Finke offers one explanation from a source in the show...

"One of the great things about Mad Men is the tradition that Matt has established of offering higher-level opportunities to staff, writers and artists in all of the various departments. From the beginning, Matt has fought to get people approved by the studio which almost always lobbied for him to hire more experienced people instead."

"We think [Kater's] done a great job, particularly for someone whose career has progressed so quickly. Now, however, Matt has reluctantly decided that their relationship has reached its full potential. She'll be missed, but the series has consistently benefited from the influx of new writer talent, and there's absolutely no doubt that Kater will continue to have unprecedented success in her career as she spreads her wings. She leaves Mad Men with our love and respect and a well-deserved Emmy."

...that's clearly in Weiner's camp. Maybe this is the truth! Or maybe she might as well have placed an email from the show's flack in exchange for a better scoop later on. But the truth can't be this simple. Finke—who exercises a Machiavellian hand over the comments in her posts—left it to her commenters to speculate. And by speculate, we mean, speak for her. And I imagine someone at AMC is asking Finke why she's not deleting comments like she normally does on issues she wants to control.

Let's look at some of the more interesting theories:

• Matthew Weiner had a strictly unprofessional relationship with her, or as the commenter put it:

  *cough*LETTERMAN*cough*

  Well, Gordon did have a very quick rise through the rankings of Mad Men. Again: started as Weiner's assistant. Became a writers' assistant. Weiner then let her co-write the last season finale with him, and now, she's a staff writer for the third season. Or was, until she got fired. Staff writing jobs are not easy to come by, obviously. Sure, it's topical. And maybe it's worth noting that this is the first show Weiner's ever been a showrunner on. I somehow doubt this theory. If something inappropriate took place, why would he fire her? Probability: unlikely.
  
  

• Jealousy Issues. Another commenter writes:

  There was a really weird moment during the acceptance where Matt kind of 'snatched' the Emmy from her...The photo gets at it but I remember it being uncomfortable to watch. I always [sic] trhought they worked with these relatively inexperienced people on this show primarily for financial reasons. Allows them to put as much money as possible up on the screen.

  I'm not sure I buy the "inexperienced writers" line so much as the one above: that Mad Men hires writers with low quotes because they can afford to do so by reputation, and allocate the money elsewhere on the show. Weiner's a notorious control freak, as evidenced by the show, obviously. Hollywood loves a young, hot writer, and Gordon's cute and staffed on a hit show. Maybe this made Weiner uncomfortable. Or maybe Gordon's ego from the win outgrew Weiner's ability to micromanage, which could've been marginally. Even so, another commenter draws a comparison to Peggy and Don Draper's relationship, noting that this could give a certain scene from earlier in the season more significance...

  One just goes balls to the wall:

  Anyone who believes this horseshit is completely naïve. Matt Weiner is the lowest of the low in our business. He is a egomaniac and the likelihood is that he was incensed that he had to share credit and let alone an Emmy with her. A lowly former writer's assistant. As far as he is concerned, he is solely responsible for the success of this show and no other writer, producer, director, actor, key grip have done anything to contribute to the show's success. For Pete's sake, he didn't even let Kater Gordon say a word when they got up on stage. It was her moment as well but Weiner made it ALL about him.

  Though egomaniacs are kind of par for the course, no?
  
  

• And another one just thinks Matt was unloading unnecessary cargo:

  The only episode she wrote by herself was "The Fog" and it was terrible. Looks like Matt got too excited and promoted her too quickly…

Update: Finke posted from a writer who supposedly knows by Weiner and Gordon, who insists there was no "Letterman" play involved. "She totally got the show and deserved the break she got. There was NOTHING illicit in her relationship with Matt." 'Figured. But Finke has yet to posit any theories...

[Photo via Mark J. Terrill/AP]

Emergency rooms across the land saw a 73% increase in head trauma-related visits in the days following Richardson's death. But, since normal people aren't as important as celebrities, only about 3% of those visits were of a serious matter.

Like all fads, however, this one passed: within two weeks the number of ER-flybys went back to the pre-Richardson death levels.

Moore's press train began last week on Good Morning America, when he took some time to rail against the show's use of "permalancers," a group that's basically permanent, but don't get the benefits and, therefore, count as the underdog. It was all very amusing and true, and provided Moore with a great excuse when CBS "canceled" his appearance on tomorrow's Early Show. From a tweet Moore posted Sunday morning:

Backlash Begins: CBS has cancelled [sic] me on its Mon. morning show. After I criticized ABC/Disney on GMA, they didn't want me to do same to CBS.

