In this new collection, the title work finds Mr. Muldoon rewriting “Heard It Through the Grapevine”: “It’s all still sweet / It’s all hunky-dory / But the word on the street / That’s another story.” “The word on the street,” he continues, “Is you’re splitting.” He restrains himself here, structurally at least, punching up his humor and making his lines catchy. “Jersey Fresh” is a giddy recollection of buying fruit at “a roadside stand / Off I-78.” “It’s never too late for rock ’n’ roll,” he offers in one poem.

Of course, this is still Paul Muldoon. While these lyrics follow a more rigid, verse/chorus/verse structure than many of his poems, there are lines that are heavy with allusions and obsessed with their own creation, as is characteristic of the poet. “Dream Team,” for instance, is the only ostensible rock lyric I know of to make use of “petard,” a 16th-century French term derived from the Latin peditum, which is a kind of mild explosive used to open castle gates. The poem references a number of famous duos—Lennon and McCartney, Tonto and the Lone Ranger, strawberries and cream—in order to contextualize a lost friendship:

We used to be buddies

In our college days

The spine and the shudder

The Mets and Willie Mays

The petard on which we’re hoist …

That last line became a proverb after its use, in different form, in Hamlet, when our titular hero replaces his name on a death warrant with the names of his double-crossing school pals Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It’s basically a complicated way of saying their plan has backfired, though petard’s other meaning—“to break wind”—brings to mind all the hot air Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spout in Shakespeare’s play. Its inclusion here, despite the breezy (get it?) rhythm and nostalgic refrain (“We were a dream / We were a dream ...”), suggests a darker side to the dying friendship than the poet reveals on the surface.

Shakespeare notwithstanding, the work in this book mostly resembles the wordy lyrics of another New Jersey poet, Bruce Springsteen. “Jezebel Was a Jersey Belle” is something like “Kitty’s Back”—Mr. Springsteen’s anthem of a Jersey chick who falls for a “city dude”—mixed with the Beach Boys’ “California Girls.” Mr. Muldoon lists female companions from across the country—Delilah from Delaware, Ilana from Illinois (“she wasn’t at all double-dealing / though she dealt heroin”)—before going into the refrain: “Even the dogs in the street could tell / Jezebel was a Jersey belle.”

“Comeback,” one of the strongest poems in the book, begs to be compared to the hustlers, losers and two-timers of Mr. Springsteen’s songs. The first lines are, “We were introduced by Bruce / At the Stone Pony,” the venerable Asbury Park music venue, and it continues with a blistering critique of the music industry:

All that concentrated juice

Standing room only

You were with some suit

From EMI or Sony

Who was so full of toot

He called for “Mony Mony”

It brings to mind the bridge of Mr. Springsteen’s first single, “Blinded by the Light,” which failed to launch the Boss’s career in 1973, but hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts when it was covered a few years later—despicably—by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: “Some silicone sister with her manager’s mister told me I got what it takes / She said, ‘I’ll turn you on, sonny, to something strong if you play that song with the funky break.’”

What both Mr. Springsteen and Mr. Muldoon seem to realize is that a rock lyric does not have to force its poetic prowess. The “go-cart Mozarts” and “racket boys” on the boardwalk of Mr. Springsteen’s lyrics occupy the same place as the fact-checker who can’t properly trace the root of pilus in Mr. Muldoon’s “News Headlines from the Homer Noble Farm,” or the barley farmer who abandons his land without a word in “Why Brownlee Left.” They are symptoms of a larger sadness brewing in the space between the philosophical and the mundane. They want to escape—their town, their class, their lover—but sense the futility of retreat. The nameless band at the center of “Comeback” had “no sooner said farewell / Than it was time to reunite.” They end up back in Jersey, playing the Meadowlands, “just another band / With only two surviving members.”

Marion Cotillard chatting away.

