NOBELMAN? Gore

• Plot twist: AP is reporting that Shawn Hornbeck, the St. Louis teen held captive for four years, may have aided alleged kidnapper Michael Devlin in holding 11-year-old Ben Ownby. "During Ben's four days of captivity, Shawn helped ensure Ben did not escape during the hours when Devlin was at work."

• She's still Miss World to us: Turns out those reports that Courtney Love had been approached by a producer for American Idol were the result of a hoax. "I did not call Courtney Love and am afraid someone may have misrepresented me," says American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe.

• They're always deeply sorry: San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom has apologized for having an affair with the wife of Alex Tourk, his former campaign manager. "I am deeply sorry," the youthful mayor told reporters.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS Morrissey

But no one has asked the obvious question: What does Morrissey think? Until now. In a cover story in this week's LA Weekly the former Smiths singer weighs in on some candidates and explains why Condoleezza Rice has a "Nazi face."

[After the jump, Moz's political musings!]

NOVEL IDEA Penguin's worldwide fiction

Penguin's digital publisher, Jeremy Ettinghausen says, "To be honest, we don't know exactly what is going to happen or how this will turn out."

They might want to ask Michael Kinsley since, when he was the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, he briefly implemented a "wikitorial" system that would allow readers to tweak opinions at will. It lasted three glorious days. On June 21, 2005, AP reported that it was "flooded the site over the weekend with foul language and pornographic photos." All that remains of the experiment is a page that explains, "we have had to remove this feature, at least temporarily, because a few readers were flooding the site with inappropriate material."

PREVIOUSLY
• The Wiki That Was

DREADFUL MARKETERS Berdovsky, Stevens

That still doesn't mean this wasn't one hell of a guerrilla marketing scheme—or that the guerrillas involved regret their actions. The two are laughing off suggestions that their Lite Brite-esque "Mooninites," were intended to create a city-wide emergency lockdown.

BEATDOWN Dana, Carter (below)

An anonymous e-mail making the rounds this morning suggested that Dana wore out her welcome pre-arrival by making disrespectful remarks (possibly in jest) in public about Bill Carter, the Times's top TV beat writer. Her comments purportedly made their way back to Carter, resulting in the Times rescinding its offer in favor of a lesser arrangement. Now, sources close to the situation tell us that Dana, who had already signed a formal employment contract with the Times, has decided to simply stay put at the Observer.

GENUINE? Miller

After the jump, a selection sexy, spurious spin.

GET WITH THIS Johnson

Johnson cites stats that women make up 57 percent of university entrants, outnumber men across the board, and outscore them in subjects like math and engineering. Then he posits that this overclass of college-educated women will end up single and childless as they are increasingly unable to find mates who are their intellectual equals.

IN BLUME A Model Summer, a model (Porizkova, inset)

At least that's the impression one gets from Porizkova's debut novel, A Model Summer. Due out in April from Hyperion, it's a coming-of-age story about a 15-year-old Swedish model with a slavic name who is discovered and whisked off to Paris, where she learns about sex, drugs, untimely menstruation, sleazy photographers, and model-on-model betrayal. (Porizkova, who also moved to Paris from Sweden after being discovered at 15, insists her heroine is "purely fictional.") It's the cautionary tale that all America's Next Top Model wannabes should read.

HIS HOLINESS Myers in 1999 and as Pitka (inset)

You'd be forgiven for not knowing about the Guru unless you're the sort of comedy nerd who finds himself in serious debates about who's the secret genius behind Mr. Show, Bob or David. But comedy sites like the Apiary, CityRag, and Comedy Central's CC Insider have been buzzing about Myers's appearance since it was announced and tickets for the show were snapped up within minutes of going on sale.

SHAKE 'N' BAKE Ecko

The table was set on the basketball court, under the watchful gaze of a life-size Imperial Stormtrooper and within easy Force-summoning reach of Darth Maul's double lightsaber. An avid chef, Ecko personally loaded up his guests' plates and described in detail how the braised lamb shank had been prepared. As an overweight adolescent, he said, he had learned to cook by watching Frugal Gourmet (and alleged teen molester) Jeff Smith. These days, Ecko's doing more cooking than eating—he recently shed 70 pounds with the help of a trainer and nutritionist.

ROSEBUD! Wintour, Horyn (inset)

In what may be the closest thing to a takedown ever to appear in "Thursday Styles," Horyn delicately bitchslaps the icy empress of American fashion, accusing her of using her outsized influence to strong-arm luxury goods executives into hiring designers she likes, prop up no-talent socialites with the right connections, and otherwise impose a "homogenous, vaguely timid point of view" on the fashion landscape.