Burlypedia: Ballyhoo

Today's burlypedia is brought to you by the apologetic Senator Vitter, his Bobbitt-threatening wife and the DC Madam because apparently the culture wars just aren't the same.

In burlesque, the ballyhoo was the spiel used to advertise the show by the pitchman outside the theater. The word has come to mean blatant advertising or a clamour or outcry. According to Wikipedia, "The term Ballyhoo is used to indicate that one is using any means necessary to inflate an object or idea to a status to which it does not rise."

Video of the Week

Everyone -- even Larry Flynt -- is chattering about Senator Vitter's connection to the DC Madam and wondering who else will show up on Deborah Jeane Palfrey's phone list. A New Orleans madam told the AP, "It wasn't all about dirty, raunchy, crazy sex." Since when?

As the story gets as hot and steamy as the weather, we honor a few of yesterday's scandalicious couples with the video of the week, which features two of the burlesque babes matched up with politicos.

Want more? Tempest Storm was last week's video star.