Gossip Should Have No Friends

[April 26th, 2006] WORD UP Despite the challenges of great weather and bad parking, Portland's second annual Wordstock fest garnered sellout audiences this weekend as more than 22,000 word junkies flocked to the Oregon Convention Center and other venues to hear distinguished scribes such as Joyce Carol Oates whine on about the lack of "intimacy" and radio god Ira Glass confess his utter devotion to the OC. Check out WW's online Wordstock Diary at wweek.com to devour more lit gossip or post your own Wordstock memory.

MEAT & GREET Ever had a 6-foot-5 drag queen lick the inside of your eardrum clean? Scoop hadn't either until the opening of Meet Dept ., the Towne Lounge's new queer night, which kicked off last Tuesday. The invitation included a "bloody" cloth that guests were required to wear as part of their outfit. And that was about all Sissyboy's Splendora , the event's co-organizer, was wearing (his "meat diaper" was topped with a wig) when he gave Scoop a wet willy. His cohort, Charlie Hodges , explained that Meet Dept. is a rotating series of fashion and dance events designed to combine the more sordid eastside queer scene with the more reserved westside scene in order "to get boys laid ."

SLACKER-911 P-town will soon have its own chiseled-jawbone medical drama to chew on. A new summer series, Saved, features Tom Everett Scott as "Wyatt Cole," a (what else?) "gritty, urban, slacker hero." According to press materials, Saved offers, ahem, "an ideal opportunity to examine this acclaimed city." Cole's character is a "conflicted, gambling addicted, med-school drop-out working as a paramedic on the streets of Portland." Sweet. Imagine Grey's Anatomy—with pit stains. Catch the premiere at 10 pm Monday, June 12, on TNT.

SWARM OF BEES Scoop felt a little scooped by The New York Times after Portland author Charlie d'Ambrosio mentioned his wife, Heather Larimer, and her new band, the Shee Bee Gees, in an essay about buying his first house in last Thursday's Home & Garden section. That's because the band, which has yet to play a gig, is composed of current and former members of WW's classifieds department including Ellen Osborne, Anna Shelton and Alex Valdivieso. Obviously, Scoop works in its own soundproof cube.