What Hollywood is calling “the Judith Miller movie” is now filming on location here, but prepare yourselves: Some changes are being made to the story inspired by the outing of a CIA agent.

For starters, in the movie Judith Miller is no longer Judith Miller of the New York Times, but Rachel Armstrong of the Washington Capital Sun. And while the real Judith Miller may be remembered as a stylish, slightly scary reporter of 59, headed off to jail in a quilted black jacket and tortoise-frame sunglasses, in the movie she is a sizzling Kate Beckinsale, 34, dressed in a, shall we say, form-fitting skirt…

“People could say Kate is too good-looking to be a reporter,” admits Rod Lurie, the writer and director of the independently financed film.

–Excerpted from William Booth’s article in the Washington Post entitled, “Hollywood Plugs Its Tale of a Leak”

Everyone’s had one of those no-good, very-bad days. You know, the kind where you wake up late (and slightly hungover!) on the wrong side of the bed, discover that all your work-clothes are either at the dry-cleaners, or else piled in a crumpled heap on the bedroom floor, only to realize that it’s Saturday, and that, yes, you actually are retarded?

Well, today is not one of those days for Judith Miller.

First, the former journalist-slash-jailbird shows she has a sense of humor with a lighthearted appearance on a right-leaning morning tv show, and now comes word that—in the big-screen version of Bush and Cheney fucking over CIA agent, Valerie Plame—Miller’s going to be portrayed by…gorgeous movie star, Kate Beckinsale.

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Did you know Judith Miller was extremely funny and self-referential? We absolutely did not! Which is why were amused, gratified, intrigued and maybe even a little bit taken aback by her performance on yesterday’s Fox and Friends, which—as you may or may not know—just happens to be our most favorite tv show.

NEW YORK Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter who is something of an expert on leaks, was asked today on the Fox News show “Fox and Friends” about the burning issue of the day: Who leaked the pages from the new Harry Potter book and does she defend the leaker?

Miller said she didn’t think the leaker giving away the ending of the book was the right thing to do but added, chuckling, “I would defend to the death his right to do it.”

“So what does happen in this Harry Potter book?” she was asked. “I don’t know,” Miller said, laughing, fairly certain she would avoid jail in this case.

“I know you can keep a secret,” one host noted.

Which is so funny, really, because who knows about leaks better than ex-con/former Times reporter Judith Miller?

Also, who could have predicted that spending 85 days in jail because you refuse to testify against Scooter Libby, then going ahead and testifying anyway—hence kind of nullifying the whole “jail” thing—and then sort-of (but not really!) alluding to it a mere two years later, in the context of an early-morning talk show you undoubtedly don’t watch, in reference to an inexplicably popular children’s book series you undoubtedly haven’t read, would prove to be such PURE COMEDY GOLD??

• David Letterman celebrates his 25th year of being almost as funny as Johnny Carson.

• The New York Times reports a $648 million loss in its fourth quarter earnings; An official spokesperson shrugged and said, “hey, mo’ money, mo’ problems.”

• According to Judith Miller, Scooter Libby told her Valerie Plame was a CIA. agent three times…then dared Miller to “repeat it in front of a mirror on Halloween and see what happened.”

• Maria Bartiromo inherits Anderson Cooper’s title as the “Paris Hilton of journalism.”

• Remember when Graydon Carter threw a temper tantrum over an inconveniently placed scaffolding? Well, how’s he going to react to news that nobody wants to buy his crappy $5 million movie?

• We really didn’t need a whole article in Slate to tell us why Top Chef is a huge disappointment.

• Time Inc. pledges to take more risks, fire “even more people” over speakphone.

While most of you spent yesterday bitching about Shea’s renaming, Judith Miller was in a Chicago courtroom testifying in the trial of Muhammad Salah, an American accused of aiding Hamas. Miller’s role in the trial? Relaying her account of his 1993 prison interrogation, which she claims did not include anything that resembled torture. How lovely for Salah. But under cross-examination, Salah’s defense team got pesky.

