DECEASED WRESTLER OF THE MONTH UPDATE: "Disgraced" would be more accurate, but likely redundant.

Steve Austin's ex wife -- Sorry. Make that Stone Cold Steve Austin's ex-wife is selling their wedding ring on EBay, and "[a] portion of the proceeds of this sale will benefit SafePlace, a non profit organization against domestic violence."

Hat tip: Liz.

NEGOTIATIONS AND LOVE SONGS: Four things I think I think after watching reality television tonight:

1. If Probst had been clued in better by the producers at to the extent of Sue Hawk's anguish, that would have gone down a lot differently, no? Yes, it's a game show, but that was insensitive, if not downright cruel, and few castaways acted with any compassion.

Maybe it's just me speculating, but I bet that if a naked castaway started grinding his cock against Amber during a challenge without her consent, he would've been swiftly tossed from the game by the producers and the victim would have received immediate psychological consultation. But because of how Sue Hawk was perceived (older, less attractive, "tougher"), she didn't get that same sensitivity.

Or, as TWoP's Miss Alli wrote, "All these people suck. I fucking hated every single one of them at least once tonight. Except maybe Alicia and Lex. Fuckers. I hate these people."

2. It's now two straight Thursdays that someone has used the non-word "indoendo" instead of "innuendo" on a Thursday night show. Like, wtf?

3. You do realize, I hope, that this week's Apprentice challenge was fundamentally the same as last week's: take a product whose unique characteristics are impossible for the competitors (or, perhaps, anyone) to understand, for which there are any number of equivalents always available in NYC, one that you can only sell based on looks and your inherent selling ability, and try to make a killing, quickly, with customers that are outside your range of experience. It's not easy.

4. Y'know, I agreed with Isaac that this week's Top Model reward was incomparably lame, but, shit, it's still better than "ten minutes with Trump". What, they didn't want to spring for a pack of Twinkies for the Versacorp members? C'mon, The Donald, give Troy a Ho Ho next time, or splurge: let Ghostface Killah take them to Starbucks, for pete's sake.

NEXT WEEK IN PROPERTY, RICHARD HELMHOLZ ENTERS TO 'WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE': I was going to do a whole lengthy post about my two favorite candidates for the U.S. Senate seat up for grabs in Illinois, but because of a variety of personal conflicts of interest (and in an atte,mpt to not bore most of you), I'll just skip ahead to the good part:

Barack Obama has a theme song, and it's pretty damn catchy.

In the hierarchy of theme songs, it beats "You Can Call Me Al" and "New England: The Patriots and We," but it's not quite on the level of, say, Hansel's theme in Zoolander or Rick Derringer's "Real American". Still, for a politician, not bad.

YO, WE CAN START BY BEING POLITE: Philadelphia's trade unions are rolling out the red carpet for MTV's The Real World, so to speak.

NEXT STOP, JUMBOTRON: The NYT's Alex Witchel reports on the latest in circumcision-related catering. As in all other things, count on New Yorkers to take things a bit too far.

That said, I feel safe in predicting that unlike with bar mitzvahs, this is one Jewish cultural rite that won't be appropriated by others.

POOR JOSHUA! [WARNING: THIS POST IS 100% POP CULTURE FREE]: If you're like me -- and even for most of the people reading this, you're probably not this much like me unless you were a student of Austin Sarat's -- the highlight from today's release of Justice Blackmun's personal papers may well be the opportunity to see in Blackmun's own handwriting his dissent in DeShaney v. Winnebago Cty. Soc. Serv. Dept., 489 U.S. 189 (1989).

The case involves Joshua DeShaney, a four-year-old who was so severely beaten by his custodial father that he fell into a life-threatening coma, suffering traumatic head injuries that caused life-long brain damage and profound retardation. What's worse, the county's department of social services had visited the family a number of times during the previous two years because of suspicions of abuse, noticing repeated injuries, yet essentially did nothing.