Just when we were sick and tired of cinema screenings and movie premiere parties (Hello nomination-baiting season!), The Cinema Society alongside Dior and Vanity Fair hosted one of its best shindigs yet, at the legendary Indochine restaurant following a showing of the Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard’s 2012 French-Belgian film, which stars Marion Cotillard and dizzyingly sexy Matthias Schoenaerts.

“I’m gonna need eight glasses of Champagne to lift myself up from that one!” one power publicist bellowed to The Observer over the roaring crowd.

“But Marion Cotillard was just amazing!”

This writer unfortunately missed the screening in order to support wounded U.S. servicemen and women uptown for Stand Up For Heroes event, which featured performances by John Mayer, Roger Waters and Bruce Springsteen.

We were hoping for a sighting and perhaps to bavarder with the Oscar-winner.

"Marion had to immediately catch an international flight," one social stalwart dutifully informed us. Of course she had plenty of time to pose for the cameras in her Dior couture, flashing her wondrous baby-bump.

Those that did turn out for the Indochine post-bash made the night memorable. Mischievous attendees included Harley Vieira Newton, Jean-Marc Houmard, Katie Lee, Nan Bush and Bruce Weber, Stefano Tonchi, the mouthy Amy Sacco, Isiah Whitlock and Donna D'Cruz, who off-duty on the DJ gig for the evening.

“I think it’s the food!’ suggested a male model, whose name escaped us.

“These mushroom things and the filet mignon!” he raved between bites.

We schmoozed with model Johannes Huebl and admired Ellen von Unwerth dancing skills. An attempt to question Emma Watson about the premise of the film resulted in a chic pout; her smart phone was of more interest.

The film, which takes place in Antibes, we were told, follows a young man who develops a bond with a whale trainer and traces how their relationship intensifies after a tragic accident. It won critical acclaim at Cannes and the BFI Film Festival. So we shall see how it plays with American audiences. It is en Français.

We got a few words with the Belgian star, Matthias Schoenaerts, but most of it was in Flemish… “I am very excited about the film,” was about all our infantile Nederland skills could reward us.

Nonetheless, the night was about celebration and good vibes. Signature Belvedere cocktails like the Rust and Bone mojitos kept conversation lively and bodies loose until well after midnight.

We told the host of evening and The Cinema Society founder, Andrew Saffir that this was our favorite fête of his thus far. He was unfazed and just smiled politely. With that, we were off to Norwood to continue our foolish, but fabulous escapades.

The numbers, which have been closely followed in political circles, showed unemployment rising to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent last month, hitting the average estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. In a separate Bloomberg survey, economists estimated the U.S. would gain 125,000 jobs after adding 114,000 jobs last month.

While the jobs report has been overshadowed in recent days by the storm that rocked the East Coast, halting U.S. markets for two days and raising the specter of a delayed report, job stats have been a focal point amid a presidential campaign that has often focused on the slow pace of recovery in the U.S. economy.

Last month, after the unemployment rate dipped below 8 percent for the first time since 2009, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch questioned the validity of the numbers on Twitter, implying that the numbers had been doctored by the federal government to aid President Obama's re-election campaign.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the non-farm payroll jobs gained in September upward to 148,000, from 114,000, and said that Hurricane Sandy didn't have a material affect on this month's report.

Mr. Welch has yet to tweet on the October job numbers.

Elsewhere on Wall Street:

Royal Bank of Scotland said it would probably face fines over charges it manipulated inter-bank lending rates such as Libor.

The eight "systemically important" U.S. banks: Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo.

America's midsize banks, including U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial, are opening their own lobbying shops, according to Bloomberg, in a nod to their differing imperatives from larger Wall Street banks.

Rhode Island is suing Barclays, Wells Fargo and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling over inadequate disclosures pertaining to a $75 million loan the state facilitated for Mr. Schilling's video game company, 38 Studios.

"What can we make of this Barclays FERC thing? Besides, like, ha ha ha Barclays you sure like manipulating things?"

Market Folly has notes on David Einhorn's Iron Ore short idea.