Under cross-examination, one of Salah’s defense attorney, Michael Deutsch, suggested with his questions that Miller had been used by former Israeli prime minister Rabin to spur U.S. authorities to take seriously Israeli allegations that Hamas had a support network in the United States.

Deutsch also said Miller’s reporting on allegations that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was used in a similar way by U.S. officials to justify starting a war in Iraq. “Isn’t it true that you are no longer with The New York Times because you have been exposed as someone who got too close to public officials?” Deutsch challenged her.

“No, sir, that is not true,” Miller replied without elaborating.

No, silly! Judith Miller is no longer with the Times because she got “too close” to her, ahem, colleagues. Oh, and that whole WMD thing being a total farce. But thanks to her carefully worded exit agreement, she’ll never have to fess up to departing the Times on those grounds.

• The NYT sees Jane Pauley’s lawsuit and raises her “You knew you were doing an interview for an ad supplement. Or at least your flack did.” Will she call? [WSJ]

• Tara Reid did Us Weekly last week, and the Today show today. Then there’s co-hosting The View tomorrow, and The Tyra Banks Show next week. So many plastic surgery tales, so little time. [Planet Gossip]

• The only diet advice we trust is diet advice that comes from a restaurant critic. [Grub Street]

• The blogger fights didn’t end with Perez Hilton. Last night at the MTVu Awards, a small brawl broke out between actor-cum-music hack Jared Leto and Stereogum blogger Scott Lapatine. [BWE, Stereogum]

• You’re expected to report back to us on whether Judith Miller’s thank you notes are scented. [WaPo]

• The Second Avenue subway line – staring down Moynihan Station for title of “most talked about, never seen transportation development” &ndahs; will be called the T line, for no better reason than the MTA’s superintendant likes the letter. [DI]

As most of us expected, Karl Rove is not being charged in the CIA leak case he has been under scrutiny for since 2003. In an exhaustive investigation into who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the press, Rove was among many political figures brought into question.

And while many of us would like to see Rove get locked away for something (insanity? Annoyingness?) today is just not that day. The New York Times offers a political analysis on the topic:

The decision not to pursue any charges removes a potential political stumbling block for a White House that is heading into a long and difficult election season for Republicans in Congress.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s decision should help the White House in what has been an unsuccessful effort to put the leak case behind it. Still ahead, however, is the trial of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., on charges for perjury and obstruction of justice, and the prospect that Mr. Cheney could be called to testify in that case.

Yes, where one stumbling block for the republican party is removed, there are at least three more people in line, just waiting to trip over themselves.

Leak Counsel Won’t Charge Rove, Lawyer Announces [David Johnston, New York Times]

Take your pick of government officials, CIA operatives and media members who have been involved in the series of leaks and bungles over the past year or so.

Likely at least one of them had something to do with this breaking CNN story involving the axing of a CIA officer. And if not, well, props to the media for still snagging those exclusive unauthorized interviews.

A CIA officer has been fired from the agency for leaking classified information to an unauthorized person, a CIA spokeswoman said Friday.

The officer admitted to “unauthorized discussions with the media in which the officer knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence including operational information,” spokeswoman Michelle Neff.

They aren’t giving us much information at all, but be sure the politically aware media will be all over this. Hopefully, because we’re just too busy trying to get Chris Wilson’s lawyers off our back and consoling our newly adopted Dominican orphan to put up with this nonsense.

CIA: Agency officer fired in leak of classified information [Pam Benson, CNN]

Yesterday, we missed what just may be the best correction we’ve ever read in the New York Times. Fittingly, it’s about why the Times missed a same-day story. Reports NYO’s Media Mob:

On Sunday, April 9, the New York Times reported on page A1 that the Vice President’s former Chief of Staff I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby had been authorized to leak to former Times reporter Judith Miller that Iraq was “vigorously trying to procure uranium” to produce a nuclear bomb.

The Times piece said that Libby was told to overstate the intelligence.

But on Wednesday, Libby filed a correction to accompany his original court filings (from which the Times had gotten its information). The correction explained that he was not told to oversell the intelligence. Details of the letter were made available to the media on Tuesday night, and The Washington Post ran a piece on Wednesday explaining Libby’s correction.

