Gawker’s John Cook reports on an off the record get together between White House staffers and White House reporters on the 4th of July… We reported yesterday that Politico’s Mike Allen was spotted milling about as a guest at the White House’s “backyard bash” by the pool reporter, who was allowed into the event for 40 minutes and kept in a pen before being ushered out. When Allen quoted from the pool report in his Playbook column the next day, he deleted a reference to his own name and didn’t bother to tell his readers that he was actually at the party.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries …. Black kids booted from Philly club’s ‘whites-only’ pool – Ah. Here’s the beginning of the story. Yeesh. I’d hope this was datelined about 40 years ago, but … ‘Complexion’ of black camp kids not a problem at new pool – I missed the beginning of this story, but you can sniff out its stench in the body here, as well as in the appalling comments quoted.

With ad revenue up 35%, Gawker Media returns to pageview bonuses and plans “checkbook journalism”:…

I’ve been meaning to do a follow-up on my post about literary cage fights for a while now, but the story in yesterday’s Gawker about Alice Hoffmann’s colossal dummy-spit (or is that dummy-twit?) is so hilarious I can’t hold back any longer. As the story explains, Hoffman took great exception to what sounds like a classic “mixed” review, and proceeded to slag off the reviewer on Twitter, even going so far as to twit the reviewer’s phone number and suggest people ring her up and set her straight.

I haven’t seen the Sportsnation show on ESPN yet, since I spend most of my day at the Gawker office, where television (along with sunlight, smiling, and sustained eye contact) are strictly forbidden, but this little shout-out is flattering. I’m just disappointed they didn’t post my phone number on the show. Maybe next time. Anyway, hopefully some of the glitches and pinwheeling that went on with the new comment system today will be worked out in the near future, perhaps tomorrow, next year or never.

I haven’t seen the Sportsnation show on ESPN yet, since I spend most of my day at the Gawker office, where television (along with sunlight, smiling, and sustained eye contact) are strictly forbidden, but this little shout-out is flattering. I’m just disappointed they didn’t post my phone number on the show. Maybe next time. Anyway, hopefully some of the glitches and pinwheeling that went on with the new comment system today will be worked out in the near future, perhaps tomorrow, next year or never.

Perez Hilton is getting a storm of publicity after calling someone a faggot, and Brüno , a movie that Dennis Lim calls a “big gay joke,” is advertising everywhere. What does this mean for gay stereotypes in the media? In an Entertainment Weekly profile by Tim Stack, Hilton says of his altercation with will.i.am, I realize I said the most hurtful word. I don’t believe being gay is bad. I’m not homophobic. I couldn’t be any gayer and I couldn’t be any prouder.