Do you have your copy yet?...

Well, the cat's out of the bag about the new blog from Gawker Media. We've known for a while, but have been pretty good about keeping mum about it due to this SFist's work with Fleshbot. As PJ Corkery revealed Wednesday, it's going to be called Valleywag, and it's going to be helmed by the affable Nick Douglas, who's moving on from his post as editor at Blogebrity. Last night Spot-On's Chris Nolan held......

It's taken us a week to recover from our holiday party at Otis, which was really slammin' if we do say so ourselves. SFist staff, contributors, readers, sources, subjects, and friends all showed up to drink, talk s**t, and mingle. The shindig even made it into PJ Corkery's column! We're not going to list all the awesome folks who came because we know we'll leave someone out and look like jerks. But thank you......

Sister sister -- Shanghai and SF affirmed their 25 years of friendship as Gavin and Shanghai mayor Han Zheng totally touched their cut pinky fingers together to affirm their sister city status. Gavin sprung for the trip "himself" (i.e., he's flying with the Gettys), and is bringing Plumpjack wine to present to the Shanghai mayor too. The two mayors pledged to do a lot of things -- like build a Chinese garden on Divisadero. Among other things, Michael Tilson Thomas will take the SF Symphony to Shanghai, SF will sponsor a ping-pong tournament, and (this is totally our favorite) the two cities will work on making more affordable housing. But you know what we really want? A panda!!!!!! Gavin, get us a panda! Awwwww, we love you, Shanghaiist! Will you be our sister citysite? (if we're not sisters already, come to think of it?) And more importantly -- can you get us (and not Oakland) a panda? Jen, can we start Chengdu-ist soon? ...

Sure, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers seems like, as Jon Stewart said before moving onto Tom Ammiano last night, "a Talbots shopper" now -- but back in the day, that girl could move! Before she embraced God and evangelical Christianity, Miers worked in San Francisco for local legal hound Melvin Belli in the summer of 1969. Belli, known as "The King of Torts," represented a number of notorious folks throughout his career, including Jack Ruby and Sirhan Sirhan, and that very year, Belli got a letter from Jake-Gyllenhaal-bait the Zodiac Killer. Miers came out for the summer to work in the famed Belli Bordello. By all accounts (that is, PJ Corkery's), she was a pretty decent lawyer but seemed a little uncomfortable in the office. "She was a terrific, talented worker, and an awfully nice gal, but she was something of a square," reports one of her co-workers. Miers turned down her offer of a permanent job, and decided to stay in Texas instead. The conclusion we've drawn from this saga? Miers is the Zodiac Killer! Picture of Miers and Emperor Palpatine off Wonkette. Go vote in the Miers Lookalike contest! ...

Sorry, PJ Corkery, for our terrible maligning of your gossip source-ery yesterday! As you may remember, Leah Garchik and the Chron on the one hand reported that the Gavin-Kimberly divorce was final, where PJ and the Ex on the other reported (.pdf, page 5) that the divorce paperwork was actually on hold. Your Political Junkie here at SFist speculated that maybe Leah's version of events was "more correct" because the Examiner had mysteriously refused to put PJ's article on its website yesterday. Well, eggs on faces and dishes of crow all around for Leah and for the Junkie, as the Chron nicely retracts its story in today's TIC, reporting that PJ was right and they were not. (No credit to PJ, but we suppose that's par for the course in the cutthroat SF gossip scene!) Leah also throws in the tidbits that Gav and the still-Mrs. Gav actually left North Beach to go to the Ferry Building, Soma, and Noe Valley to celebrate their ambivalence. (Hooray, we aren't sure how we feel about each other! Skoal!) We're sorry, PJ! We'll never doubt you again! Please forgive us! (While we're still pulling for the Celine Dion style renewal of vows by Gaverly, we'll only believe it when we see it -- in PJ's column!) ...