To which the NYT issued this correction:

Although Mr. Fitzgerald formally filed his corrective yesterday, accounts of it were provided to some news organizations on Tuesday night, and were the basis for news articles yesterday. The Times did not publish one, as other organizations did, because a telephone message and an e-mail message about the court filing went unnoticed at the newspaper. An article on the filing appears today, on Page A17.

A voicemail. And an email. Went “unnoticed.” Can’t wait to use that one. Again.

Times Forgets to Check Voicemail [Media Mob]
Corrections [NYT]

• Adam Moss and New York feel the pressing need to call out the business’ middle aged, hotshot magazine editors. Can you believe they picked all guys? [NYO]

• Dying is more fun when people are laughing at you. [USAT]

• People haven’t been this emotional over journalists since Judy Miller made the staff of New York Press cry. [B&C]

• David Pecker pumps up Weider style. Ok, more like Pecker style … it was his board, not his pecs. [Ad Age]

• Manohla Dargis does not deserve a Pulitzer. She doesn’t even deserve to have her column read … according to one jealous colleague. [WWD]

You’ve got to really hate Judy Miller in order to find her more loathsome than Peter Braunstein. In a world where those New York Press staffers stand by their liberal ways, free press totally trumps sex offender in the worst of the fuck-ups category.

Others who made their top 50 most hated New Yorkers list (surely an honor for at least half the chosen ones) include politicians, neighborhoods, blogs, and members of the athletic community. (And everyone who Paper magazine has ever praised.) While we hate Kip’s Bay, pointy shoes, and vegans, New York Press takes their bottled-up anger out on NYU, the Meatpacking District, and David Marvisi.

A few highlights from their hit list:

50) Former Press Edit Staff: “These guys walked out in the middle of a production cycle because they felt “censored” by not being allowed to show those ridiculous Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. This mountain-into-a-molehill gave them a semi-Warholian 13 minutes of fame, while we were left picking up the pieces.”

42) David Marvisi: “The infamously underhanded former club-owner (Exit, Spa, Capitale, Estate) … Marvisi’s sleazy demeanor and shady business dealings still resonate today, leaving an indelible, if not original, mark on nightlife.”

25) Meatpacking District: “From a district known solely for its abattoirs, anonymous gay sex and tranny hookers, the area around West 14th Street known collectively as the Gansevoort Market in the past few years has become one of those horrid “international destinations” so beloved of travel writers and—oh, ye oxymoron!—lifestyle journalists.”

7) John Sexton: What’s worse than a bunch of over-educated, privileged crybaby Felicity wannabes? Their disciplinarian daddy, of course.

We agree, all of these people, places, and things do suck pretty bad. But we’re a little worried about the level of anger one must get in touch with to conjure up all the things people hate about New York. From the 6 train on a Saturday to Chinatown everyday, it’s pretty easy to go Ted Turner on ourselves.

Just chill, Pressers. Go get a drink from Sapa, or box of chocolates from City Bakery. And, should George Clooney stand in your way, you have our permission to totally take your anger out on him.

2006 SUPER-VILLAIN EDITION [New York Press]

• OMG, we don’t believe it! There are even good restaurants in Brooklyn! [NYDN]

• What is Judith Miller writing about over at The Atlantic anyways? [NYO]

• Oh, Cargo. What will the Thursday Styles staffers do without you? Guess they’ll have to settle for their GQ upgrade. (Come on, are you that shocked? They put freakin’ Nick Lachey on the cover.) [Gawker]

• Elizabeth Spiers explains to NYU kids why hiring journalists is completely useless. For a blog, for a blog. [IWM]

• Ethan Hawke’s office burned down. Now he has to find a new screening room for his next movie. [Gothamist]

• Will Graydon Carter leave Vanity Fair for Paramount? We doubt it — that means he would have to deal with even more celebrities. [NYDN]

• Walter Cronkite loves Jim Lehrer. Now, if only he could just remember what channel he’s on. [Texas Monthly]