While that could be true, CBS bookers tell media scallywag Rachel Sklar that they never booked him. Moore's people, though, tell a different story: they were negotiating a firm date with CBS, but then CBS got all diva about getting the sit-down after GMA already landed Moore:

I can accurately say that the bookers who book the show have definitely been in discussion with us to have him on the show. When we attempted to confirm the booking they said they didn't want to follow GMA.

Hmmm. So, Moore, we're assuming, knew CBS had said they didn't want to follow GMA, but tweeted that the network was scared of his inflammatory nature. Why are we not surprised?

Anyway, Moore's assertion, however valid, only brings the spotlight back to him, which is good when you're promoting a movie. And the movie's doing well, by the way: it opened with about $306,000 on four screens. That's the higher per-theater average for the year. Love him or hate him, Moore's a hit machine.

Did CBS Cancel Michael Moore? [Mediaite]

Like Ryan Jenkins, Randone sought fame and fortune on television. This time it was 2000's The Sexiest Bachelor in America, a title for which he wasn't qualified. No matter, because Randone had another profession: he's a preacher who once said he wanted to use the show to display "masculine characteristics of a Christian," whatever that means.

And, like alleged kidnapping rapist Phillip Garrido, Randone once maintained a website, through which he spread his wacky ideas, like the importance of hell, a place where he envisioned going:

We are all sinners. Sin is a bigger problem than we care to admit or that we think. Sin is as small as thinking a bad thought and/or as big as murder. Because of sin, we deserve hell. I know that if there is one thing I deserve in life its(sic) hell…

Well, he could be headed that way, because cops say that on September 11, he tortured and the killed his live-in girlfriend, actress Felicia Lee, who appeared in such classics as Asian Fever, Hotel Decadence under the name "Felicia Tang." She also appeared in Rush Hour 2.

Randone's now being held on a $2 million bond and will be arraigned on Tuesday, although cops still don't have a motive.

So, the lesson here: America's popular culture, not the four horsemen, will spark the apocalypse. Also, if you meet someone who's been on a reality star, run, because they will kill you.

Phillips, the daughter of The Mamas and the Papas singer John Phillips, confesses in her book, High on Arrival, that she and her father had a long-term, consensual incestuous relationship which began the night before her wedding. Um, ew!

My father was not a man with boundaries. He was full of love, and he was sick with drugs. I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father.

Had this happened before? I didn't know. All I can say is it was the first time I was aware of it. For a moment I was in my body, in that horrible truth, and then I slid back into a blackout.

Later, John allegedly asked Mackenzie to run away with him. While we're all a bit revolted by this revelation, Mackenzie urges the public not to hate her father, who's now dead, and can't confirm nor deny the accusations.

Like so many of her aural generation — for example, Bob Dylan — Travers got her start in the Greenwich Village cafe scene and, like Dylan, too, her politically-charged lyrics helped propel her to international fame. In honor of Travers and her message, here's another one of her and her band's most beloved songs: "Puff, the Magic Dragon."

Feel free to sing along, man.

Her striking frame, raspy voice, and taste for one-liners made her a natural subject for female impersonators. Told of her drag following, Arthur said, "I'm flattered." Her roles as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, the outspoken Maude Finley of All in the Family and Maude, and most famously, the caustic Dorothy Zbornak of Golden Girls, gained her an avid gay audience. No funeral is planned. In wigs and wisecracks, she will live forever.

Of the four Golden Girls, Arthur is survived by Betty White and Rue McClanahan. None of the three attended costar Estelle Getty's funeral last year. White told Entertainment Tonight:

I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much.. I'm so happy that she received her Lifetime Achievement Award while she was still with us, so she could appreciate that. She was such a big part of my life.

Update: The cult of Saint Beatrice has begun. Gays are posting this blasphemous Virgin Dorothy mashup in her holy memory:

(Photo by AP/Wally Fong)

And guess who is crazy: action film director John McTiernan. He's just directed The Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove, an inaction film of sorts about how his indictment in the Pellicano case was politically motivated.

