While you were goofing off

A New Jersey high school banned students from wearing shorts to school. But it didn't ban skirts, a student pointed out. "Then wear a skirt," the principal grumped.

Dude -- never dare a high school student. After wearing skirts and kilts to school for several days, Michael Coviello was sent home yet again. With the help of the ACLU, he got the school to compromise. He can wear skirts as much as he wants. But he still can't wear shorts from October to April 15.

In other cross-dressing news, Michael Jackson wore a head-to-toe, veiled black robe to visit a Bahrain shopping center. "The veil, abaya and gloves were of a style typically worn by conservative Bahraini women."

George Clooney made Jack Abramoff's daughter cry by using the disgraced former lobbyist's name in an "off-color joke" during the Golden Globes ceremony. Outraged was Abramoff's father; Clooney's own father replied that he understood what it was like to have a famous son be the target of criticism, "but the difference here" was that while Clooney was trying to do something positive, Abramoff is a convicted felon.

New Pope: "Love is not free." Especially when 45-year-old former altar boys come back to sue for millions of dollars.