Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has taken its share of criticism and ridicule as its suffered from several setbacks and pushed back its opening several times. The play got some good news this week with some high-profile endorsements as the show continues its previews, and word of a new finale. All of these delays have left reporters, who are seeing the show between now and the scheduled March 15 opening, in a strange spot. What can they reveal about the much-anticipated, extremely expensive production? Here, a rundown of how some writers are handling the long wait for opening night, and how delays are making them part of the story:

Wikileaks’ Congressional opponents are recharging their batteries, and while Julian Assange has bigger legal fish to fry in Europe, he could soon be facing the consequences of breaking U.S. law by outing foreign intelligence sources. One of the senators behind the legal push, John Ensign, debated vocal Wikileaks ally Judge Andrew Napolitano on Freedom Watch on Friday, and while he made clear who he was protecting, he had a hard time defining “journalists”– and why Assange doesn’t count.

Make no mistake: Senator Scott Brown is a smart man. He is a practicing lawyer who’s had a very successful career and was elected to replace Senator Ted Kennedy earlier this year. So it is a bit odd that during tioday’s Senate Armed Services Committee meeting over the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Senator Brown asked a witness to explain “what does expedited mean?” Surely he knows the definition. Or was he playing to a potentially confused audience of 50 or so CSPAN viewers (a demographic that almost certainly understand what “expedited” means)?

In March, Senator Scott Brown sent his supporters a fund-raising email that claimed MSNBC star Rachel Maddow was planning a Senate run. Maddow responded by taking out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe to confirm that she wasn’t planning to run, then called Brown a liar on air. Somehow, though, the rumor of Maddow’s candidacy still hasn’t died.

This afternoon, Virginia Congressional candidate Krystal Ball appeared on Fox News to discuss the photo scandal that has plagued her campaign with Megyn Kelly. In it, Kelly discussed the response Ball issued yesterday, calling out her critics attacks as “sexist and wrong.”

Sarah Palin mans most of her political media empire from the not-so-lofty perch of her Facebook page– a one-stop shop for all of Palin’s latest news, editorials, policy and political moves. Given it’s status as the most reliable hubbub of Palin activity, it takes an extraordinary amount of maintenance to keep it tidy. Today, Slate took a backstage look at what goes into keeping the most democratic part of the page, the wall, nice and clean.

Something about Rachel Maddow makes her especially attractive to Republican campaign fundraising pleas. Back in March Scott Brown issued a call to supporters asking them to donate to his fund so he could fight off a (fictional) Senate run by Maddow. Now Florida’s Marco Rubio is attempting something similar.

Sen. Scott Brown isn’t the only Massachusetts politician speaking out against comedian Kathy Griffin for calling his daughters “prostitutes” on her Bravo show.

Now longtime Democratic Congressman Rep. Barney Frank is defending Brown and calling out Griffin for her “terrible comment.”

Republican Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown has somehow, through no effort of his own, found himself in a feud with the cable network Bravo and comedienne Kathy Griffin. The Republican Senator’s office released a statement today censuring Griffin for a joke she made in which she called his daughters, Ayla and Arianna, “prostitutes.”

Thank you, Scientific Community, for brightening up our Friday afternoon with this wonderfully hilarious proving-what-we-all-secretly-suspected study. Published this year by a group of Israeli scientists from the University of Haifa’s Department of Communication, the study proves there’s a link between the attractiveness of political figures and how much attention the media lavishes upon them.

Rachel Maddow has been noticing a trend in Congressional negotiations: every time Democrats try to shift their legislation to the right to appeal to Republicans, the moderate Republicans claim they are thinking about voting for it– or, as she put it, “Scott Brown has to put his thinking shorts on”– and then they vote against it. What do Democrats get out of these deals?

If you have followed the career of Republican Party chairman Michael Steele in any capacity, the title of this column should have already had you giggling. Michael Steele, a genius? “Moo moo” Michael Steele? Lesbian bondage-themed nightclub Michael Steele? Yes, there is a reason why Republicans love to hate on their chairman– but it isn’t because of his gaffes.

Sen. Scott Brown‘s daughter, Ayla Brown, is now a special contributor to CBS’ The Early Show and this morning she conducted a “revealing chat” (according to CBS) with…her dad.

