Mostly it's bad, embarrassing news for Silverman, who was heralded back in 2007 as the coming of a new era. And for a time, he delivered. His departure is being spun as a resignation, but it looks a lot like Silverman was pushed. His two-year contract recently expired and the gig that he has lined up — running something for Barry Diller's IAC — sounds like deal slapped together in a hurry. As Diller vaguely describes it, Silverman will "create a truly integrated and truly interactive new media production entity, a next generation enterprise that bridges the gap between traditional television and the internet."

While at NBC, Silverman had a few successes watching The Office (which his old shingle Reveille sold to the network before he joined) develop into a critical and moderate ratings success.

But everything else? Yeck. None of the big hour-long programs that rolled out under Silverman's watch made much of an impact. Not Heroes (though, admittedly, that was developed before Silverman took over), not Knight Rider, not Southland, not Chuck, not My Own Worst Enemy. Plus the buzzed-about comedy Kath & Kim proved a complete disaster and old warhorses like Law & Order: SVU seemed to be graying around the edges.

Really this is just a story of a daring move—hire the cockeyed optimist kid to shake up creaky network TV—that sadly didn't pan out. It's not HBO, guys. It's TV.

The story says as much about the ease with which kids behave beyond themselves in the "protected" sphere of the internet as it does about how loneliness, insecurity, and bullying can spark an already troubled mind into catastrophic action. A terrible story, but definitely an interesting, and vaguely gay-panicked?, read.

Amiri, also a former club owner, got a call from his hysterical mother saying that his father had been arrested on suspicion of helping his son escape Iran 20 years ago, only so said son could go and blaspheme the nation terribly:

They came and picked him up at 7:30 in the morning, and basically they were asking about me because of my role in The Wrestler. They were saying I was a traitor, and also because of my playing a gay character [in Factory Girl], the F-word got thrown around a couple times.

He was eventually released unharmed.

I don't know if it's more scary that Iran gives such a shit about what happens in the make-believe land we cobble together over here, or if it's more heartening that American independent cinema is being seen in places as far-flung as Persia.

It was all the fault of Bloomberg aide Kevin Sheekey, to begin with, and his plot was to build popular support for her through a media blitz and wait for Paterson to fall in line. That failed because all the New York Democrats decided they resented her, for not paying her New York Democrat dues, and also it failed because everyone was all "why should she be a Senator, again?" So Kevin Sheekey threw himself under the bus by announcing that he's done with this terrible mess to the Post, and today in the Daily News Kennedy's people are all "man Sheekey fucked this up, we are asking him to tone it down."

"There had been huge missteps in the way [City Hall] constructed this," said a source involved in the Kennedy effort to muzzle Bloomberg operative Kevin Sheekey.

"It's just a dialing down of anything that would be harmful to her," the source said.
[...]
Another source said Sheekey was being pushed aside so neither Gov. Paterson nor Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver would think Bloomberg was trying to muscle her into the Senate.

"The Bloomberg support has not been helping, clearly, with Shelly or the governor, whose people have talked about him not wanting to feel boxed in," the source said.

Here is the problem with this story: the Kennedy backlash is entirely the fault of the candidate, not overaggressive lobbying by anyone. The candidate is unqualified and misty-brained and aloof and vague.

But sure, this is a nice last-ditch effort guys, good work.

Yesterday, we were shown a series of stills from a video depicting Cook and Bianchi, both nude, having sexual intercourse on a brown love seat. They also show Bianchi performing a sizzling striptease down to a pair of black, G-string panties and then to her birthday suit as Cook holds his crotch.
Another shows Cook resting his head on Bianchi's buttocks. It appears the tape was made at Cook's Southampton architectural office without Bianchi's knowledge. But other stills that are apparently not from the video show Bianchi willingly posing topless.

The question now is who is shopping the tape ti the likes of the Post, which reviewed it. Since Bianchi didn't know it existed, and since her lawyer is talking about suing over it, it was presumably shot by Cook or, if source "close to him" is to be believed, someone else with access to his office. Whoever it is better get a move on — the celebrity ex-husband's scuzzy moment in the spotlight is fast drawing to a close.

"Sherene asked Amy if she could take a photo," the source alleged. "Amy was OK at first, but then Sherene asked if a friend could get in the shot, Amy lashed out."

The source said the 25-year-old, who has had a number of medical and substance-related problems in the past year, had just completed a "tragic" on-stage performance with her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield.

"It was tragic—she seemed totally wasted," the source told the Mail regarding Winehouse's performance Thursday. "She was jumping all over Dionne as the poor girl tried to sing for the crowd. Amy didn't really sing a single note—it sounded more like she was grunting down the mic."

[UPI]

[via IsThisHappening]

"Sources who have seen some of the files report that Brinkley will accuse Cook of trawling porn sites, including swinger sites, in search of sex partners. He also regularly logged on to swinger sites in search of women, the source claimed.

"Cook's attorney is arguing that the emotional damage of airing these complaints publically would be devastating to the couple's two children—Sailor, 9, and Jack, 12—whom Cook legally adopted.

"'The father obviously wants this closed,' said his lawyer Norman Sheresky. 'There are two young kids in this case... I don't know what they know and I don't know of any parent who has made an appeal to keep the court open.'

"The judge's ruling is expected early next week." [Independent]