Idle threat of the week

As I mentioned last week, I'm flying solo on idle threat selection this summer, and sometimes the burden is too much for one man to bear. That's why I was thrilled to see that last Monday -- the first day of the idle threat calender week -- Mia Farrow had threatened to exchange her own freedom for the freedom of an imprisoned rebel figure in Sudan's notorious Darfur region.

Suleiman Jamous needs urgent surgery, which can't be provided in his current state of lockdown. So Farrow forwarded the wacky notion that the Sudanese government would find the forced companionship of a woman so insufferable she once drove her long time boyfriend to marry his own adopted daughter worthy of releasing a man who, from the Sudanese government's perspective, is plotting their eventual hanging in front of 90,000 screaming fans at the local soccer stadium.

Surely Mia Farrow's intention was to raise awareness of Jamous's plight. And raise awareness she did. For about 12 hours. But Farrow's bizarre attempted gambit will last forever as Idle Threat of the Week for August 6th to 12th.

We can only hope this will encourage more extreme celebrity philanthropic proffers. Like Bono threatening to cut out his unusually active tongue if malaria is irradiated. Or Angelina Jolie offering, in exchange for nuclear disarmament, to go back on the no-more lesbianism-and-S&M vow she made to Brad Pitt. Actually, if there is video tape involved, that one just might appeal to perv Kim-Jong-Il. And perhaps other people too.