THIS IS ALL YOU CAN KNOW, ALL YOU CAN BE TOLD. WHEN YOU GET TO WHERE I AM, YOU WILL KNOW THE REST: Martha (Sunny) von Bülow, who had been in a coma for twenty-seven years, eleven months and fifteen days, passed away today at the age of 76. (Yeah, shocker: the NYT had that obit ready.) As you may recall, her husband Claus was convicted, had the conviction reversed on appeal and subsequently acquitted of charges of attempted murder with injections of insulin (for what, insulin?) into his hypoglycemic wife. Notes the Times, "A $56 million civil suit filed against Mr. von Bülow by his stepchildren was settled in 1987 with the stipulation that Mr. von Bülow agree to a divorce and not discuss the case publicly."

[Much more on the criminal case here. See, also, Dominick Dunne, "Fatal Charm: The Social Web of Claus von Bülow", Vanity Fair (August 1985) ("A rich person on trial is very different from an ordinary person on trial. The powerful defense team assembled by von Bülow for the second trial so outshone the prosecution that the trial often seemed like a football game between the New York Jets and Providence High.")]

But mostly, of course, my generation knows this story from the endearingly cynical and well-acted 1990 film Reversal of Fortune, starring Jeremy Irons as one of the era's great movie villains (on a par with John Malkovich in In the Line of Fire and Alan Rickman in Die Hard), Glenn Close as Sunny, and Ron Silver as Claus' appellate lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who also wrote a fine book on the case. (In a small role, catch Felicity Huffman as The Angry HLS Student Who Doesn't Like The Case.)

Query for the law-talking folks: he was charged with attempted murder before. Does double jeopardy now prevent a third bite at the apple?

MORE I CANNOT WISH YOU: Two hours ago, I bought my tickets for the first preview performance of the new Guys and Dolls revival. Five minutes ago, Adam sent an email referring me to an ad in the Sunday NYT indicating that the remaining two lead roles had been cast.

Joining Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham, the latter of whose casting, you will recall, pretty much gave me a heart attack, are Kate Jennings as Sarah Brown and some guy named Craig Bierko as Sky Masterson.

Quoting from my comments when Matt first posted about the upcoming revival and asked for casting suggestions: "And all I ever do when we talk about Sky Masterson is suggest Craig Bierko, so I'll do that again now." There is rejoicing in Cosmoland.

(Here's a little holiday gift: discount code DOLLS at Ticketmaster gets you 40% off orchestra or front mezzanine tickets.)

FROM RAPTURE TO RAGNAROK: This is grossly out of date, but I'm curious. Are there two books by the same author (in this case, Neil Gaiman, one co-authored by Terry Pritchett) about roughly the same subject (ordinary people getting mixed up in the deities' end-of-days war) as different as Good Omens and American Gods? I loved the former (a great Douglas Adams impression, which to me is worth as much as the real thing) and really liked the latter, but apart from the subject matter and the overuse of dreams, I would never have guessed that the authors had even met.

SOME CARROT TO GO WITH THE STICK: We've rightly panned Bad Shonda here, but I wanted to note that we also had Good Shonda this week in the form of Private Practice. The three major medical narrative threads didn't weave together terribly well, but each was affecting on its own basis. Particular credit is due to the Del/Naomi/Meg plot thread (I'm not going to spoil), which managed to handle a sensitive topic with delicacy, and showing smart, well-educated, and articulate characters on both sides of an issue that all too often brings folks on both sides of it to the lowest common denominator. Indeed, I was reminded of one of my favorite episodes of the late, lamented, Everwood. Nice work on that one, at least.

THAT'S WHAT SHE SANG:I certainly expect this song from Elmo wasn't meant to be dirty, but yes, I'm seven.

HT: Alan's Facebook status.

BRING BACK ARCH DELUXE: The Times finally answers a burning question for all humankind--"Why the hell can't I get a McRib in NYC?"

ETA: I am informed we have comprehensive investigation pre-dating the NYT.

THE NO SPINOFF ZONE:OK, I could see a Gossip Girl spinoff kind of working (they've denied reports it'll focus on Jenny, though--maybe Erik van der Woodsen moves to California?), but the concept of Fuller House makes me want to run from the room screaming "dear lord, no!"