Maureen Dowd Admits Stealing Copy, Taking Steroids, Crashing Twitter, Farting in Staff Meetings

New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd on Sunday admitted to plagiarism in a recent column, then surprised reporters by going on to confess to a litany of other offenses. Reached for comment Sunday night, Dowd admitted shooting steroids with Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez, farting in Times editorial meetings when staffers presented ideas she didn't like.

"Yeah, I stuck A-Rod in the butt with a syringe," Dowd casually admitted, saying that Rogriguez injected her in the buttocks, too. "Being a famous media elite columnist is a very competitive field," she explained. "All the hot columnists are taking 'roids or human growth hormone to keep their edge."

What's more, the snarky writer, who famously expressed disdain for the Twitter microblogging service in an interview with its founders, admitted that she had personally caused Twitter to crash several times in recent weeks. "I am responsible for the frequent and untimely appearance of the fail whale," Dowd said, referring to the whale cartoon that appears during Twitter malfunctions.

There are unsubstantiated rumors that it was Dowd, not Twitter management, who caused major change in Twitter functionality that prevented users from seeing all @ replies.

The plagiarism charge resulted from a May 17th column in which she criticized former vice president Dick Cheney. Of course, she didn't use the word "plagiarize" when admitting the mistake; she said she "inadvertently" used without attribution a lengthy sentence from Talking Points Memo Joshua Marshall. The matter came to light Sunday afternoon, ironically enough, when the subject became a hot topic of conversation on Twitter.

In her much-lampooned column about Twitter, Dowd stated, "I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account."

Dowd has also been lampooned in a Twitter account called Fake Maureen Dowd (www.twitter.com/MaureenDowdTwit), which tweets various quotes from Dowd's columns as well as comments about Dowd made by other Twitter users.

Fox Renews Eliza Dushku's "Dollhouse"

Fox TV's popular but ratings-challenged drama "Dollhouse" has been picked up for a second season, James Hibberd of THR.com is reporting. This is a victory for the many loyal fans of the show, who have been contacting Fox and urging it to renew the Eliza Dushku vehicle.

Hibberd terms the Dollhouse renewal decision "stunning" because the show's ratings are low. But he notes that DVR and online streaming numbers for the Eliza Dushku vehicle are good. And people involved in Dollhouse have been encouraging fans to contact Fox, such as Dushku herself on her Twitter account, twitter.com/ElizaPatricia.

Hibberd says the official announcement of the Dollhouse renewal will be made at the network's upfront presentation on Monday.

SNL VIDEO - "Motherlover" - Justin Timberlake & Andy Samberg

Fresh out of jail and reunited, Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg are back with their "D*ck in a Box" characters with a very, um, special Mother's Day video called "Motherlover," from last night's Saturday Night Live...



Happy Mother's Day, all!

Derek Fisher Twitter Updates Keep Fans in the Game

Derek Fisher of the L.A. Lakers was suspended for Friday night's game against Houston, but just because he wasn't at the game that didn't mean he couldn't keep fans updated on what the Lakers were doing. Fisher has been keeping Lakers fans on top of the action through his tweets on his Twitter account, www.twitter.com/derekfisher. The Derek Fisher Twitter page has attracted more than 26,000 followers to date.

Fisher was suspended for one game and will return to the Lakers to play in game 4, which takes place in Houston. And he won't be using Twitter while he's on the bench, you can be sure (a player tweeting from the bench because a controversy with a player on another NBA team earlier this season).

5/3/09 Hoboken Arts and Music Festival Still On, Despite Rain

According to the City of Hoboken hotline (called shortly before noon), today's Hoboken Arts and Music Festival is going on, rain or shine (and yes, it is raining right now.) The festival runs from 11 am to 6 pm, and the headlining musical act is The Box Tops, featuring original member Alex Chilton! See the Hoboken Arts and Music Festival schedule of events here.

The postman will deliver despite cold or wind or rain, and Celine Dion's heart will go on, and now it seems the Festival will go on too, despite the rain. The music should be good, though I feel bad for the arts and crafts exhibitors.