Karl 
KATIE HOLMES KNOCKED UP! The question on everyone's lips: Who is the father?
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS: A.C. Newman thinks it's not a supergroup as much as a “benevolent dictatorship.”
BOB MOULD talks to EQ about his work, including his stint with World Championship Wrestling: “I’m a pop musician first and foremost. I write pop music… I don’t think I’m a rock guy, necessarily, I don’t think I’m a dance guy…”
BOB DYLAN is enjoying a tenfold increase in UK album sales following the recent flurry of media attention.
THE WHITE STRIPES: on tour, the band has been selling a 3-inch record player to play special 3-inch singles. What would Aerosmith say?
THE RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, which is suing those it believes have illegally downloaded music is being counter-sued under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
SEX PISTOLS guitarist Steve Jones, having confessed his weakness for Boston, Queen and Slade, adds that he likes to expose himself.
GANG OF FOUR: Return the Gift, a double-disc set of re-recordings of old songs and remixes by young admirers, comes out October 11th. The “limited” edition comes with a dollar stuffed in the packaging.
U2 will be the sole guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien tonight.
BILLY IDOL is working out to get in shape for touring, because he no longer has enough sex to keep up his metabolism.
THE CUTE ONE had to explain to his wife that “Get Back” is quite famous.
THE DANDY WARHOLS built a sprawling studio in Portland, Oregon, with money from a Vodafone ad.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: UK cosmetics company Rimmel — which initially stuck by Moss — is said to be poised to drop the coke-snorting superwaif after all, due to pressure from wholesome drugstore giant Walgreens.
JESSICA SIMPSON: Us magazine is reporting the Simpson-Lachey breakup mentioned here yesterday. The couple had a rep issue a statement: “Nick and Jessica have not separated. Rumors to the contrary are simply not true.” Joe Simpson also told E! that the rumors were “not true.” How carefully worded the statements are is left to the reader. Us is standing by its story. Perez Hilton and Jossip have all the “not true” details.
BRITNEY SPEARS: Us magazine reports that a member of the Federlines' entourage has threatened to release raunchy footage of the couple. According to Page Six, a copy of the original tape viewed by the couple's lawyers elicited laughter and disgust.
EVA LONGORIA: The Desperate Housewife is not a cheap date. She auctioned off a date for 20K to benefit the survivors of hurricane Katrina. The date will be covered by Access Hollywood.
TYRA BANKS will confront her porn star lookalike on the Tyra show today. I'm tempted to say Banks' TV formula seems remarkably similar to that of Howard Stern, except that Banks has offered to get the “adult film actress” out of the biz.
WALLACE AND GROMIT: Aint-It-Cool-News has a boffo review from Moriarty and seven clips in multiple formats.
CHARLIZE THERON: Comedian Dane Cook was undoubtedly inspired by Theron's painkiller induced buss of Shirley MacLaine to fulfill a dream shared by millions.
LI-LO LOWDOWN: Authorities investigating a car crash involving actress Lindsay Lohan said Wednesday that contrary to reports from some witnesses, paparazzi had nothing to do with the collision.
JANET JACKSON NUDE VIDEO in Quicktime: Avert your eyes. Really.
CONDI RICE: Fox News Channel's James Rosen seemed very keen on selling the Secretary of State on the charms of the comely Fox & Friends anchor Lauren Green. NTTAWWT.
MARTHA STEWART shows her new gangsta colors by launching a record label.
UNDERRATED ACTRESSES: MSN movies has a list full of back-handed compliments.
JESSICA ALBA was shocked — shocked when she saw pictures of herself at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards and realized that parts of her dress were translucent in sunlight. “When the wind blew part of the top up, the underneath was completely see-through. It was so embarrassing. And then of course it ended up on the internet.”
ESPIONAGE IN THE WHITE HOUSE: Leandro Aragoncillo, a U.S. Marine assigned to the staff of Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney, is accused of passing classified material, including damaging dossiers on the president of the Philippines, to opposition politicians planning a coup in the Pacific nation.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio updates on day two of Operation River Gate (including the importance of destroying bridges along the Euphrates to limit insurgent escape routes) as well as cordon and search ops in Baghdad. The Iraqi Army Sixth Division (based in or near Baghdad, I think) assumed authority over two of its subordinate brigades. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who spent the past year overseeing the training of Iraqi forces, noted that in addition to the single Iraqi battalion that is capable of operating fully independent of U.S. troops, there are more than 36 army and special police combat battalions that are only slightly less capable. Petraeus said it was not necessary for Iraqi units to reach the highest level of readiness before U.S. troops can begin to leave Iraq. The Iraqi Parliament reversed its prior changes to rules for the Oct. 15th constitutional referendum, leading Sunni leaders to drop a threatened a boycott of the vote. Reuters reports that recent polling shows widespread support for the draft Iraqi constitution, even in Sunni strongholds.
DIVIDED JIHADIS: From Baghdad to Bali, suicide attacks on civilians are dividing ideologues of global jihad, some of whom worry that the carnage is alienating even Muslims once sympathetic to the militant cause.
HURRICANE KATRINA might have downgraded to a strong Category 1 system with 95-mph winds when it punched water through New Orleans' levees, which may raise further questions about the design and construction of the levees. Some local, state and federal officials have come to believe that exaggerations of mayhem by officials and rumors repeated uncritically in the news media helped slow the response to the disaster and tarnish the image of many of its victims. Regular readers here should already have suspected this.
OKLAHOMA SUICIDE BOMBER: Was Joel Henry Hinrichs III, who blew himself up near Oklahoma Memorial Stadium — where 84,000 people were watching the Oklahoma Sooners play Kansas State last Saturday — merely a depressed college kid, or did he have ties to Islamic extremists? To date, the FBI has found no such link. However, the info rounded up at Zombie Time, along with the fact that Hinrichs used an uncommon component also used by shoe-bomber Richard Reid, suggests further investigation may be warranted.
IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, rising in Europe. Larger than the 1,032 pounder in Streator, IL, the1,080 pounder in Fairfield, CT, and even the 1,200 pounder in Anamosa, IA, is the 1,233 pounder grouwn by German student Martin Reiss.
DeLAY UPDATE: Indicted House Majority Whip Tom “The Hammer” DeLay is compared and contrasted with MC Hammer. The Austin American-Statesman, which is, afaik, not a member of the VRWC, is critical of prosecutor Ronnie Earle and “the already circus-like investigation of alleged Republican campaign funding illegalities.”
TOGOLESE GIRLS forced to shave their heads.
MAURITANIAN GIRLS forced to drink camel's milk.
GATOR vs. SNAKE: An epic Everglades battle between a Burmese python and an American alligator ends with “both dead, locked so gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of either creature.” The AP also has the story. But you can get the big picture from humorist Dave Barry. No, really.
CROCODILE spotted in a pond in Cornwall. The RSPCA thinks the beast actually may be a Cayman — a relative of the crocodile.
NEW DINOSAURS: Paleontologists have uncovered the remains of two new flying reptile species that shared the skies with early birds 120 million years ago in what is now China.
SPIDER BLOOD: A 20-million-year-old spider and some of its blood has been discovered preserved in amber, a la Jurassic Park. But listen, bud: is it radioactive?
CHIMPS know when to be quiet, placing them one rung on the evolutionary ladder above people in movie theaters.
DOGS are the target demographic for a new car designed by Honda.
