I don't give a hoot about football -- high school, college or otherwise -- so believe me when I say Friday Night Lights Season Four ($29.98; Universal) is a very satisfying TV drama with one of the best ensembles around. It's also had a long, strange journey. It began as a best-selling nonfiction book, then it became an excellent film and finally a TV series. Every version of this story is worth checking out. The book is thoughtful and gripping. The movie is quietly wonderful. And the TV series is honest about high school (which TV often tackles in outrageous terms) and small town life (which TV either idealizes or hokums out of recognition).

The first season of FNL is excellent and can be enjoyed on its own with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Season two is a train wreck rescued only by the top-notch cast. I would urge you to skip it and move right to season three, which was a solid return to form. And now the show has two more shortened seasons of 12 episodes each. Season four (just ended) and season five, which will debut on DirectTV and then air on NBC. Season four is nearly as good as season one, which is high praise. They didn't quite adjust to the shortened season, so some dramatic storylines feel rushed. And I was very nervous about the new quarterback Vince Howard (Michael B. Jordan) dealing with both a crack addict mom and the lure of thug life. But the small steps feel earned. And the past star athletes who are still hanging around town and feeling that their lives peaked a few years ago are just dead on target. (I mean you Taylor Kitsch.) And the fact that Zach Gilford didn't get an Emmy nomination for his work this season as Matt Saracen is absurd. Watch and you'll understand.

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For a month, 33 Chilean copper miners have been trapped in a 'refuge,' after surviving a cave-in. As Chile and the rest of the world watch transfixed, experts have swarmed to offer advice on coping.

Above ground, the scene is alternately somber and surreal: Anxious loved ones, fingering crucifixes blessed by Pope Benedict XVI. Four scientists from NASA, warning that light deprivation is their greatest worry. A Mexican norteno band in black suits and cowboy hats, offering a USB flash drive with its songs for the men. And now, giving advice on keeping spirits up, survivors of the 1972 Andean plane crash that inspired the movie "Alive."

The movie industry had a record-setting season despite fewer actual paid admissions, thanks largely to extra costs for 3-D screenings. But it could be a one-time-only bump.

Fewer paying customers showed up for this summer's movies than in any summer since 1997, but Hollywood still raked in record receipts of $4.35 billion. The answer to this seeming contradiction: 3-D.

Main Line Media News caught up with Marjorie Margolies, mother of Marc Mezvinsky...you remember, that guy who married Chelsea Clinton not too long ago? While Margolies isn't at liberty to say much about the marriage, she did remark, "I'm totally delighted to be Chelsea Clinton's mother-in-law; she's a doll."

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Long about June, our friends Hooker and Greg came to visit us in Paris. The four of us with other dear friends and varied acquaintances had partaken of many high times and jovial dinners together in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the Lone Wolf and I once lived and Greg and Hooker still do. But this was the first time these designing men had come to Paris so we could have a convivial fete on or near the Seine.

A few days before they arrived, I was looking for a movie on TV and happened upon Isadora, the 1968 film about Isadora Duncan in which Vanessa Redgrave starred. I knew a few of the fascinating details about the Duncan family’s life in Paris, since our friend Dolly West had known them here. One thing I hadn’t realized was that Isadora’s two darling children, Deirdre, whose father was theater designer Gordon Craig, and Patrick, whose father was Paris Singer, one of the many sons of sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer, had died along with their nanny when the car they were sitting in rolled off into the Seine. They all drowned.

The image haunted me. This is a tragedy from which a mother could never recover.

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The Pentagon's public relations machine is working overtime these days trying to sell a theme of "progress" in Afghanistan to push back against calls to end the war. The message machine behind this push is gargantuan, costing $547 million and employing more than 27,000 people. But, as our latest Rethink Afghanistan video shows, all that wasted P.R. money can't paper over the fact that the Afghanistan War isn't making us safer, and it's not worth the cost.

So far, we've seen General David Petraeus give headline interviews on NBC, CBS, BBC, FOX News, and schedule an upcoming headline interview on ABC. He's given interviews to The New York Times and The Washington Post. He's kicked the Pentagon's P.R. apparatus, especially that of the U.S. 3rd Army and its paid contractors, into gear, churning out articles to push his narrative of "progress."

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This is the quote on a decorative towel that hangs in my home. After calling off my wedding about five years ago, I bought this towel on a shopping trip with a friend.
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Michelle Beadle stopped by the Late Show with David Letterman last night and discussed growing up in Texas, her co-host Colin Cowherd and her passion for sports. "What's his deal?" Letterman asked of her colleague. Beadle said the two men would get along well. Letterman was also baffled when Beadle explained that she's a Houston Astros fan. Scroll down to watch the video.

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LOS ANGELES -- A new billboard that reads "Still a Virgin?" is raising some eyebrows in Los Angeles and in big cities across the country.

The billboard, which began appearing a few weeks ago, also gives a toll free number for help (888-743-4335).

The sign is not really about promoting sex. Instead, it's designed to promote a new movie starring Will Ferrell called "The Virginity Hit." Apparently, it's working. More than 70,000 people called the 888 number in just five days and everyone seems to be talking about it.

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The California state government voted 43-13 on Tuesday to pass a law fining photographers up to $5,000 or a year in jail for breaking traffic laws or impeding the operation of a celebrity's vehicle, TheStar.com reports. And one of the key exhibits in the case was a video of supermodel Kate Moss and her daughter at LAX on March 29, 2008. Check out the terrifying footage as Kate tries to leave the airport surrounded by police, paparazzi and flashbulbs.

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