See, McTiernan had Pellicano wiretap a producer he was fighting over money with and then the FBI called him about it, and McTiernan was all "nope I didn't do that," and, well, that is not legal, to make false statements to the FBI. McTiernan pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in proson. But then McTiernan got mad that he was the only rich Hollywood prick facing actual jail time over this mess, so he fired his lawyers and withdrew his plea and made this documentary, apparently. He's due to be reindicted.

Anyway. McTiernan has never really thought he should get any jail time for his crime, and he's made it clear from day one that because he is a rich and successful director who is also, at heart, a Good Person, he should not be punished for lying about having everyone wiretapped. How dare they prosecute a man who's always portrayed the FBI in a positive light?

She also scolded Mr. McTiernan for saying in an e-mail message to his previous lawyer that he was "offended" at the idea he could be prosecuted because he had "refused to make movies in which F.B.I. agents are the bad guys," and for complaining that his legal woes could get in the way of his making a "patriotic movie."

McTiernan apparently doesn't remember how when the FBI shows up in Die Hard they are all working from the old terrorist playbook, and Gruber is playing them for saps, and only McClane and lowly LAPD desk jockey Reginald ValJohnson are interested in actually stopping those sons of bitches. Remember? Agents Johnson and Johnson, no relation? God, that movie rules. Anyway. The FBI are not "bad guys" in that movie but they are getting in the way of McClane doing his job, dammit, which is why, 20 years later, director John McTiernan had to lie to them.

Sadly this new movie does not look as awesome as Die Hard, or Die Hard With a Vengeance, which is just as awesome. This new movie looks as bad as Rollerball, frankly.

According to The Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove, the entire Pellicano case was all about digging up dirt for an anti-Hillary Clinton campaign video, because that makes sense. Why else but to derail Hillary would anyone go after noted Great American Ron Burkle?

The film notes that the prosecution allowed federal officials to compel two of Mrs. Clinton's biggest contributors - the entrepreneurs Ron Burkle and Stephen Bing - to testify before a grand jury. Mrs. Clinton, the film says, was widely reported to have had help from Mr. Pellicano when her husband was accused in 1992 of having had an affair with Gennifer Flowers.

Now it is actually certainly true that politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of prominent Democrats were one of the many dirty deeds of the Bush administration, but they were more likely to go after people like Alabama Governor Don Siegelman than to target a scummy Hollywood private eye and the assholes who hired him.

We think McTiernan should cut a deal with the prosecutors: they will not re-indict him if he stops making weird conspiracy documentaries and signs on instead to Die Hard 5.

It doesn't (yet) look like O'Neal was actually trying to pass any drugs to prisoners, but he was foolish enough to have them in his trunk while parking at a jail, and to then admit to the cops that he had them. Sigh.

You'd think O'Neal would have learned to dodge the cops given what he and his family have been through over the past year or so. A recap:

September: Redmond, son of the actress Farrah Fawcett, was busted for meth possession, along with his father Ryan. Ryan had the meth in his bedroom while Redmond had it on his person. Redmond had a history of heroin problems.

June: Tatum O'Neal, daughter of Ryan and half-sister to Redmond, was busted for trying to buy coke on the street near her Lower East Side apartment. Like Redmond, Tatum also had a history of drug problems, but was in recovery and had reportedly been clean for two years.

June: Redmond pleads guilty to carrying heroin and crystal meth and to driving under the influence in a January incident. He gets three years probation.

February '07: Believing Redmond had overdosed and might awaken only to seek more drugs, his brother Griffin chained him to a staircase at home, TMZ reported. Father Ryan came home and became enraged at Griffin, resulting in a fireplace-poker-swinging confrontation that ended with gunfire. Wow.

According to a detective's affidavit, Brown and Rihanna got into a fight early Feb. 8 after the "Umbrella" singer checked her boyfriend's cell phone and found a text message from another woman.
Brown pulled his car over and tried to push Rihanna out, but she was still wearing her seatbelt, Los Angeles police Detective De Shon Andrews wrote. He said Brown pushed Rihanna's head against the window, punched her with his right hand, and then continued driving while hitting her, the affidavit states. He also bit his girlfriend on the ear, the affidavit states....

Andrews described Brown's blows as causing Rihanna's mouth to fill with blood. He also writes that Brown tried to choke Rihanna after she took the keys to his car away. Andrews wrote that Rihanna nearly lost consciousness but also tried to fight back while in the car, at one point trying to gouge at Brown's eyes.

