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The first shot released at a very NSFW Playgirl.com of Levi Johnston and his armpit hair.

Levi Johnston, or is that Ricky Hollywood, is a classy guy. Yeah, he's doing a Playgirl pictorial, but it's arty, not filled with gratuitous junk.

The Bristol Palin knocker-upper decided to keep little Ricky Hollywood under wraps, electing no to go full frontal, so he can keep things from devolving into some sort of a circus with people thumbing his page for a glimpse at his naughty bits rather than to get to know him as a person.

See? Classy.

Us Magazine had some additional details of the classic moments of Americana preserved on film:

"'The shoot was fantastic!' Johnston's manager said, adding that the nude model wasn't nervous in the slightest. 'We're having a lot of fun with it,' Jones teases. And, ahem, how much did Bristol Palin's hockey-playing ex reveal? 'People are going to see more of Levi than they thought,' Tank Jones tells Us. 'There was a hockey stick involved.' The fun's not over, either: a second photo session takes place Friday. 'Part two is going to be fantastic. That's all I can say.' "

And it must be just that attention to detail that keeps his famous not-mother-in-law, Sarah Palin, willing to leave a seat at the family Thanksgiving table for him. Talking to Oprah on Monday, Palin said she's worried he may not be making the right decisions with his life.

Palin went on to say she finds it "a bit heartbreaking to see the road that he is on right now" and that "it's not a healthy place to be." Palin also said Johnston remains a member of the family and that they can work out any troubles. She said she prays for him and that he has an "open invitation" to Thanksgiving dinner.

One can only wonder with breathless anticipation what will happen next.

When Roger Daltrey blew through Chicago on his current solo tour, he said he was just trying to keep his pipes practiced for upcoming projects by The Who -- and one of those projects might be a Super Bowl XLIV halftime performance in January.

Internet rumors are hot today claiming that The Who will be the latest classic rock band (translation: safe booking in a post-Janet Jackson world) taking over the gridiron during the big pro football hootenanny.

Just rumors at this point, nothing confirmed -- except an unnamed source at Sports Illustrated. The official NFL statement, according to the NYPost, is, "When we have something to announce, we'll announce it."

They also note that since the game is on CBS, it certainly makes sense to book The Who. The band's songs are used as themes all three "CSI" franchises on the network: "Who Are You" ("CSI"), "Baba O'Riley" ("CSI: NY") and "Won't Get Fooled Again" ("CSI: Miami").

Recent Super Bowl halftime performers have been Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Rolling Stones, U2, Paul McCartney and Prince.

Eliot Spitzer is set to lecture at Harvard. On ethics.

Let that soak in, Hahvahd smaht kids.

The disgraced former governor and Attorney General of New York, sometimes known by his closest acquaintances, such as his former "date," Ashley Dupre, as "Client 9," has been invited to lecture at the prestigious school, which does not sit well with Kristin Davis, a former Manhattan madam who used to supply the professor with call girls.

"This sounds fascinating and I would love to attend," Davis wrote of Spitzer's speech today, "but the restrictions of my probation won't allow me to travel outside New York City.

"For nearly 5 years, I supplied Mr. Spitzer with high-priced escorts while he was both Attorney General and Governor. For this crime, I served four months on Rikers Island, had all of my assets confiscated and am now considered a sex offender on 5 years probation. Mr. Spitzer broke both state and federal laws and walked away free.

"I am greatly intrigued as to what Mr. Spitzer could contribute to an ethical discussion when as Chief Executive Law Enforcement Officer of NY he broke numerous laws for which he has yet to be punished. As Attorney General he went around arresting and making examples out of the same escort agencies he was frequenting."

Spitzer resigned as governor on March 17, 2008, taking his good name and Hilary Clinton Superdelegate status with him.

Update with Spitzer's talk, 9 p.m.

By hook or by crook, Spitzer's speech went off without incident - or talk of prostitution Thursday. According to Bloomberg News reports, his talk on ethics skirted any mention of his own, personal research into ethical quagmires:

Only government regulators can force transparency in the financial markets, Spitzer said today during his talk entitled, "From Ayn Rand to Ken Feinberg - How quickly the Paradigm Shifts. What Should Be the Rationale for Government Participation in the Market?"