The Times’sPeter Lattman on the Bruce-Bharara Bromance: "Before ripping into “Death to My Hometown,” a rollicking Celtic-inspired anthem, Mr. Springsteen shouted, “This is for Preet Bharara!” (Mr. Springsteen name-checks Mr. Bharara a YouTube clip about 22 seconds in.)"

Adele at tonight's Grammys (Getty Images)

Tonight's Grammys are to feature a tribute to Whitney Houston and a comeback-from-surgery performance by heavily-favored multiple nominee Adele. We'll be watching closely to see if the British chanteuse can claim Record, Song, and Album of the Year--or if other big nominees like Bon Iver (for the song "Holocene") and Foo Fighters (for the album Wasting Light) can beat her out--though we may flip the channel when Chris Brown performs.

11:19. After another so, so-long commercial break, Diana Ross presents Album of the Year to Adele, who's crying and shouting out her mom and mentioning the "rubbish relationship" that inspired 21. Paul McCartney is said to be performing next but we're going to bed!

11:12. Adele's speeches have all been charming, brief, and gracious--she's like a model for how to accept an award you know you're going to win (which is always such a fraught thing).

11:10. Last year's Record of the Year winners Lady Antebellem present this year's award to an act without any slavery nostalgia in her name, Adele, for "Rolling in the Deep."

11:08. As much as her year was not as amazing as past years in her career, Lady Gaga is, I guess, pretty influential. This mess doesn't happen without her making it "okay." And, of course, the Opus Dei/exorcism stuff is a blatant swagger-jack from Madonna circa 1989.

11:07. Nicki Minaj does not seem to be lip-synching, per se, but some of the verses in the first minute of her performances were magically completed absent movement of the mouth.

11:06. Oh, okay, this whole thing is an Exorcist short film. I'm surprised they gave Minaj this much screentime and leeway?

11:05. Nicki Minaj redeems her sadness over losing Best New Artist by doing an apparent exorcism-themed "Roman's Revenge" takeoff, mashed-up with "I Feel Pretty."

10:57. Maybe television is not the best medium to watch a D.J.

10:55. There are so many musicians not performing at the Grammys that a second go-round for Chris Brown AND the Foo Fighters seems very odd.

10:52. I think I sat behind David Guetta on a Greyhound bus, unless it was the transient who looks just like him!

10:50. ?uestlove is presenting a tribute to Don Cornelius with LL Cool J, and then we're jump-cutting to some "Nokia dance club" with David Guetta and the Foo Fighters and Chris Brown and glowsticks and if this show is keeping me awake how am I having a nightmare.

10:45. Okay, that was really good--something that would have been too similar to Whitney Houston's performance would have been uncanny, and this was utterly tasteful and great. Too bad there's not a similar tribute to be launched in Amy Winehouse's honor but one cannot have everything.

10:43. Jennifer Hudson is less hit-you-like-a-truck powerful and goes into the  higher register more than Whitney, but she's clearly super-emotional now.

10:42. Oh, mercy, it's the Jennifer Hudson performance of "I Will Always Love You."

10:34. This speech is the longest of the night and it's just about how Bon Iver hates the Grammys.

10:33. Nicki Minaj IN NO WAY is willing to pretend to be pleased Bon Iver won the Best New Artist prize.

10:32. The pair are singing "It Had To Be You," as your blogger hums along, looking longingly at his bed.

10:30. Carrie Underwood claims that Tony Bennett is her favorite artist of all time, which seems unlikely. The pair are presenting Best New Artist. This crowd gives the MOST standing ovations.

10:20. The Shelton Blake and the Band Perry perform a tribute to the Campbell Glen.

10:10. Adele gets a long standing ovation, capped by a reaction shot of Rihanna holding her temples.

10:08. My favorite Grammy sweeps by ladies in the past, in order: Beyoncé (early-2000s), Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé (early-2010s), Amy Winehouse.

10:07. Adele's hair looks really, really lovely.

