DIRT CROSS COLLAPSE: “The White House’s response to the Russia/Georgia war gets a smirking ‘whatever’ from Moscow. Who are we to be telling anyone not to invade little countries? We’ve been doing it with great fanfare and steady failure since Vietnam, and we’re bogged down in so many doomed occupations today that Robot Troops are the only hope. Maybe we can buy some from Japan, on credit. Or that famous swimmer Michael Phelps can save the country by, uh, swimming very fast to various problem zones, like Aquaman.” [Political Machine]

• Liz Smith: Reading about Wednesday’s screening of Woody Allen’s latest, Scoop, we learned that Capote director Bennett Miller may make a Bob Dylan music video with Scarlett Johansson. [NYP]
• Reliable Source: Bob Casey Jr. returns a $2,100 campaign contribution from Dan Savage because of “the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.” The Casey campaign took the money, invited Savage to a fundraiser, then changed their minds. [WP]
• Page Six: Ex-Paris Review Editor James Linville is making Ernest Hemingway’s elusive The Garden of Eden into a movie. “Linville was a longtime protégé of the Review’s George Plimpton, who himself was mentored by ‘Papa.’” [NYP]
• LA Times Entertainment News: Fake movie “Aquaman” on HBO’s Entourage might become a real movie. “In one of the strangest twists of this life-imitating-art tale, the talent agent at the center of the informal ‘Aquaman’ talks is Ari Emanuel, the brassy Endeavor partner on whom ‘Entourage’ agent Ari Gold is based.” [LAT]