Last night we caught up with Atlanta hip-hop icons Jermaine Dupri and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges at the News Corporation/RJ Reynolds Player’s Olympics, held in the just-opened Beijing Four Seasons Hotel. When asked, Dupri was tight-lipped about his plans to expand his rap empire to the Orient, but fellow traveller Usher said Dupri dropped plenty of hints throughout the night.

Also spotted were the heads of Cox Media, which also publishes this newspaper. Said co-owner Beulah Pittypat Cox after downing an aperitif, “Why pay the salaries of an entire newsroom when eager Chinese youngsters will provide the same product for four cents an hour?” Why, indeed!

Elsewhere in the ballroom, fellow Dirty South power-broker S. Truett Cathy was spotted handing a wad of crisp hundred-dollar bills to a Chinese health official. When pressed, Cathy would only say this: “Chinese people like fried chicken, too.” Drop it like it’s hot, ATL!

Thank heavens for BBC and NPR and News Hour with Jim Lehrer.