MediaCitizen, Timothy Karr, dissects the secret to marketing female pundits to the masses:

• Will Michael Cooke's NYDN departure cause problems for Bravo reality show about the paper? Even worse: What about Hud Morgan's departure? [NYP]
• Jon Friedman thinks ABC fucked up its anchor decision. [MW]
• Even so, ABC's changes give a glimpse at CBS's future. [NYO]
• How did Us get the Nick-and-Jessica scoop? Through Dan Klores, the publicist the mag and the couple share, according to Access Hollywood. [MIN]
• Maureen may be everywhere these days, but the books she's flogging is "a glib, d j vu compendium of every Newsweek-style pop-science zeitgeist piece of the last 15 years." [VV]
• NYT Co. announces ad hikes, a $40M cost for layoffs. And says it won't give any earnings guidance for 2006, which can't be a good sign. [NYT]
• The Source is evicted from its offices. Which can't be a good sign. [NYP]

It's hard being a single woman of a certain age. A certain redhead we know would seem to have it all: A great job, plenty of influence, lots of money. But she doesn't have anyone to share it with, and, as she has maybe mentioned to a few people lately, she's a little sad about that. So it sort of went without saying that when an ex of hers recently publicized a new photo of himself, one that took off years and accentuates his ladykilling blue eyes, she'd soon have to point out that she, too, is still looking good. Even without him.

We nearly forgot: Did you watch The Colbert Report last night? And did you see the Maureen Dowd segment?

You know what must be a really fun part of being The New York Times? When you've launched a new service, for which you've been somewhat mocked, and which you're really trying to boost, it's really easy — and probably really cheap — for you to take out a big special advertising section in the Times.

• The latest magland roman a clef is by Jane Pratt's former assistant. But this time this boss is the heroine — and her boss is the bad guy. What an interesting twist. [NYP]
• Maureen Dowd says the Times is over the Judy Miller fiasco and now "everything's fantastic." She also says the Iraq insurgency is in its last throes, and that U.S. forces have turned the corner there. [Texas Monthly]
• It's not just Maxim; Housewife Nicollette Sheridan will appear on any magazine that'll have her. [Folio: (second item)]
• Blogger book deals continue apace: Dan Radosh's Rapture Ready! TK in 2008. (Yeah, we know he does a lot more than only blog, but why let facts get in the way of a good generalization?) [Radosh.net]

Salon smartypants Rebecca Traister takes a look at the Amazon.com reviews for Times columnist Maureen Dowd and finds the worst possible scenario: a big bucket of misogynistic scariness. Writes John F. Ross of St. Louis, MO (Amherst Class of '79):

From left, Tierney old and new.
Hello, gorgeous: Times columnist John Tierney has changed his photo! The old Tierney headshot was befitting of a quirky crazyman's high-school yearbook, but the new photo? Pure ladykiller. The message is clear and direct: This man is VERY necessary.

We've asked our media lords what they're thankful for, and they actually responded. First up, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams:

• As the news business reels — layoffs, papers for sale, Google Base, Judy Miller — j-students become even more characteristically naive and optimistic. [USAT]
• Jon Friedman thinks Adam Moss's New York can be one of the legendarily great magazines, like Gurley Brown's Cosmo, Ross and Shawn's New Yorkers, or Felker's New York. Moss's staffers, meantime, are all afraid they're going to be fired. [MW]
• This just in: Howie Kurtz has conflicting roles, covering media for both WP and CNN. As he has for years. [NYT]
• Times public editor Barney Calame's latest earth-shattering announcement: "Anonymous sourcing can be both a blessing and a curse for journalism." [NYT]
• Miller got axed and Woodward won't because Woodward's one of the cool kids and Miller isn't. Or something like that. [BG]
• On CNN, Maureen Dowd — did you know she wrote a book? — calls for more female columnists. [E&P]

• Bob Woodward's in truh-ble. [NYT]
• WP's Walter Pincus set to go the way of Judith Miller in the Wen Ho Lee case. Except without the everyone-hates-him-at-the-end part. [WP]
• Need your dose of softcore porn more frequently than once a month? It's looking like Keith Blanchard's prototype for a weekly lad book might see life at Bauer. And thank God for that. [WWD]
• William T. Vollman, Joan Didion win National Book Awards. [USAT]
• Hotshot founders of Penguin's Riverhead imprint bolt for Random's Doubleday Broadway group and a new, yet-to-be-named imprint. [NYP]
• The lucky winner of that fundraising lunch with Rupert Murdoch? Learning Annex chief Bill Zanker. Be you're even happier now that you overpaid for that mediocre lecture. [Guardian]
• HBO still confident it owns Sunday night, Lisa Kudrow's dreadful Comeback notwithstanding. [NYT]
• Speaking at the University of Texas, Maureen Dowd — who, apparently, has a new book out — speculates that Judy Miller will end up with a Fox News talkshow. [Daily Texan]
• Bad things often happen to Time Persons of the Year. [The Media Mob/NYO]

Look! She's happy! Single and happy! Veryfuckinghappy!
Times Op-Ed diva Maureen Dowd just appeared on the Today show to discuss her much-discussed new book, the very discussion-worthy Are Men Necessary? None too surprisingly, she sat down with Matt Lauer (though we would've loved to see a power struggle with Couric). A loose transcription of the interview's end:

