Kind of like a Harry Potter book, right? Michael Lohan's now Jon Gosselin's contracts expert. Nothing but squares at the Daily News. Robert Pattinson hates his life. Carrie Prejean: monumentally stupider than previously imagined. Here's your Saturday Morning Gossip Roundup:

According to the New York Times' Danny Hakim, Rudolph Giuliani has decided not to run for governor of New York next year, despite publicly flirting with the idea for months. Is a shoe somewhere about to drop?

Rupert Murdoch called Gov. David Paterson earlier today to apologize for his bizarre comments yesterday in which he suggested the governor was clueless about the political goings-on in New York because he was blind. And Paterson accepted. "Apparently, Paterson was willing to chalk Murdoch's bizarre comments up to a 'random misstatement.'" [NYDN]

Rupert Murdoch has apologized for blaming the polarization of our political debate on the fact that New York Gov. David Paterson is "blind, and can't read braille, and doesn't know what's going on."

Murdoch was on a panel with Indian mogul Ratan Tata and Mexican billionaire and future New York Times owner Carlos Slim. The question that elicited Murdoch's bizarre reference to New York Gov. David Paterson was clearly directed at Fox News: "How do we bring more civil discourse to the discussion, and stop appealing to the populists on the right and the left?"

So much for those TV commercials that Gov. David Paterson was hoping would boost his popularity (and which he spent half a million dollars on): According to a new poll, Paterson now trails Andrew Cuomo by a staggering 59 points in a potential primary next year. [NYP]

A day after Gov. Paterson announced that New York would introduce new license plates—and charge every motorist $25 for the privilege of switching over to the "Empire Gold" plates—and he's already backing away from the plan. Following a storm of protest, Paterson now says he's prepared to abandon the fee. As long as someone can figure out how to make up for the $129 million gap in the state's budget. The governor says he doesn't know how to do it. Do you? Call 518-474-8390 and ask for Dave. [NYP]

First of all: two awesome TV ads. Governor Paterson looks so much more professional clean-shaven, right? We miss the mustache though. The first ad is all "I never asked to be governor and also I have too won some political victories" and the second one is mostly "look, you don't actually know anything about this man, so we will tell you that he was very smart and went to Columbia and stuff."

And here we were thinking that the end of the 2009 election cycle meant we wouldn't have to see any annoying campaign commercials until at least the fall of 2010. New York's gubernatorial elections are a full year away, but Gov. David Paterson is "making the highly unusual move" of airing two new commercials beginning tomorrow in the hopes of boosting his low approval numbers. We can't see how the two spots are going to do much to salvage his political fortunes. But you can have a look at the two commercials here and decide for yourself. [NYDN]

For our next installment of the Spitzer Files—our collection of e-mails between flacks and reporters during Eliot Spitzer's downfall—we bring you the tale of the Today producer who offered to help a flack find a job at NBC.

It looks like Gov. David Paterson's campaign to remake his public image by changing up his facial hair has yet to pay off, unfortunately. A new poll by Siena College indicates Andrew Cuomo would beat Paterson 70% to 20% in a potential Democratic primary, and 72% of New Yorkers would prefer to see someone else elected governor. But it's not all bad news: Paterson's job approval rating now stands at 19%, which is up a whole percentage point from last month. [NYDN]

Were you waiting to hear that David Paterson has decided to drop out of the race for governor in 2010? That hasn't happened yet, but he has come to a decision on another matter of great political import. The governor declared yesterday that he wholeheartedly endorses the selection of Jay-Z as MTV's "Hottest MC" for 2009:

Bill Thompson won the Democratic primary for mayor by a substantial margin last week and he started airing his first TV commercial. So he's probably made a dent in Mayor Bloomberg's lead, hasn't he? Not so much, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning:

Is Rudy Giuliani planning to run for president again in 2012? And is that why President Obama encouraged Gov. Paterson to abandon his gubernatorial bid? (The theory being that if Giuliani becomes New York's governor next year, he'd be better positioned to compete in a presidential election in 2012, and that by pushing Paterson aside, the chances of Rudy taking Albany are greatly diminished.) That's "insanity" and "very silly," and it ain't gonna happen, says Steve Kornacki. [PolitickerNY]

Oh, Rahm. Why must you meddle? Emanuel and White House political director Patrick Gaspard tried to force New York governor David Paterson out of the 2010 election to make room for Andrew Cuomo and they just made everything worse.

Gov. David Paterson is retooling his public image once again. After opting to shave off his salt-and-pepper beard a few weeks ago and go with a handsome mustache, he showed up to meetings this morning sans any facial hair whatsoever. Will this improve his standing with voters? Will it do anything to repair his relationship with President Obama? Let's just say it certainly can't hurt. [NYT, previously]

Gov. David Paterson wasn't in a good mood yesterday. Still on the defensive following the revelation over the weekend that President Obama has been quietly (or not-so-quietly) urging him to abandon his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, the governor had to come face to face with the president when Obama stopped off in Albany yesterday to give a speech. (And had to suffer the embarrassment of having the president turn his back to the cameras, "as if to avoid the taking of images that would show the two men in a warm embrace.") But what a difference a day makes!

So. Obama sent New York governor David Paterson a letter asking him to not run for governor. Dumb! Because David Paterson is sensitive! And New York needs a governor who does not think everyone is out to get him.

News emerged over the weekend that President Obama has been urging Gov. David Paterson to seriously consider bowing out of the race for governor, since the president and his advisers don't think he has a chance of winning next fall, especially if he goes up against Rudy Giuliani. Paterson rejected the suggestion yesterday, and indicated he plans to move ahead with his campaign. This morning the two men came face to face when the president touched down in Albany to deliver an economic address at a nearby college. So how did that go? It was a little bit awkward, not surprisingly:

Hmm! Former McCain blogger and current Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb says his boss says two sources say Hillary Clinton is going to resign as Secretary of State to run for... Governor of New York!(?)