Seriously, does everybody in the world have to be blogging? Pulitzer-winning playwright David Mamet will blog as the character from his latest play, November, for the duration of its run. Charles H.P. Smith is played by Nathan Lane and is a president in danger of not getting re-elected. So far, he has blogged exactly three Andy Rooney-ish observations such as, "The best that [stem cell] research could accomplish would be to prolong the lives of people who were going to die anyway. Is it worth the aggravation?" One might ask the same question of this promotional blog. [NYT]

We do so hope that comedian Paul Mecurio's essay in the New York Times magazine this weekend wasn't just a bit, because if he actually dropped trou in broad Midtown daylight just to teach a surly newsstand guy a lesson in customer service, then we basically worship his batshit crazy self. Could we please borrow him the next time we find ourselves in the godforsaken blackhole of courtesy and common sense that is every single Duane Reade store? [NYTM]

Hey, suddenly the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is about race! The Clintons said a couple iffy things about Barry Obama and Martin Luther King, and then—more importantly—spent the weekend denying and apologizing. Bill (whose "first black president" title was bestowed on him by author Toni Morrison) called Al Sharpton! Now Obama, whom the media sorta treated as post-racial, is "the black candidate." Daniel Radosh rightly wonders if this wasn't perhaps deviously intentional (linking Obama to Al Sharpton is a pretty easy way to boost his national negatives). At the least it was an accidental opportunity the Clintons brilliantly seized upon. Aren't we all excited to have them back? We can't wait for Mike Bloomberg to enter the race so Hillary can announce that despite the great work of all those Jews, it was the gentiles who beat the Nazis. Then Bill can apologize to Jackie Mason. [NYT, Radosh]

Anyone have pics or stories from Thursday's party for Wall Street Journal staff? Given the bureau chiefs, flown in for their annual pow-wow, were just told that investigative reporting was being pushed to the weekend, or inside pages, one has to imagine there were some forced smiles. Email nick@gawker.com.

Has Fox Business Network put a scare in CNBC? Not by the numbers, but by the channel's content, we'd say so. CNBC has picked up on Rupert Murdoch's "sex sells" business-network strategy. As part of its "Keeping America Great" series, CNBC aired a segment on "Sex and the Tech Revolution" from the AVN 2008 (NSFW) adult-entertainment convention in Las Vegas.

Is awkward-teen-pic-posting a way to appear less narcissistic than you really are? Even though curly-headed divorcebloggist-turned-chicklit-er Stephanie Klein's website is chock-full of pics chronicling herself and friends looking alternately happy, drunky, or contemplative, she wants you to know that she's still real, just like us. And she used to look weird! Is this the blog-version of the "I used to be a nerd in highschool" line that celebs are always proclaiming? [Greek Tragedy]

So the story about the twins, separated at birth, who accidentally married each other years later? The sole source is a speech by a nutty pro-life former MP on the floor of the irrelevant House of Lords in the UK. And there are no names nor identifying details. There is so little to this story that CNN.com could not actually squeeze three separate, distinct "STORY HIGHLIGHT" bullet points to summarize up top. Happy Friday! If it's not a slow news day, your newsmedia shall create one. [CNN]

Bill O'Reilly's crusade against NBC (the result of his feud with MSNBC runner Keith Olbermann) reached a dramatic and hilarious peak recently when he sent his correspondents to ambush GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt. Because they used to sell airplane parts to Iran, you see! This is a target far greater in power and influence than O'Reilly's usual liberal bugbears, but it's certainly not unprecedented for certain TV rebels to attack the giant conglomerate. It's just that it usually happens on programs broadcast on GE's own network. Join us for a few entertaining examples, won't you?

No one expects the fannish inquisition. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg can breathe easy; he has nothing to fear from 60 Minutes after all. From the looks of the teaser CBS News is running for his upcoming interview, the hardest question Zuckerberg got asked was if he got in trouble at Harvard for launching Facemash, a predecessor of Facebook built from photos he hacked out of school servers. The venerable news organization even got his net worth wrong — he owns 27 percent of Facebook, making him worth $4 billion on paper, not $3 billion. So much for factchecking. Here are the questions we wish CBS's Lesley Stahl had asked — but doubt she bothered:

The latest issue of Men's Journal tells the story of Keith Olbermann, the logorrheic sportscaster who terrorized ESPN while creating its sarcastic brand, became a failed "serious" newscaster, and finally ended up as the hopeful savior of perennial third-place cable news network MSNBC by providing a liberal blowhardy-but-funny alternative to Fox's self-serious conservative goons. Olbermann—nearly canceled a few short years ago—is rapidly becoming the face of the network, thanks to his solid ratings and fantastic demographic numbers. "Keith runs MSNBC," an unnamed senior MSNBC executive tells Men's Journal. "Chris Matthews is infuriated by it." Naturally! They're both ridiculously self-important, convinced of their encyclopedic knowledge of everything political, and they tend to not mesh well with other egos. Poor Chris already has Tim Russert undermining him, the last thing he needed was an up-and-comer usurping his tiny, wonky niche. [TVNewser]