• Emily Davies just accidentally made all that shit up. [WWD]

• Too bad Duane Swierczynski’s article didn’t reach her sooner. Oh, yeah, and does this mean that journalism school is not pointless anymore? [PCP]

• Steven Colbert’s word “truthiness” wins the American Dialect Society’s “word of the year.” Damn, we were so hoping it would be PopoZao! [Gothamist]

• So, Judith Miller doesn’t really have time to talk right now. Unlike everyone else in this industry, she has reporting to do, so if you bitches could all just back the fuck off. [Observer]

Judith Miller gives the power back to the blogs, opening up the arena for Jack Shafer to come in and spar a few rounds. Of course the resurgence of Millergate stems from that crucial court evidence, this month’s Vanity Fair article “Lies and Consequences.”

In the article/girl talk, Judy tells her BFF Marie Brenner that “the blogs” are responsible for destroying her relationship with the New York Times.

In Miller’s mind, the bloggers not only poisoned her relationship with the Times brass but also with her colleagues, who, she says, “believed what they read on the blogs.”

Judy also (according to Shafer) started fabricating comments about how executive editor Bill Keller possesses some East Village palm reader powers of predictability that allows him to “read the blogs.”

In August, Bill Keller replaced Raines as executive editor, and according to Miller, he told her, “You are radioactive. … You can see it in the blogs.”

Keller denies ever saying this — but remember, this is the guy who envisioned The Atlantic’s imaginary masthead.

We’ve heard a few Times staffers admit to reading this blog. If any of you are working instead of drinking in the streets today, can you please tell Keller’s assistant it’s time for him and Cindy Adams to set up a lunch date?

Judith Miller’s New Excuse [Jack Shafer, Slate]

We can not wait for them to adapt this story for Law & Order. In the next chapter in Plamegate (which we may have to change to Wilsongate, according to the Times), lawyers for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, are slapping subpoenas on the New York Times and Judith Miller.

The new subpoenas seek her notes and other materials, including any other documents concerning Ms. Wilson prepared by Ms. Miller and Nicholas D. Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for The Times; drafts of a personal account by Ms. Miller published in The Times in October concerning her grand jury testimony; documents concerning her interactions with an editor of The Times; and documents concerning a recent Vanity Fair article on the investigation

We don’t really understand why anything besides Vanity Fair, the grail of truth, would be needed for a court investigation. It doesn’t matter that the article was written by Judy’s best friend. A VF article is great evidence — especially because their reporters got it all on tape.

Lawyers for Libby Subpoena Reporter and New York Times [Adam Liptak, New York Times]

As if the dangers encountered by Jill Caroll and Bob Woodruff weren’t enough to convince you, the New York Times is here to remind us that Iraq has become a scary place for journalists.

Upon first reading the headline, we were like, “yeah, no shit. Helooo, there’s a war. War=death.” But then we kept reading and realized that not only is it the deadliest place for journalists right now, but it’s the deadliest of the last quarter century.

Is this the fault of Iraqi insurgents? Or our own government? Nope. It’s Judith Miller’s fault. Says, Paul E. Steiger, Wall Street Journal managing editor,

The example set by the United States “may have contributed” to these trends.

“With a prominent U.S. reporter jailed for 85 days, new legal threats emerging every day and the U.S. military stonewalling investigations into the deaths and detentions of journalists in Iraq,” Mr. Steiger wrote, “the press fared badly at the hands of U.S. authorities.” The journalist jailed for 85 days last year was Judith Miller, then a reporter for The New York Times.

Yep, you heard that right. Dick Cheney is shooting people, but it’s really Judith Miller who is increasing violence.

Iraq Has Become the Deadliest Place for Journalists, Report Say [Katharine Q. Seelye]

On her book tour in Palm Beach, Florida, Judith Miller explains that “journalists get things wrong every day.”

Who knew that reporting in Florida was so in-depth that it would actually enforce the topics the paper is covering:

• Palm Beach Daily News: “People want reality that tells them how right they are all the time.”

• Palm Beach Post: “Increasingly, people choose the outlets that give them the reality that they want.”