10:05. The possessor of the best voice in the world, Gwyneth Paltrow, introduces the second-best, Adele.

10:03. This CBS commercial is LL Cool J's most significant presence of the past two hours.

9:59. Best Country Album goes to last year's big victors in Record of the Year, Lady Antebellum.

9:57. This song is very designer-impostor Pat Benatar.

9:55. I am still not over how weird and abortive the "E.T." performance was. Was it some sort of symbolic thing about being a girl, interrupted?

9:54. It seemed that the sound mix totally flared out but in fact Katy Perry just migrated to the ceiling in order to sing a new breakup song about Russell Brand?

9:53. Okay, sorry, I like "E.T." way more than Taylor Swift talking in "Mean" about how great her career will be someday, mainly because Katy Perry's performance here, with lasers and a robot suit, is like what a child imagines being a pop star is like.

9:50. Song of the Year goes to Adele and her writing partner for "Rolling in the Deep." She's still chewing gum and gives like a 20-second speech.

9:44. Oh nooo, am I the subject of this song?

9:43. Somewhere, Frances Conroy's looking for the costumes she wore on Six Feet Under and just sees a note reading "I.O.U. one stage outfit --T.S."

9:42. This song is about how Taylor Swift had been criticized by... I think everyone?... after performing shakily with Stevie Nicks at the Grammys a few years back. The ouroboros of Taylor Swift is less interesting than she likely finds it.

9:41. "I just want to be okay again" is still the most therapy-speak lyric of all time.

9:40. It is really quite odd that Taylor Swift's follow-up to an Album of the Year winner didn't get any major nominations tonight, but it was nice of the Grammys to rebuild the garbage pile from Cats for her to dance on.

9:38. Chris says he's nervous and doesn't know what he should do. I hope he doesn't punch the mic stand!

9:36. Common and Taraji P. Henson salute Gil Scott-Heron and present Best R&B album to Chris Brown, who despite being the most famous person in the category by far, is just... okay (so hard, really, not to keep using that word). Thank everyone for not including a Rihanna reaction shot.

9:35. Oh, right, this song is about Nancy Shevell.

9:34. This song about Valentine's Day sounds like a wonderful song for a funeral scene in a film nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.

9:32. Between Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys, tonight there have been a lot of elder statesmen plopped on the stage and seeming just so slightly shaky.

9:31. Stevie Wonder invokes Whitney Houston's name for what feels like the first time in about an hour.

9:26. The commercials during this show are notably musician-centric--e.g. Jennifer Lopez for some fancy speakers, Taylor Swift for Cover Girl--but Wiz Khalifa for Bing feels a little left-field, for so many reasons.

9:23. Oprah is Tweeting during the commercial breaks trying to get people to watch OWN.

9:22. Beach Boyz II Men. This sounds fine but like, at least three people onstage look like they were just forcibly awakened and they're not happy about it.

9:19. The lead singer of Foster the People has really mastered singing right through his nostrils.

9:17. Maroon 5 performs a tribute to the Beach Boys. It's so hard to think of things to say nearly 90 minutes into the Grammys other than just "okay!" over and over.

9:16. Dave Grohl's speech about the human element of music is drowned out by LMFAO and an announcement of Ryan Seacrest's appearance. Oxymorons: they're striking again!

9:14. The Foo Fighters win, which, after Coldplay's lackluster performance (thank God they had Rihanna on hand!) is welcome. It would have been fun if, like, The Decembrists won, just because "who is the arcade fire?" was a fun moment. Dave Grohl says this record was made in a garage and criticizes, implicitly, musicians who work in studios, and yet everyone cheers?

9:12. The "goth," or "indie," or whatever, NCIS star is with two of the New York Giants to present Best Rock Performance.

9:02. Let's play Coldplay/Rihanna's "Princess of China" and the Glenn Close-penned theme to Albert Nobbs back to back and see if the "la la la la la" parts are distinguishable.