The complaint identifies Brown's victim as "Robyn F." Rihanna's full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. The Smoking Gun has the affidavit and warrants. The gruesome details do little for a public image that Brown has been trying to rehabilitate.

(Photo by AP/Matt Sayles)

Press "watch now" to see the liveblog!

A newly-released cache of FBI documents reveals the bureau investigated Valenti following a bizarre 1964 tip from a caller who "read in the newspapers that Valenti swims in the nude in the White House pool." The investigation found Valenti was friends with a gay photographer in Houston, leading to rumors he himself was gay. The bureau found no proof of this, and Valenti had a reputation as a ladies man, so case closed.

It's harder to draw conclusions about the host of Bill Moyers Journal. The same FBI documents show Moyers, as a special assistant to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, requested the bureau "investigate two other administration figures who were 'suspected as having homosexual tendencies.'" An FBI official later discussed that request with Johnson, which seems odd given that Moyers told the Post the FBI might have sparked the investigation:

Moyers said by e-mail yesterday that his memory is unclear after so many years but that he may have been simply looking for details of allegations first brought to the president by Hoover.

Moyers is 74. People will probably forgive him trying to protect a pro-civil-rights president against then-lethal associations with gays. It will be harder for them to understand how he can keep working as a journalist if he can't even remember such behavior.

Maybe it was just the spirit of the moment, or maybe it was just a symbolic statement that there would be no milk served during the awards-season home stretch. Either way, with the powerful international consortium of the British, the foreign press, and the French breast-baring establishment all supporting him, Rourke's front-runner status is all but affirmed. Go ahead and re-book WrestleMania, Mickey — nothing can stop you now.

[Photo: AP]

James is apologizing for: dissing Beyoncé's inaugural rendition of her song "At Last," implying that someone should whup her ass, claiming that Barack Obama was not her president, etc. Hey, when you lay it all out end-to-end like that, it kinda does seem like a lot to apologize for—not that its attendant publicity blitz is any cause for remorse. James is now saying that those insults are just a product of her dry sense of humor:

"I didn't really mean anything," James said. "Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude. ... That's probably what went into it."

Still, James acknowledged being miffed she wasn't invited to perform her signature song for Obama's first dance with his wife on inauguration night.

James said she was "feeling left out of something that was basically mine, that I had done every time you look around."

She said she liked Beyoncé's performance, but when asked if she thought she could have done better, James answered, "I think so. That's a shame to say that."

But don't worry: she still will!

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Etta James truly miffed about Obama snub, but was kidding about disliking Beyonce [NY Daily News]

Making peace with Sean Penn:

MICKEY Rourke and Sean Penn seem to have smoked a peace pipe. Penn was said to be furious after Rourke - in line for an Oscar for his turn in "The Wrestler" - called Penn a "homophobe" and an "average" actor following Penn's performance in "Milk." But the two were at the Sunset Tower hotel pool Monday afternoon having drinks together. A spy said, "Mickey had his little Chihuahua with him for moral support - he looked a little nervous around Sean. Everyone knows Sean can hold a grudge. It was weird, though - some guy they both knew came over with a video camera and started recording them."

Defamer has obtained the footage. What follows is a transcript of the last minutes of the exchange:
Sean: So what's the dog's name?
Mickey: Jaws. I call him Jaws because when I rescued him, I went to give him a kiss and he gave me two stitches in the face. But I took him anyway. You gotta give 'em hope.
Sean: I see what you did there...He was a broken down peace of carne asada.
[They laugh. Long pause]
Mickey: Yeah, so, that stuff...about you being a homophone.
Sean: A homophobe.
Mickey: Yeah. That was just trash talk, you know. Keep the fight interestin'. I was just thinking about that all-night poker game at Pat Hingle's house. When you called Timothy Hutton a flouncy ballsucker.
Sean: I said that?
Mickey: I'm pretty sure you did. I was pretty coked up at the time.
[Jaws starts whimpering.]
Mickey: And the stuff about you being a mediocre actor. I didn't really mean that. Except I Am Sam. That was just embarrassing to watch. I mean, c'mon, have you actually sat down and wa—
[Jaws urinates in Mickey's lap.]
Mickey: JAWS! Not again, Jaws. Jesus Christ. Sean, could you be a pal and put some ice cubes in a napkin and pass it over here?
[Sean makes a check-signing gesture at a passing server.]

[Photo: AP]

• NO HARD FEELINGS [NY Post]