Smith at War, Tierney on the Run

WAR CORRESPONDENT Smith • Battlefield reporting: A newspaper's Liz Smith bravely volunteers to pay her own way to Italy in order to be embedded in the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes wedding quagmire and finds herself rebuffed by the duo's rep. Smith points out her previous war reporting from one of Elizabeth Taylor's weddings, but resigns herself to coverage outside of the action.

• Bus to nowhere: Slate's Jack Shafer goes to great lengths to ask why the New York Times no longer runs those delightful little "bus plunges down gorge" stories like they used to. Maybe it's because everyone's now taking trains.

• Air scare: A newspaper reports liberal Air America Radio found itself on the receiving end of a powder-laced letter addressed to Al Franken. Wonder if the return address was Norman Lear.

• Libertarian on the loose: New York Times Op-Ed columnist John Tierney is bowing out of his editorial catbird seat in favor of a Science Times column and blog. Flashback: The Problem with John Tierney, CJR, December 1, 2004.