilanch is a professional.

So let’s roll out the red — ummm, rockpet? — and have a gay old time at our Open Thread/Loyal Order of Water Buffalo Convention. Hey, everybody, let’s all give James Franco a warm hand!

NYT, Thursday:

After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie two years earlier to federal investigators who were vetting Bernard B. Kerik for the job of homeland security secretary…

Now, court documents filed in a lawsuit make clear whom Ms. Regan was accusing of urging her to lie: Roger E. Ailes, the powerful chairman of Fox News and a longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani.

And what was the purported lie? Denying that “Ms. Regan had once been involved in an affair with Mr. Kerik.”

So, other than needing a strong dose of mind bleach, what’s the problem here?

Oh, right: federal investigators. Which leads to…

Read more »

Title: “The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy”

Authors: Mark Logue and Peter Conradi

Rank: 81

Blurb: “This official film tie-in is written by London Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi and Mark Logue — grandson of Lionel Logue, one of the movie’s central characters.”

Review: “It is a non-fiction book, so you cannot expect the kind of entertainment that the film gives.”

Customers Also Bought: “William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls”, by Katie Nicholl

Footnote: So that makes six nominated films we haven’t seen. (And one we haven’t even heard of.) Which won’t stop us from hosting our Academy Awards Open Thread/Marble-Swallowing Invitational at 8 pm ET.

The King’s Speech [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

“Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is set to be deserted by another close ally after his Ukrainian nurse said she was heading home. Galyna Kolotnytska, described in a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks as a ‘voluptuous blond’ who ‘travel[s] everywhere’ with Col. Gadhafi, called her family in Kiev on Friday to say she intends to return to Ukraine, her daughter told daily Segodnya.” [WSJ]

As our friend Karl said of the original, Spielberg plays your heart with a two-by-four. For the sequel, just add nails.

ET-X: Extinction [via Buzzfeed & Benedick]

Don’t mess with Veronica, because she’ll cut you.

Point Blank Creative [via Comics Alliance]

Our guest columnist shares responsibility for the deaths of 108,866 Iraqi civilians.

April 7, 2003   11:46 AM

TO: Doug Feith

FROM: Donald Rumsfeld

SUBJECT: Issues w/Various Countries

We need more coercive diplomacy with respect to Syria and Libya, and we need it fast. If they mess up Iraq, it will delay bringing our troops home.

We also need to solve the Pakistan problem.

And Korea doesn’t seem to be going well.

Are you coming up with proposals for me to send around?

Thanks. 

What It’s Like to Work for Donald Rumsfeld [Atlantic]