Don’t be fooled by the wonderful cover art for this week’s New York Magazine–Vanessa Gigoriadis’s story, “Celebrity and Its Discontents,” is a dud. (As most New York pieces are.)

But it does have one passage of reporting in it so good that it nearly redeems the entire piece:

So who would want to be a star under these conditions? Listen to a star in the making: Ariel Gade, 8, at the premiere of mainstream horror flick Dark Water, when asked if she likes fame. “I love it,” she says, her voice quavering with excitement. “I’m just having such a good time tonight!” Does she want to be famous? “I’d like to be a director. I think directors are the coolest people around.” When I ask her if things were still the same with her friends, first she says yes, but then reconsiders: “Well,” she says, scrunching up her exquisite face, “actually, I’m home-schooled, so I don’t have any friends. But I do have cousins.” She starts to walk away but stops short. “Oh, and by the way, this is a Bill Blass design,” she says, holding out her pink tulle dress. “Bill Blass brought it over a few days ago, I don’t remember exactly when. Bill Blass gave it to me as a little gift.” (Which would have been nice, except Bill Blass is dead.)

Although I was joking when I mentioned Deutsche Bank’s anschluss of the Washington Nationals, it seems at least one Nats fan is getting into the spirit of things: At last night’s sweltering game against the Colorado Rockies, some four seats down from me sat an older fellow, a white male probably in his 60s, overweight, and wearing knee supports. As I scooted past him to get to the aisle, I noticed a small tattoo on his lower leg. It was greenish blue in color, no thicker than a Sharpie. But there was no mistaking what it was: a swastika. “That’s a prison tat,” said one of my colleagues.

I guess everyone has their favorite team, even a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. But I also couldn’t help hoping he and his buddy would get lost somewhere in Northeast Washington after the game.

Since we don’t know anything solid about the London bombings yet, here are many more pictures of that 1,100 lb. shark. Has to be seen to be believed. More pics after the link.

Just in case this is another terror attack in London, let’s have one last laugh (from Brendon Donnelly, natch):

“At some point, sex with Angelina Jolie–I don’t care what she’ll let you do to her–just becomes more trouble than it’s worth.”

We’re gonna need a bigger boat.

Meryl Yourish has a series of posts with reports from a protestor at the Israeli pullout: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Craig Henry spots what must have been Wonkette’s film debut.

You know the routine. She was young, she needed the money; she didn’t read the release form; she was just acting on the side to put herself through law school . . .

We kid because we love!

When Shaq engages in Godfather talk, it’s cool. When Democratic activists do it, it’s sad.

Over at Daily Kos there’s all sorts of posing going on (and on) about what kind of tough guys they’d like to be. Here’s Billmon on who the Democrats should emulate:

The Dems don’t want to be like Fredo — weak, insecure and eager to earn the good will of people who are inevitably going to be enemies of “the family.” (That’s where too many of them are at now.)

They shouldn’t be like Sonny — impulsive, emotional and a few quarts short of a full crankcase. Shrub is like that and it’s usually what gets him into trouble. (“Bring ’em on!”)

The Dems need to try to be more like Michael — cool, analytical and totally pragmatic. “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”

Sometimes that means ordering a hit, sometimes it means biding your time. Sometimes it means striking with everything you’ve got […]

Sometimes it means offering to talk peace, while secretly preparing to wack the guy. Sometimes it means just plain talking peace.

But it has nothing to do with fairness or open-mindedness or listening to opposing points of view. It has to do with what’s best for the “family” — which in this case we can define broadly as those groups and constituencies in American society who oppose the GOP machine and want to see it destroyed (or at least kicked out of power.)

Get it? “Shrub”? Ha! Markos Moulitsas–the godfather of the lefty blogs–seconds that emotion, saying:

Exactly. It’s being smart about it, coldy calculating. It’s not about giving anyone a free pass, but laying the foundation for what might come forth. . . .

So we demand a full airing of [Roberts’s] views and prepare for what might emerge. If we don’t like what we see, then whack. We let loose the artillery. There’s a time and place for everything.

They’re so butch!

Moulitsas and Billmon want to see “the family” succeed–and bully for them. The problem is, they define “the family” as the people wanting to destroy the Republican party. Not exactly a formula for electoral–or even intellectual–success.

It may sound a little naive, but political movements are supposed to believe that they are working for the broad benefit of all Americans. This segment of the Democratic party self-professedly does not. How many elections do they have to lose before the responsible center of the Democratic party (which makes up the vast majority of the caucus, by the way; just ask Howard Dean) decides to throw these people overboard?

People who dance around in front of the mirror preening about how very, very bad they are shouldn’t be part of any serious political movement.