Dating a doppelganger may not be ideal, but it's better than the usual male mate in rom-coms nowadays - either they're sleazy playboys well past their prime (Wedding Crashers, Maid of Honor, Ghost of Girlfriends Past, the Ugly Truth) or man-children desperately in need of a smarty-pants gal to whip them into shape (Knocked Up, the Prince and Me, The Princess and the Frog).

How many times has Hollywood depicted waterboarding? It seems like they've waterboarded more actors and stuntmen for entertainment purposes (in movies and cable TV) than terrorists by the US government. Only 3 terrorists have been waterboarded, and none since 2003.

My 8 yr old son, who loves the Transformers, saw the Battleship ad and thought it looked REALLY COOL - that says it all, eh?
I read John Carter this past snowbound weekend (free for kindle users) and it's a fun story. I may be tempted to see it if the reviews aren't too bad, and it appears that they haven't messed with the story too much.

Never mind - SGK backtracks and decides to restore funding to Planned Parenthood:

"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives...."
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/...

I see it more as a loss-leader used to effect the conversation and culture. For instance, how many people believe Palin is an idiot because she claimed she could see Russia from her house? In reality, that was a line from an SNL skit, but it informed a whole lot of peoples' opinions who never watch SNL. It's not about ratings, it's about reach.

It's not necessarily a ratings issue - clips of these shows can be used, just like the SNL Palin skits in 2008, on the news/opinion shows the following day. So Stewart or Colbert do a 2-4 min bit on what a jerk Gingrich is (including horrid photos and a catchy, derisive title), and then the next day Morning Joe runs this clip once every 1/2 hour segment and after they stop laughing, they discusses it as if it is a valid political criticism. And this happens on most of the other MSNBC shows, etc. They help craft the MSM's narrative against Republican candidates, so the MSM rewards them with fawning stories..

"Politico loves Stephen Colbert because Stephen Colbert loves Barack Obama"

Not exactly. The love him because he is a parody of conservatives they hate - Limbaugh and O'Reilly*.
Colbert would probably kill to have ratings like Limbaugh, an average of 22 million listeners daily. And even though O'Reilly isn't conservative, he's NOT a Lefty and he's a ratings powerhouse for FOX.

The other reason they love Colbert is because he is going the extra mile to make a mockery of the Republican primary process.