There is today nothing more from St. Martin’s Press than a resolute “no comment.”

FishbowlNY had been inquiring about how the recent Lianne MacDougall (a.k.a. Lianne Spiderbaby) plagiarism scandal has impacted the publisher’s plans for the North American release later this year or in early 2014 of the embattled writer’s first book, Grindhouse Girls: Cinema’s Hardest Working Women. In a Twitter reply posted late last month, St. Martin’s stated that MacDougall had ended the book project from her end. But that tweet has since been deleted.

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Thanks to Simon Cowell exiting the LA studios of The X Factor last night and refusing to comment on allegations that he has fathered a child with NYC socialite Lauren Silverman, a rash of “Mum” headlines are crossing the wire. Half are from his actual mom, saying he’ll make a great dad; the other pertain to his not-yet-commenting.

At WENN, contactmusic.com and elsewhere, the news is being passed on that Cowell “Keeps Mum.” However, on the same day of Ariel Castro‘s sentencing hearing (!), a TV station website in Cleveland (ABC 5) has stamped this rather unfortunate typo:

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Garance Franke-Ruta is a senior editor with The Atlantic, covering national politics. She had brunch a couple of weeks ago in New York with Slate’s Dave Weigel.

But in light of certain recent NYC events, it’s the other member of her brunch party that makes the meal 20/20 notable. To Franke-Ruta’s surprise, Weigel had also asked Olivia Nuzzi to join them. The former Weiner campaign intern who would go on to make a big splash via her NSFWCORP blog entries and this past Tuesday’s NYDN cover. Writes Franke-Ruta:

I was impressed by the way Nuzzi coupled a kind of self-conscious sexpot appearance with an unexpectedly deep knowledge of New York and New Jersey politics. She friended me on Facebook shortly thereafter…

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You knew it was coming. Replace Robin Thicke in the music video for “Blurred Lines” with some dancing Anthony Weiner doppelganger and you’ve got the NYC must-remix of this summer’s infectious hit.

The magazine enlisted the help of GoRemy (a.k.a. Remy Munasfi) and easily, for our money, the best line in this “Blurred Junk” version reads as follows – “Not since Chilean miners, were rescued fast; have people been so happy, seeing the top of a shaaaaaaft.” The oversized hashtag #PRICKE ain’t too shabby either.

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On the heels of that recent Liam Gallagher love child scandal comes the hint of another, involving an even bigger Brit. According to a story in this week’s issue of US Weekly tipped by staff editor Allison Takeda, Simon Cowell has been having an affair with “technically married” New York socialite Lauren Silverman and she is now expecting their child.

The online teaser item is up and while Cowell’s reps have yet to respond to the allegations, readers are quickly chiming in at the usmagazine.com end:

Peblican: Wow, cheating with your close friend’s wife and to add insult having a baby with her, wonder how he treats his enemies.

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It doesn’t seem possible, even by the slippery standards of NYC political scandals. On a day that began with a New York Daily News Weiner intern expose, continued with a Howard Stern-Sydney Leathers shock interview and ended with a defiant Anthony Weiner campaign video, there is still more. The coup de (dis)grace, as it were, delivered by Talking Points Memo national affairs writer Hunter Walker.

Weiner’s director of communications Barbara Morgan went off the media deep end during her conversation with Walker, calling the author of that aforementioned NYDN expose every name in the book. She quickly apologized and told The Observer‘s Jill Colvin she thought that part of the conversation was off the record. But TPM editor-publisher Josh Marshall is backing up Walker all the way and, regardless, it would seem that Weiner’s campaign is now really cooked. From Walker’s bombshell report:

“I’m dealing with like stupid f*cking interns who make it on to the cover of the Daily News even though they signed NDAs and/or they proceeded to trash me,” Morgan told TPM, referring to a non-disclosure agreement. “And by the way, I tried to fire her, but she begged to come back and I gave her a second chance.”

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The most prominent of several real-life USA Carlos Danger‘s is still, as far as we know, ducking the press.

But this morning, per a tweet from NY1 and CNBC anchor Pat Kiernan, the fictitious one’s PR imprint continues to grow. All thanks to this full-page newspaper ad from a Northeast chain of fitness clubs:

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In this corner, we have The Daily Beast’s take, set to a sort-of square dance-like jig:

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Miami New Times managing editor Tim Elfrink had a fun blog item yesterday as the newest Anthony Weiner sexting scandal and press conference were rolling down the news pike.

He revealed that there is a real guy in the Miami-Dade area called Carlos Danger, matching the chat pseudonym used by Weiner. This Carlos is a licensed psychiatrist:

The real Dr. Danger – who hopefully at least considered a career building giant, evil laser devices in a hollowed-out mountain somewhere before settling on psychiatry – operates a Coral Gables clinic called Innova Clinical Trials.

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On his Twitter feed last night, Huffington Post Crime and Weird News editor Andy Campbell wrote: “It’s definitely the most disgusting tainted food story I’ve worked on.” So we can all take small comfort in the notion that this journalist has never come across anything worse than the actions of a pair of quickly fired Subway employees in Columbus, Ohio.

Campbell’s story has been picked up by the Daily News, Daily Mail and others. His HuffPo headline says it all: “Subway Employee Puts His Penis on Sandwich Bread; Another Freezes His Urine at Work (PHOTOS).”

Campbell was able to speak with one of the off-color Instagram pranksters:

In an exclusive interview with HuffPost Weird News, Ian Jett copped to defiling the footlong, but denied doing the dirty deed at work. “I would never do that at work — it was at home,” he said. “This isn’t something I’d ever do at Subway. It was totally a joke.”

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