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Best-selling author and journalist Jonathan Alter (The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies, The Defining Moment: Fdr’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope) explains what it has been like to go Hollywood and produce a pilot for Amazon – Alpha House, created by Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury). Alter explains the real-life roots of the show and what it was like to work with Trudeau, as well as with an amazing cast led by John Goodman. And those cameos! (Might there be more Stephen Colbert? Read on.)

For most of my life I’ve been a political animal. My mother was a politician in Chicago, I was an intern in the Senate and the White House in the 1970s, and for the last two decades I’ve written a column about politics (first for Newsweek, now for Bloomberg View), authored books about presidents and gabbed about the events of the day on NBC News and MSNBC.

Why is Anthony Weiner getting destroyed for sins that other politicians have skated past? Howard Kurtz explains why the press pounces selectively-and outlines the new rules of survival.

On the afternoon that Anthony Weiner tearfully confessed to all manner of X-rated misadventures, I furiously scribbled notes and banged out a story for The Daily Beast-one of several on a seamy saga that, as they say, has nothing but readers.

Related story on The Daily Beast: The Salesman Obama Needs

I did much the same-writing, editing, blabbing-when Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and John Edwards became tabloid fodder over the past few weeks, interviewing everyone from the Los Angeles Times reporter who disclosed Arnold's love child to the lawyer for Andrew Young, who claimed to be the dad of Edwards' love child as part of one of that bizarre coverup.

In short, I am not a conscientious objector in these matters. I...

When the cast of Modern Family went Inside the Actors Studio (airing tonight on Bravo), it wasn’t just Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson who stared down James Lipton and his infamous blue index cards.

“In theory we had six people on stage, but only in theory,” Lipton tells EW. “We really had 12 people.” That’s because each of their characters showed up as well. Ever want to know what’s Gloria Delgado-Pritchett’s favorite word? Or what turns Cameron Tucker off? Look no further because EW exclusively presents James Lipton...

He doesn't know if that's him in the gray underwear? Howard Kurtz on why the congressman's evasive answers are fueling the media frenzy. Plus, watch Weinergate's 8 best moments and more updates on the scandal.

I have just watched a number of respected anchors and correspondents discussing a package that may or may not belong to Anthony Weiner.

Related story on The Daily Beast: WikiLeaks: Pentagon Papers Injustice Deja Vu

It has come to this.

Watch: Weiner Evades Questions on Rachel Maddow

"Is this you?" CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked, brandishing said photo.

"You would know if this was your underpants."

"Have you ever taken a picture like this of yourself?"

Fox's Bret Baier: "Is this Twitter picture in question a picture of you?"

"Is there a picture out there of you in your drawers that you are worried about?"

ABC's Jonathan Karl: "You can't tell me definitively that is...

So you're a straying politician who doesn't want to end up in the tabloids. Don't date an employee, and do use birth control! Ex-madam Kristin Davis and the founder of Ashley Madison offer a guide to getting away with it.

It's no secret that Americans have the highest rate of divorce in the Western world; at least one study has found that 60 percent of men and half of women will cheat on their spouses at some point during their lives. But if cheating happens so often, why haven't we gotten any better at doing it? From Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose wife is leaving him over a secret child, to former presidential candidate John Edwards, who allegedly paid off his mistress using campaign funds, to the text-happy Tiger Woods, let's hope America's cheating husbands and wives have taken a hint on what not to do.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Weinergate:...

Arnold Schwarzenegger's affair and Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged sexual assault of a maid show men need to talk to each other about how to treat women. Daniel Mulhern, a former first husband of Michigan, offers eight tips on getting the conversation started.

Women talk to each other. And to men, as Michelle Cottle has in her hilariously painful list of seven basic tips for "horny" politicians. One of men's biggest problems-in a post-John Wayne world, where it matters to be able to express yourself-is that we don't talk to each other enough. So, rather than accept Ms. Cottle's admittedly cynical "tips," as the last word, I suggest eight tips as conversation starters among men and about men:

Related story on The Daily Beast: The Joys of Adult Sexting

1. Get a new definition of strength. Hint: it's not in our pants. Men have embraced an age-old job of protecting,...

A new Senate report chronicles the ex-senator's sordid affair, obsession for his mistress, illegal coverup, and Rick Santorum's attempt to protect him. The Daily Beast delivers the most salacious tidbits.

