MySpace is sick, and its Slingshot Labs spinoff looks like the first appendage of the social network to be amputated. We're told Rupert Murdoch's social media lab is finally dead.

We hear News Corporation is winding down MySpace spinoff Slingshot Labs, a vestige of the media conglomerate's efforts to retain MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe. But the labs are hatching one last diabolical plot, on behalf of the Wall Street Journal.

Sucking up to the CEO's wife is usually a wise move. But did it doom MySpace chief Chris DeWolfe?

The celebrity-industrial complex will expand, must expand, can't help but expand until every site on the Web features gossipy famous-people headlines. The latest entrant: DailyFill, MySpace's slapdash copycat celebrity-news site.