• Sun-Sentinel: “People want a reality that tells them they’re right all of the time.”

Or, you know, maybe it’s just that whole theory of relativity thing. What is reality these days, anyways?

Bloggers aren’t real, conversations between the Mayor of New Orleans and Martin Luther King aren’t real, WMDs don’t exist, and JT LeRoy isn’t real. Nor is James Frey’s crack house, Interviews in Business Week, or Jessica Simpson’s face …

You know what is real though? Nicole Richie’s anorexia. Scary photos after the jump.

On Lecture Circuit, Judith Miller and David Brooks Explore Media’s Myriad Problems [E & P]

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Forget the Judith Millers of the world. It seems that the true whistle blowers are those pesky little kindergarteners who just can’t shut their faces.

Earlier this week, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart winner was blabbed by a little girl, and now another kid is wagging his tongue about his mommy/CIA Op in the airport.

Valerie Plame’s 5-year-old son totally outed her, declaring: “My daddy’s famous, my mommy’s a secret spy.” (”Ooooh, big whoop,” is all we have to say to that little comment.)

One plus to the annoying little kids who spill government secrets: it might convince the Bush administration that we really need birth control.

CIA couple outed by 5-year-old son [Reuters]

2005 was a pretty boring year for magazines. A few folds, a few launches, a few EIC departees and scandals…nothing too mind-blowing. Or, maybe it was just that the shame shadows cast by the New York Times are large enough to cloud over an entire industry. TV News had its moments, as did blogs! It was tough competition, but the categories and their nominees for Best Media Moments are here:

(and don’t forget the winners after the jump!)

• ‘Twas the year for founding magazine EICs to abandon their babies, and we sure were sad to see them go. Sarah Gray Miller broke a few hearts when she left Budget Living’s pockets empty. And of course there was Jane Pratt’s confusing departure from Jane, which led Brandon Holley to say c’ya to ELLEgirl. It’s hard enough to keep track, let alone choose our fave EIC flee.

• Ah, the scandals of journalism. If only there was a tabloid for media freaks to follow each other’s wrong-doings. Nominees for 2005’s biggest newsmedia mishaps go to Judith Miller for her NYT/Scooter Libby/Valerie Plame protection/revelation debacle. And recently, there was that whole NYT wiretap/PR disguised as service journalism fiasco. And of course, who could forget good old Graydon Carter’s Deep Throat discovery? (Not to mention all the press leaks it inspired.)

• Sometimes, newscasters can get a little whacky, but that’s why we love them. Television news needs its moment in the spotlight too, so we have nominated a couple in the category of TV travesties: Al Roker for his Hurricane Wilma wipe-out or Matt Lauer for holding his own when attacked with Tom Cruise’s particular brand of cruisaziness. (Ok, we realize these are both Today Show incidents, but all the nerds already covered the real news.)

• When unoriginal mags launch, nobody wins. Yet, they just keep on launchin’. Our favorite new mags of the year? David will kill us all if we don’t list Cookie, everyone’s fave billionaire baby book. And then there was Weekend, another richie rich mag for people who have like seven houses and a cabin, and overcrowding the tabloid market from abroad is the very celeboring OK!. We hate them all, but which is truly the most unnecessary new mag of the year? After the jump, guys!

• The worst things to happen to media this year? Its a sad category, but someone’s gotta do it. We don’t what was more heartbreaking, the death of Peter Jennings or the death of Radar. And Judy behind bars was kind of a blow to the industry (yes, she can be nominated twice). Hmm, what else…? Oh, yeah, Peter Braunstein on the loose was pretty f’d up.

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The all-out brawl in Times Sq. is getting bloodier by the day. With Vanity Fair and The New Yorker drawing lines in the tourist-run streets of midtown, the Condes stop at nothing in their take down of Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and the New York Times.

It started with Seth Mnookin’s Vanity Fair article, “Unreliable Sources”, which, if you have an hour or so to read, is the only piece has come close to actually detangling all of this Judith Miller, Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame stuff. We’ve pulled the Pinch lines, plus rebuttle, after the jump:

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