Spitzer, 50, resigned as governor on March 12, 2008, after he was identified on a federal wiretap arranging to meet at a Washington hotel with a woman who worked for Emperors Club VIP. As New York State attorney general from 1999 to 2006, he was known as "the sheriff of Wall Street" and collected billions in settlements from financial companies such as Merrill Lynch and American International Group, Inc.

Spitzer's speech didn't touch on the actions that led to his resignation.

So, he got in, shifted his paradigm and got out. Disappointing, but not unexpected.

Noted in-your-face interviewer Larry King got Carrie Prejean's goat with his hard-hitting quest to find answers about the tarnished beauty queen's mediation and settlement with the Miss California USA pageant.

Oh, yeah. Except that this is Larry King, the soft-balling questioner tarnished celebrities book to feel like they're in a safe place. But even King's kid gloves were too much for Prejean, who's doing the gab circuit to flog her new book, causing her to toss her mic and clam up while a clearly befuddled King went to break.

The problem seemed to stem from King's repeated questions about the framework of Prejean's settlement. The ex-queen continued to brush aside questions as "inappropriate" and cited a confidentiality agreement. Oh, and of course there's that non-sextape sex tape floating around that TMZ has said was shot when Prejean was 17.

The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly. We know that, because TMZ obtained the video months ago but decided not to post it because it was so racy. Let's just say, Carrie has a promising solo career.

We're told it took about 15 seconds for Carrie to jettison her demand and essentially walk away with nothing. As we first reported, the Pageant is paying around $100,000 to her lawyers and publicist - a fraction of her bills. She pockets nothing in the settlement.

So, clearly, there's a level of expertise in "inappropriate" behavior at work here.

The CNN dalliance Wednesday night continued down weird lane as Anderson Cooper picked up the topic later.

Cooper's reaction is kinda priceless, actually. Especially when he hears Prejean's describes King as "inappropriate."

Bizarre, indeed. Increasingly so.

If the highlight of the last seven days for you is watching drunken Ewoks hump Al Roker's leg on live TV, well, err ... OK, there's nothing wrong with that. But beyond the obvious fun with bestiality angles involved, it's been a busy week in the Star Wars universe.

Then the continuing saga of Londoner Andrew Ainsworth, an original costumer for the Star Wars films accused of going to the Dark Side for making Storm Trooper uniform reproductions (what, those things produced under a no-bid, exclusive contract or something?) as the case returned to court Tuesday.

Now this, an unearthed photo of Carrie Fisher in full Princess Leia slavegirl garb catching some rays on the set of "Return of the Jedi" - seemingly on Jabba's barge - next to her stunt double, Tracy Eddon. The photo has been around fleetingly, but reappeared in wider circulation for some reason today. And across the world an entire generation of men who were 13 in 1983 suddenly stopped as if there were a great disturbance in the Force.

Perhaps not as great a disturbance as there was when Fisher finally got her wish to have an interesting costume:

"I remember that iron bikini I wore in Episode VI: what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell."

Just how big a deal was this brass masterpiece? There's an entire Wookipedia page on her barb and at least one Web site dedicate entirely to Fisher's metal bikini, which contains this disclaimer: This website is dedicated to the costume worn by Princess Leia following her capture by the crimelord, Jabba the Hutt, in Star Wars, Episode VI : Return of the Jedi.

Riiight.

There doesn't seem to be a backstory - yet - as to who took it or why it's showing up now. But sometimes it's best to just let the Force work in its own way. And just thank your stars that there was no corresponding Luke-in-a-Speedo moment to match.

Oh, and how 'bout those ewoks one more time ...

A year ago tonight, hundreds of thousands of Barack Obama supporters filed into Grant Park in Chicago to see the junior senator from Illinois become the first black President of the United States in a landslide win against Sen. John McCain.

The euphoria, right, from Nov. 4, 2008 in Grant Park has died down considerably in the last year. (Scott Stewart~Sun-Times)

But glory, as it so often is, was fleeting following the 2008 presidential election. Like the new car, the value begins to plummet and the shine to fade the moment it's driven off the dealership lot. No longer is it enough to win the campaign - now the results must come. And come quickly.