9:00. "Make some noise for Whitney" during an onstage dance battle featuring vocals that hit three notes in toto may have, despite our love of Rihanna, have been one of the evening's odder moments.

8:58. After the orchestral, syrupy stuff dropped out, now she's just singing the normal disco version. Having a single go to number-one in Billboard and performing it competently tonight may be Rihanna's revenge against professional steampunk-robot middle-schooler Chris Brown.

8:56. Rihanna and Coldplay perform, but not before the best pop star of the decade, yup, performs a "sadcore" remix of "We Found Love."

8:54. It took the Target ad of a bus of schoolchildren singing "Rolling In the Deep" for me to accept that that song is actually a "new standard," or whatever.

8:51. After that performance, time for ten more minutes of commercials!

8:48. There's so little to say about the performances tonight. Dave Grohl is fine. Fine! But by this time last year we'd had a series of mini-costume dramas, if memory serves. Where is our Cee-Lo and Gwyneth this year? Dare we say it--where are the Grammy moments?

8:38. Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson looks like something from the Oscars. To wit: "Billy Crystal's Steampunk-Country Tribute to Hugo"

8:37. Reba McEntire, who looks the same today as she did in 1985, talks up the "Grammy moment" notion that no one has ever considered outside the Staples Center. Duet between Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson, whatever.

8:36. The award goes to Jay-Z and Kanye West for "Otis," who are in absentia. 36 minutes in and one acceptance speech!

8:35. Fergie and Marc Anthony are presenting the award for Best Rap Performance--she in a see-through red lance concoction, he in the open white Oxford he's been wearing constantly since the late 1990s.

8:28. The performance of Chris Brown is a good occasion to recall that the Grammys exist in staggeringly large part to promote the record industry's decadent and destructive system of exploitation of youth that ends up taking the lives of so many talented artists.

8:27. All I will say about the apparent culture-wide forgiveness of Chris Brown--who three years ago this weekend brutally beat up his girlfriend, an action for which he has never expressed much more than a "sorry you're mad" perfunctory attitude of penitence alternating with "poor-me" tirades--is astonishment that the artist whose every misdeed America can forgive is one in possession of such a weak, nasal voice. In the same way Jennifer Hudson once won an Oscar for singing, Chris Brown gets nominated for Grammys for jumping on scenery at awards shows.

8:26. Let's work as a society to prevent the "fake mad" reaction shot by an awards loser. Bruno Mars, with your jumping up in frustration whose fakeness itself might be fake, this is me shaming you in public.

8:25. I think Lil Wayne just found out who Adele was."

8:24. Best Pop Solo Performance (which is no longer separated by gender) goes, unsurprisingly, to Adele for "Someone Like You."

8:22. This performance is lovely, though Alicia Keys's front-facing bun will be unfortunately familiar to viewers of last night's Saturday Night Live performances by a band known as Karmin.

8:20. Bonnie Raitt and Alicia Keys are to present an award, but first they are singing in a tribute to Etta James.

8:19. The trailer for The Lorax uses Vampire Weekend! This is the best Grammy moment of the night.

8:16. "Coming up: more Grammy moments you won't want to miss: a performance by Chris Brown..." I am trying to remember what I learned in English class: Is that an oxymoron, a contradiction, or just a misunderstanding of my capacity for forgiveness?

8:15. Okay, FINE, all joking aside, Bruno Mars is probably more charismatic than 95% of the performers will be tonight.

8:13. Bruno Mars, after exhorting the audience to get off their "rich asses," shouted "James Brown" as many times as Bruce Springsteen said "we take care of our own." He's good at splits, though!

8:11. Continuing the theme of overselling the Grammys' importance, Bruno Mars is in an all-gold outfit with a sign about him reading "Live on Stage." We get it, TV show! You are the capital-G Grammys!

8:10. The host is now humorlessly shouting out Adele--tipping the show's hand a bit--and talking about "Grammy moments," a concept which has always seemed a bit overstated with regard to an awards ceremony people watch out of grim duty and February boredom.

