Alaska Ear

Frank didn't want to talk Friday about how the manuscript got out prematurely, but he was clearly unhappy about the leak. He doesn't have a deal with a publisher yet. Nevertheless, he sounded decidedly upbeat about having the 15-month, 450-page project done and was full of praise for Ken Morris, the Bay Area writer who is one of his co-authors. The other is Jeanne Devon of Anchorage.

Ear is duty-bound to check out the book of course, but OMG, is there anyone in Alaska who still wants to plow through 450 pages about Sarah?

What Ear has found so far amounts to mostly incrementally new tidbits about well-hashed subjects. Frankly, the Omniscient Orifice doesn't need to know any more about Troopergate or Piper's lemonade stand.

On the other hand, Ear somehow missed the big Palin-Minnery breakup. And Ear didn't know Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen did something or other on the notorious Wooten-Heath custody case while still a Superior Court judge -- something that apparently made Todd want to be her BFF. Bailey says that's why Sarah promoted Christen a couple years later despite her history of support for Planned Parenthood. (Bailey makes sure to say he doesn't suspect any quid pro quo between the judge and the governor.)

In the end, what makes Bailey's manuscript worth more than other Sarah books is his liberal use of contemporaneous records -- long quotes from e-mails written at the time by the actual participants. If you want to understand who Sarah really is, you can't beat her own words.

Bailey's shortcoming is the same as most tell-all writers: He has to explain why he chose to be part of the bad behavior for so long. He doesn't do an especially good job of that.

KUDOS . . . "On the Ice" by Barrow filmmaker Andrew MacLean won at least one award Friday at the Berlin Film Festival: Best Film in the youth category. He just keeps on truckin'.

SUNTAN & SUIT ALERT . . . Earwigs who wear a lot of makeup claim four "heavy-hitter" movie producers will be in town this week scouting locations for one or more big-budget productions. One needs a mountain locale so that could work.

There's reportedly a hoity-toity, invitation-only reception planned for local film industry "A-listers." Alaska has lots of mountains, but do we actually have A-listers? We'll see.

ON THE MOVE . . . Bill White, practically forever business and a local news editor at Your Favorite Good Morning Newspaper, is leaving after 27 years to take a new job working for Larry Persily in the federal gas pipeline office. Larry, a former ADN editorial page editor, is in Washington, D.C. Bill will be stationed here. The office is supposed to help get our gas line built.

ADN management says it will replace him, which is obviously not true. There is no replacement for Bill.

IN AND OUT . . . John Binkley, former state senator and gubernatorial candidate in the Republican primary, is out as chairman of the Alaska Railroad board. On Wednesday, the board elected Linda Leary, president of Carlile Transportation, to take John's place. John was quoted as saying he asked Linda to step up and take his job.

Well, it could have happened that way.

TWINKLE TWINKLE . . . Congregation Beth Sholom has announced the recipient of this year's Shining Lights award. It's Dennis McMillian, CEO of the Foraker Group, a nonprofit whose mission is to help Alaska charities become self-sustaining. The award dinner is in April.

OOPS . . . Ear thanks all the earwigs who pointed out that Koahnic President Jaclyn Sallee's family is from Nome, not, as incorrectly reported here, Kotzebue.

HE DOES TOO . . . Have a sense of humor, that is. Ear is told that Mayor Dan Sullivan approved an "official biography" written by press aide Sarah Erkmann for last weekend's Exxon Mobil Top Dog Charity Sled Dog Race that included the following:

"While in Oregon, Sullivan earned a degree in political science (go figure) before heading home to work on the pipeline. While working on the pipeline, Sullivan was a member of the Teamsters, a fact no one really believes and current members try to keep a secret."

Sullivan "was elected in May of 2009 in a landslide election in which 28 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote. In fact, he earned 57 percent of the 28 percent of voters that decided it was more important to vote than, say, pick up the dry cleaning or a Costco rotisserie chicken. He still talks about his election as 'a mandate from the people,' which no one has the heart to tell him is actually 11 people."

Compiled by Sheila Toomey. Find Ear online at www.adn.com/ear. Message Sheila at ear@adn.com or 257-4341.