Duelling gossips in today's San Francisco media! On the one side, we have the Chron and Leah Garchik's TIC column, reporting that the Newsom and the Guilfoyle are now officially kaput as of today (despite a sighting at Enrico's Friday night -- do these people ever leave North Beach? Heck, do these people ever venture north of Broadway?). On the other, PJ Corkery's Examiner column reports (.pdf, page 5) that Gav and Kim decided not to finalize the paperwork and furthermore, they've put the whole divorce thing on ice to think it over some more. Maybe Gav forgave Kim for all those banana in the pants comments from last year -- or maybe Kim (whom we've always suspected to be PJ's source) is just engaging in some wishful thinking. Or maybe, like the media's been pointing out all week in regards to other matters, this is more of Gavin's famous indecisiveness coming through again. Given that the PJ Corkery column is now missing from the Examiner website, we're thinking maybe Leah's reporting is more correct. (Everyone seems to agree that PJ's reporting that the divorce was final two weeks ago was wrong, so we'll retract that as well.) Well, either way, we totally hope there's a Gavin Newsom-Kimberly Guilfoyle space-alien themed wedding vow renewal, just like Celine Dion! ...

Whew, it's been such an eventful posting day that we've only just now gotten to the big political gossip news! According to PJ Corkery's Examiner column, remember when Kimmie and Gavin went out a few weeks ago to the Tosca? And Matt Gonzalez was there that night (scroll down) too? With Sean Penn? Well, someone (our bet is that it's Kimberly, since Kimberly talks to PJ all the time) told PJ that Matt went up to Gavin and noted how funny it was that new L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa beat James Hahn after being defeated by Hahn four years before. Gavin, swift as a hare, says, ".....are you running again, Matt?" Matt smiled, and walked away. Someone then reported that Kimberly then went up to Matt and said, OMG Matt, are you running? PJ concludes, "I think Matt was just giving them the mickey." Wait, wasn't it just the other day they were saying Matt was going to run for governor? Or the House of Representatives? But OMG, Matt, are you running??? Tell us!! We're totally more trustworthy than ol' Kimbers! And oh yeah, by the way -- today's the day the hyphen-Newsom gets officially detached from the name Kimberly Guilfoyle; Kim and Gav's divorce is final as of today. Let us know if you see Gavin staggering into any bars this weekend! Picture from CNN and the AP...

People, please! If we promise cross our heart to pick up hard copies of the Examiner, would it kill Mr. Anschutz to put up the articles just a little bit earlier? It cuts into our blogging schedule. So for those of you worrying that Matt Gonzalez had sold out his good citizenship-ry now that he's a big-time corporate lawyer with the reports in PJ Corkery's column last Friday that Matt was seen sneaking onto a MUNI bus without paying, PJ reports that Matt finally emailed back the following:

I plead guilty to boarding the bus in the manner described, but absolutely deny any furtive left/right glances! And no, I don't have a Fast Pass, but I ">did have a transfer, as I took the 22-Fillmore to get over there. ... (If you like, I could dig around my pockets and maybe find it for you). ... But more importantly, do you think you can get the mayor to get more buses on the street! ... How can we expect people to give up their cars if the buses are so crowded!

As you've probably figured out by now, SFist has a tendency to crush on people, especially people in the media. Granted, we're also known to have petty rivalries with people, again, especially in the media. Well, one object of our affection is Adriel Hampton, who's not only an actual journalist with the San Francisco Examiner, but a blogger as well. See, Meredith Brody and Mick LaSalle? Go start a blog and maybe we won't......

SFist would like to point out that if you haven't had a chance to give for the Tsunami effort, you still can. We know it's hard in the weeks following Christmas, what with your budget probably blown to bits. This is the last time we ask, we promise. That doesn't mean we won't highlight other ways you can help in the future, like HiMY SYeD's Global Vigil for January 26th. We're not perfect. Couldn't......

In preparation for Gavin Newsom's first State of the City Address, the Examiner [mimes eating a banana] for our mayor in today's PJ Corkery column. ...