Here's a sad update the story of Angel Hess, the hipster/hippie whose raggedy truck "Purple 53" once haunted Williamsburg: He's stuck in Colorado, where he says he's been scammed by a childhood friend who "hijacked" his truck.

Remember how yesterday we told bloggers they should insist on getting paid because "someone is making money off your work and your content?" That argument applies to the creative side of pretty much any corporate media endeavor. But all rules have their exceptions, and Exhibit A, for today at least, is Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn. For the show's first season, Gunn worked for free, it has emerged in court. Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein and his Weinstein Co. were milking the show for every last dollar. In season two, Gunn took home just $2,500 per episode. These days, of course, he has his own spinoff program, a best-selling book and a cushy executive suite gig at Liz Claiborne. So should everyone go throwing their labor around for free? Of course not! Here's why it worked for Gunn:

This is getting ridiculous. Today, Alley Insider reported that some bloggers at AOL have chosen to keep posting for free after cutbacks that would only pay them for five posts per day. It's assumed that at least some people are indeed donating some of their blog posts. And don't even get me started on the Huffington Post, that repository of crackpot rants built by an army of many free-bloggers writing in the name of "exposure." (CEO Betsey Morgan said in a recent interview that paying the HuffPo's bloggers might possibly be part of the picture someday; in the meantime, "It feels very 1993 to say, ‘Hey, it's all about the check that I get at the end of the month.'") After the jump: Econ 2.0, or why bloggers should stop writing for free.

Writes Baltimore City Paper columnist Mr. Wrong: "I'm sick of this every-other-week crap, so if you have a 'hole' (that's newspaper talk for 'space') and you are interested in filling it with column, please note my second item of this year's 'Top Ten,' which is getting paid, because I really dig on that hard and deep, almost as much as I used to dig on the Subway Sub Club until they kicked everybody out of it, which two years later still pisses me off because I was only two stamps away from getting a half of a foot-long tuna on wheat, with provolone, lettuce, tomato, green pepper, red hots, and salt and pepper put on my sub in that exact order as I slid my feet sideways with my hands almost touching the Subway spit guard, watching the Subway Sandwich Conductor lay plastic-coated mitts on my toppings, but now I totally boycott Subway until they do a Sub Club Amnesty or something. Really, man, I bet I'm not the only estranged and disillusioned Sub Clubber holding an almost-full stamp card, hah? Anyway, if you have a place to put Weekly Wrong, why don't you just go ahead and contact me at my exciting new e-mail address, wrongcolumn@gmail.com." [City Paper]

We were excited when extremehipster Angel Hess wrote to Gawker, inviting us back to the truck in which he lives on the streets of Williamsburg for a tour. He just had to check his girlfriend's work schedule first (??), and we were all ready for a trip out to Purple 53, the bread truck he calls home that's also available as a sublet for only $1000 a month! Sadly, Angel quickly changed his mind about the upcoming commitment.

Poor supermarket mogul, Clinton pal and alleged Radar investor Ron Burkle can't go anywhere without getting extorted. Today's Page Six and Rush & Molloy both report that Chevyn McClintock, an antiques dealer or interior decorator depending on who you ask, is shopping a memoir about her two-year affair with Burkle. He is, by her account, a "sexually inept lover" and "If Academy Awards were given for faking sexual gratification, I would have many, because he had zero sensuality and did not know how to please a woman." Ouch. McClintock's website boasts of her "birth into a classic, traditional, elegant American family," and her "beautiful, gracious life," as a feng shui master, a "rare wine advisor" (now that'd be a pretty sweet gig) and a "lifestyle expert." We checked into Ms. McClintock's lifestyle expertise. It sure looks to us like Chevyn Grappi McClintock is one and the same as Chevyn Hurwitz Grappi, a 45-year-old Texan for whom records show a DWI conviction and some pretty serious financial issues.

ESPN got sportswriter Rick Reilly from Sports Illustrated for a "five-year, $10 million package." Time Inc. says they would have countered with $1.5 million a year. Seriously? What? Nothing against the dude, but for real? No wonder these people have to lay everyone off once in a while. [NYP]