by Claudine Zap

Our top picks from the day's hottest searches.

1. Tsunami pictures (Searches increased by 1,190%). Photos are flooding in of the earthquake in the ocean that caused 30-foot waves to hit the Asian Pacific.
2. Women's flat shoes (+304%). Stiletto-challenged women, rejoice: flat is the new high.
3. Fall foliage (+299%). Scientists say the colors should be even more vibrant this year. Find out where to go.
4. Sarah Palin (+195%). While the former Alaska guv is open for the lecture-circuit business, word is there are few takers willing to pay her $100,000 price.
5. Allure magazine (+194%). The women's fashion mag has come out with its list of top beauty products. And they don't even break the bank.

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by Claudine Zap

As Dan Rather would say, this lawsuit was enough to make his fingernails sweat.

But the suspense is over. The former anchorman lost his $70 million lawsuit against CBS. The newsman sued the network after he was removed as anchor, then dumped from CBS completely.

The dispute centered on a story Rather reported on "60 Minutes II" months before the presidential election between Bush and Kerry back in 2004. The controversial report detailed how Bush was given special treatment while he served in the Texas National Guard during the Vietnam war. But the sources turned out to be inaccurate, and the show had to step back from the story.

Rather claims he was the scapegoat for the report and that his rep suffered after the network shelved him. CBS said they were within their rights. The appeals court sided with CBS. One reason: The court didn't buy the argument that the living legend had trouble finding work after the nasty ending with CBS: He is anchor of a cable news show now.

Again, to put it Rather style: "It was always a big rock up a high hill. The rock just got bigger and the hill just got higher."

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by Claudine Zap

Tennis champ Serena Williams made plenty of headlines with her bad behavior at the U.S. Open. But that tough-as-nails 'tude seems to be working for her. She is boldly going where few celebs have dared to tread. Serena will be a spokesperson for Tampax.

You can see the Web-only video of sassy Serena (in tennis whites) taking "Mother Nature" on the court, slamming balls her way as she tries to deliver a red-wrapped package. The two rivals also have competing press conferences where they talk smack about each other. The print version of the ad will go in mags like Teen Vogue.

While the endorsement strikes a light tone, the approach might not go over well with everyone. The New York Post called the ad "uncomfortably graphic." Still, the New York Times points out that it's a huge win for Tampax to land such a huge star, even one dealing with the aftermath of her courtside kerfuffle.

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by Claudine Zap

Our top picks from the day's hottest searches.

1. "Alice in Wonderland" costumes (Searches increased by 4,692%). The upcoming Tim Burton movie seems to have provided some spooky inspiration.
2. Condoleezza Rice (+2,240%). Remember her? The last administration's Secretary of State spoke out against retreat in Afghanistan.
3. Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 (+519%). The trailer for the upcoming horror remake looks pretty scary. Or hilariously campy. Take your pick.
4. Humpback whale (+499%). Good news: Reports seem to show the population increasing, which could lead to removal from the endangered species list.
5. Chicago 2016 (+270%).The third coast city could be the site of the Olympics: All depends on whether the president's charm offensive works in Copenhagen.

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by Claudine Zap

You can take the woman away from print. But you can't shake the print out of Tina Brown. Her news and opinion website, The Daily Beast, will become a super-fast publisher of quickie books, to feed the interest of readers' hurry-up insistence on information right now, not later.

What can Brown do for books? Well, for starters, the author and former editor of The New Yorker and the defunct Talk magazine knows something about mixing and matching media — and isn't afraid to try something that could create lots of buzz but little cash.

Topics promise to be timed for the Internet news cycle. Titles from Beast Books, as the imprint will be called, will be shorter in length — about 150 pages — than your average nonfiction tome. Instead of taking years, these speedy books will take mere months to report, write, and publish, says the Silicon Alley Insider.

Think of this Web off-shoot as a mini-magazine on specialty subjects. According to the New York Times, the plan is to roll out publications as e-books first, and then print them the old-fashioned way. And, oh yah, charge money for them, too. Any profits will be split among the writer, the print publisher, Perseus, and The Daily Beast. Writers will also receive a five-figure advance.

So we repeat: Print is not dead. It just shrunk.

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by Mike Krumboltz

Some actors are embarrassed by the shows that made them famous. Others embrace them. Melissa Gilbert definitely falls into the second category. The actor who became a star in "Little House on the Prairie" is now appearing in a stage adaptation of the hit show. But with a unique twist...

Gilbert, who played the young Laura Ingalls during the TV show's run from 1974 to 1983, is starring as "Ma" in the stage version. News that Gilbert is back in pioneer-era garb inspired huge searches on the actress. Web lookups on "melissa gilbert" and "melissa gilbert play" each posted triple-digit gains.

The fact that Gilbert is playing a different character shouldn't come as a huge surprise. After all, it would really stretch the audience's suspension of disbelief to ask a 45-year-old to play a teenager (apologies to Luke Perry). What came as a surprise to us, as well as to Ms. Gilbert, is that the stage adaptation is a musical. The New York Post reports that Gilbert's initial response to the news was: "Are you crazy?"

Still, the actor has grown confident with the new material. She's even abstained from giving too much advice to Kara Lindsay, who has taken on Gilbert's old role. Reviews of the production appear to be mixed. The New York Times calls it "pretty and well-meaning, but a little too sincere." Meanwhile NJ.com calls it "a lyrical, likeable journey," but also says the musical is "wholesome without being emotionally moving." Reviews aren't everything, however — the show is already sold out.

Fans who can’t get to the Paper Mill Playhouse might just have to wait and hope it moves to Broadway. Hey, stranger things have happened. Remember Cats?

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