This morning, Tom Junod over at Esquire‘s political blog offered his take on why Republican voters have been more energized than Democratic ones: sex appeal. In an article titled “How D.C. Became Hollywood for Semi-Attractive People,” he argues that conservative women like Christine O’Donnell, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter and Michele Bachmann are both “crazy” and the new “standard of beauty,” while lib ladies are “either old or unattractive.” As he puts it, “the Democrats became the CNN to the Republican Fox, clueless in their competence, bewildered by their own best intentions.”

To all of you Huffington Post haters out there, you have a new ally in your fight against what Glenn Beck loves to refer to as “the President’s favorite website.” Yes, John Mayer isn’t happy with HuffPo either but probably for different reasons than you. I’m assuming that readers of our site who don’t like the site feel that it has a liberal bias whereas the musician is angry at them for saying he’s back together with Jennifer Aniston. I don’t want to assume though. For all I know, the Huffington Post has accused some of you of dating Aniston as well.

Even movie stars apparently go on awkward dinner dates…difference being they sometimes bring their posse. On the Daily Show last night Jennifer Aniston and Jon Stewart revealed they’d once been on a dinner date at an Italian restaurant after Stewart asked her out following an appearance on his show.

If you’ll recall, Bill O’Reilly had some choice words for Jennifer Aniston on Tuesday night, saying that she was being “destructive to society” by giving interviews where she implied that being a single mother isn’t the worst thing in the world. It was a pretty dumb argument and now Aniston has shot back with a response that’s was catty, sharp, and much better than Keith Olbermann’s.

Last night, Bill O’Reilly made a flimsy argument that Jennifer Aniston (of all people) is a threat to America for encouraging little girls to consider single parenthood. In an unprecedented move, Keith Olbermann made O’Reilly one of today’s Worst Persons in the World. This near-daily occurrence would usually merit little more than a yawn, except the crux of Olbermann’s argument was that O’Reilly made this point because he was abused by his father as a child.

Maybe this is another one of those ‘because it’s August’ Bill O’Reilly stories. Last night O’Reilly spent a segment of his show discussing whether Jennifer Aniston was “destructive to our society” because she stated in an interview for her upcoming movie The Switch that she thinks it’s great woman are no longer required “to settle with a man just to have that child.”

Nobody would be that shocked to discover that celebrity gossip tabloids occasionally print false statements, but, earlier today, Gossip Cop caught OK! Magazine (a magazine whose title is either a shouted declaration or the name of a musical) printing a cover story that goes beyond the typical level of tabloid lies. The magazine cover proudly proclaims a story about Jennifer Aniston’s baby plans that Aniston’s reps told Gossip Cop is all sorts of untrue. Come on, OK! Magazine, we expect better from you. You’re supposed to be a celebrity gossip tabloid, not a British celebrity gossip tabloid.

We’ve lived in a constant state of worry and fear, but now the day has finally arrived: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are splitting. (Maybe.) News of the World is reporting that the Biggest Celebrity Couple of All-Time© has signed the paperwork to share custody of their six children (they were never married) and split their gigantic pile of money. And it begs an important media question: At what level of fame does a celebrity couple’s breakup become legitimately newsworthy? Ever?

Today is the launch of Gossip Cop. The premise is simple: investigate the accuracy of the daily anecdotes, the rampant rumors, and the cubicle grist known as celebrity gossip. Think of it as TMZ meets Smoking Gun. Or maybe Perez Hilton meets Columbia Journalism Review.