If you need help in deciding to vote for, CosmoGirl offers a handy quiz—so you can pick a candidate in the same way you can decide "Which celeb pooch are you?" and "Are you addicted to gossip?" (Yes!) Sample candidate-choosing question: "What is most important to you: getting national health care, ending the war in Iraq, cutting federal taxes, or defending the U.S. against terrorism?" Remember, you can only pick one! I picked the most annoying answers I could find, and wound up with Rudy Giuliani: "He was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2001... This socially liberal Republican is your presidential match!" Or you could go the old-fashioned route and just go with whoever your Dad is voting for. [CosmoGirl]

Have you seen those commercials starring real-life Knicks fans going on about how much they love their team? The New York Press called foul on the ads this week, reporting the team had hired actors to play the roles. Not exactly a shocker, how many authentic Knicks fans could there possibly be these days? The New York Post was outraged enough to run a double bylined piece today, albeit without crediting the Press story, which occasionally happens after an item has languished for a couple of days. Though, um, we wondered how the Post came across the item-can you even get the Press in Midtown?

Peter Koechley, former managing editor of The Onion, now works for that 2004 throwback MoveOn.org. So everyone who still inexplicably receives their email blasts ought to enjoy his biting wit and trenchant satire as he begs them for money and encourages them to vote for whichever Democratic candidate's loss will be the most heartbreaking. [DC Examiner]

What's the difference between a blogger and a journalist? Nothing, says CNET's Rafe Needleman. But he's concerned that Gizmodo's sophomoric prank, using a TV remote control to turn off video screens at the CES 2008 gadgetfest, will get bloggers disinvited to the event next year. After all, CES only grudgingly started accrediting bloggers to the show. The only problem with Needleman's thesis?

Cancel those ends of days-Ingrid Sischy isn't leaving Interview, she's just on vacation with Sir Elton John. In South Africa. Naturally! The magazine's executive editor Brad Goldfarb tells us it's a "long-planned" annual trip and that he's been working with Sischy by phone all week. She'll be "back at her desk Monday," he said. Phew! Also, never mind!

Intern Memo advises this year's crop of interns to weigh their housing options carefully: "You don't want to be in a situation where you're getting gauged (sic) on some horrible apartment." Especially the so-called "dangerous and scary" areas near Los Angeles' University of Southern California, where blacks sometimes live. [Intern Memo]

NBC News anchor Brian Williams "loves his nickname," says Rachel Sklar over at HuffPo. The perenially upbeat media blogger dubbed him 'BriWi' at some point, we couldn't even begin to tell you why. Makes him sound like some newfangled networking device from Apple. Oooh, maybe he is! Thing is, when she mentions it to him in a video interview, he looks like he just wants to bolt. Or smack her, whatever ends the whole thing fastest.

MySpace has launched MySpace Celebrity, the celeb arm of the social-networking site. It's very...purple. The channel intends to empower previously disenfranchised celebs to "communicate directly with fans and control their voice." MySpace founder Tom says, "It's a natural extension for us to now offer them an aggregated channel where they can be in control of their own image." Hey, isn't that what they pay other people to do for them? And what about content? Oh, there will be content. Along with an exclusive news partnership with People.com, "Mathew (sic) McConaughey has provided MySpace Celebrity with an exclusive Q&A," among other things. [MySpace Celebrity]

Is this what it takes to sate an angry mob of permalancers? JoAnne Griffith, the HR exec who delivered to the cable network's freelancers the news before the holidays that their benefits were being cut, is out. MTV, which was forced to reverse the cuts after a walkout by non-salaried workers, came out with the usual boilerplate on Griffith's departure. (Really, why do they even bother?) "She's been a phenomenal leader and great champion for MTV Networks,""This is a large, complex company, and with JoAnne's great human touch and innovative approach to HR, we continue to set a high bar and strive for the best for you," an internal email sent this morning to MTV employees reads. Irreplaceable? No. Replacement Catherine Houser, "has the people skills, innovative ideas, and passion for our company and its employees that we need in an HR leader." Phew. Email and official release after the jump.

It's Thursday, and what's back in style this week, according to the NYT Styles? For certain men, vests "feel right again." (Did they ever feel wrong?) A few important points: the three-piece suit's "strength is also its weakness," but standing alone, the vest "kicks things up a notch." Vests were at Christmas parties, and are all up in the clubs. And also! Vests let men show off the size of their "drop," a sort of sexy waist-to-chest ratio. Perhaps most importantly, "you can feel your cellphone vibrate in it much better than in your jacket." What else has the Styles section proclaimed back for men in the last year?