• Gays get confused about plan to take over all media and instead simply take over other gay media, which doesn't really help the cause. [SFC]
• Whatever Bush's goons on the CPB say, Americans trust news on public broadcasting the most. [B&C]
• St. Martin's Press to re-release Scooter Libby's novel. We can't wait. [AP via USAT]
• TV indecency complaints on the rise again, presumably coming from people we'd all find horribly indecent in the first place. [B&C]
• 60 Minutes correspondent Dan Rather might have a segment on 60 Minutes this weekend. Wow. [NYT]
• New Yorker on DVD is tough to navigate because God forbid Conde Nast should pay freelancers for reproducing their work. [WSJ]
• Even in New Orleans, nobody eats quite like NYT's Johnny Apple. [New Orleans T-P]
• So apparently Maureen Dowd wrote a book. [Newsweek]

• Paris Hilton finally has a bad week: Boyfriend Starvos Niarchos plows her Bentley into a truck, prompting the LAPD to acknowledge the fact that everyone drives drunk out there; she's been subpoenaed as a witness in the criminal case against Girls Gone Wild guru Joe Francis's kidnapper; and she's being clearly eviscerated in former BFF Nicole Richie's new novel (more on that comedy later). But don't feel sorry for Paris — we're certain she'll find a way to turn a profit off of all the mess. [R&M]
• And while she suffers, Paris copes by prank-calling Nicole Richie every night. [Scoop]
• Actor Heath Ledger reportedly forked over $3.5 million for the Boerum Hill brownstone he shares with his fiancée Michelle Williams and their newborn baby Matilda. Neighbors claim the couple has been "rude" and don't acknowledge anyone, but did those neighbors ever think to bring Heath and Michelle some Welcome Casserole? [Page Six]
• Lawyers for His Absurdness Donald Trump have demanded a full recall of Timothy O'Brien's expos TrumpNation, as well as a public correction and apology. Demands are precious, but ineffective. Let's see some blood, instead. [Lowdown (2nd item)]
• Maureen Dowd hasn't had Botox; she just stays wrinkle-free by refusing to allow facial movements. [Page Six]

• Are Men Necessary? is "a very odd, occasionally entertaining mish-mash of politics and sex, biology and Cosmopolitan-ology, gravity and wit, insight and carelessness." We don't care what it is; we'd just like to stop hearing about it. [NYO]
• And Maureen should go away for a while, too. [MW]
• Republican senators want another investigation of a leak to reporters. You know, because the last one worked out so well for their party. [WP]
• Anna Wintour may or may not be out to kill The Devil Wears Prada film. [Radar]
• Teen People lands racist teenie-boppers Prussian Blue, who apprently think — wrongly — they'll be getting editorial control. Isn't it fun to pull one over on Nazis? [NYP]
• Memogate producer Mary Mapes was right and everyone else was wrong, insists Memogate producer Mary Mapes. [WP]
• Less demand than expected for lunch with Rupert Murdoch. Which is fine news indeed. [Guardian]
• HBO documentary chief likes both highbrow and porn, and, likely, she'll soon snag Ted Koppel. [NYP]
• Apparently, Esquire had cool covers in the sixties. [MB]
• Meet Judy Miller without traveling to Sag Harbor — only $375! [HuffPost]
• As a kid, New Yorker essayist Adam Gopnik used to sneak out after bedtime — to read. Which is somehow unsurprising. [S.F. Chronicle]
• 135K paid users have signed up for TimesSelect. As if you can't get more than enough Maureen for free these days. [E&P]
• Anderson Cooper does the self-deprecating shtick well, too. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
• Prediction: New ABC anchors will be Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff. Peter, however, would have wanted Charlie Gibson. [Newsday]
• Because one is never enough, negotiations continue at the Times continue over another fired reporter. [Media Mob/NYO]
• No one wants to read TV Guide offshoot Inside TV. [WWD]

Because we know you're dying of curiosity, here's what slutty sister Wonkette learned yesterday about why Maureen Dowd apparently gets so much ass:

The media's collective recent obsession with Maureen Dowd, that vixenish redheaded flame-thrower at the Times, continued unabated this weekend, with further fluffery in The Washington Post and the inevitable (and entirely reasonably) blowback in The Boston Globe. (There was also a reader Q&A with The Dowd published on the Times site Friday — TimesSelect membership, apparently, allows you, too, to become part of her book-launch blitz.)

• Now that actor Leonardo DiCaprio and supermodel Gisele Bundchen are no longer an item, gossip column speculation can truly begin. DiCaprio has been connected to Sienna Miller, Bundchen, surfer Kelly Slater. Oh, how we love when our celebrities are free to roam the humpy fields. [Page Six]
• Times columnist Maureen Dowd gets camera shy: She made it about 10 feet down the Glamour Women of the Year awards before being scared off by photographers. At least someone's intimidating her for a change. [Gatecrasher (bottom of page)]
• Lloyd Grove has no idea where Nick Lachey is, and he's starting to get worried. [Lowdown (last item)]
• Marlise Kast is shopping a book proposal, The Tabloid Prodigy, about how she was the Globe's top reporter at 21-years-old. Should she really be calling herself a prodigy? We're pretty sure that rag is written by 12-year-olds. [Page Six]

In high school, of course, they were well-known for their group Anna Quindlen costume.

We were slowly reading New York mag's lengthy loveletter to Times columnist Maureen Dowd, but we got stuck on one item in particular, regarding her new book: