Just in case Sunday is your day off of all media – and you don’t get any text messages from your snarky friends – and your phone is off the hook – President George W. Bush went on a ‘surprise’ trip to Iraq over the weekend, the final one as a sitting president. At a press conference, a journalist threw his shoes at him.

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Yep. That is the current President of the United States George W. Bush, the one that was going to restore dignity to the White House – doing the ‘shocker‘ hand gesture with the ASU track team.

And it’s not on some left-wing blog or mass email. This photo is from whitehouse.gov. Well, at least of this posting it is.

Wake us up when it’s January, 20th.

For anybody scheduled to take copy-editing test soon, listen up: The Associated Press has adopted a new (though it doesn’t seem new) rule regarding heads of state.

The Associated Press is adopting a universal style for referring to all heads of state, including the United States. Effective Thursday at 3 a.m. EST, the AP will use the title and first and family names on first reference: President George W. Bush, not just President Bush; President-elect Barack Obama, not just President-elect Obama; President Nicolas Sarkozy, not just President Sarkozy.

And to put it in words fan boys can understand, it’s Adm. William Adama, not just Admiral Adama.

UPDATE: Leave it to geek boys to nitpick our nerd wit! We received this email and feel compelled to make a correction: “Adama is commander in chief and such, but actually Laura Roslin is head of state, as the president of the twelve colonies.”

Thanks for the info. Tell your mother you earned an extra cookie today. Nerd.

As we have previously reported, Sarah Palin will be on Saturday Night Live this weekend. Rumor is she’ll spoof Tina Fey. She’s already spoofed the veep race…Palin not Fey.

Anyway, Politico’s Jonathon Martin points out that Josh Brolin who plays George W. Bush will be hosting this week. Which could make it interesting.

Spoofing the spoofs seems to be a theme.

Stockton, California’s Record, has according to them, only endorsed Republican candidates in the last 72 years. This year, however they are endorsing Senator Barack Hussein Obama.

Not that it means anything, because this little paper has been wrong a couple of times. The editors went back and looked at previous endorsements by the paper. And we love them for it:

» 2004: George W. Bush over John Kerry

Voters should re-elect Bush for four more years, in part because of his leadership under fire and in part because he recognizes that greatly expanding government’s role isn’t the answer to every problem.

Democrat John Kerry, polished, confident and convincing in the three presidential debates, fails to offer assurances on either front.

Gulp. And going even farther back:

1944: Thomas Dewey over Franklin Roosevelt

By temperament and experience, Thomas E. Dewey is fitted to bring the right leadership to Washington to deal with the difficult problems of readjustment. He is exceptionally well qualified to replace the entrenched regimes and supply the vigor, energy and thought to win the peace.

W. The Movie: As local screenwriter Chris Farnsworth says of the upcoming Oliver Stone film about George W. Bush, “I can’t imagine going to see a movie about that guy after living through the last 8 years. Although, covered with dirt and beat up … I can get behind that.”

Ninth Box-Office Hit for Pixar: With Wall-E’s whopping success – $62.5 million opening, thank you very much – we have to wonder: What would Disney do without Pixar? By the way, anyone else think the film is basically Idocracy with a better ending?

Lindsay Lohan Might Have an Illegitimate Half-Sister: And we’re sure Michael Lohan‘s supposed illicit love child will be just as classy as the rest of his offspring.

Per E&P: The Tribune Co. named Marc Chase president of Tribune Interactive with a press release that lives up to the company’s new-found sense of humor (so long as you’re not making fun of Sam Zell, that is).

The press release begins: “Another freaking Clear Channel Communications executive on the payroll and this one’s been named President of Tribune Interactive.”

And it goes on from there in a manner that will likely make employees feel so much better about newsroom job cuts and dwindling resources.

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Game Plan Picks Off Kingdom
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson rocked the box-office over the weekend with his family laffer The Game Plan from Disney. The kid pic opened at $22.7 million, exceeding weekend expecations, THR reports. The showing bested the No. 2 movie in theaters, the Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner-starrer The Kingdom, which grossed $17.7 million.

Desperate Housewives Win Night for ABC
The women of Wisteria Lane saw their season premiere last night on ABC and the Desperate Housewives showing was good enough for a first place finish in the primetime race, THR reports, but the ratings were still off 23% from last year’s season opener. However, THR also writes that it was the show’s best ratings since Nov. 26, 2006.

Morgan Readies Queen Sequel
Oscar-nominated scribe Peter Morgan is penning a sequel to the Helen Mirren-starrer The Queen, reports Variety. The pic – Morgan’s third in a ‘Blair trilogy’ – will center on former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair’s relationships with presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Michael Sheen, who played Blair in The Queen, is expected to reprise his role. But the bigger question is – who will play Clinton and Bush?!

- CHRIS GARDNER

Silly Madam Tricks Are For Barnes: Convicted Hollywood madam Jody “Babydol” Gibson has a tell-all book coming out — not that you’d need it to find out who used her high-end call girl service. Court records that had been sealed or redacted are now public. And they list everyone from Bruce Willis to Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas who bragged that he helped George W. Bush dodge the draft. Our favorite line: “The Times reached Barnes by calling a cellphone number listed beside his name in Gibson’s records. ‘I have never met or talked to this broad in my entire life,’ Barnes said. He said he could not explain why his cellphone number was in her files.”

Leggo My Ego: Think teenagers are selfish little pricks? So do researchers from four universities.

Suck On That, Sumner: Private investors are close to giving the Tom Cruise-led United Artists $500 million.