Finally, a big twitter social networking phenomenon we can all embrace.

Big Bird, the giant yellow star who made Sesame Street a happy place long before Elmo came along, turns 40 today. Definitely not a spring chicken anymore.

To celebrate, Sesame Street's website is running a contest where you can vote for your favorite episodes from the the show's 40-year life on Public Television. Even Google has gotten in the game, sporting some decidedly chicken legs for the day above its search bar.

And while there has been controversy in the past over just how old Big Bird is in show years - he seems to be somewhere in the first-grade range if you're thinking of a gift - there's no denying he's been an iconic force in children's live for generations no matter his age.

And the 8-foot, 2-inch yellow original - he debuted on the original airing of "Sesame Street" in 1969 - shows no signs of slowing. Along with his buddies, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and the rest of the people and monsters on one of the world's most famous streets, Big Bird has seen and done a lot. From dealing with the death of Mr. Hooper to helping kids learn to read and count to making new friends, marking 40 years in feathers is quite the feat indeed.

And, of course, if Big Bird is 40, Sesame Street is also 40. There's a celebration planned for the actual anniversary date on November 10. Meanwhile, there's an interesting look in the AtlanticWire at some of the changes over the decades.

That's too many fingers, Governor.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is colorful, to say the least. But he seldom leaves people wondering what he was thinking after his actions.

Take his latest veto. Conan the Legislator often leaves messages on the bills he signs or vetoes, and California legislative finance bill AB 1176 is no different. He struck it down and left a brief message on his feeling on the issue. But you have to read between the lines to see what he's really thinking this time.

Specifically, the first letter of each line. The governor flips the legislature a figurative finger, spelling out an F-bomb if you read down the first letters. See for yourself:

"My goodness. What a coincidence," said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear. "I suppose when you do so many vetoes, something like this is bound to happen."

Schwarzenegger's veto messages are sent to the lawmakers who authored the bills, and posted on the governor's Web site. McLear noted that the left-hand margin of past veto messages has spelled out words such as "poet" and "soap."

The target was San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who had sponsored AB1176. The bill, which passed unanimously in the Assembly and Senate, would have granted the Port of San Francisco expanded financing power to redevelop a former shipyard into a new neighborhood known as Pier 70.

"Kudos to the governor for his creative use of coincidence," said Ammiano's spokesman, Quintin Mecke. "You certainly have to have a sense of humor in politics. Unfortunately, this humor came at the cost of the Port of San Francisco."

Whether coincidence or smackdown, the phrase contained in Schwarzenegger's Oct. 12 veto message could be seen as retaliation for Ammiano's behavior during a local Democratic Party fundraiser earlier this month in San Francisco.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, had been invited to the event by former San Francisco mayor and Assembly speaker Willie Brown, a Democrat.

His appearance at the Fairmont Hotel caught many of the attendees by surprise and came after a summer of contentious budget negotiations that forced lawmakers to cut billions of dollars from core state services, including education and health care programs.

On a video clip of the governor's appearance, Ammiano can be heard shouting "you lie" and other derogatory phrases as other attendees booed and heckled Schwarzenegger's brief speech.

After the governor left, Ammiano took the stage and gave a rambling diatribe in which he criticized Schwarzenegger for a wide variety of perceived offenses. In part, the freshman lawmaker was upset that Schwarzenegger had vetoed bills in 2005 and 2007 that would have legalized gay marriage.

Thank God for America and its inherent sense of entrepreneurship.

Give us lemons and we don't whine about the bitter juice. We add some high fructose corn syrup, farm production to China and profit from lemonade that's bad enough enough to make us fat and give us cancer, but too tasty to pass up.

Friends and neighbors, Balloon Boy, and his media circus parents, is our lemonade. And the story that keeps on giving, well, keeps on giving. And just in time for halloween!

Thanks to a box, a shiny balloon and some schadenfreude-fueled imagination, you, too, can be Balloon Boy for halloween (TV interview vomit optional).