Roll over, Starr Report: There's a new contender for most-sordid Washington sex-scandal. The Senate Ethics Panel released a long-awaited report into former Sen. John Ensign on Thursday. The Nevada Republican was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had an affair with the wife of an aide, had his parents pay the couple nearly $100,000, and then tried to get the aide a lobbying job in violation of federal law.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Why Doctors Make Crazy Politicians

Sound dry and academic? Wait until you get to the details. The 75-page report [Pdf], written by Special Counsel Carol Elder Bruce, a former federal prosecutor, has some of the juiciest details to hit the news since Bill Clinton's cigar.

This afternoon the Senate Ethics Committee frowned upon former senator John Ensign (R-nv) and his multitude of alleged legal transgressions. The committee, believing that Ensign “had conspired to help a former aide violate a lobbying ban, had broken campaign finance laws and had obstructed an investigation into wrongdoing, which began after he admitted having had an affair with the aide’s wife,” according to The New York Times, voted to refer the case to the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-ca), who co-chairs the committee, revealed that the vote to do so was unanimous. And, as Talking Points Memo reports, “[t]he evidence the committee uncovered was so egregious, Boxer said, that a special counsel assigned to the case was set to recommend expulsion had Ensign not resigned.”...

• Scandal-plagued Nevada senator John Ensign (R) finally resigned. “I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn-out proceedings or especially public hearings,” he said, referring to his admitted affair with a former aide’s wife, among other uncouth endeavors. [The Los Angeles Times] • President Obama dispatched a pair of Predator drones to Libya. “There’s no doubt that will help protect civilians, and we welcome that step from the American administration,” an anti-government rebel spokesperson said. The unmanned aircraft were joined by Senator John McCain (R-az), who also arrived in Libya yesterday. [The Washington Post] • Authorities are investigating why, on Tuesday, the Washington D.C. Police escorted Charlie Sheen from an airport one to one of his one-man shows, for which he was running significantly late. Meanwhile, the Google results for “Charlie Sheen escort” are interesting. [The New York Post] • Glenn Beck called Mike Huckabee a “progressive,” a word...

• Affair-having senator John Ensign (R-nv) will not seek out another term. This seems for the best, for reasons we elaborated on in our earlier post, “Only One Person Out of Our Planet’s Total of 6.6 Billion Has Donated to Nevada Senator John Ensign’s Re-election Campaign.” [The Los Angeles Times] • Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark may lose its director, Julie Taymor. The play also is likely to postpone its opening a sixth time. [The New York Times] • Though he denies it, Muammar Qaddafi may or may not be trying to secure a safe passage out of Libya. [CNN] • Today in inevitability: Charlie Sheen quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., while swinging a machete on the roof of an office building. [TMZ] • It’s unusual that such a self-serious presumptive presidential candidate will publicly feud with a stand-up comedian and former E! host. [Politico]...

John Edwards is in exile, Larry Craig has disappeared, and now Nevada Sen. John Ensign is retiring. David A. Graham says the Internet has killed the political sex scandal-but there's still time for a few more Ensign jokes.

With Sen. John Ensign's decision to retire, the era of the salacious American political sex scandal may be coming to a close.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Gabrielle Giffords' Shooting: The Impact on Obama's Presidency

Bill Clinton has been trundled off to retirement as an elder statesman. John Edwards is exiled to North Carolina, drinking with undergrads and awaiting indictment. Larry Craig is nowhere to be found. Mark Foley can't even be bothered to run for mayor of a small town. Newt Gingrich is dipping a toe in the presidential waters, but analysts have been skeptical. After frantically making himself available for interviews with every reporter in Washington, Eric Massa is...

As the retirements of Jon Kyl and Jim Webb make plain, the era of Senator-for-Life Strom Thurmond is over. David A. Graham reports on what's pushing senators out early-and more possible retirees, from John Ensign to Ben Nelson.

When Arizona Republican Jon Kyl announced that he wouldn't run for a fourth term in the Senate, it wasn't exactly a surprise-he'd been rumored to be considering the move for months. But in the past, the very idea that a senator in his position wouldn't run would have been shocking. Kyl's the second-ranking Republican in a body the Gop has a good chance to recapture in 2012, and with a reputation as an influential and skillful politico with sharp elbows, his prospects for moving up were good.

