Morning Hot Flash August 18, 2008

• Take a moment from celebrating the achievements of Team USA swimmer Michael Phelps, who won his 8th gold medal of the Beijing Olympics over the weekend, to celebrate the life of one cool California girl and a ground-breaking athlete in her own right.

• A new documentary focuses on America's obsession with unattainable beauty. Hmmmm....
  


• If you still haven't gotten enough peeks of Michael Phelps' abs...I don't blame you...then maybe you should visit his website.
  


• Middle-aged chicks get married. To each other.
  
  
• Have you been following the saga of Tom Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner? It's really starting to get interesting, more interesting, in fact, than most of the material that Cruise probably has in development right now. Although his most recent turn as a studio chief in Tropic Thunder shouldn't be missed.

• Jon Stewart is the most influential journalist of our time. That's funny, because I'm so old I remember when he was a comedian and television host.