A lawsuit was filed on Joshua's behalf, claiming that his constitutional rights were violated by the state's failure to intervene to protect him against a known risk of violence. Chief Justice Rehnquist commanded a 6-3 majority, holding that the state had no affirmative duty to protect Joshua despite everything it knew.

Justice Brennan wrote the more formal, legal dissent, but it's Justice Blackmun's separate dissent that everyone remembers. Blackmun decried the "sterile formalism" which led to the court's result, and concluded in personal language uncharacteristic for a Supreme Court opinion as follows (internal cites deleted):

[T]he question presented by this case is an open one, and our Fourteenth Amendment precedents may be read more broadly or narrowly depending upon how one chooses to read them. Faced with the choice, I would adopt a "sympathetic" reading, one which comports with dictates of fundamental justice and recognizes that compassion need not be exiled from the province of judging. Cf. A. Stone, Law, Psychiatry, and Morality 262 (1984) ("We will make mistakes if we go forward, but doing nothing can be the worst mistake. What is required of us is moral ambition. Until our composite sketch becomes a true portrait of humanity we must live with our uncertainty; we will grope, we will struggle, and our compassion may be our only guide and comfort").

Poor Joshua! Victim of repeated attacks by an irresponsible, bullying, cowardly, and intemperate father, and abandoned by respondents who placed him in a dangerous predicament and who knew or learned what was going on, and yet did essentially nothing except, as the Court revealingly observes, "dutifully recorded these incidents in [their] files." It is a sad commentary upon American life, and constitutional principles - so full of late of patriotic fervor and proud proclamations about "liberty and justice for all" - that this child, Joshua DeShaney, now is assigned to live out the remainder of his life profoundly retarded. Joshua and his mother, as petitioners here, deserve - but now are denied by this Court - the opportunity to have the facts of their case considered in the light of the constitutional protection that 42 U.S.C. 1983 is meant to provide.

Justice Blackmun never lost sight of the people whose lives were being affected by Supreme Court's decisions, and for that, we are all in his debt.

THIS SEASON IS THE GOLDEN CALF: Clearly, something is amiss with American Idol. The talent, it is just not there.

You knew when watching the first season's round of 32 that Justin, Tamyra and Nikki were real talents with strong personalities, and had no idea until "Stuff Like That There" how good Kelly Clarkson was going to be.

Last season, by this point, Frenchie, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Rickey Smith (Hercules! Hercules!) and Kims Caldwell and Locke had all clearly broken through with both charisma and singing ability, and we were looking forward to the competition that was to follow.

This year? Just two people are at all memorable -- Latoya London, whose "All By Myself" was absolutely transcendent, and Fantasia Barrino with her charming Macy Gray-ish voice -- and even they can't hold a candle to Tamyra Gray's overall talent. (Yet.)

(And no, I'm not upset just because my girl Bree didn't make the wild card.)

So, what's gone wrong? Surely, in a nation of 292+ million, there are more than 64 people capable of being entertaining round-of-32 performers. We haven't exhausted the supply yet, have we?

Well, maybe. Maybe everyone who was really capable of shining in these lame, relative dead genres of music had already come out for the competition. Maybe it's time to broaden the musical context of the show beyond power-ballad and antique pop to include hip-hop and modern rock.

Maybe they need to loosen the eligibility rules, and allow in competitors with more professional experience.

Maybe the judges need to take their lesson from Frenchie's ouster, and realize that a female American Idol doesn't have to conform to a rigid body image to succeed.

And maybe, just maybe, the talent is out there, but the producers and our esteemed panel of judges were so busy looking for the William Hungs of the world for embarrassing audition footage that they just neglected to put in the effort to find the next Kelly Clarkson, or even the next Trenyce.

All I know is that this season is shaping up to be the lamest one yet, and I don't believe I'm alone in my disappointment.

Am I? Are you also disappointed, and do you have a theory as to what's going on this season? Is there a real talent out there I'm just missing?