There's even some helpful advice from the geniuses at Microflight that thought this up:

Now you too can enjoy all the media attention you want with Plantraco's Balloon Boy Hoax kit. A great flying saucer that is going to put a big smile on your face. Colorado flying saucers and hot air balloon hoaxes are famous these days, get on the bandwagon for trick-or-treat halloween fun and loads of laughs for everyone!

Just ring the doorbell and say "I'm supposed to be flying in there, but my dad said to stay in the box for the show!" - you are practically guaranteed to get double and triple halloween treats with this authentic and collectible Balloon Boy Flying Saucer Hoax trick costume!

Halloween has morphed into a holiday - no, holiday doesn't seem right, but go with with it - offering fun and candy for the kiddies, a chance for adults to dress up in hilarious costumes and get hammered and, of course, the opportunity to set fire to Detroit. And every year there's a transcendent, and usually nonsensical, news story that creates fodder for the grownups to play dressup.

This year we get little Falcon and the fighting Heene clan to thank for our thrills and chills.

This clearly has family possibilities - or even cross-family if you explore the "Wife Swap" aspects.

Kanye West is dead. Long live Kanye West.

Or so some Twitter prankster would have you believe.

Early today, Twitter became abuzz with rumors that Chicago's most notorious rapper had passed on. The phrase "RIP Kanye West" began reproducing in tweets throughout the service, becoming a trending topic that's still No. 1 on the site as of this post.

West is, however, still alive and kicking. As The Daily Swarm put it in its round-up of news reports about this, he continues to not be dead.

How the "rumor" began remains unclear. But we're looking at you, Taylor Swift.

UPDATE: Two reports on how the hoax began -- first, Idolator traces it back to a phony Fox News page posted with a giant Kanye obit; or, Daily Swarm tags it to these meatheads.

The moral of the story: It's ridiculously easy to start rumoriffic mayhem. We propose some new hashtag heard-its ... #mileymising, #Tribuneshutdown, #daleyretires. Your suggestions?

Kanye West is not gonna let Spike Jonze's short film, "We were once a fairytale," finish.

Just one day after the odd 10-minute opus was released, Chicagoan West pulled the joint from his own site without warning or explanation. The film shows a drunken rapper exorcising his demons as normal people look on.

Sounds familiar for some reason.

The beleaguered rapper debuted the clip on his Web site Monday before removing it. In it, West is shown acting drunk and obnoxious, and at the end of it, he stabs himself with a sword and pulls what appears to be a little mouselike demon out of his stomach. He then gives the demon a sword, and it stabs itself.

A rep for Jonze says the video was made within the past year. West's publicist did not respond to an Associated Press e-mail seeking comment.

Here's a Thanksgiving deal you won't want to miss: One day, two turkeys!

That's right, after your feast with grandma and the whole clan, head out to the House of Blues for a concert by convicted domestic abuser Chris Brown.

Brown is launching a 19-city "fan appreciation" tour "to acknowledge and thank his fans for their ongoing support," according to a press release. The Chicago date: Nov. 26, Thanksgiving night.

Granted, it's a cheap ticket for an intimate venue: $37.50 general admission, $42 day of show. Tickets go on sale here this Friday. Part of the proceeds also benefit Best Buddies International, a nonprofit supporting for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In related news, Rihanna -- the girlfriend Brown smacked around earlier this year, for which he was sentenced to probation -- is also forging ahead with her music career, scheduling the relase of her next album, "Rated R," on Nov. 23.

The first single, "Russian Roulette," written and produced by Ne-Yo, debuted today on her Web site.

The single cover was revealed today, too, and it's ... hoo-boy! ... it's this:

There's just not much you can add to this trailer for "The Expendables."

Well, maybe testicles. Because something with this much testosterone clearly has something driving the man-ness. Here's Stallone, directing, no less, returning to his monosyllabic roots for the glory of film-goers everywhere.

Plot? May be one, but who cares? There doesn't seem to be a lot of room for character development with all the rounds flying and asses being kicked. Relentlessly.

One thing's for sure, between Steven Seagal and Sly, this is shaping up to be an explosive 12 months in entertainment.

