The biggest news this week, of course, is that American Idol starts up again with a new parade of star wannabes. I have to confess I’m a fan because it’s something I can watch with my fifteen and a half (as they’re fond of reminding me) year old twins. We watch, dis and discuss and it’s one of those rare times we’re all hooked into the same electronic media. But this year’s big news of course is that Paula is leaving and Ellen is arriving. As in Ellen DeGeneres.

Denver lives and dies by the Broncos. Thus it has ever been and probably always will be. Because of the collective sports fever, ending a season that started out with a bang of 6-0 and ended up a whimper of 8-8 sent the city into a collective funk. But in the midst of all that a very public squabble arose between the young Turk coach Josh McDaniels and two of his star players: wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Tony Scheffler. McDaniels announced two days before the season finale that he was benching these two players. In addition, just before that he had publicly questioned Marshall’s ankle injury. Not nice to imply that one of your players is a wimp!

There’s been much ado and tisk-tisking about the Salahis’ –now infamous White House gate crashers. Most people seem to assume that the Secret Service royally messed up and of course that’s perhaps true. But the reality is many of those same people who are aghast at that breach couldn’t defend their own security systems.

If you’re in corporate America, you’re probably used to key cards, sign-in sheets and the like but how safe are these systems? Do you test for leaks?

Well, it’s irresistible this week: The need to write about Sarah Palin, given her book tour (Oprah! Barbara Walters! The cover of Newsweek!) and her book release today.

In the book she mostly gives John McCain a pass, but blasts his campaign, citing various slights from campaign minions.

The memoir, Going Rouge, described as “score settling” by many critics, does aim straight at the strategists, complaining about being booted offstage on election night, having to pay the bill for a $50,000 background check, as well as being muzzled when she wanted to talk about Bristol’s pregnancy in her own way. (She wanted to talk about personal responsibility and the campaign “muzzled” her).

Did we really need one more celebrity sex scandal? Like it or not, that’s what we’re getting with the latest revelation from Letterman. Blackmailed for sleeping with staffers over the years, Letterman refused to cave and decided to go public with his announcement about the whole sordid thing. He turned the shakedown into brilliant late night theater and grabbed the last laugh.

Or did he? Some pundits have said “who cares,” arguing that he was single at the time and these women were consenting adults. But what’s been lost in the whole milieu is that these were all staffers who worked directly under Letterman’s supervision and control!

Ugh! We’ve endured a week of bad celebrity behavior. Serena Williams threw a profanity-laced finger pointing fit at a U.S. Open lines woman on Sunday. That same night, Kanye West leaped onto the stage to steal the thunder from Taylor Swift at the VMA’s. (MTV’s video music awards, for those of you who don’t have fifteen year old, music obsessed, twins as I do!) And don’t even get me started on the outburst by Representative Joe Wilson during President Obama’s health care speech.

Hurrah! I always like being right!

A new study has confirmed what I’ve been telling you for years: multi tasking is not good for you, no matter how skillful you think you are. While we may believe that we’re paying attention to two things at once, brain scans show the opposite.

What happens is that the brain actually has to perform a complex switching mechanism between activities. What this means is that it takes time and energy for the brain to make this switch, and then more time and energy to refocus on the first activity.

When you pass on to the ’sweet by an by’ what will people be saying about you? The passing of the great liberal lion, Ted Kennedy, offers us a chance to reflect on this question. In my experience, there’s no better way to measure whether we’re accomplishing our personal and career goals than to reflect on our own funeral.Love his political rhetoric or not, everyone agrees that he lived a big life, consistent with his own principles to never give up the fight for the little guy. He overcame his personal failings to live a life dedicated to his country and his family.

You may not have the arm (now recovered from rotator cuff surgery) but you may have the same dilemma: to retire or not to retire?

And, like the famously waffling QB, you may change your mind.

For the second summer in a row, Brett Favre, the holder of every major NFL career passing record reversed his decision to suit up for his rival The Minnesota Vikings, hoping to help them capture their first Super Bowl. After spending 16 years with Green Bay, Favre will face them on the line. Most Minnesota fans cheered but a few hissed and booed and promptly produced black t-shirts reading “Brett Who” and “What the Favre.”

Say what you will about former President Bill Clinton, but everyone who has met him swears he has that gift of making the person he’s talking to feel as if no one else exists on the planet. Love him or hate him, he managed to use his charm and stature to rescue two American journalists convicted of illegally entering North Korea. Photos showed Kim Jong beaming as he stood beside his guest.

Allegedly, the trip–described as strictly humanitarian by the White House–had been in the works for weeks. The politically savvy families of American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, had helped set up the meeting, after giving the Korean leader a choice of American dignitaries, including Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and Bill Richardson.