8:08. LL Cool J announces that there have been moments in past Grammy ceremonies "we will remember for the rest of our lives," which is, well, I don't think the Grammys themselves are what people who like music remember! That may be overstating their centrality. That said, the clip of Whitney Houston singing "I Will Always Love You" is something else.

8:06. LL Cool J, who is hosting the show for CBS-synergy reasons (he's on the NCIS spinoff), engages the audience in a prayer. Nothing sarcastic to say!

8:05. There were just like eight reaction shots of under-25 pop singers, all of whom are completely encased in crystal.

8:03. Did you hear that? Somewhere in Manhattan, a New York Times editor just assigned a Sunday Review piece in the similarities between this song and Clint Eastwood's Chrysler ad.

8:02. "'We take care of our own' [repeat twelve times]" --sheet music to the chorus of Bruce Springsteen's new song

8:01. Why does Bruce Springsteen get a pass on the old-man earring look while Harrison Ford gets pilloried?

8:00. The show opens with Bruce Springsteen--while they're likely saving the Whitney tribute until later in the evening, this feels a bit random.

The organizers had secured the location at the last minute (Mr. Clinch had said he would only mount the exhibit if it could be on the iconic boardwalk), and the floor was still covered in interlocking foam rubber squares.

The photographer, 45, stood in the center of the room, greeting friends. A Leica M6 was slung over his shoulder like a guitar. “I have it with me all the time,” he said. “It’s kind of my main axe, you know?” Dirty-blond and mutton-chopped, wearing jeans, a vest and an untucked shirt, Mr. Clinch reminisced about the days before he had an all-access backstage pass to any show he liked. He started to build his concert portfolio, which now includes Bob Dylan, Jay-Z and Radiohead, by smuggling his camera past security in pieces. “I would take the lens off, give it to my girlfriend, who’s my wife now. She’d hide it; I’d hide film. I’d take the camera body and stuff it down my pants. Then we’d get in and I’d have to sneak up to the front and assemble everything back together.”

Outside, a mellow overflow crowd drank beer on the boardwalk, mingling expectantly in the late-summer evening air. Where was Bruce? Speculation deepened with the night. He’d roar in on his Harley. He’d sneak up in his Range Rover. He’d have a posse. He’d come alone.

Andra Napoleon, an attractive, dark-haired woman in a black-and-white polka-dot dress, was circling the exhibit with 10 copies of a letter she had written to Bruce in her purse. Each letter was sealed in an individual red envelope, and each envelope bore large, clear handwriting: “1984 – I was 21, you were 34 – Stone Pony.” The reference, Ms. Napoleon said, was to a night she shared a small table and two rounds with Mr. Springsteen at his fabled shore haunt. He told her about his upcoming album—Born in the USA, it would be called—and she tried to sell him a membership to Jack LaLanne, where she was a manager. “We were hanging out for over an hour, and we just clicked.”

The letter, which she was inspired to write after listening to the title track of Mr. Springsteen’s latest album, Working On a Dream, recounted that evening a quarter-century ago, and hinted at what Ms. Napoleon claimed was a lucrative business proposition. “I wish I could blurt it out, but I can’t!” she said. She had promised her mother that she would tell no one but Mr. Springsteen himself. “I want Bruce to launch it, because it is as big as Bruce.”

Ms. Napoleon’s horoscope that morning in Star magazine, which she said she never reads, but had opened while in line to buy lottery tickets at the 7-Eleven, had read: “Make friends with the boss!”

As the event wound down, this seemed less and less likely. Just as the Transom was wondering whether to skip the last train back to New York, Mr. Clinch got a text from Mr. Springsteen himself. The Boss wasn’t coming. Word on the boardwalk was that he had gotten stuck at a birthday dinner for his mother-in-law.

