The blogger-focused BlogWorld tradeshow and expo in Las Vegas is only giving press passes to "accredited members of the professional media" — not to the bloggers trying to usurp them. [Reuters]

Valleywag hears that LinkedIn, which has largely missed out on the social-networking buzz, is getting ready for its closeup. Employees were getting lensed today at a photo shoot, which is usually a sign that a company's about to get the cover treatment, or at least a major feature story, from a big business publication. Missing at the shoot, however, was LinkedIn founder and president of products Reid Hoffman, who recently stepped out of the LinkedIn CEO chair. Hoffman, a tipster says, is away in Shanghai, with friend Joi Ito, the Six Apart backer pictured here to his right, purportedly looking for new startups to invest in.

Long-suffering Facebook spokesprofile Brandee Barker, besieged by a string of PR disasters, has hired some much-needed professional help. Personnel from OutCast Communications, the PR firm that helped launch Salesforce.com, are now listed as "officers" of Facebook's official group for journalists. [Facebook]

Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale is learning, the hard way, how a charm offensive can turn, well, offensive. The man behind virtual world Second Life may have staged BusinessWeek's glowing visions of the future and Newsweek's virtual wet kiss, but now comes the backlash. Following Wired's recent expose on fleeting marketers, Time's Kristina Dell takes a crack at taking out Second Life.

When Fake Steve Jobs — sorry, I mean Dan Lyons of Forbes — parodies real Apple CEO Steve Jobs's imperious view of Silicon Valley's subservient press corps, it's so over the top that some might think he's kidding. But he's not, as this exchange with a reporter from today's keynote, where he announced new hardware and software products, handily demonstrates:

After Defcon organizers got wind of her ruse, they offered her a chance to register for a press pass and cover the conference openly. She refused — four times! — but, amazingly, still didn't understand that the jig was up. She was then lured into a conference hall and outed, on tape. Pursued by a pack of hackers and reporters with cameras of their own, she's captured in this YouTube clip fleeing the scene as she whimpers into a cell phone. "They're making fun of me and they're taking pictures!" was one pursuer's taunt. Cruel? A bit. But was Madigan planning to do anything different to the hackers she hoped to surreptitiously film?