N.Y. Times reporters David Halbfinger and Allison Hope Weiner are reporting that Hollywood divorce lawyer Dennis Wasser is now entangled in the Anthony Pellicano investigation. On a scale of 1 – 10, how sexy is Wasser as a prosecution target and subject of a Times story? Is it just me or is this story starting to deflate somewhat?

Faced with either 240 hours of community service or five days in the slammer in Honolulu over a drunk driving conviction, Lost costar Michelle Rodriguez (“How ya livin’?”) has chosen jail. This is obviously the less spiritual and less nourishing option, but any gainfully employed actress who says “okay, I’ll do time” deserves (and I know this may sound strange to some) a slight tip of the hat. There are intimations of obstinacy in this choice, yes, but also intestinal fortitude.

Hollywood Elsewhere is jetting to Houston today and four or five days at Worldfest, a longstanding local-flavored film festival with interesting shadings. A slight interruption in WIRED postings, yes…but only for a few hours.

An amusing N.Y. Times story by Bill Carter about the creation of Rob Burnett‘s Let’s Rob Mick Jagger series.

Tom Cruise was “at his best, and most unlikable, as the misogynistic self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Magnolia,” writes MSNBC’s Eric Lundegaard. “Here’s the fascinating part. As he was being interviewed by the female reporter, and glared at her warily through a big tight grin, the character seemed only a step or two removed from the Cruise character we see promoting his latest film on entertainment shows. That is: spooky.” I alluded to the same thing when I wrote on 4.19 about Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible III, to wit: “He’s made Hunt into a kind of mirror image of hard-core tabloid Tom. Hunt is a ‘character,’ yes, but based more than ever on the pumping piston rods of Cruise’s personality. A guy who’s all about focus, juice, intensity, endorphins. Plotting strategy, eyeballing his costars, running for his life (in more ways than one) and turning tomato red in the face. Neck veins! Neck veins!”