In a week when the U.S. was useless in stopping the fighting in Lebanon and New Yorkers sweated helplessly through a record heat wave, no one was above seeking support from improbable quarters. A blackout-wary Mayor Bloomberg appealed to the good natures of his constituents to conserve electricity, pleading that “these [electrical] networks will only survive if we reduce the consumption.” (City residents, naturally, ignored him and cranked up the AC, breaking the megawattage record Wednesday.) Brooke Astor’s beleaguered son, Anthony Marshall, facing a fierce barrage of tabloid attacks, fought back with a tepid letter of support from former neighbor Whoopi Goldberg. Craigslist Albany assisted the State Police’s frantic weeklong search for Republican kingpin Joseph ­Bruno’s missing granddaughter (she was found wandering around Times Square with a self-­proclaimed pimp). In his tight Democratic-primary battle against the devout Joe Lieberman, Ned Lamont received support from the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson, and Lieberman’s longtime frenemy Bill Clinton appeared at a rally for the senator. Hillary Clinton owed a thank-you note to Donald Rumsfeld, whose reluctant appearance before a congressional committee gave her the perfect excuse to remain in Washington. Glock-packin’ DJ Star, who lost his $4 million–a–year gig after threatening to violate a rival’s 4-year-old daughter, sought solace in the justice system, filing a defamation suit against ­Councilman John Liu, whom he thought was besmirching his good name. Police investigating the attempted mugging of ex–welterweight champ Zab Judah in Brooklyn had to rely on the testimony of a cabbie witness because the victim declined to identify his attackers. (“I’m not a snitch,” Judah explained. “That’s not my forte.”) And flag-waving Americans received an unlikely pick-me-up from ailing Cuban ­presidente Fidel Castro’s BFF, ­Oliver Stone, who tugged at red-state heartstrings with his patriotic World Trade Center—which premiered at the Ziegfeld just after a new poll showed that more than a third of Americans believe that the federal government was involved in planning the 9/11 attacks.

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Related:

• Archive: “It Happened Last Week”
• Articles by Mark Adams
• Table of Contents: Aug 14, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!