Palin's book excites fans

Sarah Palin fans are having a late-night release gathering at the Borders in Woodbury for her book, "Going Rogue: An American Life."

The book goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, so the store expects customers to stay late on Monday night and hang out in the coffee bar, which is remaining open for the event. Not expected to be present is the former vice presidential candidate, who made her official RNC debut in St. Paul, where she wore clothing bought from the Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis.

Dean Caranicas, GM of the Woodbury bookstore, said: "The customers asked if they could get it as soon as possible, if we would stay open for them if enough people were able to come. This book is looking like one of the hot sellers for the fourth quarter, particularly in non-fiction."

Anticipation and a scheduled appearance with Oprah will have this book rocketing off the shelves.

"I did want to bring up a point with you," Caranicas said. "Sometimes with political books there's a feeling that [someone] is picked as a favor. Borders loves to sell books of any nature and have the widest selection. When it comes down to the nuts and bolts, it's all about selling books."

Caranicas wishes Palin were going to be there, instead of just a cutout of her: "Unfortunately, it's often Chicago and New York that get selected for national events. I don't know if we're too far off the beaten path or what, here. Maybe she'll look at this and say, You know what, I should go to Minnesota."

At the current rate of weird news stories churning up, comedian Lizz Winstead won't have time to discuss David Letterman when she comes home for a New Year's Eve performance at Parkway Theater.

"I'm calling it 'WTF Just Happened?'" said Winstead, who flung the F word, although she said promotional material will use the only the letter F. "I think it will be fun."

I called Winstead in NYC to catch up, and because the co-creator of Comedy Central's "Daily Show" travels in toney circles, I asked whether she had been aware that Letterman was a horndog around his company before the extortion plot news broke.

"I didn't know that, but the fact that I didn't know that leads me to believe that if people thought it was awful and their jobs were on the line, we would have heard more about that," she said. "People would have taken advantage of the situation and it [would have made] the news. I'm not excusing what he did because he cheated on his girlfriend, and that's not awesome. In situations like that where people are working 18 hours a day, it's like a hospital. I think people are having sex with people in those environments all the time because they don't get out in the world.

"The news flash for me is 'Male Comedian Cheats on Girlfriend,'" Winstead said sarcastically. "Really? That's a big shock."

Football fans are jokingly calling the hit Vikings running back Adrian Peterson laid on the Steelers' No. 22 last Sunday "Gay bashing." That's because the player Peterson flattened on the field was William Gay.

Peterson punctuated the play with primordial screams. In a perfect world, gay bashing would be limited to incidents like this.

Former Vikings QB Sean Salisbury has sued Deadspin.com for ruining his reputation and making it hard for him to get a job.

The website has claimed that Salisbury lost his job as an ESPN football analyst for "sexting" a photo of part of his anatomy. Salisbury's suit claims that it's not true. I'm inclined to believe Salisbury, although I'm not claiming to know him well, until there is proof to the contrary.

There's a pithy line in the suit: "Deadspin has continued to taunt Salisbury in e-mails from Deadspin contributors and has even mockingly asked Salisbury why he did not file suit. Deadspin now has its answer."

I'm hoping for a comment from Salisbury via his Dallas lawyer; I also want to hear about this tell-all book Salisbury reportedly is writing about ESPN. After reading e-mails Salisbury sent to Deadspin, I can see why his lawyer wants to keep him quiet. Those e-mails make me worry about him, although I know that when he thinks he's got a point, he hammers away.

Paris Bennett talked like she has something going on in New York City -- "Shrek"? -- on video now posted from Kiana Marie's singing gig. The Justin Kirk video is also up now.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com.