Publicity

The octo-spectacle just won't go away. And instead of running from the limelight, Octomom Nadya Suleman and her zany cast of characters have thrust themselves head-on into the circling, hungry maw of the 24/7 cable-radio-Internet-Twitter news cycle. Suleman's media juggernaut reached new highs this week, starting Monday with her ex-boyfriend, who tearfully went on national TV to demand a paternity test.

A male model wearing a kilt of black vinyl strips, a red belt with a gold buckle and little else is flexing his muscles amid fake oil derricks and Roman columns in a photo studio. All chiseled pectorals and tanned thighs, he is playing Captain Moroni, a battlefield hero in the Book of Mormon who rallied troops with the Title of Liberty banner. Chad Hardy, who is running the photo shoot, adjusts the model's kilt. Captain Moroni lifts his chin, grips a sword and hoists the banner.

A beaming Dr. Karen Mapes appeared on "Larry King Live" this week to discuss the epic birth of octuplets she supervised at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, but the ticker at the bottom of the screen said it all: "OCTUPLETS OUTRAGE." The story of Whittier mom Nadya Suleman has quickly turned from medical miracle to public fury -- so much so that Suleman herself complained in an interview that aired Friday on NBC's "Today" show that society is unfairly judging her.

The coverage of Elizabeth Edwards' week-old book and her promotional tour leaves us with two competing portraits. Is she (a) the valiant victim finally having her say for those who don't have a voice? Or (b) the unlikely opportunist, exacting revenge against her wayward husband and dragging her family back into the muck? Over two presidential campaigns and a public battle with cancer, John Edwards' wife mostly benefited from the media's predilection for a single narrative.

Move over, Brangelina and your $14-million twins. There are some new babies in town. Whittier mother Nadya Suleman and her eight week-old babies are entertaining offers from media outlets around the world as they decide who will land the first interview and snap the first pictures. Suleman -- a 33-year-old unmarried mother who already has six children between the ages of 2 and 7, including a set of twins -- remained hospitalized Monday along with the octuplets, who continue to improve.

The cameras zoomed in on William Shatner as he raced a baby carriage through a crowded outdoor restaurant in Koreatown. Dressed in a black suit, his hair neatly grayed, Shatner focused on the task at hand: looking genuinely interested in saving people money on airfare. Famous for playing Denny Crane in "Boston Legal" and for having been Captain Kirk in "Star Trek" on TV and in the movies, he was reprising his longest-running role: spokesman for Priceline.com Inc.

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's request to file a secret motion to move his corruption trial out of Southern California violates the 1st Amendment's free-press protection, a media attorney argued Thursday. Carona's attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford to keep their motion to move the trial sealed because releasing it would create additional inflammatory publicity about the case.

Noting that even high-profile cases like Watergate were not relocated, federal prosecutors argued Wednesday that a fair and impartial Orange County jury could be found for the trial of former Sheriff Michael S. Carona, despite pretrial publicity including antics by a pair of Los Angeles radio hosts.

It's the movie Warner Bros. didn't want to distribute. And now everybody else wishes they had a piece of "Slumdog Millionaire." The Internet is filled with Oscar-obsessed pundits preoccupied by the tiniest bits of awards trivia and Academy Award prognostications.

When the owner of Staples Center had nearly completed a two-year project to generate power from the sun on the arena's roof, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up at a ceremony to help lay the final solar panel and heap praise on the Anschutz Entertainment Group for going green. Schwarzenegger returned that same night in late October for a far different, less public event: a fundraiser thrown by the company that raked in half a million dollars for his political endeavors.