Death, it turns out, is anything but dignified for Michael Jackson.

His family continues to squabble over the estate. The label is marketing his work, using his death as a profit engine. His brain was held in deep freeze as his death investigation continues.

And now this ... his singed hair from the infamous 1984 Pepsi commercial fire accident is up for sale.

According to the London Sun newspaper, Ralph Cohen, the executive producer of the commercial, saved the hairs in his coat, which he had used to try to put the flames on Jackson's head out. Now the dozen singed hairs are going on the block in an auction expected to bring in a whopping $1,500.

Of course, that price also includes Cohen's harrowing tale of the day:

"And then, as Michael on his cue, was supposed to come down the stairs the explosion went off and the first thing I noticed was - he was about half way down the stairs - and I noticed flame emanating from his hair.

"And it took me a moment to register what exactly was happening because there was so much lights and so many different things go on sic] it was a little confusing but I noticed his hair was on fire and I immediately rushed out from my position.

"I pulled my jacket off as I was running and proceeded to, when I reached him, put it over his head."

Richard Davie from International Autograph Auctions is selling them at the Edwardian Radisson Hotel at Heathrow, London, on October 17.

The hairs are said to be worth about twice as much as when Jackson was alive. The video flameout is pointed to by many Jackson watchers as the beginning of the end for the King of Pop. After suffering second degree burns, he became hooked on pain killers, live-in doctors and bad advice until the time of his death by cardiac arrest this summer.

That, if it were the end of the story, would be enough to cover the weird quotient for the day. But when it comes to Michael Jackson, there's always more.

The Arlington Heights, IL., company, LifeGem, already has plans for about 100 more of Jackson's burned hairs - making them into diamonds. Dean Van den Biesen, one of the company's co-founders, says the 7- to 9-month process to make diamonds from Jackson's fried locks is underway.

"We have the Armani suit jacket, the locks of hair, the documentation. Everything," Van den Biesen said Tuesday.

How many diamonds does 100 hairs get you? About three by the time the carbon purification process the company advertises is complete. As to who gets those diamonds when they're done, plans are still being developed.

You'll just have to make due with the King's latest single - or is it his single? - for your Jackson fix in the meantime. Or, there's always the other King's hair auction, if you really must go that route.

Fraser Robinson III, Marian, and their children, Craig and Michelle - now Michelle Obama.

The New York Times reports the fascinating story of Michelle Obama's slave heritage back to a 6-year-old slave girl named Melvinia in pre-Civil War South Carolina.

The Times story covers the first lady's history to her great-great-great-grandparents, the lone girl and an unknown white man after she had been willed to a family near Atlanta a few years before the Civil War. Born from that coupling was Dolphus T. Shields.

The exploration of family roots by Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist, and The New York Times -- bears out longstanding family rumors about a white forebear, the former Michelle Robinson said.

The Times reports that it's unclear who the actual father of Dolphus Shields was once Melvinia became the property of Henry Shields in 1852:

It is difficult to say who might have impregnated Melvinia, who gave birth to Dolphus around 1859, when she was perhaps as young as 15. At the time, Henry Shields was in his late 40s and had four sons ages 19 to 24, but other men may have spent time on the farm.

"No one should be surprised anymore to hear about the number of rapes and the amount of sexual exploitation that took place under slavery; it was an everyday experience, " said Jason A. Gillmer, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University, who has researched liaisons between slave owners and slaves. "But we do find that some of these relationships can be very complex."

Just as interesting is the family tree the Times has put together as the Robinson family history has pieced together, The Family Tree of Michelle Obama: The First Lady. It traces her family steps through tattered paperwork and faded photographs back to that 6-year-old slave on a Carolina plantation. It also serves to illuminate the mixed-race background of the first lady's heritage and discusses how that's becoming a much more common reality in a nation made up of so many races and heritages.

Much like a report in the Chicago Sun-Times exploring the family tree of Barack Obama, the Times report illuminates a rich, multi-ethnic background for the first lady, though Michelle's history is far less well-known.

When Melvinia died in 1938, her death certificate marks "don't know" in the space asking for the 90-year-old's parents name, so the retracing ends with her.