And the Horse You Rode In On

Pornographer Larry Flynt, who has always been unhappy about having a 21-foot six-ton bronze statue of John Wayne on horseback in front of his office building, may finally see the fabled cowboy star ride off into the sunset.

Plans are afoot to move the American icon from Los Angeles down to Newport Beach in Orange County, where Wayne lived until his death in 1979 and a nearby airport is named for him.

Talk about odd couples. Wayne turned down a part in Mel Brooks' Western spoof "Blazing Saddles" because it was "too dirty" and refused to play "Dirty Harry" as unsuitable to his image. Flynt, the publisher of Hustler and exposer of the D.C. Madam's client list, inherited the statue in 1994 when he bought the building previously owned by a bank for whom Wayne had done TV commercials.

Now Flynt is musing over replacing Wayne with a work of art more suitable to his "adult entertainment" empire, perhaps a 50-foot phallus, but the Beverly Hills Fine Arts Commission might have something to say about that.

Whither Vitter: Sex, Lies and Polygraphs

In questioning Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker today, Sen. David Vitter cited “ups and downs” in Iraq. Before the day was out, Vitter was on his own roller coaster and, after escaping his D.C. Madam crisis, the Senator may be heading for Larry Craigland this time.

Public-spirited Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, paid for a lie detector test for Wendy Cortez, a former prostitute in New Orleans who claimed that she had a "sexual relationship" with Vitter through an escort service three times a week over at least four months.

She passed the test and, as the story breaks today, Vitter will have to deal not only with additional sexual peccadilloes but lying about them in public. He has repeatedly denied Ms. Cortez’ story but, if further evidence supports her claim, there will be some serious explaining to do.

After the Craig to-do, Republicans will be under pressure to show they are not homophobic. Ethics committee, anyone?