Will he run for President? Why did he say she was “available”? Let’s find out!

The backlash against Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, considered by some to be the first elected Tea Party politician, has Keith Olbermann worried about the state of the movement. After all, if Tea Partiers are “officially defriending” Brown on Facebook over financial regulation, what hope does any other Tea Party politician have, and if the Tea Party is inherently opposed to elected politicians as a whole, then won’t they always be against the people they elect as soon as they are sworn into office?

It’s Election Day in some of America but, sadly, not all of us are allowed to play. Feeling election fever but aren’t lucky enough to live in Pennsylvania, Oregon, Kentucky, or Arkansas? You don’t have to just watch Chris Matthews and John King have all the fun anymore– thanks to new media, you can now participate in local politics thousands of miles away not just by watching their wacky local commercials, but getting in on all the awesome free stuff, too!

SCOTUS Nominee Elena Kagan is making the meet-and-greet rounds with Senators this week and it appears that she has already managed to convince Scott Brown that she is pro military. Kagan’s attempt to restrict military recruiters from Harvard grounds when she was Dean of the law school there based on her opposition to DADT has [...]

WHCD weekend may be over, but the photo evidence lingers on – and man, do we have photo evidence. Take a tour with Mediaite through the pre-parties, post-parties hobnobbing, handshaking and jockeying on Washington’s biggest night. Warning: Some of the photos are of Scott Brown. Your heart may palpitate.

There’s plenty of room in Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown’s family for more than one public figure. After graduating this month from Boston College, the Associated Press reports that the junior Senator’s oldest daughter, Ayla, will be continuing on her career in the spotlight by joining CBS’s Early Show.

NBC’s Today show correspondent Jamie Gangel got to spend a day with Sen. Scott Brown – I know right?! – and she totally made the most of it. They drove around in his famous truck, he winked at her. Honestly, one of those famous, sexy Scott Brown winks.

He’s just a dreamboat and Jamie Gangel is your dreamboat captain.

Sarah Palin was the headline speaker at a Tea Party rally in Boston today, held at the same harbor where the actual Boston Tea Party took place. Senator Scott Brown apparently stuck to his promise and did not attend. Since Palin’s speeches are generally distilled down to one or two (frequently nutty) soundbites, here’s your [...]

On last night’s Countdown, while discussing Sarah Palin‘s future role in Republican politics, freshly-minted Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel told host Keith Olbermann that Palin could “wave the pom-poms,” before catching himself in a “bad metaphor.” Presumably, he thought the remark might have inadvertantly sounded sexist, or even worse, been construed as a comparison to George W. Bush.

When Scott Brown was elected as Massachusetts’ replacement senator in January, most political pundits agreed that it was a clear sign of the power of the new Tea Party movement, or more specifically, the anger that fueled it. But now that the Tea Party movement is beginning to get commodified – by both opinion media and political aspirants – Brown is turning away, evidenced by his eschewing of an invitation to join Sarah Palin later this week at a massive rally on Boston Common, reports the Boston Herald.

The rhetorical back and forth between Rachel Maddow and Sen. Scott Brown is equal parts painfully absurd and delightfully entertaining. To recap: Brown’s campaign has been raising funds over a farcical threat of the television host entering a Senatorial campaign against him. Maddow has repeatedly denied the allegations – in hopes that they would abate – which they haven’t. Long story short – tonight she took the next logical step: she called a sitting US Senator a liar. And as long as she doesn’t run for office, she’s right.

After a month-long absence due to his father’s illness and eventual passing, Countdown‘s Keith Olbermann returned to full-time hosting duty tonight. He marked the occasion by retiring the very short-lived “Hall of Shame” segment, and resurrected “Worst Persons.” The first honoree? Senator Scott Brown (R-MA), who earned a Bronze for drawing Keith (via a spokesman) into his feud with Rachel Maddow. Is Mediaite responsible for this? Maybe.

Last night Rachel Maddow unveiled her anti-Maddow campaign ad to aid Brown in his “fake campaign” and then followed it up this morning by running a full page ad in the Boston Globe to reconfirm she’s still not running. One two SNAP.