Related story on The Daily Beast: The Gop's Race Backslide

Kyl follows Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-tx), Joe Lieberman (I-ct), Jim Webb (D-va), and Kent Conrad (D-nd...

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.

In competing op-eds published days apart, Google's VP of search product and user experience, Marissa Mayer went head to head with the New York Times editorial board over search neutrality. While it's net neutrality that has consumed tech-policy wonks in Washington recently, it seems search neutrality, the belief that Web search results ought to be unbiased, is rapidly becoming the topic du jour. Although search engines such as Google and Bing (ahem, "decision" engines) claim their complicated algorithms produce impartial results, some observers are beginning to call for government regulation. Here's why.

The New York Times argues that Google in particular has too much power over the Internet, with roughly two-thirds of all search queries handled by the service. With the methods of its algorithm kept highly secret, any tweaks to the system by Google are left unmonitored, and could potentially be self-serving. "Rivals have accused Google of placing the...

Net neutrality, considered a centerpiece initiative for FCC chair Julius Genachowski, would effectively stop Internet providers from slowing or blocking access to Web sites. It's among the most important political topics that most net-heads don't understand. And the debate's just been reignited: Yesterday Genachowski revealed plans to reclassify broadband lines so that they are governed by the same rules as traditional phone networks, which the FCC has legal authority over--creating a loophole large enough to push through net neutrality rules on ISPs. So what happens next?

The Federal Communications Commission may not have the authority to regulate broadband access. A federal appeals court decision in April ruled against the FCC's attempt to impose "network neutrality" regulations that would force Internet service provider (ISPs) like At&T and Comcast to treat all Web traffic equally, regardless of the content accessed or level of consumption. This new debate on the FCC's authority...

The invaluable TPMmuckraker reports this morning on the less-than-impressive fiscal progress of John Ensign’s re-election effort: “Disclosure reports examined by TPMmuckraker show that Robert Donald, a Las Vegas retiree, was the sole contributor to the ‘Ensign for Senate’ committee between January and March. Donald gave two separate $25 contributions.” Or, if we frame it more positively: the Republican senator hasn’t even announced whether he’s running, and alread, he’s got that $50! Anyway, let’s now hear from Robert Donald. “He did some bad things with his personal life. But as a senator, he's doing the right thing. He votes the right way,” Donald told TPMmuckraker. Donald is referring to Ensign’s Harold Pinter play of a scandal, in which the senator allegedly made “efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress,” according to The New York Times. This is just common courtesy, worthy...

By Harvey Karten - Early this year, the United State Supreme Court-which has become more of a political body than a neutral, judicial one-ruled that corporations can spend all the money they desire to promote their candidates during our usual protracted campaigns. The black-robed body overturned a bevy of precedents that limited their contributions, which had been a wise policy to prevent Big Money from swamping independent voices and presumably third-party candidates. In Italy, the system takes this reasoning a couple of steps further. The prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, doesn't have to spend money to get his face on TV and in the print media. He owns most of them! Yes, at least seventy percent of TV stations and something like ninety percent of the magazines are actually controlled by the prime minister, who spent the last thirty years building up an empire that even Rupert Murdoch could envy. In...

Taylor Lautner's hosting of "Saturday Night Live" has all the "Twilight" fans in a flutter and may foster one of the highest rated shows of the year.  Who knew Lorne Michaels could be so timely?  Will Lautner be able to show some acting and comedy skills that have been missing from his big screen work so far?  Does it really matter for his legion of fans out there? Let's find out... Intro A trio of scandal plagued politicians; South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (Sudeikis) Nevada Senator John Ensign (Bill Hader), former Presidential candidate John Edwards (Will Forte ) hold a press...

Part of the post-mortem on the Letterman-sex-and-shakedown story is about the damage he might have done to his female audience. Women may stop watching him with the same consistency or attention because he wasn't monogamous. The implication is that the women of America have an instinctive sympathy for the person he was supposed to be having sex with (his girlfriend of long-standing, Regina Lasko, the mother of his child, who he finally married this year) and that they feel and share her pain at the betrayal, even though, in this case, we don’t know what she feels. In addition, the women of America may also sympathize with the other women he had sex with because, as their boss and as a celebrity, he had an unfair advantage. It seems he was never going to marry and, hence, be monogamous with any of them either. At the same time, while sympathizing with these other women,...