Quotes of the Day

Another Day At the Office
Is it just us, or does the Today show's MATT LAUER look alarmingly at ease with a bare-midriff, miniskirt and pumps? For the morning program's annual Halloween costume contest last week, Lauer got gussied up as socialite Paris Hilton, while co-anchor KATIE COURIC made for a Mini-Me DONALD TRUMP, and weatherman AL ROKER channeled a pre-diet Oprah Winfrey. Supposedly on some other networks people in blazers and pearls actually read news and interviewed guests. But frankly, we were too mesmerized by Lauer's shapely calves to notice.

Saturday Not Live
Audiences really were just getting pieces of ASHLEE SIMPSON as she performed on Saturday Night Live Oct. 23. When prerecorded vocals for the wrong song piped up during her set, the shamefaced singer was exposed as a lip syncher. Ashlee, sister of pop confection Jessica, shuffled as if at a hoedown and left the stage. She later blamed her failure to sing live on a sore throat caused by acid reflux. Within days Ashlee was obviously warbling for real at the Radio Music Awards and telling the Today show the SNL episode was "mortifying." But the 20-year-old kept perspective. "I'm not anorexic, my boob didn't pop out," she said. "I had a bad performance, and I got sick." And on the bright side, she's now a perfect candidate for that coveted Zantac endorsement.

Uh-Oh, Someone's Wearing White After Labor Day
John Travolta's raven mane is nearly as integral to his appeal as his dance-floor-ready hips and dimpled chin. But in A Love Song for Bobby Long, a drama set in New Orleans and due next month, the Pulp Fiction star goes gray to portray an alcoholic literature professor befriended by SCARLETT JOHANSSON. This is no silver-haired sophisticate like Tom Cruise's assassin in this summer's Collateral. "Bobby Long is bruised fruit," says Travolta, 50, of his character. "Kind of decrepit." As for the premature aging, no biggie. "It's never been an issue for me to grow old, grow gray, grow fat, grow skinny." So far only one critic has balked at the look: "My daughter freaked out."

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, If You Like My Records, Read My Poetry, Too
Critics savaged it, but folksy singer Jewel's 1998 poetry collection, A Night Without Armor, proved Americans will buy books of verse — if they're written by a bard with a tour bus. Now a new crop of musicians is tackling the medium. A reader's guide to the next performer-poets:

BILLY CORGAN
THE BOOK: Blinking with Fists, released Oct. 1
THE BUZZ: Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky's publisher is pushing the collection by this alt rocker, who packed rage and rhythm into his lyrics for the Smashing Pumpkins
CRINGEWORTHY VERSE: Atwixt the twine and flowers divine/ Devise the deign in this copper wane
THE AUDIENCE: Art-school dropouts

ALICIA KEYS
THE BOOK: Tears for Water, due Nov. 8
THE BUZZ: The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter shares 27 poems from her personal journals
CRINGEWORTHY VERSE: Golden sunshine's/ peeking through the grayness of the sky/ Soon it will be in full view/ And rain won't stain your eye
THE AUDIENCE: Teen girls who keep on fallin' for their piano teachers

JILL SCOTT
THE BOOK: The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours, due in 2005
THE BUZZ: Before she sang neo-soul tunes, Scott was a spoken-word veteran of Philadelphia's boho cafés
CRINGEWORTHY VERSE: What does the alley cat do when the unchained dog begins to growl?
THE AUDIENCE: Grownup gals who want their groove back

• Rebecca Winters