Daily News: Of course, things have been moving on the Pirate story since yesterday morning. In fact, moving fast enough that it's possible the Daily News is already behind the mark, reporting under the headline "FIVE MEN IN A BOAT" that the captain of the ship overtaken by pirates was adrift with them as a hostage. This morning on its Web site, the News is leading with a story about how Somali pirates are getting rich off the oil ships that navigate into the Gulf of Aden; it's not easy to find the story they're referring to with this front. And it seems like the big news now is the American destroyer in pursuit of the pirate boat. Since this is a story people have been following on TV, isn't the News cover risking untimeliness? But the paper isn't depending solely on the pirate news to make hay this morning: across the top is a banner with the Springsteen story. "Prancin' in the dark: Boss called 'other man' in lawsuit." Prancin'? Prancin' in the dark? Why is this any more suggestive than "Dancing in the dark," the actual title of the Bruce Springsteen hit song? Is "prancin'" a word for having sex? Bruce Springsteen has sold 65 million albums in the U.S. and won 19 Grammy awards. Surely there was a better pun in there somewhere.

General Observations: Bruce Springsteen is a natural cover subject for the tabloids. His New Jersey "heartland rock" routine is squarely aimed at the same audience the tabloids talk to every day, and to make things more interesting, the music and the man are sometimes at odds: increasingly identified with Democratic, not to say lefty, causes, Mr. Springsteen's politics are probably often problematic to the tabloid readership. And his personal life, while not more tumultuous than most rock-and-roll icons, has its share of dramatic turns. There was plenty to talk about today, so the Post's decision to give this story its entire front page isn't an obvious one. But it was probably the right one. The News took a risk going with the quickly-developing pirate story, and probably lost out. And the display for the Bruce story made it almost not worth its front-page placement

Winner: The New York Post

Another barometer may be the number of A-Listers who couldn't get into a D.C. house party.

On Saturday night, Maureen Dowd threw a rager at her Georgetown townhouse that grew so crowded that Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck, and Bruce Springsteen couldn’t get through the door. (One source heard that Hanks told Springsteen, who was cruising by with his wife Patti, not even to bother trying.)

The celebrities can take solace in the fact that even some of the lords of journalism, including NBC's Tom Brokaw, Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth and Dowd’s own boss, Times executive editor Bill Keller, also failed to get beyond the foyer.

Keller, in particular, missed out. Awaiting him was a 60th birthday cake that Dowd had chilled the night before on her back porch (near a cardboard cutout of Obama, who watched over the guests with a pack of Marlboro Lights taped to his hand.) According to one source, members of the Times’ Washington bureau ate the cake the next day.

Today, HBO announced its lineup for the ceremony—dubbed "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration"—which the premium cable network will make available for free to nonsubscribers.

According to the press release, the event will include "historical readings" by the likes of Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington.

The musical lineup will include performances from Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am and Stevie Wonder.

More from the release:

But the better question is, What will he play? You might recall that in 2006, the Rolling Stones treated fans to "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Start Me Up." In 2007, Prince did a medley of hits, including some covers and three songs from Purple Rain. And last year, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers followed suit with some of their most beloved tunes, which in addition to "Free Fallin" included "American Girl" and "I Won't Back Down."  So if recent halftime history is any indication, we should expect to hear "Born to Run," "Dancing in the Dark," maybe (we hope!) "Thunder Road" and—we would be utterly SHOCKED if he didn't play this next one—"Born in the USA." It doesn't get much more American than that! But then again, who knows. As a source in camp Springsteen told Rock & Roll Daily: “The goal of the Super Bowl thing is to see how much fun he can get into those 12 minutes.”

Well, it wasn't quite that harsh, but indeed, Mr. Springsteen has canceled the annual festivities at his well-known mansion near the Jersey Shore. From the AP:

Writing on his Web site, Springsteen blames "catastrophic success."

The 59-year-old rocker and his wife say too many visitors to their Rumson neighborhood raised concerns for the safety of children and parents.

But don't worry children of Rumson—there will plenty of other rich people to hit up for some candy!