Judith Miller's guide to age-defying beauty

In the end "Plamegate" turned out well for all the principals involved: Wilson/Plame got the fame they always wanted; Fitzgerald was able to justify his investigation with a conviction; Rove avoided any sort of amphibian gait; Armitage received public credit for being against the war; Novak is only going to sell more volumes of his just released autobiography; Bush was allowed to play his cherished role as the "decider" for perhaps the last time; and Libby. . . you know that feeling of bliss you get after you think you have lost something important -- like your wallet -- and then you find it? Times that by a million and that must have been the cloud Libby was floating on when Bush gave him his early Fourth of July present.

But the biggest winner of all could end up being journalist Judith Miller, whose seemingly superfluous trip to prison rubbed a lot people the wrong way. That is if the movie Nothing But The Truth comes to screen.

The film is about a female reporter who is involved in the outing of female CIA agent and goes to jail to protect her source. While it is not exactly based on Plamegate, it is of the "Law and Order" "ripped from the headlines" variety of fiction.

That thin veil is reflected in the casting: The strong jawed Matt Dillon is slated to play the prosecutor; the bottle blond Vera Farmiga (the psychiatrist in The Departed) will play the outed agent; and the glamorous dark haired reporter who sacrifices her freedom for the freedom of the press is being offered to Kate Beckinsale.

I'm not going dump on Judith Miller's appearance. She looks better than most 60 year old women. But Kate Beckinsale? She is 33, and could be the most unassailable pretty actress we have. Even with it being a given that everyone is made younger and better looking in the dramatization, this is quite a stretch

It remains a mystery as to why the real-life Miller went to prison rather than reveal Libby -- who had signed a waiver allowing journalists to testify about their conversations with him -- as her source.

Theories have ranged from Miller being in on a plot to smear Plame, to it was the attention grabbing action of a megalomaniac with a martyr complex. The fallout from the case (along with her reporting on the still-missing WMDs) may have cost Miller her lofty perch at the New York Times. It has certainly made her whipping girl number one in certain segments of the blogosphere. So I guess it hasn't been all wine and roses for Miller since the investigation.

But it could soon be that Judith Miller is going to join Bob Woodward in the super-exclusive club of journalists who have both won Pulitzer Prizes and been portrayed on celluloid by an actor of legendary physical appeal.

Miller seems like the kind of person who is going to savor this elevation.

Hollywood and Hillary: Be cruel to be kind

If you've been following the Scooter Libby trial, and I can't recommend it, the most interesting thing to come out so far is Libby and Tom Cruise used to hang out. It had something to do with Scientology and Germany, but I'm sure the self-mythicizing government official and the Ethan-Hunt-playing actor also exchanged stories about what it's like to pretend you are vital to the world's security.

Political figures and Hollywood types mix like peanut butter and jelly or salt and pepper or all sorts of other things you can find in a kitchen. But really more of an oil and vinegar reaction -- physically, I mean -- would benefit both.

Because when politicians and Hollywood types get together it doesn't work out for anyone: The Hollywooders end up wasting the hard earned money we explicitly gave them to buy big houses, get plastic surgery and have sex scandals, and the Tinseltown-approved politicians end up losing elections.

Hollywood hasn't figured this out yet. On the heels of new polling that shows-- despite the press and blogsphere's best efforts to introduce us -- half of the country still has no idea who Barack Obama is, Hollywood is busy dumping front-running Hillary Clinton for a public endorsement of the obscure Illinois Senator.

I've been a bit amused by the hoards of people who have so quickly converted Hillary's apparent inevitability to electability but, that being said, this new development would certainly fall under the category of +1 for Hillary.

A bold new legal strategy

Lawyers for Lewis "Scooter" Libby intend to use a "memory expert" to prove Libby is innocent of the charge he lied about his role in the outing of celebrity super-spy Valerie Plame.

When I first read this I was pleased. I have also been cursed with a sieve-like memory and would be in big trouble if I was ever hauled in front of multiple grand juries and made to repeat the same complicated story over and over.

If Libby's memory expert could establish a legal precedent concerning the limitations some otherwise flawless and non-traumatized human brains have in recalling past events not only would my own likelihood of ever being convicted of perjury diminish, but I imagine I would be able paraphrase this ruling with a new sense of authority in my personal dealings.

Unfortunately, when I read the article more carefully, I realized Libby's "memory expert" wasn't only going to argue against Libby's memory. Instead, Libby's defense intends on proving everyone involved in the case has a bad memory.

In other words, Scooter Libby has decided to pursue a line of defense that, if successful, would render most of our legal system impotent.

If not our entire social order useless.

The man is incorrigible.