THE WATER COOLER

Here are a few things in news, sports, entertainment and popular culture that we've been talking about lately.

• Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's former girlfriends meet Hef's current girlfriends during a pool party at Palms Place. What's the opposite of a "summit"?

• President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama give Queen Elizabeth a song-packed iPod. The temptation to sneak the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" in among the show tunes must have been incredible.

• Oklahoma center Courtney Paris promises to pay back her scholarship if her team doesn't win the NCAA basketball championship; they don't. America now awaits nonperformance refunds from Dane Cook, George W. Bush and the cast and crew of "Watchmen."

• Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin's former fiance, tells Tyra Banks he was forced to attend last year's Republican convention when he would rather have gone hunting. Certainly explains that deer-in-the-headlight look he had.

By JOHN PRZYBYS (jprzybys@reviewjournal.com)