Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images “In terms of the beat, I like ‘Bad Romance.' I gotta say that even though she’s a little unusual, ‘Born This Way’ has got some appeal. She’s actually very talented. If you go to … the Lady Gaga HBO special, and you watch her sing a cappella, ‘Born This Way’, she can sing. … And she does it a cappella. So, ... more.

Nearly six years to the day after suicide bombers killed 56 people and injured some 700 others in London, Scotland Yard has begun calling relatives of victims to tell them that a private investigator hired by News of the World had dug up private information about them, including their cell phone numbers. The tabloid (owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.) has already come under fire for allegedly ... more.

Photo: Gent Shkullaku/AFP/Getty Images Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha unveiled a nine-foot, three-inch statue of former president George W. Bush in the small village of Fushe Kruje today. Albanians have a "special affection" for the United States, Reuters reports, but they seem to have erected a statue of Bush in particular because he ... went there, one time. Fushe Kruje doesn't get a ton ... more.

Photo-illustration: Mary-Louise Price; Photos: 20th Century Fox (Speed still), Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images (Boehner), Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images (Obama) That's what he told House Republicans in a meeting this morning. Long Island congressman Peter King says he gets "the impression that it’s better than 50-50." Pretty optimistic, but at the same time, King warns that if a deal can't be... more.

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg very famously only eats things he kills himself. Keep that in mind when you consider how you might react, in the first flickering instant, to his sudden, unexpected invitation to take a walk in the woods. “I opened my e-mail one morning and there was a message from Mark Zuckerberg. I almost choked on my coffee,” said the person. R... more.

Photo: Danielle Baskin and Mike Vilensky; Getty Images Despite claiming to utterly disdain one another, Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin just can't let this thing go. First there was that baby they had together. Then there was that GQ profile, in which the writer flat-out asked Johnston if he still loved Palin and he was like, "Seriously, no," but we refused to listen. He posed naked in magazines;... more.

New York columnist John Heilemann joined the Morning Joe crew today to discuss Michele Bachmann's very "palatable" first Iowa-centric ad for her presidential run. "She is demonstrating day after day that she can be more mainstream, in terms of her presentation," Heilemann said. This might be the first recorded use of Bachmann and mainstream in the same sentence. Bachmann didn't name-drop any famo... more.

Photo: Getty Images Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann has long been toying with the idea of running for president, saying she'll run "if she felt that's what the Lord was calling her to do." Sounds like the Lord's come calling: "Bachmann made it clear Friday that she was leaning toward a presidential run," the AP reports. "I have this calling, this tugging on my heart that this is the ri... more.

Bristol Palin stopped by The View today to plug her mom's documentary, er, her own memoir. We can't keep track. Anyway, this of course meant we'd all get to enjoy a few awkward minutes of Barbara Walters talking about sex. And she delivered. When Babs prodded Bristol about why she wrote in her book that Levi "stole" her virginity, Bristol brushed it off, saying she was just making an analogy to l... more.

Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Goldman Sachs released its first-quarter earnings report today. Profit fell 21 percent year-over-year from $3.46 billion to $2.74 billion. On a per-share basis, including preferred dividends, quarterly profit fell from $5.59 a share to $1.56 a share. Not the kind of numbers you'd expect to precede a statement like this: “We are pleased with o... more.

Photo-illustration: Jed Egan: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, iStock In a shameless ploy to get people to call him Killer instead of Privacy Weasel, Mark Zuckerberg admits that his latest goal is to only eat meat he's personally slaughtered. Consider it the bloodier and more delicious version of his 2009 personal challenge: Wear a tie every day. Zuck's caveman ambitions first came to light when he ... more.

Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters It's a possibility, legally speaking, since she admitted that the initial account the Sofitel housekeeper gave police was incorrect in some details. Misleading a grand jury leaves her open to criminal charges — as do the falsehoods she told to get asylum in the States. Reuters, raising the question, explains that it's unlikely that an administrative court would... more.

Photo: Courtesy Obama for America From the presidential campaign in 2008 all the way through his crusade to pass health-care reform in 2010, President Obama repeatedly shared a personal heart-wrenching anecdote to vividly illustrate one of the problems with the current insurance system. His mother, diagnosed with uterine and ovarian cancer, had spent the last months of her life arguing with her i... more.

Oh, really?Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Federal Judge William H. Pauley III slapped down a planned city law that would have required crisis pregnancy centers to detail what services they provide, including abortion and emergency contraception. Pauley cited free speech and also claimed the law was too politically motivated. The law, which was proposed in the wake of a NARAL study that showe... more.

Tim Pawlenty: Did this man singlehandedly cause the midwestern heat wave?Photo: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images Things aren't so fun up in Minnesota lately: The state is struggling through the second week of a government shutdown, with 22,000 workers on furlough and millions of dollars' worth of revenue loss in both the public and private sectors expected as a result. The state's bond rating was just... more.

Egypt's interim government on Wednesday announced its plan to fire nearly 600 officers who had been accused of killing protesters during the country's recent uprising, while transferring nearly 4,000 more. The huge personnel shake-up comes as the government also announced its plan to delay parliamentary elections until October or November from September. The announcements come as more youth-led ... more.

Photo: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images Former New York senator Al D'Amato — who, it so happens, was nicknamed Senator Pothole back in the day — was driving to Long Island last week when his car was badly damaged by a monster pothole along the Brooklyn-Queens border. Two days later the pothole was filled. Total coincidence, the Transportation Department claims. ... more.

Rupert Murdoch. Update: Britain's political parties don't agree about much, but in the face of the spiraling News Corp. hacking scandal, they were united in their calls for the company to drop its $12 billion bid to take over television broadcaster BSkyB. And it worked: News Corp. has reportedly dropped its takeover attempt today, though it will retain a controlling stake in BSkyB. News Corp. has... more.

Judy Gold. Name: Judy Gold Age: Really? Okay, 48 Neighborhood: Upper West Side Occupation: Comedian, Actress, Writer, Mother, Mental Case, currently starring in The Judy Show: My Life As a Sitcom at the DR2 Theatre Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional? Right now it's gotta be Andrew Cuomo. What's the best meal you've eaten in New York? A Barney Greengrass onion ... more.

Photo: Getty Images The ouster of Marcus Brauchli as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal has raised the issue of whether the move conflicts with the editorial-independence agreement that Rupert Murdoch signed with Dow Jones when his News Corp. bought the company last year. In that agreement, an independent special committee was set up to oversee various editorial issues, including content a... more.