Look at this: the New York Times has a fill-in-the-blanks game on their Learning Network blog. We're pretty sure your guesses wouldn't get past the NYTimes.com's army of comment moderators, so feel free to play along below.

The only thing worse than your unemployed friend who's always borrowing money and eating the food at your apartment is your fabulous unemployed friend, the one who loses weight and befriends the idle rich and gets chic haircuts for free.

When a new James Cameron movie appears, Hollywood's industry watchers reach for their abacuses, first to tabulate the obscene amounts the film cost, and later, generally, to add up the obscene amounts the movie makes.

• Another magazine has gone under: Hachette announced today that it's closing Metropolitan Home to "focus its resources" on Elle Décor. [AdAge]
• New York's profile of star Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin reveals he's one of the paper's highest-paid staffers and is beloved by the titans of Wall Street, but is not quite as popular with some of his Times colleagues. [NYM]
• Circulation is down—and losses are up—at the New York Post. [NYT]
• GE and Comcast have agreed on a valuation for NBC, which brings the parties one step closer to handing over control of the network to Comcast. [Reuters]
• Condé Nast may be trimming expenses and cutting jobs here at home, but the mag giant is busy expanding its presence in China. [NYP]
• Curb Your Enthusiasm is coming to basic cable. TV Land and TV Guide have picked up reruns of the show and will begin airing them next year. [LAT]
• Google has acquired the mobile ad company AdMob for $750 million. [NYT]
• Last night's Mad Men scored AMC its highest-rated finale ever, although considering it's AMC we're talking about, that isn't saying much. [B&C]
• A Christmas Carol was No. 1 at the weekend box office, although its $31 million gross was weak given it cost $200 million to produce. Meanwhile, Precious' $1.8 million take on 18 screens set a limited-release record. [LAT]

It's not the stocking stuffer Disney hoped for. After spending $180 million on the biggest 3D picture to date, looks like the Iger family might have to make make due with Hyundai's instead of Maserati's under their tree this year.

New York Times wunderkind Andrew Ross Sorkin makes $250,000 a year — including a Wall Street-like bonus based on how his DealBook blog performs — even as newsroom layoffs loom. No wonder everyone hates him.

Things To Watch Instead of Mad Men: the day Jared Kushner announced hiring Kyle Pope as the New York Observer's new editor, departed longtime Observer editor Peter Kaplan went on Charlie Rose. He gave some great quotes. Here's good storytelling.

ChiChi! Joo got the yayo, mane? No boss, we got something better. The addictive shit that is the uncut NYT Weddings & Celebrations section. Our pusherman? Phyllis Nefler, moving mad weight weekly, who dips into the product just for you.

Because David Gergen, Jon Meacham, Howard Fineman, Mike Allen, Josh Marshall, David Brooks, and Gail Collins did! Also: Mara Liasson, who works for NPR and the Fox News Channel that Obama wants to destroy.

PR Week, a trade journal for and about flacks, has come to the defense of the New York Times after we published a batch of emails showing how deferential some Times reporters were to flacks. Imagine that!

The New York Times (of journalism) is openly encouraging readers to submit questions for Big Bird, a fictional character. Here are some of the most incisive. They come from children, we hope.

Former NY Times food critic Frank Bruni has signed a schmancy deal to bring his memoir Born Round to the small screen. What actor is going to play the tortured former fatty?

This morning, we published e-mails between New York Times reporters and Eliot Spitzer's flacks. Some commenters have suggested the post demonstrates a lack of familiarity with "journalism." Actually, we contacted the Times reporters for response, and a funny thing happened.

Thanks to an ad for the New Museum's Urs Fischer exhibit, the NY Times Arts section homepage currently features an animated ad of a tongue coming out of a hole in the wall. New York is edgy again!

The New York Times broke the story of Eliot Spitzer's hooker habit last year, launching a PR shitstorm of epic proportions. But according to e-mail traffic we've obtained, the Times showed Spitzer's flacks extraordinary deference as the scandal unfolded.

• The Wall Street Journal has the Times in its sights. The paper is hiring a dozen reporters to cover local news and will launch a NYC edition next year. [NYT]
• As expected, a big round of layoffs at Time Inc. is underway. [Gawker, NYT]
• Harvey and Bob Weinstein may be looking to buy back the Miramax name from Disney now that it's being disbanded. That's the rumor anyway. [Wrap]
• Bloomberg plans to make BusinessWeek "bigger, glossier, and more international." Oh, and it may start charging for access to the BW site. [MW]
• The Oscars will have two hosts: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. [LAT]

Auletta: Google feared buying the NYT would "sabotage their identity as a neutral search engine."

Blogger Michael Yon—one of the few people to break the New York Times' news blackout over the kidnapping of reporter David Rohde in Afghanistan—reports via Twitter that former CIA operatives paid a ransom to secure Rohde's release.

Newsday is going to start charging for its awful website. One columnist there quit over it. The New York Times says it will make a decision on charging for its (good) website "within weeks." Then what happens?

You'll have to excuse Weddings Expert Phyllis Nefler for feeling a little ghoulish today. Like war, the NYT's Weddings & Celebrations breaks for no holiday, including the Tet Offensive of hangovers, but The Vows must go on. They always do.